Coastal Interactions Laboratory
University of New Orleans
Join the lab!
We're always on the lookout for potential lab members.
Please contact Professor Foster-Martinez (mrfoster [at] uno [dot] edu) if you're enthusiastic about the projects and work we're doing and have a background in engineering or earth sciences.
Dr. Madeline (Maddie) Foster-Martinez, EIT
Principle Investigator
Professor Foster-Martinez is an Assistant Professor at UNO in the departments of Earth & Environmental Sciences and Civil & Environmental Engineering and is a part of the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences. She has a BE in Civil Engineering from Cooper Union and an MS and a PhD from UC Berkeley in Environmental Engineering, focusing on marsh fluid mechanics. Maddie is from New Orleans and loves her city dearly. She is the proud parent of one daughter, one dog, two cats, and a whole lot of plants.
Graduate Students
Agathe Desthomas
Agathe is an M.S. student in environmental sciences, also earning a coastal engineering certificate. She was born and raised in Biarritz, France. She spent 3 years studying molecular biology and biochemistry in France before moving to Montreal, Canada, where she earned her B.S. in Earth and Environmental sciences with a geoscience concentration. She decided to stay in New Orleans for her M.S. after being an exchange student at the University of New Orleans during the last semester of her B.S. She is interested in the resiliency of belowground biomass of Avicennia germinans to freezing events and the impact of these events on the coastal erosion of restored barrier islands. Outside of the lab, she likes to learn about skincare, practices yoga, and partake in outdoor activities, such as horseback riding (over 10 years of riding!).
Donald Davidson
Donald is an M.S. student in environmental science. He was born in Seattle, Washington and moved to New Orleans 15 years ago on a whim. After gaining valuable experience in the service industry, working every position, from dishwasher to bicycle delivery driver up to general manager, he left the industry to pursue a lifelong passion, coastal science. He graduated from the University of New Orleans with a BS in environmental science, then spent a year studying ecology and hydrology at the Barataria Preserve, a unit of the Jean Laffite National Historic Park and Preserve. He is interested in estuarine ecology and utilizing collaborative experiences to help maximize Louisiana’s coastal wetland conservation and restoration plans. In his free time he is an avid reader, participates in a multitude of sports and enjoys listening to and playing music.