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About Me

I’m Steven Pestana (he/him), an interdisciplinary Earth scientist with a background in hydrology, remote sensing, and data science. My research has focused on understanding water in the environment, especially in regions dependent on snow-dominated mountain watersheds. I’m particularly interested in improving our understanding of hydrologic processes, their interconnections with a changing climate, human impacts, and how we can adapt to those changes. This work has involved remote sensing of forests, snow, and rivers (with drones/UAS, aircraft, and satellites), geospatial analysis of high resolution digital elevation models, and leveraging machine learning methods. I currently work as a physical scientist in the Watersheds and Fluvial Systems Section at the USGS Washington Water Science Center.

Previously, I was a research scientist and instructor at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle. While working at UW, I had the opportunity to mentor undergraduate and graduate students, and to teach the Data Analysis in Water Science course in 2020 and 2023. As part of Professor Jessica Lundquist’s Mountain Hydrology Research Group at UW, I earned a PhD and MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a Data Science emphasis in 2023 and 2019 respectively. I earned a BS in Geology from California State Polytechnic University Pomona in 2015.

I’m also interested in science communication and teaching, whether in the classroom or outdoors, and the development of open source software and hardware. In addition to teaching traditional university courses in the classroom, I have organized and taught at several short course, workshop, and hackathon events such as those through the UW eScience Institute’s Hackweek program. I enjoy volunteering with local parks and environmental organizations to help lead environmental restoration work and educational programs such as guided canoe tours. All of these experiences have sparked an interest in critically examining and improving my own teaching and learning methods.

See the below links for information about past and current projects, activities, and blog posts:

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