# Riley Leff — Curriculum Vitae

PhD Candidate, Biological Sciences, George Washington University · Washington, DC · rileyleff@gmail.com
PDF version: https://rileyleff.com/rileycv.pdf

## Education & Research Roles

- **PhD, Biological Sciences**, George Washington University, Washington, DC (2021 – Present)
  - Research Interests: Plant Ecophysiology, Climate Change, Hydraulics, Compression, Intelligence, Open Source
  - Research Advisor: Dr. Keryn Gedan
- **Research Associate**, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA (2019 - 2021)
  - Studied Tree Mortality In Response To Drought And Sea Level Rise
  - Research Advisor: Dr. Nate McDowell
- **BSc, Biological Sciences**, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2015 – 2019)
  - Honors B.S. Thesis: Microbial Diversity and Function in the Phyllosphere
  - Research Advisor: Dr. Joy Bergelson

## Software

### Rust

Static typing, memory safety, performance-critical applications.

- myco: a declarative, acausal programming language for scientific models. [Link](https://github.com/RileyLeff/myco)
- ozzydb: a purely functional approach to version control for scientific data. [Link](https://github.com/RileyLeff/ozzydb)
- sdi12: no_std implementation of the SDI-12 protocol for embedded environmental sensors. The core runs anywhere with a GPIO, with adapters for RP2040, STM32, and ESP32. [Link](https://github.com/RileyLeff/sdi12)
- riley web services: self-hosted suite powering rileyleff.com, including riley_auth (accounts and sign-in), riley_cms (Git-as-database content management), riley_leaderboards (versioned rankings with live updates), and riley_comments. [Link](https://rileyleff.com)
- Floco: a library to enforce user-defined constraints on arbitrarily-sized floats directly within Rust's type system; an early inspiration for myco. [Link](https://crates.io/crates/floco)
- Dirgrab: CLI utility for injecting entire local projects into LLM context windows. [Link](https://crates.io/crates/dirgrab)
- licor: Type-safe parser for LI-COR 6800 data with Python and R bindings. [Link](https://github.com/RileyLeff/licor)

### Python

Prototyping, data analysis, AI/ML.

- quadrat: causal ecosystem simulator for benchmarking ecological reasoning in LLM agents, with Docker-sandboxed agent evaluation. Code available on request.
- rileyviewer: Browser-based plot viewer for matplotlib/seaborn, inspired by R's httpgd. [Link](https://github.com/RileyLeff/rileyviewer)

### R

- ezSperry: Wrapper package to call a stomatal optimization model from R. [Link](https://github.com/RileyLeff/ezSperry-beta)

### JavaScript / TypeScript

- Forest Royale: an educational 3D multiplayer game to communicate plant physiology concepts to students. [Link](https://forestroyale.rileyleff.com)
- annopurr: WebGPU image annotation tool for scientific measurements with TIFF support. [Link](https://github.com/RileyLeff/annopurr)
- rileaf2: PWA for measuring leaf area from images, designed for field use with the LI-COR 6800. [Link](https://github.com/RileyLeff/rileaf2)
- RiLeaf.ijm: ImageJ macro automating leaf area quantification. [Link](https://gist.github.com/RileyLeff/0bd4062dcbe4a6e5aa39489a7edd9edc)

## Hardware

- Sap flux logic board: open hardware for experimental heat-pulse sap flux sensors, built for a new method that solves for thermal parameters and probe positions conventional workflows assume; prototypes fabricated 2026. [Link](https://github.com/RileyLeff/sapflux_sensor)
- SDI-12 converter board: interface hardware (designed in atopile) connecting SDI-12 environmental sensors to any microcontroller with a GPIO. [Link](https://github.com/RileyLeff/sdi12)
- LI-6800 leaf clip: calibrated, 3D-printed leaf clip with a fiducial locator constellation and a companion offline phone app for in-chamber leaf area measurement.

## Awards

- Claude Campus Ambassador, Anthropic (2026)
- Hidden Science Competition Winner, Astera Institute (2026) — [Hidden Science Competition](https://astera.org/hidden-science-competition/), [Winner](https://rileyleff.com/blog/forcing-plants-to-participate)
- Dean's Dissertation Completion Fellowship, GWU (2026)
- Organismal Systems Research Exchange Grant, University of Oxford (2025)
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation (April 2023)
- Harlan Graduate Research Fellowship, GWU Biology (April 2021, 2022, 2024, 2026)
- Irish Endowment Fund, GWU Biology (April 2023, 2024)
- Laboratory Mission Award Finalist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (September 2020)
- Research Honors, UChicago Biological Sciences (June 2019)
- Academic Honors, The University of Chicago (June 2019)
- Excellence in Teaching Award, UChicago Biological Sciences (June 2018)
- Ecology & Evolution Research Fellowship, UChicago Biological Sciences (May 2018)
- Dean’s List, The University of Chicago (2016, 2017, 2018)
- The University Scholarship, The University of Chicago (March 2015)

## Publications & Datasets

Citations: 361 · h-index: 9 · [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=h02IDTwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao)

### Papers

1. Allison N. Myers-Pigg, Stephanie C. Pennington, Khadijah K. Homolka, Allison M. Lewis, Opal Otenburg, Kaizad F. Patel, Peter Regier, Madison Bowe, Maxim I. Boyanov, Nathan A. Conroy, Donnie J. Day, Cooper G. Norris, Edward J. O’Loughlin, Jesse Alan Roebuck, Lucie Stetten, Vanessa L. Bailey, Kenneth M. Kemner, Nicholas D. Ward,  EXCHANGE Consortium, Silver Alford, Michael P. Back, Andy Baldwin, Jade Bolinger, Jacob A. Cianci-Gaskill, Matthew J. Cooper, Alex Demeo, Kyle Derby, Derek Detweiler, Suzanne Devres-Zimmerman, Erin Eberhard, Keryn Gedan, LeeAnn Haaf, Erin Johnson, Aliya Khan, Matthew L. Kirwan, Payton Kittaka, Erika Koontz, Adam Langley, Riley Leff, Scott Lerberg, Sairah Y. Malkin, Amy M. Marcarelli, Steven E. McMurray, Tyler Messerschmidt, Taylor C. Michael, Holly A. Michael, Elizabeth C. Minor, Brian Moye, Thomas J. Mozdzer, Scott Neubauer, Andrea Pain, Michael Philben, Evan Phillips, Dannielle Pratt, Lauren Sage, Daniel Sandborn, Stacy Smith, Alexander Smith, Samina Soin-Voshell, Bongkeun Song, Amanda Sprague-Getsy, Kari St. Laurent, Lorie Staver, Alice Stearns, Rebecca Swerida, Ethan J. Theuerkauf, Katherine Tully, Rodrigo Vargas, Elizabeth Watson, and Coreen Weilminster (2023). **Biogeochemistry of upland to wetland soils, sediments, and surface waters across Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes coastal interfaces**. *Scientific Data*. [doi:10.1038/s41597-023-02548-7](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-023-02548-7)
2. Peter Regier, Nicholas D. Ward, Alex Izquierdo, Andrew H. Baldwin, Donnie Day, Julia McElhinny, Kaizad Patel, Rodrigo Vargas, Jianqiu Zheng,  Exchange Consortium, and Allison Myers-Pigg (2023). **Coastal inundation regime moderates the short-term effects of sediment and soil additions on seawater oxygen and greenhouse gas dynamics: a microcosm experiment**. *Frontiers in Marine Science*. [doi:10.3389/fmars.2023.1308590](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1308590/full)
3. Riley T. Leff, Jonathan MacDougall, Christina Pavloudi, Lausanne Oliver, Kaitlynn Slattery, Guinevere Lissner, and Jimmy H. Saw (2023). **Draft Genome Sequences of Three Bacterial Species from Aquatic Habitats near Washington, DC**. *Microbiology Resource Announcements*. [doi:10.1128/mra.01319-22](https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mra.01319-22)
4. Wenzhi Wang, Peipei Zhang, Hongxia Zhang, Charlotte Grossiord, Stephanie C Pennington, Matthew J Norwood, Weibin Li, Alexandria L Pivovaroff, Laura Fernández-de-Uña, Riley Leff, Steven B Yabusaki, Scott Waichler, Vanessa L Bailey, Nicholas D Ward, and Nate G McDowell (2022). **Severe declines in hydraulic capacity and associated carbon starvation drive mortality in seawater exposed Sitka-spruce (Picea sitchensis) trees**. *Environmental Research Communications*. [doi:10.1088/2515-7620/ac5f7d](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2515-7620/ac5f7d)
5. Benjamin Brachi, Daniele Filiault, Hannah Whitehurst, Paul Darme, Pierre Le Gars, Marine Le Mentec, Timothy C. Morton, Envel Kerdaffrec, Fernando Rabanal, Alison Anastasio, Mathew S. Box, Susan Duncan, Feng Huang, Riley Leff, Polina Novikova, Matthew Perisin, Takashi Tsuchimatsu, Roderick Woolley, Caroline Dean, Magnus Nordborg, Svante Holm, and Joy Bergelson (2022). **Plant genetic effects on microbial hubs impact host fitness in repeated field trials**. *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences*. [doi:10.1073/pnas.2201285119](https://pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2201285119)
6. Weibin Li, Nate G. McDowell, Hongxia Zhang, Wenzhi Wang, D. Scott Mackay, Riley Leff, Peipei Zhang, Nicholas D. Ward, Matt Norwood, Steve Yabusaki, Allison N. Myers‐Pigg, Stephanie C. Pennington, Alexandria L. Pivovaroff, Scott Waichler, Chonggang Xu, Ben Bond‐Lamberty, and Vanessa L. Bailey (2022). **The influence of increasing atmospheric CO2, temperature, and vapor pressure deficit on seawater‐induced tree mortality**. *New Phytologist*. [doi:10.1111/nph.18275](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.18275)
7. Peipei Zhang, Nate G McDowell,  Xuhui Zhou, Wenzhi Wang, Riley T Leff, Alexandria L Pivovaroff, Hongxia Zhang, Pak S Chow, Nicholas D Ward, Julia Indivero, Steven B Yabusaki, Scott Waichler, and Vanessa L Bailey (2021). **Declining carbohydrate content of Sitka-spruce treesdying from seawater exposure**. *Plant Physiology*. [doi:10.1093/plphys/kiab002](https://academic.oup.com/plphys/article/185/4/1682/6119353)
8. Alexandria L. Pivovaroff, Brett T. Wolfe, Nate McDowell, Bradley Christoffersen, Stuart Davies, L. Turin Dickman, Charlotte Grossiord, Riley T. Leff, Alistair Rogers, Shawn P. Serbin, S. Joseph Wright, Jin Wu, Chonggang Xu, and Jeffrey Q. Chambers (2021). **Hydraulic architecture explains species moisture dependency but not mortality rates across a tropical rainfall gradient**. *Biotropica*. [doi:10.1111/btp.12964](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/btp.12964)
9. Hongxia Zhang, Xinrong Li, Wenzhi Wang, Alexandria L. Pivovaroff, Weibin Li, Peipei Zhang, Nicholas D. Ward, Allison Myers-Pigg, Henry D. Adams, Riley Leff, Anzhi Wang, Fenghui Yuan, Jiabing Wu, Steve Yabusaki, Scott Waichler, Vanessa L. Bailey, Dexin Guan, and Nate G. McDowell (2021). **Seawater exposure causes hydraulic damage in dying Sitka-spruce trees**. *Plant Physiology*. [doi:10.1093/plphys/kiab295](https://academic.oup.com/plphys/article/187/2/873/6307737)
10. Weibin Li, Hongxia Zhang, Wenzhi Wang, Peipei Zhang, Nicholas D Ward, Matt Norwood, Allison Myers-Pigg, Chuanyan Zhao, Riley Leff, Steve Yabusaki, Scott Waichler, Vanessa L Bailey, and Nate G McDowell (2021). **Changes in carbon and nitrogen metabolism during seawater-induced mortality of Picea sitchensis trees**. *Tree Physiology*. [doi:10.1093/treephys/tpab073](https://academic.oup.com/treephys/article/41/12/2326/6278867)
11. Alexandria L. Pivovaroff, Nate G. McDowell, Tayana Barrozo Rodrigues, Tim Brodribb, Lucas A. Cernusak, Brendan Choat, Charlotte Grossiord, Yoko Ishida, Kolby J. Jardine, Susan Laurance, Riley Leff, Weibin Li, Michael Liddell, D. Scott Mackay, Heather Pacheco, Jennifer Peters, Israel J. Sampaio Filho, Daisy C. Souza, Wenzhi Wang, Peipei Zhang, and Jeff Chambers (2021). **Stability of tropical forest tree carbon‐water relations in a rainfall exclusion treatment through shifts in effective water uptake depth**. *Global Change Biology*. [doi:10.1111/gcb.15869](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.15869)
12. Wenzhi Wang, Nate G. McDowell, Stephanie Pennington, Charlotte Grossiord, Riley T Leff, Aditi Sengupta, Nicholas D. Ward, Uğur Uzay Sezen, Roy Rich, J. Patrick Megonigal, James C. Stegen, Ben Bond-Lamberty, and Vanessa Bailey (2020). **Tree growth, transpiration, and water-use efficiency between shoreline and upland red maple (Acer rubrum) trees in a coastal forest**. *Agricultural and Forest Meteorology*. [doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108163](https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0168192320302653)

### Datasets

1. Stephanie C. Pennington, Silver Alford, Michael P. Back, Vanessa Bailey, Andy Baldwin, Jade Bolinger, Madison Bowe, Maxim I. Boyanov, Jacob A. Cianci-Gaskill, Nathan A. Conroy, Matthew J. Cooper, Donnie Day, Alex Demeo, Kyle Derby, Derek Detweiler, Suzanne Devres-Zimmerman, Erin Eberhard, Keryn Gedan, LeeAnn Haaf, Khadijah K. Homolka, Erin Johnson, Kenneth M. Kemner, Aliya Khan, Matthew Kirwan, Payton Kittaka, Erika Koontz, Adam Langley, Riley Leff, Scott Lerberg, Allison M. Lewis, Sairah Malkin, Amy M. Marcarelli, Steven E. McMurray, Tyler Messerschmidt, Taylor C. Michael, Holly A. Michael, Elizabeth C. Minor, Brian Moye, Thomas J. Mozdzer, Scott Neubauer, Cooper G. Norris, Edward J. O'Loughlin, Opal Otenburg, Andrea Pain, Kaizad F. Patel, Michael Philben, Evan Phillips, Dannielle Pratt, Peter Regier, Jesse Alan Roebuck Jr., Lauren Sage, Daniel Sandborn, Stacy Smith, Alex Smith, Samina Soin-Voshell, Bongkeun Song, Amanda Sprague-Getsy, Kari St. Laurent, Lorie Staver, Alice Stearns, Lucie Stetten, Rebecca Swerida, Ethan J. Theuerkauf, Katherine Tully, Rodrigo Vargas, Nicholas D. Ward, Elizabeth Watson, Coreen Weilminster, and Allison N. Myers-Pigg (2023). **EXCHANGE Campaign 1: A Community-Driven Baseline Characterization of Soils, Sediments, and Water Across Coastal Gradients**. *Environmental System Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem*. [doi:10.15485/1960313](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1960313/)
2. Julien Lamour, Kenneth Davidson, Kim Ely, Alexandria Pivovaroff, Nate McDowell, Riley Leff, Alistair Rogers, and Shawn Serbin (2022). **Leaf gas exchange (BNL-PNNL collaboration), San Lorenzo, Panama, 2020**. *Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments Tropics; Brookhaven National Laboratory; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory*. [doi:10.15486/NGT/1897199](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1897199/)
3. Alexandria Pivovaroff, Nate McDowell, Tayana Barrozo, Timothy Brodribb, Lucas Cernusak, Charlotte Grossiord, Yoko Ishida, Kolby Jardine, Susan Laurance, Riley Leff, Weibin Li, Heather Pacheco, Israel Sampaio, Daisy Souza, Wenzhi Wang, and Peipei Zhang (2021). **Functional trait data for 11 canopy tree species in the control and drought treatments at AU-DRO (2018-2019)**. *Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments Tropics; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory*. [doi:10.15486/NGT/1810164](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1810164/)

## Presentations

### Talks

- We Fixed Sap Flux, UVA Coastal Research Center Seminar (2026)
- What Do The Trees Know?, George Mason University Computational Social Sciences Seminar (2026)
- What Scientists Need To Know About AI, GWU Biology Department Seminar (2025)
- Foliar Water Uptake Keeps Dying Trees Alive, Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting (2025)
- Tree Mortality In Response To Seawater Inundation, George Washington University Seminar Series (2023)
- Predicting Tree Function and Mortality in a Changing Tropical Environment, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (2020)
- Microbial Diversity and Function in the Phyllosphere, University of Chicago Honors Research Symposium (2019)

### Posters

- Foliar Water Uptake Keeps Dying Trees Alive In A Coastal Forest, VCR LTER All-Hands Meeting (2024)
- Reverse sap flow in coastal forest in response to saltwater flooding, New Phytologist Next-Gen Scientists (2024)
- Hydraulic Stress Limits Pinus taeda Range In A Mid-Atlantic Coastal Forest, SALT Conference (2024)
- Sap Flux: Updates After 3 Years Of Monitoring Across The Delmarva, Critical Zone Network All-Hands Meeting (2024)
- Seawater Inundation Impacts On Pine Hydraulic Regime, Delaware Wetlands Conference (2024)
- A Novel Quantitative Method To Improve Sap Flux Measurements, George Washington University Harlan Symposium (2023)
- Wireless Sensor Networks For Automated Field Data Collection, VCR LTER All-Hands Meeting & Critical Zone Network Meeting (2023)
- Seawater Intrusion Disrupts Sap Flux Dynamics In A Coastal Forest, George Washington University Harlan Symposium (2022)
- Seawater Inundation Induces Reverse Sap Flux In Coastal Forest, Virginia Coastal Reserve LTER NSF Mid-Term Review (2022)
- Predicting Tree Function and Mortality in a Changing Tropical Environment, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (2020)
- Microbial Diversity and Function in the Phyllosphere, University of Chicago Honors Research Symposium (2019)

## Teaching

- Instructor, Setting Up Your Dev Machine For The Agent Era (Seminar), UVA Coastal Research Center (2026)
- Teaching Assistant, Conservation Biology, George Washington University (2026)
- Instructor, Intro To Python (Summer Seminar Series), George Washington University (2023)
- Instructor, Intro To R (Summer Seminar Series), George Washington University (2023)
- Instructor, Intro To Ecology (Summer Seminar Series), George Washington University (2022)
- Teaching Assistant, Conservation Biology, George Washington University (2022)
- Lab Instructor, Introductory Microbiology, George Washington University (2021)
- Interim Instructor (7th Grade), Twin Rivers Charter Academy, Yuba City, CA (2020)
- Lab Instructor, Core Biology, University of Chicago (2017 - 2019)
- Instructor / Mentor, Neighborhood Schools Program (5th Grade), University of Chicago Outreach, Chicago, IL (2016 - 2017)
- Corps Member / Tutor, Jumpstart (Pre-K Literacy), University of Chicago Community Service Center, Chicago, IL (2015 - 2016)

## Outreach & Engagement

- Reverse sap flow in coastal forest in response to saltwater flooding, Presentation at GWU Earth Day Symposium (2024)
- What Do The Trees Know?, Activity at Virginia Coastal Reserve LTER 'Day In The Lab' (2024)
- Trees As Strategists, Presentation at GWU Earth Day Symposium (2025)
- Trees As Strategists, Activity at GWU Biology Graduate Student Council Science Fair (2025)
- [Forest Royale](http://forestroyale.rileyleff.com), Online Educational Game (2025)
  - A 3D multiplayer plant physiology strategy game designed to teach students about complex tradeoffs in plant-environment interactions.

## Mentorship

- **Acadia Conboy** (Undergraduate, James Madison University, 2026–present): Detailed photosynthetic characterization of Phragmites australis across a salinity gradient. Outcome: Presented her work at two research symposia.
- **Shay Cihlar** (Undergraduate, UC Davis, 2025–2025): Measurement and analysis of pressure-volume curves across salinity gradients Outcome: Presented his work at two research symposia.
- **Sehrin Hossain** (Undergraduate, George Washington University, 2025–Present): Automated image segmentation pipeline to analyze wood traits Outcome: Won Luther Rice Fellowship, presented her work as a poster at a research symposium.
- **Ellyn Kinkel** (Undergraduate, George Washington University, 2024–Present): Analyzing non-structural carbohydrate storage in salt-stressed coastal forests. Outcome: Won Harlan Undergraduate Fellowship, presented her work as a poster at a research symposium.
- **Kaeden Rippon** (Undergraduate, University of Virginia, 2024–present): Detected foliar water uptake in pine saplings. Outcome: Presented his work as a talk at a research symposium.
- **Noa Shapiro-Tamir** (REU Student, Oberlin College, 2023–present): Measured leaf decomposition rates across a salinity gradient. Outcome: Presented her work as a talk at a research symposium.
- **Maggie Connolly** (Undergraduate, George Washington University, 2022–present): Studying plant hydraulic responses to elevated salinity. Outcome: Presented her work as a talk and poster at a research symposium.
- **Aaron Mendez** (High School Student, GWU School Without Walls, 2022–present): Analyzing non-structural carbohydrate levels in Phragmites australis for AP Research project. Outcome: Presented his work, now a student at SUNY.
- **Aidan Brown** (Master's Student (former undergraduate mentee), George Washington University, 2022–2025): Training deep learning model to detect and analyze tree canopy structures from drone images. Outcome: Won GWU Harlan Fellowship, Critical Zone Network Fellowship (2x), Accepted to GWU 5-Year BS/MS Program In Biology.
- **James Abend** (High School Student, Tri Cities, WA, 2019–present): Processed samples for non-structural carbohydrate analysis.
- **Dakota DeRoos** (High School Student, Tri Cities, WA, 2019–present): Processed samples for non-structural carbohydrate analysis.