Ecosystem Scientist
ethan.kyzivat@briwildlife.org

Ethan Kyzivat researches the carbon cycle using remote sensing. His work has focused on aquatic ecosystems and methane emissions, with field campaigns in boreal Alaska and Canada, the Sonoran Desert, and New England. He has studied Arctic lakes as part of the NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE). Other projects include measuring oil & gas methane emissions and remote sensing of surface hydrology as part of Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite program. He analyzes satellite and airborne data from optical, radar and drone remote sensors.

He joined BRI’s Center for Conservation and Climate Change in 2026, where he works on carbon projects focused on rangeland fire and grazing management. He contributes to remote sensing and process modeling of carbon in soils and vegetation.

Dr. Kyzivat came to BRI from a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard, where he helped develop an inverse atmospheric model of methane emissions from the MethaneSAT satellite. Outside of work, he enjoys jazz piano and vegetable gardening.

Education

• Ph.D., Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, 2023
  • Kyzivat, E.D. (2023). Methane emission from arctic-boreal lakes: Insights from high-resolution remote sensing. Ph.D. Thesis, Brown University. 158pp.
• B.S., Physics, Yale University, 2015

Certifications

• Wilderness First Responder
• FAA Remote Pilot-in-Command

• Carbon cycle
• Vegetation and hydrology
• Inverse atmospheric modeling of methane
• Arctic change
• Remote sensing and geospatial data science

Expertise and Experience

• Over a decade of interdisciplinary environmental research at academic institutions
• Member of international science teams
• Fieldwork in Arctic, temperate and arid regions
• Scientific publication: 30 peer-reviewed articles
• Reviewer for journals and funding agencies
• STEM education & mentorship: pre-college course instructor and dedicated mentor

• Harvard Initiative on Reducing Global Methane Emissions award (2026)
• Reginald A. Daly Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harvard (2023-2026)
• NASA Terrestrial Ecology Program grant (2022-25)
• NASA FINESST (Future Investigators in Earth & Space Science & Technology) Fellowship (2020-2023)