Conor McMahon

Biography

I grew up in Houston, TX, and attended the University of Texas at Austin, where I received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Biology (Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior) and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (working in robotics). In 2019 I moved to California and joined the Geography department at UCSB to pursue a PhD. I spend most of my free time birding, botanizing, and generally running around in the mountains looking at tiny living organisms. Otherwise, I love to garden, read, draw, play with my cat Pandora, and bike.

Research

My recent work has focused on developing tools for automatically classifying vegetation types in the US Southwest and for tracking vegetation health changes in response to climatic drivers. I am particularly interested in identifying and monitoring riparian vegetation within drylands systems. In my research I hope to evaluate the differences in local drought response between riparian and upland vegetation, between different species of woody riparian plants, and between several sites across Southern California and Southern Arizona. My past work includes robotic LiDAR surveys of architectural structures, field surveys of herbaceous plant communities, and structural design in the aerospace, robotics, and energy sectors.