Team

Aaron Sexton
I’ve been a professor at Cornell since July 2025. Before that I was a postdoc in Germany and France for a few years, and got my PhD at the University of Louisville. In my free time I enjoy swimming, painting, hiking.

Lydia Paradiso
Lydia has been a postdoc in the lab since January 2026. Lydia is a botanist and urban ecologist whose research integrates historic collections, community science data, and functional traits to examine how urbanization affects plant communities through time and space. She earned her PhD from a joint program between the CUNY Graduate Center and the New York Botanical Garden, where her work focused on the spontaneous flora of New York City. Lydia is also passionate about science communication and botanical history, and currently serves as the President of the Torrey Botanical Society, the oldest botanical society in the Americas.

Penelope Fisher
Penelope has been a PhD student at Cornell since June 2026. During their undergraduate education at the University of Dayton, they worked on projects examining the intersection between insect communities and human dominated environments such as urban gardens, solar fields, and agricultural spaces that intersect forests. Their undergraduate thesis focused on the impacts of heavy metals in the soils of urban farms on native Ohio bees. Additionally, they helped facilitate the reintroduction of a threatened butterfly species to multiple areas of Ohio. Penelope also loves pursuing piano, photography, and embroidery.

Matthew Sprague
Matthew received his MLA from Cornell University in 2026. His research focuses on spontaneous urban ecologies and their implications for design in public space. His interests draw on his experience working in stewardship and horticulture throughout NYC and his current interdisciplinary work focuses on better understanding human-nature interactions.

Sebastijan Jemec
Sebastijan studied Architecture at UVA and Landscape Architecture at Cornell where he focused on bridging theory and practice through integrating fieldwork with material systems, ecology, and phenomenology. He’s a designer, furniture maker, and carpenter, and is expanding his practice to include ecological and landscape services- everything “from root to rafter”.

Maddie Rhodes
Maddie is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in Environment and Sustainability, and a Robert S. Harrison College Scholar. They are interested in the eco-evolutionary dynamics of urban areas and how those dynamics are influenced by socioeconomic factors.