About us
The 3 Sigma Institute is a 501(c)(3) organization located in Corvallis, OR.Board of Directors
Colette Barron, J.D
Greta Boye, M.S..
Ralph Garono, Ph.D.
David Hackleman, Ph.D.
Staff
Ralph Garono, Ph.D.
Acting Director
Email: ralph_garono@3sigmainstitute.org
Phone: 541.757.7896
Dr. Ralph Garono is President of Earth Design Consultants, Inc. (Corvallis, OR) where he heads up the Wetland & Watershed Assessment Group. In addition, Dr. Garono holds a faculty (courtesy) appointment in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University and advises graduate students in the Marine Resource Management Program. He is trained in biochemical limnology (e.g., the role that phosphorus limitation plays in structuring planktonic communities) and in aquatic entomology. His current research interests focus on assessments, at multiple spatial and temporal scales, of aquatic and marine ecosystems. His recent research projects include: the use of aquatic insects as a wetland assessment tool; GIS-based watershed assessments; the use of GIS-based models to evaluate alternative land use scenarios; and, the use of hyperspectral imagery to map landscape patterns in estuarine vegetation.
Erin Thompson, M.S.
Research Associate
Email: erin_thompson@3sigmainstitute.org
Phone: 541.757.7896
Erin Thompson is a research ecologist with the 3 Sigma Institute. Her most recent work in the PNW includes studying nutrient loading effects on diatoms in Oregon coastal watersheds, a benthic invertebrate inventory of South Slough NERR, and an estuary characterization study in southern Puget Sound (i.e. hanging on for dear life in the mud flats of Olympia). Erin has also worked for the USDA Forest Service Forest Science Lab as Research Technician traveling through Oregon’s east and west side forests examining forest insects and disease and the effects of forest fire on insect recruitment. While receiving her master's degree from the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment in forest ecology and entomology, she served as Project Coordinator for the Michigan Beech Bark Disease Monitoring and Impact Analysis System. Erin has experience supervising large field crews, with database management, coordination of both lab and fieldwork, as well as report and grant writing. Her training includes forest insects and disease with a special interest in wood-boring beetles and her years of fieldwork have exposed her to a wide variety of ecosystems and research methodologies.
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For more information
about 3 Sigma Institute, please contact Ralph
Garono.
3 Sigma Institute | P.O. Box 2421 | Corvallis,
Oregon 97339
Website last modified: September 5, 2003