Damla graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.S. in Economics and Environmental Sciences. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Farrior Lab in EEB at UT Austin. She is primarily interested in tropical forest dynamics and succession, functional and demographic tradeoffs, and species coexistence.

Damla enjoys all things nature, from going on hikes to scuba diving on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. She is also very crafty and loves knitting and crocheting. She even knit a forest dynamics themed sweater once!

For more about Damla, check out her website.