Lev Becker is a second-year M.S. student advised by Drs. Helton and Lawrence in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at University of Connecticut. He graduated from Northeastern University in 2024 with a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, having completed research on nutrient stoichiometry in marine systems and thesis work on marine genomic methodology. His graduate research at UConn focuses on beaver-modified ecosystems in southern New England, investigating drivers of biogeochemical processes related to water quality and carbon, on a microbial- to landscape-scale.