Charlie Dougherty
- Manager, Mountain Limnology Lab
Lake physical dynamics • Lake monitoring
I’m a limnologist interested in lake physical dynamics, particularly in how different climate and landscape processes affect lake structure.
Before coming to INSTAAR to manage the Mountain Limnology Lab (PI: Bella Oleksy), I spent three consecutive field seasons working in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, as part of the McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research project, maintaining a network of 14 meteorological stations and 5 permanent lake monitoring stations in one of the coldest and driest places on Earth. I defended my Master's thesis on the spatial and temporal trends of surface sediment on permanently frozen Antarctic lakes in April of 2025. Before that (and concurrently) I was studying the effects of freshwater salinization on the water column on the Yahara Chain of Lakes in Madison, Wisconsin while working at the University of Wisconsin's Center for Limnology. In my free time, I enjoy cooking, biking, and rock climbing.
Education
- MS (Freshwater and Marine Sciences): University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2025.
- BS (Environmental Science): University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2023.