Lee Spangler is the Director of the Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership and the Zero Emissions Research and Technology (ZERT) Center. He coordinated the development of a unique field facility to test CO2 soil and surface detection technologies that has attracted international collaborators and is the topic of a special issue of the Journal of Environmental Earth Sciences (March 2010). He serves on the steering committees for the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Network Meeting, Joint Network Meeting and Environmental Impacts Workshop and is on the expert review panel for GHGT-11. Dr. Spangler is on the advisory board for a European Union project on carbon sequestration and has served on advisory and / or review panels for projects in Brazil and Australia. He also served as an instructor in the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum’s Capacity Building Workshops. When free time is available he enjoys international travel, photography, reading and hiking.
Staff
Barbara Bear joined BSCSP in June 2010 as Interim Fiscal Manager in addition to her regular duties as Program Manager/Fiscal Administrator for the Energy Research Institute. She has an extensive financial background including 12 years of commercial lending with a Regional Philadelphia Bank, 6 years of commercial banking experience in Montana, 12 years as Controller of a specialty travel company and the past 6 years at MSU. Her degree is in Economics from Randolph-Macon Women’s College. For over 15 years she has been actively involved with the Downtown Bozeman Partnership and she also chairs the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Board. Her interests include golf, skiing, canoeing with her husband (he steers and she paddles) and Japanese cooking.
Laura Dobeck is the surface monitoring manager for BSCSP. She also serves as the site manager for the Zero Emissions Research and Technology (ZERT) Center field experiment on the MSU-Bozeman campus testing and evaluating surface monitoring techniques. Laura is a chemist by training (B.S. from UW-Madison and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Cornell University.) In her free time she enjoys hiking and skiing in Montana and traveling internationally whenever she gets the chance.
Michelle Leonti joined BSCSP in July 2011. Michelle manages the administrative functions of both BSCSP and the Energy Research Institute which includes managing the submission of reports, general office functions, logistics of travel and events, the project technical bibliography databases, and she is the personnel liaison. She has over 12 years experience in executive assistant roles and over 5 years experience as a research associate. Michelle enjoys camping with her family – even in winter.
Thomas provides web development and technical services for the BSCSP. He earned a M.S. in Computer Science at MSU, and has been an employee of the University since February 2005, working on a variety of projects including the USGS - Northern Rockies Mountain Science Center, The Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative, The Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Project, and the National Biological Information Infrastructure. He is a strong believer in free and open source software and is passionate about the Drupal content management system. When not computing, Thomas enjoys recreating in the mountains with his family and friends.