Meet the Team

The NIIP is led by a team of landscape architects who, alongside engineers, scientists, and other experts, have been supporting Engineering With Nature‘s efforts to increase innovation in natural infrastructure design since 2017.


LIDL is the Landscape Infrastructure Design Lab at Auburn University. We conduct design research using landscape architectural methods to advance the design, planning and management of nature-based infrastructure.

Rob Holmes // Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture

Maria Elena Vanegas Perez // Visiting Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture

Dan Meyer // Research Associate

Helena Starnes // Research Associate

The Natural Infrastructure Lab (NIL) works to develop innovative natural infrastructure that enhances human and ecological health over time. NIL believes that any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from nature.

Brian Davis // Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture

Ruby Zielinski // Project Manager

Adrian Robins // Research Associate

The Environmental Modeling Lab (EMLab) is an applied research unit of the Weitzman School of Design’s McHarg Center, specializing in the analysis, simulation, and visualization of environmental systems.

Sean Burkholder // Andrew Gordon Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture

Keith VanDerSys // Senior Lecturer

Lucy Salwen // Project Manager, Research Associate