Born in Egypt, and of Russian-Austrian heritage, Alisa is a Mathematics, Geology and Computer Science student at St. Lawrence University. She co-led a six-person field team at Nigardsbreen Glacier in Norway, collecting and analyzing over 500 glacial striations to refine spatial classifications of basal ice dynamics. As a Digital Scholarship Assistant, she introduced AI, photogrammetry, and extended reality tools into university research and teaching.
Her global education includes the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales, where she led the Lighthouse startup hub and secured grant funding for solar-powered infrastructure, and the Semester at Sea program, where she conducted field research on industry and labor conditions in Dharavi, Mumbai and created the international photography series Lives We Do Not See, documenting everyday lives often overlooked across Spain, Kenya, India, and Morocco. She has also co-led expeditions in Egypt’s Red Sea region, educating youth on endangered desert and marine species.
These experiences reflect Alisa’s drive to explore the connections between data, landscapes, and lived experience. She is currently preparing a cultural preservation project in Egypt’s Eastern Desert and hopes to continue pursuing field-based research that brings together scientific rigor and human context in underdocumented environments around the world.
