Elyssa Collins

Dr. Elyssa Collins is an Assistant Research Scientist in the Hydrological Sciences Lab at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center with the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) at the University of Maryland. Much of Dr. Collins’ research has focused on using and developing computer models, as well as leveraging large geospatial datasets such as those derived from satellites, to better understand water resources. She has contributed to the development of existing river models to evaluate global patterns in river flows and storage, and to investigate the impacts of river network structure (i.e., multichannels in deltas) on river flow dynamics. Dr. Collins has also contributed to the analysis and development of river data products from NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission. Currently, she is a part of the NASA Land Information System (LIS) team and is working on integrating computer models with satellite altimeter observations to improve water estimates. Dr. Collins obtained a Ph.D. in Geospatial Analytics from North Carolina State University (2023) and a B.S. in Geological Sciences from UNC Chapel Hill (2019). While completing her Ph.D., Dr. Collins completed an internship with the Water and Ecosystems lab at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After her Ph.D., she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Global Hydrology Lab at UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Collins started at GSFC in 2024.

Ph.D. Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 2023

B.S. Geological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 2019