Ruth Engel (she/her) is the project manager for environmental data science at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. Her work focuses on the relationships between urban land use and ecosystem services. She examines development patterns and microclimates using remote sensing, physical modeling and deep learning to understand social-ecological systems and work toward environmental justice.

Ruth completed a Ph.D. in geography at UCLA, where she investigated unequal distributions of urban heat, vegetation and residential water use throughout Southern California. She has also worked with the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge to examine regional hydrology and urban irrigation across Los Angeles. She holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University.