Hey there, welcome to my website! My name is Ethan Mathews, and I created this space to showcase my academic and research work and share a bit of my personal journey. If you have any questions or would like to connect or collaborate, feel free to reach out through the social links below.

I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, in a family of farmers, where I saw firsthand how groundwater availability shapes livelihoods. That experience is the root of my work today and drives my commitment to making groundwater science more accessible and actionable. I’ve spent the past 15 years in Encinitas, California, and I’ve always loved being outdoors, whether at the beach or in the mountains.

I graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2025 with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies, graduating summa cum laude. As an undergraduate, I assisted a PhD candidate’s research on groundwater trends across the 17 Western states, analyzing well drilling practices, costs, and injection well permitting, and building Python datasets from thousands of observations. I’m now a Graduate Research Assistant in the Perrone Lab, where I submit formal record requests and analyze historical state groundwater policies and build a structured database tracking how management rules have changed over time.

I’m currently pursuing a Master of Environmental Data Science at UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management (expected June 2027). I’m building on my groundwater background with tools like R, Python, SQL, and GIS, and I’m especially interested in work at the intersection of water policy and data science, where rigorous analysis can inform management decisions.