Lara Melo. I joined the UBC Forest Biometrics Lab in 2020 as a postdoctoral fellow to work on various growth modelling issues, which is the center of my research interest. My Ph.D. work focused on estimating the uncertainty arising from large area growth predictions in mixed forests in Quebec. I also did post-doctoral research on developing forest succession and recruitment models, and on studying optimal plot size for recruitment forest inventory. These experiences have allowed me to strengthen my skills in predicting forest growth, from sampling analysis, through model development, to propagation errors in predictions and the impact on decision-making.
My current responsibilities continue in the same field of interest, but the outlook is turned towards the forest context of climate change. These include: simulating the effects of different management regimes on carbon pools and working on climate-sensitive growth and yield models.
Supervisor: Bianca Eskelson
Flora Krivak-Tetley. I am a postdoctoral fellow in the UBC Forest Measurements and Biometrics Lab. My research focuses on partial harvesting in British Columbia’s interior cedar hemlock (ICH) forests. I am working to integrate the stand-level model SORTIE-ND with landscape-level modelling using LANDIS-II’s ForCS extension to compare carbon storage outcomes of different management approaches. I teach FRST 231: Introduction to Biometrics.
I have diverse research interests that include forest stand dynamics and carbon storage, invasive species, insect pest population dynamics, conservation biology, social-ecological systems, and sustainable agriculture and forestry. For my PhD (Dartmouth College, with advisor Matthew Ayres), I led a comparative study on the impacts and population dynamics of the invasive woodwasp Sirex noctilio across its native and invaded range (Spain, South Africa, Argentina, USA). I completed my MS with John Battles at UC Berkeley, where my research worked to identify early impacts of climate change, including decreasing growth rates and increasing mortality, in old growth Sierra Nevada forests.
Supervisor: Bianca Eskelson
flora.krivaktetley@ubc.ca
UBC Website
Supervisors: Bianca Eskelson & Lori Daniels
Sushil Nepal. I am from Nepal. My research interests include Forest Biometrics, sampling, and spatial and temporal analysis techniques. My research focus is on the application of spatial statistics to characterize spatial patterns of individual trees, stands, and landscapes. I am a PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Bianca Eskelson. In my research project I am applying spatial analysis techniques to compare the forest structure at spatial scales over time in the Black Mountain Experimental Forest (BMEF), California, USA. I am using historical inventory data and recent inventory and LiDAR data from the BMEF.
Education
B.Sc., Tribhuwan University, 2011
M.Sc., Tribhuwan University, 2014
M.Sc., Northern Arizona University, 2017
Supervisor: Bianca Eskelson
Pramila Khatri Chhetri. I was born in Pokhara, Nepal. There used to be a program in national television in Nepal “Green forest- the wealth of Nepal”. I was so interested to know the benefits that trees provide through this program and I realized its importance. I chose to do B.Sc. in forestry and completed it in 2007 from Institute of Forestry, Tribhuvan University. In 2008, I joined M.Sc. in Biodiversity and Environmental Management in Botany Department, Tribhuvan University. It was supported by NOMA scholarship and 2nd semester was done in University of Bergen, Norway. I worked as a Livelihood Promotion with RERL/AEPC and as a Program manager with Ecological Services Centre. Currently, I am doing my PhD in Forestry under Prof. Peter L. Marshall. My research interests are in Forest carbon dynamics, modelling, REDD+, climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Supervisor: Peter Marshall
Suborna Ahmed. I am a postdoctoral researcher and secondary instructor in the Forest Resources Management Department, UBC. My postdoctoral research is a collaboration work with BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations to analyze the effect from fertilization on growth of interior species. I did my PhD in Forest Biometrics at UBC and my focal area was Meta-analysis where I quantified growth and yield of improved genetics in the Canadian Boreal Forest. I have a Master’s and Bachelor degree in applied statistics from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. I teach introductory Biometrics distance learning course and was a teaching assistant in some graduate and undergraduate courses in UBC. Also, I taught undergraduate and graduate statistics courses in the University of Dhaka. In my Master’s in Bangladesh, I worked on Inferential Statistics to develop a robust normality test and due to my interest in applied statistics I started working in Forest Biometrics in UBC. My research interests include statistical modelling and computing in applied sectors, survival analysis, growth and yield of experimental designs and big data analysis.
Supervisor: Valerie LeMay
Stella Britwum Acquah. I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Forest Resources Management at UBC. I have been working with the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR – FORIG) since 1998. I have a BSc in Computer Science from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana and an MBA in Management Information Systems, University of Ghana, Legon. I have always been interested in analyzing data for scientists in both research and academia. Although I did not have any degree in statistics or forest biometrics, when I joined CSIR-FORIG, I was assisting research scientists in analyzing and designing field experiments. This spurred me on to undertake a BSc and MSc degree in Statistics. My desire to pursue a career in the field of forest biometrics was strengthened when I had to work with forest inventory data. Currently my research area is on effects of thinning on the dynamics of uneven-aged interior Douglas-fir stands in British Columbia. I am specifically assessing temporal changes in the tree spatial patterns over a 21-year period; assessing the growth responses to pre-commercial thinning and mountain pine beetle disturbance; and examining the influence of neighbourhood competition on tree growth in these stands.
Supervisor: Peter Marshall
Tomiyosi Bola. I was born in Ondo State, Nigeria. I had my bachelor’s degree in Forestry and Wood Technology from the Federal University of Technology Akure. Through the various field works of data collection I did in my undergrad, I picked interest in forest inventory and biometrics.
I’ve had internships in various Institutions such as Centre for Space Research and Application, FUTA, Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan and also as a graduate research assistant at the University of Calabar. I won the Mastercard Foundation Scholarship to pursue my master’s degree at the University of British Columbia. Presently I am doing my MSc program at the Department of Forest Resources Management UBC, under Dr. Eskelson Bianca. I am particularly interested in assessing the impacts of cutting prescriptions on stand structure, estimating timber volume through inventory data.
I love learning new things and exploring and surfing the internet.
Supervisor: Bianca Eskelson
tomiyosishadrackbola@gmail.com
Grace Carsky. I am from San Francisco, California, and moved to Vancouver, BC in 2010. Despite not really enjoying the outdoors much as a kid (probably something to do with the California heat), I found myself joining the Faculty of Forestry and loving every minute of it. I joined the Forest Biometrics Lab in May 2014, initially to rebuild their website, and then continued working as an undergraduate research assistant. I have recently graduated from UBC with a B.Sc. in Forest Sciences and instead of trying to find a job, am starting my Master’s right here in the lab!
My research focuses on the growth and yield of mixed-species stands. My undergraduate thesis focused on the effects of density and species composition on the growth and yield of an interior forest stand. I am currently working with data from a long term experimental plot initiated by the BC Ministry of Forest, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations. I will be looking at the effects of thinning on growth and size-structure dynamics over time, this time in coastal forests.
Supervisor: Bianca Eskelson
James Halperin. James has a BA in Political Science from University of Southern Maine, an MS in Forestry from North Carolina State University, an AAS in GIS from Central Oregon Community College, and a PhD in Forest Biometrics from University of British Columbia. He has been working in natural resources for more than 20 years, including forest inventory and monitoring, GIS and remote sensing, forest management, and conservation planning. He has worked in different forests across Africa, southeast Asia, and North America and finds that any day in the forest is a good day. He enjoys finding solutions to forest monitoring challenges using open-source software and modeling tools. He is currently a Forestry and Climate Change Specialist with USAID/Indonesia.
Supervisor: Valerie LeMay
Woongsoon Jang. My research interests focus on answering a wide range of silvilcutural and forest ecological questions with various quantitative methods, including regeneration, tree and stand responses to forest management and disturbances.
I finished my BS and MS in the Seoul National University, South Korea. I analyzed the stand structure and tree growth of a relic spruce population, known as a vulnerable species to changing climate. My PhD dissertation project at the University of Montana was to address long-term impacts of biomass harvesting on site productivity, regeneration, vegetation dynamics, and ecosystem organic matter distribution in a western larch forest. As a postdoctoral researcher, I also conducted the studies regarding emerald ash borer outbreak (Arkansas, US) and heat transfer and soil responses to the burning treatments (California, US).
I am currently participating a research project for developing the stand and stock table projection system for Interior Douglas-fir in British Columbia.
Supervisor: Bianca Eskelson
Kyle Lochhead. I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Forest Management at UBC and a Registered Professional Forester in the province of Alberta. I spent 8 years in Alberta where I gained both forest industry experience and earned a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Forestry from the University of Alberta. While developing various models and decision support tools for the forest industry, I quickly gained a strong interest in quantitative methods which has led me to the exciting world of forest biometrics and modeling.
My research interests are focused on very large scale forest resource inventories with an emphasis on developing methods for imputing forest attributes and projecting the inventory through time. Currently, I am working with Canada’s National Forest Inventory to compare imputation approaches for mapping forest attribute information across the entirety of Canada’s Boreal Forest (~223 million hectares). This work is being conducted in collaboration with Natural Resources Canada for use in a large scale systems analysis of the Boreal forest sector.
Supervisors: Gary Bull and Valerie LeMay
kyle.lochhead@live.forestry.
Nguyet Anh Nguyen. I am from Hanoi, Vietnam. I first joined Forest Biometrics Lab as a Mitacs Globalink Intern in 2016 and fell in love with UBC Forestry. Then, I decided to come back for my MSc program at UBC Forestry in 2017. I am interested in interdisciplinary research topics, which are the combination of technical applications and social dimensions in sustainable natural resources management. I love learning about forests and how public involvement and public perception affect forest management planning. I have a passion for applying models and building up a set of indicators for sustainable management planning, including the applications of geographic information systems.
Supervisor: Bianca Eskelson
nguyetanh.nguyen@alumni.ubc.ca
Kate Peterson. I am a Master’s student in the department of Forest Biometrics at UBC. I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada where I received my Bachelor’s degree at the University of Winnipeg. While working towards my degree I was employed in several different areas of forestry, including tree and seedling growth as well as urban forestry.
My research interests are focused on forest ecology, wildfires, and fire-ecosystem interactions. Currently, I am working with pre- and post-fire data from US national forest inventory plots located in the Pacific Northwest in order to analyze the impact of fire on specific carbon pools.
Supervisor: Bianca Eskelson
Yi-Chin (Sunny) Tseng. I was born and raised in a beautiful country called Taiwan. The cold weather in Vancouver often makes me miss the sun, the beach, and the food in the night markets. As an undergraduate student in National Taiwan University, I double majored in Physics and Forestry Conservation. During my graduate study in University of British Columbia, I continue pursuing my passion in developing mathematical models for forest resources management. In particular, I am most interested in applying machine learning techniques in analyzing bioacoustic data. When I am not sitting in the office, you can often find me being outside recordings bird sounds, hiking, swimming, or staying home making artworks.
Supervisor: Bianca Eskelson
Hyeyoung Woo. My research interests involve quantifying the effect of natural disturbances on forest structures. The natural disturbances include, but not limited to, forest fires, tree disease epidemics, and their interactions with global climate changes. Employing diverse of statistical methods such as spatio-temporal analysis and comparing their performances are also attractive. I demonstrated spatial point processing to dealing with forest fire occurrence data in my Master’s thesis at the University of Montana, USA. I completed my Bachelor’s degree at Seoul National University, South Korea. I am going to be a PhD student under supervision of Dr. Bianca Eskelson starting from Jan 2016, funded by Faculty of Forestry Doctoral Fellowship. My PhD research would focus on post-disturbance forest dynamics across western Canada and USA, using GIS-processed forest inventory data and different matching methods.
Supervisor: Bianca Eskelson