Faculty

Suborna Ahmed.  I recently joined as an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Forest Biometrics and Computation area at UBC. Previously I was a lecturer in the Forest Resources Management Department and taught courses as a postdoctoral teaching fellow and sessional lecturer from 2014. I hold a PhD from the University of British Columbia in Forest Biometrics and I am a Statistician by training. My educational research interests include the pedagogical value of hybrid style teaching and learning, self-efficacy assessment of learning modules, effectiveness of open education materials in Forest Biometrics, and quantitative analysis courses. I am teaching statistics, forest biometrics, and programming courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels. I taught various undergraduate and graduate-level Statistics and Forest Biometrics courses in the Forest Resources Management Department and Department of Statistics at UBC, University of Dhaka, East West University, Nanjing Forestry University and Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University.

My PhD research was on Meta-analysis to quantify the growth and yield of improved genetics in the Canadian Boreal Forest. I did postdoctoral researches on a quantitative quality control approach based on big data statistics to identify key process parameters in veneer drying facility, challenges to improved trees in the Canadian Boreal forest, and impacts of fertilization on yields to provide some insights on fertilization effects. My research interests include quantitative analysis of complex forestry datasets at a large scale; methods for forecasting tree growth and yield; modelling and forecasting improved genetics; meta-analysis of tree mortality, damaging agents and tree fertilization; and application of machine learning approaches in various sectors in forestry.

suborna.ahmed@ubc.ca
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eskelson

Bianca Eskelson. My teaching interests lie in forest biometrics and modelling. Quantitative methods are central to all forestry and natural resources disciplines. I am excited to teach applied statistics classes for forest and natural resources management to provide UBC students with strong quantitative and analytical skills.

My research focuses on the application and extension of statistical theory and methods to inventory, monitoring and modelling of forest resources and ecosystem services at a variety of scales. I am interested in the fundamental problem of analyzing and modelling non-normally distributed data and ways to account for spatial dependence and hierarchical data structures. Most recently, I have been working on quantifying disturbance effects and post-disturbance dynamics from forest inventory data and on incorporating climate sensitivity into growth and yield models.

bianca.eskelson@ubc.ca
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Tzeng Yih Lam. My teaching interests are forest measurements and forest sampling theory. I teach measurement of tree characteristics and expose UBC students to a wide variety of measurement tools: some are useful, some are historical, and some are impractical. My sampling courses advocate probability-based sampling theory and prepare students to design forest inventory programs for multipurpose natural resources management. All courses are integrated to provide a comprehensive understanding of forest mensuration.

My research focuses on three themes: (1) tree measurement, (2) forest sampling, and (3) quantitative silviculture. In tree measurement, I am interested in developing cost-effective measurement tools using close-range photogrammetry and mobile apps. For forest sampling, my interests are variable probability sampling theory to assess timber and non-timber forest resources. Most recently, I have been interested in developing sampling theory for measuring forest growth for better integration of probability sampling and growth modelling. I am also interested in using a variety of statistical methods to quantify stand dynamics and silviculture treatments, especially Bayesian inference, filtering methods, and Structural Equation Modelling.

tzengyih.lam@ubc.ca
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