We Rep STEM aims to promote the work of inspiring people in the STEM community. Today, we’re featuring Morgan Crowley, a Ph.D. candidate in natural resources sciences at McGill University.

Read on to learn more about Morgan and what her work entails, in her own words.

My name is Morgan Crowley, and I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Natural Resource Sciences.

My research is focused on mapping and analyzing wildfires as they grow using satellite-based remote sensing. 

I work in Dr. Cardille’s Computational Landscape Ecology lab at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec and we collaborate with the Canadian Forest Service.

Courtesy: Morgan Crowley.

While wildfires are a natural part of some global ecosystems, some places are experiencing more fire activity than ever before. In general, wildfires have impacts on carbon sequestration, air quality, wildlife habitat, timber availability, and more.

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In Canada where I am doing my Ph.D., many fires start from lightning strikes, which can ignite hundreds in a single day.

Monitoring these fires individually can be challenging and expensive. Open-access satellites provide images of where, and when, these fires spread — for free! 

You can connect with me on Twitter at: @morganahcrowley and @LadiesOfLandsat.

If you’d like to have your work featured on We Rep STEM, get in touch! We can be reached via email at werepstem@gmail.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Minor grammatical edits were made to the original text.

All photos courtesy of Morgan Crowley.