Maureen is a post-doctoral research scientist at the University of Washington, School of Forest Resources. She is affiliated with the Fire and Environmental Research Applications (FERA) team at the USFS Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory in Seattle.
Maureen's main research interest is to develop innovative tools that improve the role of ecological models in theory development and environmental decision-making. A current focus is the use of a simple stochastic model to improve inference for fire history research and in explaining patterns in fire history data. This effort includes using multi-criteria assessment methods that were the focus of her dissertation research in the Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management (QERM) Interdisciplinary Graduate Program at the University of Washington.
Maureen is also evaluating the use of Pareto optimality for informative multi-criteria decision-making in fuels and fire management through the FUELSOLVE project, which provides a method by which decision-makers can understand the tradeoffs between ecological considerations such as wildlife habitat quality and reducing fire hazard. In her dissertation Maureen applied Pareto optimality to a simulation of branch development in old-growth Douglas-fir, and showed how the branch morphology balances conflicting requirements.
Please visit the above links to learn more about these topics or to contact Maureen directly.
