Marta Yebra

Dr. Marta Yebra is an Associate Professor in Environmental Engineering at the Fenner School of Environment & Society and the School of Engineering, Australian National University (ANU). She serves as Director of the ANU-Optus Bushfire Research Centre of Excellence, focusing on leveraging technology to combat catastrophic bushfires. As a Mission Specialist at the ANU Institute for Space, her research emphasizes remote sensing applications for fire risk management at global scales. She holds academic leadership roles, including Associate Editor for Remote Sensing of Environment.

Education & Experience: Yebra earned her PhD and has held roles at the University of Alcalá (2004–2010), CSIRO Land and Water (2010–2013), and ANU. She has advised on national bodies like the Australian Space Agency’s Bushfire Earth Observation Taskforce and Victorian Department of Environment.

Research Interests: Her work centers on remote sensing of vegetation biophysical properties (e.g., fuel load, moisture content) for fire risk analysis and carbon sequestration. Key areas include canopy conductance, spatial fire risk modeling, and integration of satellite and in-situ data. She explores climate change impacts on fire regimes and ecosystem resilience.

Awards & Recognition: Recipient of the Max Day Environmental Science Fellowship (2017), CSIRO Pyne-Scott Career Award (2013), and 2023 Academic of the Year (Australian Space Awards). She has delivered over 30 conference presentations, including keynote talks, and authored 100+ publications.

Teaching & Mentorship: Taught 13 courses, including “Environmental Sensing, Mapping and Modelling” and “Fire in the Environment.” Supervises graduate students in wildland fire topics, fostering the next generation of environmental engineers and scientists.

Labs & Projects: Leads the OzFuel mission concept—a space-based fire flammability monitoring system—and collaborates on initiatives like the Bushfire Resilience Earth Observation Mission. Active in global projects such as the Globe-LFMC dataset for live fuel moisture content research.