Short Bio

Tianjia (Tina) Liu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia, where she leads the Environmental Modeling, oBservations, and Remote Sensing (EMBRS) Lab. Tina is also a Faculty Associate in the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability (IRES). Her lab investigates air quality, public health, and climate-related issues with a central focus on fires. Recent research topics include mapping the satellite-derived progression of wildfires using geostationary satellite data, investigating the climate and active fire suppression controls on fire spread, and quantifying the air quality and public health impacts of fires. Broadly, Tina uses a combination of remote sensing, GIS, statistics/machine learning, and atmospheric modeling to understand modern human-fire relationships, the role of fire in the Earth system, and the impacts of extreme events on planetary health. She loves data visualization with geospatial data, such as with Google Earth Engine Apps, and wrangling code to explore all kinds of data from satellites, aircraft, ground monitors, models, and surveys/reports. Prior to joining UBC, Tina was a NOAA Climate & Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Irvine from 2022-2024; she completed her PhD in Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University in 2022 and her BA in Environmental Science at Columbia University in 2017. In her spare time, Tina enjoys poetry, photography, music soundtracks (e.g., from TV shows, movies, video games), basketball, board games, and crime dramas/docuseries.

Latest News

Conferences/Events

Western Division, Canadian Association of Geographers (WDCAG) Conference

March 5-7, 2026 in Vancouver, BC, Canada

EMBRS lab members will be at the WDCAG Conference hosted by UBC Geography to present recent research progress!

Climate Dynamics Group, University of British Columbia

April 29, 2025 in Vancouver, BC, Canada

I presented a talk on "Building a data-driven framework for modeling large wildfire growth: Mapping fire progression and understanding drivers of fire spread" for the Climate Dynamics Group at UBC.

Earth Lab, University of Colorado, Boulder

March 18, 2025 (virtual)

I presented a talk on "Building a data-driven framework for modeling large wildfire growth: Mapping fire progression and understanding drivers of fire spread" for the Earth Lab Environmental Data Science Seminar Series. (abstract)

American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2024

December 9, 2024 at Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.

I presented a talk on "Building a modeling framework to untangle the influence of suppression on wildfire growth in California" on Monday morning (9:45-9:55 AM), December 9 (abstract, profile).

Scripps Institution of Oceanography

October 8, 2024 in La Jolla, CA

I presented a talk on "Building a data-driven framework for modeling large wildfire growth: Mapping fire progression and understanding the role of suppression and other drivers of fire spread" for the Scripps Climate and Atmosphere Seminar Series.

Papers/Writing

When less burning does not mean cleaner air: Decoupling of burned area, fire-related PM_2.5 emissions, and population exposure in West Africa

February 9, 2026

Boris Ouattara's paper is published in Environmental Challenges (main + SI)!

Multi-ignition fire complexes drive extreme fire years and impacts

January 2, 2026

Rebecca Scholten's paper is published in Science Advances (main + SI)!

Leveraging additional VIIRS information to improve fire tracking and emissions estimation in the western US

December 3, 2025

Shane Coffield's paper is published in Remote Sensing of Environment (main + SI)!

Large role of anthropogenic climate change in driving smoke exposure across the western United States from 1992 to 2020

December 2, 2025

Xu Feng's paper is published in PNAS (main + SI)!

Near real-time indicators of burn severity in the western U.S. from active fire tracking

October 7, 2025

Eli Orland's paper is published in Fire Ecology (main + SI)!