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. 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.
Conferences/Events
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
Started as an Assistant Professor at UBC!
January 1, 2025
I started as an Assistant Professor at UBC Geography! Here is an article by our communications manager, Leslie Kennah, about my research. I am also a Faculty Associate of the Institute for Resrouces, Environment, and Sustainability (IRES) at UBC.
The Washington Post and NASA Earth Observatory highlight our research on agricultural fires and air pollution in north India
November 22, 2024 and January 22, 2025
Our research over the past few years on agricultural fires and air pollution in north India is highlighted in articles in The Washington Post by Karishma Mehrotra and NASA Earth Observatory by Adam Voiland. Check it out here and here! Related papers include Liu et al. (2022, JGR: Atmos.), Liu et al. (2021, ERL), Liu et al. (2020, Atmos. Environ. X), Liu et al. (2018, Atmos. Environ.), Cusworth et al. (2018, ERL) Lan et al. (2022, Nat. Commun.), and Gautam et al. (2023, GRL).
A Guide for Applying to Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Positions
October 10, 2024
Makoto Kelp and I, along with Minghao Qiu, and Dien Wu, wrote a comprehensive guide on applying to tenure-track Assistant Professor positions, mainly for Earth and Environmental Sciences. Yun Hang recently contributed some perspectives for Environmental Health positions. Check it out here!
Is the smoke aloft? Caveats regarding the use of the Hazard Mapping System (HMS) smoke product as a proxy for surface smoke presence across the United States
October 2, 2024
Our paper is published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire (main + SI)! Check out my HMS Smoke Explorer for visualizing the HMS smoke and fire products.