Novel Model Created That Can Predict Wildfire Burn Area Based on the Drought Factor

Environmental science has been a topic that I’ve been passionate about my entire life, and my love for it brought me to research, which fortunately has brought to me the AJAS opportunity.

In 2nd grade, my mother brought me to the Environmental Protection Agency on Bring Your Kids to Work Day. Although the memory of staring at butterflies and learning about tree leaves around campus still occasionally dances around my mind, the real magic of the day happened in my mom’s office room. Within those cramped four walls, my mother’s finger traced rivers on maps and her mouth told stories of the impact she had on our earth, and I fell in love with learning about the environment too. I learned how she developed models to monitor and predict air quality, which is being used in communities around the globe to protect human health.

As I grew older, every summer, I began to go back to Beijing, the heart of China. Though I returned to reunite with family and explore the crevices of my culture, slowly I began to realize the change in my surroundings. During a time when I was old enough to understand but too young to know how to fix it, I watched as the skies became lined with black fog, and as the masses of people piled high and higher in apartment buildings that couldn’t hold them. I watched as lakes in the Olympic Forest Park, where I would row boats and feed fish with my family, dried up and turned grey. And when the Huai River, which flowed right behind my grandmother’s house in the Jiangsu province, was found to contain cancer-forming chemicals, I watched as my desperation grew higher. I was growing up witnessing a place I loved and called home crumble, and I had no idea what I could do about it.

At around the same time, in 7th grade, a close family to mine almost lost their lives in a wildfire in California. When I read the articles stating that the fires were only going to get worse, I remember going to sleep with the promise that I would do something etched behind closed eyelids.

So when I discovered the science research shortly after, the puzzle pieces all clicked into place. It was a chance for me to learn more about a topic I’ve always been curious about, poke and prod my head for both the questions and the answers, and finally be able to do something. Thus began my research career.

Since then, research has been an integral part of my life. Ever since I discovered it, research has shaped much more than my science abilities, has taught me lessons I will remember for a lifetime, and has become an activity that I truly love. What started as a childhood vision has now turned into something I want to do for the rest of my life.

As my research career continued, I realized that I wanted to share my discoveries with as many other people as possible to create a large impact. Therefore, I began to participate in competitions and conferences as well as contacted scientists and professors to share my findings with them. One opportunity I was fortunate enough to have to experience was run by the North Carolina Academy of Science, and winning an honor at this opportunity resulted in becoming an American Junior Academy of Science Delegate.

Research Paper