Wangari Maathai Institute Campus, Nelson Mandela Conference Hall
The Australian Fires: Lessons for Kenya on Preparedness and Adaptation
Wangari Maathai Institute Campus, Nelson Mandela Conference Hall
About the Speaker
Mercy Ndalila is a PhD student at the University of Tasmania, Australia, studying fire ecology. Her current research is on the 2013 Forcett-Dunalley wildfire which caused the near-destruction of Dunalley township in southeast Tasmania. Mercy obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Botany/Zoology at the University of Nairobi. She then acquired a Master of Science degree in Conservation Biology at the same institution and proceeded to work for the East African Natural History Society for three years.
Her desire for learning led her to study for another joint Master’s degree in Geo-information Science at Lund University, Sweden and University of Twente, the Netherlands. This broadened her expertise to include GIS and remote sensing, as well as ecosystem and climate modelling. Mercy’s PhD has further expanded her skills to include fire ecology and pyro-geography
Mercy has always had a passion for imparting knowledge. She plans to use her 13 years’ experience in biodiversity conservation and research to improve fire research and management in Kenya. Outside of work, she is a probationary volunteer firefighter with the Lenah Valley Fire Brigade; a founding member of the Society of African Students at the University of Tasmania, and the Society of Kenyans in Tasmania.