I am Hema, a PhD Candidate at CINTRAFOR. My background in biotechnology, where I characterized novel microorganisms that can decontaminate sites contaminated with fossil fuel pollution, led me to develop a passion for environmental science and ultimately to CINTRAFOR at the University of Washington.

Here, I work with Prof. Indroneil Ganguly on various aspects of international forestry and trade. I have developed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) models for bioenergy products derived from forest residues and created outreach materials to educate the public about those products. For my PhD, I am working with Prof. Ganguly and Dr. Suzanne Peyer in developing a model to identify timber species within planted forests. Through this work, I am helping the Arbor Harbor team to develop a risk identification tool to detect imports of illegally harvested wood products. Two of my proudest academic moments are winning the best poster prize at the ACLCA conference and publishing a global timber-planted forest dataset in Nature’s Scientific Data.

Outside academia, I am also passionate about climate policy advocacy, and I have won the UW’s Husky Sustainability Award for my work on fossil fuel divestment and decarbonization advocacy. During my free time, you can find me reading, writing Tamil poetry, binge-watching TV shows, or taking a stroll with my partner and my 3-year-old daughter.