Madi[son] Brown

About

Hiya:) My name is Madi, I'm a geoecologist and geospatial data scientist based in Zürich, Switzerland.

I grew up in Perth, Australia, and Bologna, Italy, but spent most of my childhood in Bend, OR, USA (the PNW is home). After finish high school my love of mountains and big trees led me to Vancouver, BC, Canada were I studied a BSc in Soil Science and Geology at the University of British Columbia. During my studies, I discovered remote sensing and geospatial sciences and was immediately inspired by their powerful applications which has led me to this career. I am inspired how remote sensing and other forms of spatial data can be used to develop solutions to real-world problems. My goal is to do science with applications beyond just the academic relm. I strive to work in a way that creates helpful and practical solutions for practioners and communities.

I completed my MSc(2025) in the Integrated Remote Sensing Studio at the University of British Columbia, supervised by Dr. Nicholas Coops. My research focused on detecting and structurally characterizing non-stand replacing disturbances (such as insect infestations, landslides, surface fires, etc.) using a combination of moderate resolution satellite data (Landsat and Sentinel-2) and LiDAR data (full thesis).

I now am a PhD student at the University of Zürich in Geography & Earthsystem Science in the Plant Ecology and Global Change group within the Remote Sensing Laboratories, supervised by Dr. Sofia van Moorsel. My research focuses on assessing the sensitivity of European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) to drought in a changing climate, integrating remote sensing-based (TLS, leaf spectroscopy, UAV-based multispectral data), metabolomic, and genomic methods in the context of common garden trials.

I also like to dabble in a variety of creative and outdoor activities. I am quite fond of skiing, riding bikes of all kinds, audiobook accompanied runs, art projects, and have recently assisted with a couple of outdoor filmsfilms.