Dr Marta Yebra: Balancing a thriving career and a rich personal life

By Shawn Kefauver, Mariko Burgin and Lori Bruce 

This article first appeared in IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine, June 2019.

In this “Women in GRSS” column, we spotlight Dr Marta Yebra and discuss some of her ongoing research, her contributions to the important process of scientific peer review as an associate editor of the Elsevier journal Remote Sensing of Environment, and her experience finding her personal sweet spot for a healthy work-life balance. 

Originally from Spain, Dr Yebra now lives and works in Australia (she has dual Spanish–Australian citizenship). She received a BS degree in environmental sciences and a PhD degree in cartography, geographic information systems, and remote sensing from the University of Alcalá, Spain. During her PhD and postdoctoral research, she worked internationally, with the Center for Spatial Technologies and Remote Sensing at the University of California, Davis; the National Institute of Agricultural Technology, Buenos Aires, Argentina; the School of Environmental and Life Sciences at the University of Salford, United Kingdom; and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia.  

Dr Yebra is a senior scientist at the Center for Water and Landscape Dynamics in the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, and mission specialist at the ANU Institute for Space. In 2017, she received the prestigious Max Day Environmental Science Fellowship Award from the Australian Academy of Science, and, in 2013, she won the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization’s Payne-Scott Career Award. Following are excerpts from an interview with IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine (GRSM).  

Which of your professional projects are you the most excited about?  

Dr Marta Yebra: The project I am most excited about is the one that I lead for the Australian Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Center program. The project aims to use remote sensing techniques to map fuel conditions and flammability for Australia. This project has allowed me to work closely with fire agencies in several Australian states and territories to better understand their procedures and information needs, comparing these with the spatial data and mapping methods that are already available and developing the next generation of mapping technologies to help them predict, prepare for, and respond to bushfires. 

In response to the information requirements expressed by end-users in Australia, I have led the development of the Australian Flammability Monitoring System (AFMS). The AFMS is the first web application in the world to disseminate satellite-derived fuel moisture content, flammability, and other fire risk-related products at such a continental scale. The spatial maps provided on the website are used by land and fire managers to plan fuel-reduction activities, such as prescribed burning. The AFMS is also attracting great interest from insurance companies, which can use the data to price fire risk into their policies. Also, several private landowners have mentioned their interest in using our spatial data to inform their own bushfire plans and help them prepare for the bushfire season. 

The AFMS’s algorithm to calculate satellite-derived fuel moisture content has also been implemented in the emissions assessment and smoke-dispersion module of the European Commission’s Forest Fire Information System, which provides the European Commission and the European Parliament with updated and reliable information about wildland fires on the continent. The product has also been evaluated and used in South Africa, Argentina, Italy, the United States, and China. One of the PhD candidates I supervise, Gianluca Scortechini, is working on a global version, which I think is very exciting, so stay tuned. 

Dr Marta Yebra in the field. Photo: Geoff Cary

What professional achievement are you the proudest of?  
 
Dr Yebra: One of the achievements that I am the most proud of is receiving the inaugural 2017 Max Day Environmental Science Award from the Australian Academy of Science for my application of science to inform a range of environmental-management decisions and my capacity to make my scientific discoveries and outcomes accessible to decision makers in Australia and internationally. This achievement has positively impacted my career, as it has enhanced the visibility of my research via promotional videos and news pieces. 

Are you active in the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS)? 

Dr Yebra: I have to admit that, unfortunately, I am not a very active member of the GRSS, though I do often attend the GRSS International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium and appreciate the online access to the IEEE journals. 

If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be? 

Dr Yebra: Do not wait to finish your studies before you have your first professional experience. Try different things and talk to people with different interests in various themes long before you finish. Offer to help, do not be afraid to make mistakes, and do not miss an opportunity because you think you will not like it or will not be good at it. It is like when your kids tell you, “Mum, I don’t like this” as soon as you put a plate of food in front of them. My response is always the same: “How do you know you don’t like it if you have not even tasted it? Please try it, and, if you don’t like it, I am afraid you will still have to eat it because I don’t have anything else to offer you right now, but I promise that I won’t cook it again.” When I was younger, I never considered earning a PhD degree. In fact, I did not even originally want to study environmental sciences, but dentistry! It was not until I experimented with one thing and another through volunteer programs and collaborations that I realized what I liked and what I wanted to do with my professional life. 

What is on your horizon? 

Dr Yebra: My research, so far, has been mainly focused on supporting fire-management applications. In the near future, I would like my research to serve a broader range of management and decision-making applications. I have realized that some of the products and tools I have developed for fire management can, indeed, be applied to other fields, for example, habitat mapping and species conservation. I have recently started to lead a new pilot project, which is internally funded by the ANU Grand Challenges scheme, to develop dynamic fauna-occupancy and habitat models by integrating a network of acoustic sensors with variables of habitat condition derived from remote sensing data at a nature reserve in Canberra. Yes, I know, this project is a bit out of my comfort zone, but that is also what makes it exciting to me. Also, to ensure success, I have assembled a multidisciplinary and trustworthy team of engineers and ecologists, and even musicians, who highly complement each other. Teamwork is an essential component when it comes to dealing with global challenges and performing research with real impacts. I would like to create a research program across the engineering and environmental departments of my university to address real-world environmental challenges. 

How would you describe being an associate editor (AE) of the Elsevier journal Remote Sensing of Environment (RSE)? 

Dr Yebra: It has now been a bit more than a year since I joined the editorial board of RSE as an AE, and I have to admit that, while I enjoy reading most of the papers and reviewers’ comments on the papers I have handled, I have also found the job a bit stressful. The main contributor to that stress is that a part of the extra workload entails the responsibility to make decisions that need to be fair and that will have an impact on other people’s professional lives. I am also aware of the importance of a quick response, so I sometimes struggle to balance the decision of a quick response versus waiting to have a big enough gap in my calendar to give each paper the time it deserves. I also find it a bit unpleasant to have to chase reviewers so that they submit their reviews on time. However, I have to admit that I was one of those reviewers that used to send reports in late. Having said that, I am still an AE at RSE because, deep down, I enjoy it. I am just training myself to be practical, stick to the core tasks, and remember that I am doing the community a service. I can only do my best, and I should not blame myself if I cannot do it faster. 

Are you actively involved in other peer review activities, as well, such as reviewing for other journals or project proposal evaluations or teaching-plan evaluations? 

Dr Yebra: I still receive invitations to review for other journals, but I have learned to decline most or all requests, even though sometimes the manuscript really matches my expertise and appeals to me. At the beginning, I felt bad about that, but then I realized that I already contribute enough to the community in terms of editorial tasks as part of my AE role at RSE, and taking more editorial roles only increases my stress level unnecessarily. I do, however, take roles in project proposals or master’s/PhD thesis evaluations, since I write grant proposals that need to be reviewed and supervise students whose theses need to be reviewed. I feel that I have to give that particular service back to the community. However, more and more, I think carefully when making those decisions, and I only accept tasks when I know that I can commit to delivering on time without compromising my family and my free time and if the work corresponds to a topic highly related to my core expertise and research interests. 

Do you have any additional comments on the value of peer review, participation in contributing to scientific evaluation processes, and work-life balance? 

Dr Yebra: Contributing to scientific evaluation is important because, as an active scientist, one needs to give back the services one receives from other scientists (for example, if you publish, you also have to review, since every paper you submit for publication is reviewed by at least two or three people). However, these extra jobs are time consuming, and, because of having to deal with other pressing jobs with hard deadlines, we tend to do them outside working hours and, in some cases, compromise our time for enjoyment or relaxation. This is something to be very careful about if we want to enjoy a work-life balance. Of course, people’s needs in terms of work-life balance are different. I have colleagues that cannot go without doing any scientific work for very long because that is, indeed, what they enjoy doing. The most important thing is for everyone to know what they need for a good work-life balance. 

In my case, I hardly ever work during the weekend. I really need those two days to reset my brain, spend quality time with my family without having to rush, and enjoy my time to do the other hundreds of things that I enjoy doing. For example, I love photography, and, about three years ago, I decided to start my own small photography business that I run during the weekends. In summary, when it comes to making decisions on taking that extra job I have been asked to do, I try not to rush. I leave that request aside for a little bit, and then I evaluate if taking it would prevent me from getting the balance I need in my life. Sometimes, I find it hard to say no because I find some of those extra activities interesting, especially if they involve travelling, but I think I am getting better at making decisions that suit me and my family’s needs.