Megan Udy

Megan Udy is a postgraduate researcher on the Centre for Satellite Data in Environmental Science programme (SENSE CDT), which is funded by the National Environment Research Council (NERC) and the UK Space Agency, based at the University of Leeds. Megan researches satellite detection of volcanic eruption impacts on forests. She is part of the Volcanology research group, and is supervised by Dr Susanna Ebmeier from the School of Earth and Environment.

Remote sensing

Megan was inspired to pursue a PhD due to being fascinated by her research topics at undergraduate level. She said:

“While studying for my Bachelors in Geophysics at the University of Liverpool I was briefly taught about remote sensing, and in particular the use of satellites in understanding natural hazards. I found it fascinating, so decided to do my dissertation on tracking wildfires through remote sensing.

“When I saw my now project advertised it felt like the perfect continuation, using the skills I’d learnt throughout my dissertation work and expanding my knowledge into volcanoes and how the hazards associated can affect surrounding vegetation and studying this process through satellite data.”

When I saw my now project advertised it felt like the perfect continuation, using the skills I’d learnt throughout my dissertation work and expanding my knowledge...

Training and support

Coming from undergraduate study to an integrated PhD, Megan felt the support and training offered at the University to be helpful.

“I came to do my PhD straight from being an undergraduate,” explained Megan. “I didn’t do a masters in between so it was quite a big jump. Being on a CDT programme helped to bridge the gap with extra training and support focussed on my area of study.”

Being on a CDT programme helped to bridge the gap with extra training and support focussed on my area of study.

Environmental impact

A big part of Megan’s current research includes gathering academic sources to conduct a literature review. However, she also uses analytics skills on the practical side.

“I’m still relatively near the start of my project, so most of my work is focussed on information gathering around what research has been done in my area of study,” explained Megan. “I look for academic journals and papers to help build my knowledge in this area.”

She added: “The more exciting side of the work I do is definitely when I get to work with satellite data, which at this stage is quite preliminary but fascinating never the less. I’ll get satellite data and process it until I have an image I can study and try to understand what I can infer in terms of how a volcano has impacted the environment around it. I get to experiment with different techniques and methods to try and get the best result.”

Join us

For more details about studying for a research degree at Leeds, visit our research degrees pages.