Sonoma State professor wins $1.1M grant to study California fires, forest health

Sonoma State University has received a $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study the effect of wildfires on forest health in California and to create virtual educational activities.

The grant specifically went to the Rohnert Park university’s Lisa Patrick Bentley, an associate professor in the biology department. The funding will allow Sonoma State biology students to deploy state-of-the-art remote sensing equipment to collect biological data to further understand forest structure, determining its impact on past wildfire intensity and predicting how it affects future wildfire risk.