Brenda is a Liu Scholar and a Ph.D. student at the department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. Her studies are supported by UBC’s Four Year Doctoral Fellowship and the International Tuition Award. She holds a BSc Chemistry (Honors) degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and a MSc in Geological Sciences from UBC.
Her doctoral research, supervised by Dr. Mark Johnson, focuses on obtaining the water and carbon footprint of different crops in Mato Grosso, Brazil, one of the main crop exporters in the world, by making direct field measurements. Her project will provide key parameters regarding the water and carbon budgets of soybean and other crops in the region and will help in future research regarding adaptation to the effects of climate change on agriculture, as well as aid in water management decision making, especially in developing countries.
Brenda’s project is part of a bigger initiative called Agricultural Water Innovations in the Tropic that aims to test key agricultural management innovations that have the potential to lower impacts on water resources while improving climate change resiliency of tropical agricultural systems that are major crop exporters.
Brenda is originally from Lima, Peru. In her spare time, she plays basketball, reads mystery novels and paints.
Email: bdacunha@eoas.ubc.ca