Danielle Derrick awarded 2020 SFU ECCE Higher Education Scholarship in GIS

The winner of the 2020 SFU Esri Canada Center of Excellence (ECCE) in GIS Scholarship is Danielle Derrick. Danielle Derrick is a MSc student in Biology with research interests that focus on geospatial analysis for marine biodiversity and conservation. She is also an active student member of SFU ECCE.

Danielle has used GIS and spatial analysis to understand the abiotic factors driving global shark and ray species richness to develop spatial priorities for marine conservation. She explored whether species rich areas as measured by the highest number of species possible are also areas that harbour high numbers of endemic, threatened or evolutionary distinct species with the goal to improve the effectiveness of conservation efforts. The work used a number of metrics to identify spatially congruent sites of importance for global shark and ray biodiversity.

The scholarship award recognizes excellent achievement in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) through the design and implementation of an original and individual project related to the advancement of methods or applications in the discipline. Esri Canada is a Canadian company that provides world-class solutions for GIS software and enterprise development. On behalf of Esri Canada, the award was managed by Drs. Shiv Balram and Suzana Dragicevic, coordinators of the SFU ECCE.

Congratulations Danielle!