2025 Winner of our Undergraduate Dissertation Prize
Maia Watson-Hearne, University College London - prize in Human Geography for their dissertation From pixels to policy: a machine learning-based spatial analysis of food security in Ethiopia, integrating wheat production vulnerability with socio-economic, environmental and climate dimensions.
Biography: Growing up internationally, in a food security research and development enthused evironment, I developed early interest in the challenges surrounding global food systems. This shaped a worldview that placed food insecurity at the centre of my acdemic interests. My curiosity around the nexus of systems, environment, people and the the problems that arise at these intersections was absorbing and motivating. I began my undergraduate studies in Human Geography and Data Science at UCL, as it gave me the breadth of skills and freedom for me to engage in diverse research. My undergraduate thesis study was conceptualised to span my interest in agriculture, climate change, food systems and data science. I am pleased to share that this work is being submitted for publication, where I hope it will contribute to the body of knowledge around the identification of vulnerable communities and to strengthening their resilience.
A geographer at heart, I have keen interest to further draw on both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the complex social, economic, and environmental interconnections that influence global challenges. In pursuit of this interest, following my undergraduate studies I have progressed directly into a PhD at Imperial College London, where I am based in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. My research focuses on modelling food systems and their potential transformations and trade-offs, using data-driven approaches to understand where and why food insecurity and food system inefficiencies persist. Rather than addressing surface-level symptoms, my work aims to identify the underlying structural drivers shaping vulnerability within agricultural and food systems; extending these insights to identify context-specific strategies that balance immediate humanitarian needs with long-term resilience, advocating for culturally appropriate and locally owned interventions that support sustainable and inclusive food system transformation.