The International Society for Ecological Modelling (ISEM) is pleased to sponsor two ISEM members and Ph.D. students, Denis Austin and Hyemee Hwang, to participate in the 2026 IIASA Summer School for Systems Modelling.
The IIASA Summer School for Systems Modelling provides early-career researchers with training in systems thinking, modelling approaches, and interdisciplinary methods for addressing complex environmental and societal challenges. More information about the summer school is available here:
https://iiasa.ac.at/capacity-development/summer-schools/summer-school-for-systems-modeling
Denis Austin is a Doctoral Researcher at the Viikki Institute of Tropical Resources, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Finland. His areas of specialization include ecosystems and natural resources management, forest ecology, clonal tree propagation, and statistical modelling. His current research interests include modelling productivity and biodiversity recovery in fire-structured ecosystems, fast-growth tree plantation propagation as a tool for forest landscape recovery and expansion, and strengthening rural livelihoods, income opportunities, and food and fuel security through participatory short-rotation forest propagation.
Hyemee Hwang is a Doctoral Researcher in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Seoul National University, South Korea, and a member of the Laboratory of Landscape Ecology & Climate Change Adaptation. She is a climate and sustainability researcher working on decision-support modelling for complex environmental systems. Her research connects bottom-up ecological dynamics to policy-relevant outcomes, with applications ranging from urban carbon neutrality planning to ecological-epidemiological modelling of wildlife disease spread. Her primary methodologies include multi-objective spatial optimization, individual- and agent-based modelling, and remote sensing analysis.
ISEM warmly congratulates Denis Austin and Hyemee Hwang and wishes them a productive and inspiring experience at the 2026 IIASA Summer School for Systems Modelling.