Sandia Energy > Programs > Electric Grid > Advanced Grid Modeling > Staff > Michelle Bester Michelle Bester, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Appointee Contact Information Michelle Bester / 505-284-8197 Biography Michelle Bester is a Postdoctoral Appointee in the Electric Power Systems Research department at Sandia National Laboratories. Her primary research includes remote sensing analysis and modeling of fuel characteristics and vegetation treatments for wildfire grid resilience. She received her doctorate degree from West Virginia University and was awarded the ASPRS William A. Fischer Memorial Scholarship for “New and innovative uses of remote sensing data/techniques”. She also has prior experience working on Artificial Intelligence and Community Driven Wildland Fire Innovations via a WIFIRE commons NSF project and SERDP-funded 3D Fuel Characterization for evaluating physics-based fire behavior, fire effects and smoke models. Education Ph.D. in Geography, West Virginia University – Fall 2022 Postgraduate degree in Geoinformatics, University of Pretoria, South Africa BSc in Geoinformatics, University of Pretoria, South Africa