NORTH DAKOTA – One of the first things Morgen Burke did as manager of the UND Geographic Information Systems/Remote Sensing Laboratory was ask if he could hang a Canadian flag in his new office.
“Yes, absolutely,” replied Dean Brad Rundquist from the Faculty of Arts & Sciences. “It’s your office. You can do whatever you want. Of course, I was thinking of something small, and he came up with this flag – a giant maple leaf – that almost covered the entire wall in front of his desk.
“From then on, we always joked about his office being Canadian territory. ‘Can I cross? Do I need a passport to enter?’ Now, I can’t help but smile and think of him every time I look at that space.
The Manitoba native, known to colleagues and fellow academics as the ever-humble and affable genius, died in April — less than a year after he was diagnosed with brain cancer and just four months after undergoing the rigors of treatment and research. . to obtain his PhD in Earth System Sciences & Policy. He was 30 years old.
“His untimely death seems so unfair. He was incredibly bright and very promising,” said Rundquist, who served as Burke’s academic advisor for his master’s in geography and co-advisor for his doctorate along with ESSP associate professor Jeff VanLooy.
“He was a fantastic student – one of the best graduate students I’ve ever had – and such a positive influence on other students,” Rundquist continued. “He treated people with such respect and care and was always willing and willing to help. Even if he didn’t know the answer to something, he was never one to put his hands up. He was going to do the research and find out.”
VanLooy agreed, calling Burke “the kindest, humblest, gentlest person” he has ever met.
“Add to that your intelligence, dedication and determination in your research interests and you have a dream student for any college,” said VanLooy.
Now, the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences are teaming up to nurture the same legacy of goodness and dogged scientific exploration, establishing the Morgen W.V. Burke Memorial Graduate Scholarship. Once fully funded, the scholarship awarded will be awarded annually to an outstanding graduate student in Geography or Earth System Sciences & Policy.
The fellowship is a way of honoring Burke’s great courage and scientific contributions, as well as inspiring future scientists to look forward to discoveries, said Soizik Laguette, chair of the ESSP Department.
“Morgen was extremely curious and had a very strong ability to nurture that intellect,” Laguette said. “He had a simple way of explaining difficult topics and was a natural at connecting the dots to understand the complexity of our world.
“For him, it was never just one thing. He analyzed how economic, environmental and social factors affect each other. Not everyone is capable of thinking like that. It’s incredibly challenging, but very important when you’re really trying to solve a problem.”
And Burke often tried to do just that. He was a prolific researcher and published four peer-reviewed scientific journal articles between 2018 and 2021 — a feat that Rundquist said was far from typical for a student.
“It’s a long and difficult process to get the final seal of approval and get published,” he said. “Often, articles are simply deemed unworthy and rejected, but Morgen had four research articles published as a student — and he was working on two more.”
In a major project, Burke has used historic aerial imagery since 1962 to study density trends in the rural shelter belts of Grand Forks County. He found that density increased until it reached a downward trend in 2014 — a decline he attributed to the natural lifespan of trees and the active removal of trees to make room for expanded plantations. The conclusion? Certain agricultural areas are now at increased risk of wind-induced soil erosion at a similar level to that experienced in the Midwest in the 1930s.
In another study, Burke used a special digital camera called a “phenocam” to monitor changes in grasslands and other vegetation at UND’s Oakville Prairie, near Emerado, N.D. The time-lapse camera – along with others in the US and Canada – captures images every half hour and has been doing so for about eight years. That’s a lot of data, Rundquist said, and scientists are using it to learn how climate and weather patterns are impacting the environment.
But Burke took his research a step further. He found a way to calibrate satellite data using phenocam data from various grazing sites, allowing researchers to better characterize highly dynamic grazing processes.
None of this was easy, Rundquist said, considering the entire system was installed in a field about half a mile away from any source of electricity. Appreciating the challenge, Burke powered it up with marine batteries and then equipped it with solar panels and a wind turbine to charge them. He later added a weather station to measure temperature, precipitation and humidity.
“Morgen kept suggesting things we needed to add until we got to the point where there was no room to add anything else,” Rundquist said with a laugh. “He was a techno wizard who loved all gadgets.”
Seeing is believing (and understanding)
For example, he was also instrumental in building an Augmented Reality Sandbox – a practical, high-tech device that helps students understand geographic information system mapping. With a wave of the hand, students can create a digital tsunami or make it rain in the valley by simply opening their fist “cloud” over the landscape.
“It’s a great teaching tool to take to high schools, and he loved doing it,” said Rundquist.
Those who knew Burke said he was always full of ideas. The only thing he wasn’t full of was himself.
Laguette put it this way: “There was no arrogance, no pretense. It was never about him. He was very thoughtful, and that’s what made him a great human being. Students were never afraid to ask a “stupid” question because there was never any judgment with Morgen. They had a lot of confidence in him.”
