Fairlie is a doctoral researcher for the LUDEMO project “Land Use, Sustainability, and Democratic Backsliding” led by Prof. Patrick Meyfroidt. Fairlie has a varied background, with a BA in History from the University of Oxford (2017), an MSc in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation from Imperial College London, and experience with applied nature conservation. They spent five years specialising in GIS for NatureScot, the Scottish Government’s nature conservation agency, including work on climate change, nature conservation, and protected areas. Now, they are combining their skills and interests to focus on land use and sustainability in Canada, exploring how land use dynamics and environmental change shape and are shaped by social and political factors to affect sustainability.