Nigel Deans

Portrait photo of Nigel Deans

Nigel Deans

MSc Student

Research Interests

Adaptation, Behavioral change, Climate change, Energy policy, Public policy and analysis, Resilience, Resource scarcity, Science communication, Science-policy interface, Social ecological systems, Sustainability, Vulnerability and risk

Bio

Nigel Deans is a MSc student in the Behavioral Sustainability Lab, under the supervision of Dr. Jiaying Zhao. He is interested, broadly, in improving public and policymaker understanding and application of science. His research takes an experimental psychological approach to improving the effectiveness of climate change communication by individualizing climate change messaging. Nigel is also a climate expert with UBC’s Climate Teaching Connector, a teaching fellow for Research Methods (PSYC 217) and Behavioural Data Analysis (PSYC 218) in the Department of Psychology, a 2021 UBC Sustainability Scholar, and an associate with the Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning, where he is currently enrolled in the Certificate Program in Advanced Teaching and Learning.

Before joining IRES, Nigel was the research coordinator for Royal Roads University’s Resilience by Design Lab, where he worked with post-secondary institutions and professional organizations across BC to design and deliver climate change adaptation courses that work for professionals. He holds a BSc in psychology with a science specialization in biology from the University of Victoria, where he also completed three co-operative work terms in three countries and a year-long academic exchange at the University of Utrecht’s Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. He loves languages, hiking, and sleeping outside, especially above 4000m.