The IRES Seminar Series showcases the research of our graduate students, faculty and guests. We also host monthly professional development seminars. Our seminars are open to everyone.
Date/Time: Seminars run every Thursday during the Winter Session (September to April) from 12:30pm to 1:20pm.
Location: Term 1 seminars will be hybrid (in-person and via Zoom). Seminars will take place in either the Beaty Museum Theatre (2212 Main Mall) or the Michael Smith Labs Theatre (102-2185 East Mall). Please check each seminar post for the location. Click each seminar listing to register in advance if you are participating via Zoom.
Important note: NO FOOD OR DRINKS ALLOWED IN BOTH THEATRES.
Select seminar videos are available for viewing here.
January 26, 2023: IRES Faculty Seminar with Astrida Neimanis and Jennifer Hamilton
Join Dr. Astrida Neimanis and Dr. Jennifer Hamilton as they talk about the feminist concept of weathering. Read More
January 19, 2023: IRES Student Seminar with Vincent Chireh and James Wu
Join IRES PhD Candidate Vincent Chireh for his talk on water conservation in BC and MSc Student James Wu's presentation about influence of framing on solutions to environmental and social problems! Read More
January 12, 2023: IRES Faculty Seminar with Patrick Meyfroidt (First Seminar of Term 2)
Join Dr. Patrick Meyfroidt for his presentation about improving the sustainability of commodity supply chains! Read More
December 1, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Sara Knox (Last Seminar in Term 1)
November 24, 2022: IRES Student Seminar with Susanna Klassen and Taya Triffo
Join our two student speakers Susanna Klassen and Taya Triffo as they talk about agriculture and green infrastructure planning! Read More
November 17, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Sara Ghebremusse
An IRES Faculty Seminar with Sara Ghebremusse where she talks about corporate control over human rights. Read More
November 10, 2022: No Seminar This Week
November 3, 2022: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Teresa (Sm’hayetsk) Ryan
Join Dr. Teresa (Sm'hayetsk) Ryan's presentation about Indigenous stewardship of Pacific Northwest Forests! Read More
October 27, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Shashidharan Enarth
Join faculty speaker Shashidharan Enarth for his talk about agriculture policy reforms in India. Read More
October 20, 2022: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Chelsey Armstrong
Join Chelsey Armstrong as she talks about an archaeological perspective and anti-colonial approach to forest history. Read More
October 13, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Tim Rodgers
October 6, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Miranda Böttcher
September 29, 2022: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Henry Lai
Join Henry Lai in our IRES Professional Development Seminar talking about health and wellbeing! Read More
September 22, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Tongli Wang
Join Faculty Speaker Tongli Wang where he talks about climate and ecological models for forest adaptation to climate change. Read More
September 15, 2022: IRES Student Seminar with Diana Bedolla López
September 8, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Lisa Westerhoff (First Seminar in Term 1)
June 9, 2022: IRES Special Seminar with Daniel Olivares Quero
Join Professor Olivares on June 9th as he talks about "The Role of Distributed Energy Resources in the Long-Term Energy Planning in Chile: Models, Projections and Policy Implications". Read More
April 27, 2022: IRES Special Seminar with Alain Nadaï
The urgent need to prevent the worst effects of climate change and to preserve a habitable earth is widely recognized. The massive shift to non-fossil forms of energy, so-called renewables, confronts us with (new) pulsations of ecosystems (wind speed, solar radiation, ocean currents) and the need to install infrastructure in a myriad of new environments. This changes our relation to energy and the environment, and raises questions of acceptance in many countries. Read More
April 14, 2022: IRES Student Symposium
Three IRES Students talk about "Exploring a mercury mystery: Weaving Western Science and Inuvialuit Knowledge to model the drivers of mercury pollution in the Beaufort Sea food web", "Boosting understanding of lifestyle carbon emissions: Evaluating the effectiveness of personal carbon calculators to promote climate action", and "Understanding people’s assessment of risks from nuclear energy in India." Read More
April 7, 2022: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Andrea Reimer
How many times have you seen great ideas take much longer to come to fruition than they needed to, or even fail altogether, because people or politics got in the way? Power informs the way we take up space and whether or not we leave room for others. How we unconsciously accept the way the playing field is tilted and cede ground to other people also reinforces power structures. Read More
March 31, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Naomi Zimmerman
March 24, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Danielle Ignace
Dr. Ignace talks about "Broadening our approach to find community-driven solutions to environmental challenges" Read More
March 17, 2022: IRES Student Seminar with Georgia Green and Justin Huynh
Two Students talk about "Characterizing Diverging Perspectives of Relevance for Chemicals Policy" and "Predicting the Impact of Minerals for a Low-Carbon Energy Transition" Read More
March 10, 2022: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Naomi Klein
March 3, 2022: IRES Student Seminar with Celeste Pomerantz and Atlanta-Marinna Grant
Two students talk about "Decarbonizing Canada’s Remote and Off-Grid Communities: Assessing the feasibility of Implementing Energy Storage Technologies to Reduce Fossil Fuel Dependency" and "From Food ‘Waste’ to Food ‘Cycle’: biocultural heritage and the sharing of oral histories for secure and sovereign communities." Read More
February 17, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Kathryn Harrison
She will reflect on her attendance at COP26 in Glasgow, which followed the first working group report from the IPCC’s sixth assessment, and was the first critical “ratchet” period where countries are expected to increase their target ambition under the Paris Agreement. Read More
February 10, 2022: IRES Student Seminar with Helina Jolly and Allison Cutting
Helina's talk: Reimagining Conservation Landscapes: Adivasi Characterizations of The Human-Dimensions of Southern Indian Forests Allison's talk: A Closer Look into Bycatch for Improved Marine Conservation and Management Design Read More
February 3, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Mara Jill Goldman
In this talk I present my new book, Narrating Nature: Wildlife Conservation and Maasai Ways of Knowing (University of Arizona Press, 2020), which draws on over two decades of fieldwork among Maasai pastoralists in northern Tanzania and southern Kenya. Read More
January 27, 2022: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Alex Walls and Nivi Thatra
Researchers, how you communicate about your work impacts the reach and therefore the real-world applicability of your scholarship. For this workshop Alex Walls from UBC Media Relations and Nivi Thatra from IRES invite you to come with a research topic or paper in hand. Read More
January 20, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Ilyas Siddique (First Seminar for Term 2)
Successional agroforestry offers great potential to accelerate and scale out ecosystem restoration and produce healthy food at the same time on the same land. Yet, simultaneous ecological and socioeconomic success requires detailed knowledge of management traits of diverse plants and experience with efficient allocation of labor and inputs in space and time. Read More
December 9, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with John Reganold (Last Seminar for Term 1)
Agriculture is at a critical juncture. While trying to provide calories for 7.9 billion people, agriculture is a major contributor to global greenhouse gases, biodiversity loss, nutrient pollution, land clearing, soil degradation, and public health problems. Read More
December 2, 2021: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Leroy Little Bear
November 25, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with Naoko Ellis
We understand that for technological advancements to become solutions impacting society positively, various non-technical aspects must be in place. How do we then train engineers to become solution providers who understand the complexity of society? How are boundaries of engineering manifested? These questions have led me to join IRES last year, and continue working towards climate emergency through transdisciplinary research. Read More
November 4, 2021: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Allen Edzerza
October 28, 2021: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Suzette McFaul
The uncertainties of how mining will affect communities created a blockade for Torex mining company. It is in this context that SEF Canada was brought to participate in November 2015. Read More
October 25, 2021: IRES Special Seminar with Jamie McEvoy
Drought is a threat to human communities and natural systems. This talk focuses on drought adaptation strategies that account for multispecies needs in a more-than-human world. Read More
October 21, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with Don Carruthers Den Hoed
This presentation will outline the history and core programs of CPCIL and share opportunities for the academic community to get involved with real-world wicked problems, such as decolonizing parks, equity and diversity, conservation burnout, climate adaptation, and organizational sustainability – particularly tensions in financing protected areas. Read More
October 14, 2021: IRES Student Seminar with Jack Durant and Alexa Tanner
October 7, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with Edward Gregr
Understanding the distribution of species and the services they provide is critical to effective resource management. This understanding typically relies correlations between observations of species and the environment. Read More
September 23, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with Rachel White and Simon Donner
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC provides regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. Join us on September 23 for a roundtable discussion on the 2021 IPCC Report with Dr. White and Dr. Donner. Read More