The IRES Seminar Series showcases the research of our graduate students, faculty and guests. There are also monthly professional development seminars. Our seminars are open to everyone.
The seminars run every Thursday during the Winter Session (September to April) from 12:30pm to 1:30pm.
Term 2 Seminars will be held via Zoom and in-person in the Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory Theatre (AERL Room 120) at 2202 Main Mall.
Note: Our Zoom Seminars require advance registration.
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Select seminar videos are available for viewing here.
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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
September 16, 2021: IRES Student Seminar with Erika Luna and Claire Ewing
IRES Seminar Series Resumes Thursday, September 16, 2021
April 15, 2021: IRES Student Symposium
The IRES Student Symposium features various RES graduate students presenting their research. Read More
April 8, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with Erle Ellis
Global evidence confirms that human societies have gained the capacity to transform our entire planet. Could this unprecedented capacity be redirected to shape a better future for both people and the rest of nature? This presentation explores the possibility that some of the same social processes that have transformed this planet for the worse could also transform it for the better. Read More
April 1, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with Sonja Klinsky
In this talk, Dr. Klinsky will discuss how approaching climate (in)justice through the lens of relationships can be a productive way to orient engaged scholarship in the climate justice context. Read More
March 25, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with Gordon Christie
While Indigenous peoples across Canada engage in struggles over lands and waters, other battles rage in less visible forms. Academics analyzing events argue about what led to this world of conflict and about how to resolve tensions. Read More
March 18, 2021: IRES Student Seminar with Madison Stevens and Rocío López de la Lama
March 11, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with Erika Zavaleta
The practice of conservation science includes what we choose to study towards what goals, as well as whom we choose to work with, how we influence our organizations, and how we use science to hone our teaching and to advance justice in our field. Read More
March 4, 2021: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Helina Jolly, Simon Donner, and Mark Cembrowski
This seminar hopes to bring together perspectives from people at different career stages within academia, and kick-start conversations around expectations, limitations, and strategies to strive for. Read More
February 25, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with Andrew Baron
Implicit bias has many pernicious effects on behavior including affecting hiring and voting decisions, and even treatment recommendations by medical professionals. Moreover, research shows that this form of bias is notoriously difficult to change in adults, underscoring the need to identify its roots in development. Read More
February 18, 2021: No Seminar Due to Mid-Term Break
February 11, 2021: IRES Student Seminar with Joanne Nelson and Kyoko Adachi
February 4, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with Mary Collins
Analyzing the relationship between employment and toxic emissions at over 25,000 US manufacturing facilities between 1998 to 2012 demonstrates that significant reductions in toxic pollution can be achieved while avoiding equivalent effects on employment. Read More
January 28, 2021: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Zia Mehrabi
What makes a good researcher? A few months back, I led a short workshop at the Land Use and Global Environment Laboratory on this topic. One of the PhD students thought that other Masters/PhD students at IRES would benefit from me running the same workshop for the wider grad student body. So here you are. Come along to explore what makes a good researcher. Read More
January 21, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with Fausto Sarmiento
As archetypes of the meta-geography of the vertical dimension, mountain metaphors remain at the core of animistic belief systems, religious cults, military strategies, economic potential and scientific innovation. Dr. Sarmiento argue that transdisciplinary science and geocritical tropes, incorporating physical, human, and technical geography with humanities and arts, are the best approaches to understand the complexity of mountain systems. Read More
January 14, 2021: IRES Student Seminar with Sandeep Pai and Ian Theaker (First Seminar in Term 2)
January 14, 2021: IRES Student Seminar with Sandeep Pai and Ian Theaker (First Seminar in Term 2) Read More
December 3, 2020: IRES Faculty Seminar with Inês Azevedo (Last Seminar in Term 1)
In this talk I will cover three related recent papers: 1) Comparing the Health Damages from Air Pollution to the Value Added in the U.S. Economy (PNAS, 2019). 2) Fine Particulate Air Pollution from Electricity Generation in the US: Health Impacts by Race, Income, and Geography (ES&T, 2019). 3) What are the best combinations of fuel-vehicle technologies to mitigate climate change and air pollution effects across the United States? (ERL, 2020). Read More