IRES Seminar Series

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 2 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


April 20, 2023: IRES Student Symposium with Lindah Ddamba, Rumi Naito, and Josh Travers (Last Seminar in Term 2)


Three IRES students will present this week for the IRES Student Symposium. More details coming soon! Read More

April 13, 2023: IRES Faculty Seminar with Bekkah Coburn and Erica Triggs


Stay tuned for talk details! Read More

April 6, 2023: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Tugce Conger and Ivana Zelenika


Join this week's IRES Alumni Panel on Public Service featuring Dr. Tugce Conger and Dr. Ivana Zelenika! Read More

March 30, 2023: IRES Faculty Seminar with Alex Moore


Join Dr. Alex Moore to learn about the inclusion of cultural values and community-centered conservation interventions! Read More

March 23, 2023: IRES Student Seminar with Bassam Javed and Sarah-Louise Ruder


Join IRES PhD Candidates Bassam Javed and Sarah-Louise Ruder's presentations: “Clean and affordable transportation” for all Canadians: Heterogeneity in cost of electrifying passenger transportation in Canada; "Farmer Sociotechnical Imaginaries for Canadian Agri-Food Future"! Read More

March 16, 2023: IRES Faculty Seminar with David Boyd


This week's IRES Seminar Series features Dr. David Boyd, who will talk about rights-based approaches to climate and environmental action Read More

March 9, 2023: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Derek Gladwin


Join Dr. Derek Gladwin for his talk about digital presence as a process of professionalization. Read More

March 2, 2023: IRES Faculty Seminar with Sara Barron


Join Dr. Sara Barron for her presentation exploring a new framework for a scenario-based approach incorporating a design process for planning future urban forests! Read More

February 23, 2023: No Seminar This Week


There is no IRES Seminar on November 10 due to the Midterm Break (Feb 20 to 24, 2023). Read More

February 16, 2023: IRES Student Seminar with Erika Gavenus and Shuoqi Ren


Join IRES PhD Candidate Erika Gavenus for her talk comparing historical and contemporary salmon harvest rates and MSc Student Shuoqi Ren's presentation about urban environmental justice! Read More

February 9, 2023: IRES Faculty Seminar with Sumeet Gulati


Join Dr. Sumeet Gulati to learn about his research on the relationship between forest clearing and fatal human elephant conflict in India. Read More

February 2, 2023: IRES Professional Development Seminar Series with Nivretta Thatra


Join Nivi for this workshop about science communication - on writing lay abstracts and creating a professional online presence. Read More

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)


Join our Faculty Speaker Sara Knox as she talks about wetlands in a changing world. Read More

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


There is no IRES Seminar on November 10 due to the Midterm Break (Nov 9 to 11, 2022). Read More

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


Join Tim Rodgers as he speaks about chemical behavior between and within cities. Read More

October 6, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Miranda Böttcher


Join faculty speaker Miranda Böttcher as she talks about assessing mCDR in Germany. Read More

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


IRES Seminar Series continues with student speaker Diana Bedolla López Read More

September 8, 2022: IRES Faculty Seminar with Lisa Westerhoff (First Seminar in Term 1)


Join us for our first IRES Seminar of the year with Lisa Westerhoff! Read More

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


This seminar is co-sponsored by UBC IRES & UBC CERC (UBC Clean Energy Research Centre). Read More

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


In conversation with Dr. Naomi Klein about climate action and justice. Read More

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