M.V. Ramana

Professor, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs
Professor, International Relations Program
Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security

Contact Details

Liu Institute for Global Issues Room 313
6476 Northwest Marine Drive
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Canada

m.v.ramana@ubc.ca

https://sppga.ubc.ca/profile/m-v-ramana/

Research Interests

Energy policy, Nuclear energy, Nuclear weapons and disarmament

Bio

M.V. Ramana is appointed SPPGA, not at IRES, and instead is a Faculty Associate of our unit. He may supervise students in our graduate program.

M. V. Ramana is the Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA). His research interests are in the broad areas of international security and energy supply, with a particular focus on topics related to nuclear energy and fissile materials that can be used to make nuclear weapons. He combines technical skills and interdisciplinary methods to address policy relevant questions related to security and energy issues.

https://sppga.ubc.ca/profile/m-v-ramana/

https://ir.arts.ubc.ca/person/m-v-ramana

Amanda Giang

Assistant Professor, IRES
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Canada Research Chair (T2, Environmental Modelling for Policy)

Contact Details

AERL Building Room 434
2202 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Canada

amanda.giang[at]ubc.ca

Personal website

Research group website

Google Scholar

Research Interests

Climate change, Economic evaluation/analysis, Energy, Environment, Policy and Decision-making, Science-policy interface, Sustainability, Technology

Bio

Amanda Giang is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UBC. Her research addresses challenges at the interface of environmental modelling and policy through an interdisciplinary lens, with a focus on air pollution and toxic chemicals. She is interested in understanding how modelling and data analytics can better empower communities and inform policy decision-making. Current projects in her research group include developing digital tools to better understand and respond to environmental injustice in Canada, evaluating the impacts of technology and policy on air quality, and exploring how different kinds of knowledge are used in environmental assessment processes.

Projects

Click on each project below to view relevant papers.

Air quality and environmental justice in Canada

Giang, A., Boyd, D.R. §, Ono, A.J. and McIlroy-Young, B., 2022. Exposure, access, and inequities: Central themes, emerging trends, and key gaps in Canadian environmental justice literature from 2006 to 2017. The Canadian Geographer/Le Géograpje canadien. 66(3), pp.434-449. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12754

Gardner-Frolick, R., Boyd, D.R. and Giang, A., 2022. Selecting Data Analytic and Modeling Methods to Support Air Pollution and Environmental Justice Investigations: A Critical Review and Guidance Framework. Environmental Science & Technology, 56(5), pp. 2843-2860. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c01739

de Ferreyro Monticelli, D., Bhandari, S., Eykelbosh, A., Henderson, S.B., Giang, A., Zimmerman N., 2022. Cannabis Cultivation Facilities: A Review of Their Air Quality Impacts from the Occupational to Community Scale. Environmental Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c06372

Giang, A. and Castellani, K., 2020. Cumulative air pollution indicators highlight unique patterns of injustice in urban Canada. Environmental Research Letters, 15(12), p.124063. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abcac5

Evaluating the role of climate change and infrastructure design on the fate and transport of toxic pollutants

Rodgers, T. , Wang, Y. §, Humes, C., Jeronimo, M., Johannessen, C., Spraakman, S., Giang, A., Scholes, R. 2023. Bioretention cells provide a tenfold reduction in 6PPD-quinone mass loadings to receiving waters: Evidence from a field experiment and modeling. Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 10(7), pp. 582-588. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00203

Rodgers, T., Giang, A., Diamond, M., Gillies, E., Saini, A. 2023. Emissions and Fate of Organophosphate Esters in Outdoor Urban Environments. Nature Communications, 14:1175. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36455-7

Li, M., Gillies, E.J., Briner, R., Hoover, C.A., Sora, K.J., Loseto, L.L., Walters, W.J., Cheung, W. and Giang, A., 2022. Investigating the dynamics of methylmercury bioaccumulation in the Beaufort Sea Shelf food web: a modeling perspective. Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts. 24(7), pp.1010-1025. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2EM00108J

Air quality, climate, and health impacts of energy transitions – technology, policy, and process

Laskar, I.I., Giang, A. 2023. Mitigation of in-use methane emissions from natural gas-powered shipping: A policy analysis. Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, 3:025005. https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/accf33

Chakraborty, M., Giang, A. and Zimmerman, N. 2023. Performance evaluation of portable dual-spot micro-aethalometers for source identification of Black Carbon aerosols: Application to wildfire smoke and traffic emissions in the Pacific Northwest. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 16:2333-2352. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2333-2023

Barnard-Chumik, H., Cappe, N. and Giang, A., 2022. Knowledge Hierarchy and Mechanisms of Power in Environmental Impact Assessment: Insights from the Muskrat Falls Hydroelectric Project. The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien. 66(3), pp.462-484. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12758

*Rossa-Roccor, V., Giang, A., Kershaw P., 2021. Framing climate change as a human health issue – enough to tip the scale in climate policy? The Lancet Planetary Health, Viewpoint, 5(8), e553-e559. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00113-3

Scholarship of teaching and learning on interdisciplinary sustainability research training

Elder, S., Wittman, H., Giang, A. 2023. Building sustainability research competencies through scaffolded pathways for undergraduate research experience. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 11:1. https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2022.00091

Ramachandran, A., Abdi, K., Giang, A., Gladwin, D., Ellis, N. Collaborative Research Training in Higher Education: An Exploratory Canadian Case Study. Higher Education, Published Online October 24, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2022.2134312

Ramachandran, A., Abdi, K., Giang, A., Gladwin, D. and Ellis, N., 2022. Transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary programmes for collaborative graduate research training. Educational Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2022.2134312

Courses

ENVR 410 Energy, Environment, and Society

RES 520 Climate Change, Science, Technology, and Sustainable Development

CEEN 525 Energy Policy

Tim Cashion

PhD Student

Contact Details

Research Interests

Economic evaluation/analysis, Environment, Food security, Sustainability

Bio

Tim is a first-year PhD student studying fisheries economics under the supervision of Rashid Sumaila. Tim’s research at IRES and the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries will continue to work on the Fish Tracker Initiative to link investors to sustainable and unsustainable fisheries practices. Through this research, Tim hopes to better evaluate the risk of current fisheries overexploitation and the declining returns to those invested in them.

Tim received a double major BA from Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario. Tim began his fisheries research during his master’s at Dalhousie University focusing on the environmental and ecological impacts of reduction fisheries and seafood life cycle assessment.

Recently, Tim has worked for the Sea Around Us at UBC working on various projects including fish used for fishmeal and fish oil, analyzing trends in fisheries discards, and researching global fisheries gear use. He hopes this research can help to understand the impacts of fisheries on marine ecosystems and their role in sustainable food production. Tim’s research is funded by a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, and the UBC 4-Year Fellowship.

Projects

Courses

Featured Publications

Cashion T., Le Manach, F., Zeller, D., Pauly, D. (2017) Most fish destined for fishmeal are food-grade fish. Fish and Fisheries.

Cashion, T., Tyedmers, P., & Parker, R. (2017). Global reduction fisheries and their products in the context of sustainable limits. Fish and Fisheries.

Zeller D., Cashion T., Palomares M.L.D. and Pauly D. (2017) Global marine fisheries discards: a synthesis of reconstructed data. Fish & Fisheries.

Cashion, T., Hornborg, S., Ziegler, F., Hognes, E., & Tyedmers, P. (2016). Review and advancement of the marine biotic resource use metric in LCAs: a case study of Norwegian salmon feed. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 21(8): 1106-1120.

Susanna Klassen

PhD with Navin Ramankutty & Hannah Wittman, 2022
Liu Scholar

Research Interests

Climate change, Food security, Management of biodiversity, Political ecology, Science-policy interface, Social ecological systems, Sustainability

Bio

Susanna’s research focuses on understanding the processes and dynamics that mediate food system sustainability, and the multi-functionality of farming systems. She uses interdisciplinary approaches to examine how context shapes the adoption of sustainable practices (the geography of sustainable agriculture), and how governance and policy interventions can facilitate more sustainable agroecological futures.

Her PhD work investigates how organic agriculture is contributing to food system sustainability by assessing the adoption of practices and approaches that enhance agro-ecosystem health and social welfare on organic farms in Canada. She is working with collaborating agencies to ground her research in the institutional context of the organic sector, and to ensure results are relevant to policy and regulatory discussions in Canada and globally. She is supervised by Hannah Wittman and Navin Ramankutty.

Susanna is a member of the Food Secure Canada Board of Directors, an Advisor for the Meal Exchange Good Food Challenge, and an Articling Agrologist with the BC Institute of Agrologists. She has a BSc (honours) in Land Surface Processes and Environmental Change from McGill, and an MSc in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems from UBC. She has worked on the integration of climate change adaptation into programs and policies with the BC Ministry of Agriculture and the BC Agriculture & Food Climate Action Initiative. Many of these interests were first cultivated by her time working on small farms in Quebec, Oregon, and Latin America, and her work with campus food and sustainability initiatives at McGill University.

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Susanna_Klassen

Featured Publications

Klassen, S., & Murphy, S. (2020). Equity as both a means and an end: Lessons for resilient food systems from COVID-19. World Development, 136, 105104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105104

Nawaz, S., Klassen, S., & Lyon, A. (2020). Tensions at the boundary: Rearticulating ‘organic’ plant breeding in the age of gene editing. Elem Sci Anth, 8(1), 34. https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.429

Chapman, M., Klassen, S., Kreitzman, M., Semmelink, A., Sharp, K., Singh, G., & Chan, K.M.A., 2017. 5
Key Challenges and Solutions for Governing Complex Adaptive (Food) Systems. Sustainability, 9(9), 1-30.

Klassen, S. E., & Wittman, H., 2017. Place-Based Food Systems: ‘Re-Valuing Local’ and Fostering Socio-
Ecological Sustainability. Sustainable Food Futures: Multidisciplinary Solutions. Ed. Jessica Duncan and
Megan Bailey. London and New York: Routledge.

Klassen, S. E., 2016. Decreasing Distance and Re-Valuing Local: How Place-Based Food Systems Can
Foster Socio-Ecological Sustainability. Solutions, 7(August), 22–26.

Rocío López de la Lama

PhD with Kai Chan, 2023
Postdoc at UBC SPPGA

Contact Details
rocio.lopezdelalama@gmail.com

www.limanatural.org

Research Interests

Behavioral change, Biodiversity conservation, Climate change, Cultural ecosystem services, Ecosystem services, Environmental and cultural values, Food security, Gender, Management of biodiversity, Policy and Decision-making, Public policy and analysis, Social ecological systems, Sustainability

Bio

Rocío López de la Lama was a PhD student at IRES exploring people’s different relationships with nature through a relational values lens. In particular, she was interested in understanding how people’s relationships with nature might motivate and foster the creation of Privately Protected Areas (PPAs), focusing in Peru (her home country). Although the government does not provide any economic incentives (i.e. tax reductions, property rights) for PPAs’ implementation, their coverage continues to expand and currently protect over 300,000 ha of the Peruvian territory. Therefore, Rocio’s research sought to identify what motivates people to set up these areas and how effectively they are contributing to nature conservation and human well-being. Rocio was working under the supervision of Kai Chan, and was part of the CHANS Lab. She has an MPhil in Conservation Leadership from the University of Cambridge (UK), and a BSc in Biology from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Peru). Her previous work has focused on sustainable seafood, small-scale fisheries, gender studies and exploring people’s relationship with nature.

Last updated May 2024

Featured Publications

López de la Lama R, De la Puente S, Riveros JC. (2018). Attitudes and misconceptions towards sharks and shark meat consumption along the Peruvian coast. PLoS ONE 13(8): e0202971. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202971

López de la Lama R., Valdés-Velasquez, A., Huicho, L., Morales, E., Rivera, M., (2018). Exploring the building blocks of social capital in the Sechura Bay (Peru): Insights from Peruvian Scallop (Argopecten purpuratus) aquaculture. Ocean & Coastal Management 165(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2018.08.030

López De La Lama, R., De La Puente, S., & Valdés-Velásquez, A. (2018). Bringing sustainable seafood back to the table: Exploring chefs’ knowledge, attitudes and practices in Peru. Oryx, 1-9. doi:10.1017/S0030605318000273

Chris Barrington-Leigh

Visiting Professor

Bio

Chris Barrington-Leigh is an Associate Professor at McGill University, jointly appointed at the Institute for Health and Social Policy and the School of Environment, and is an associate member in McGill’s Department of Economics. One strand of Chris’ research is focused on empirical and quantitative assessments of human well-being, and their implications for economic, social, and environmental policy. He uses large international as well as national surveys, experiments, and economic theoretical modeling to understand individual and aggregate consumption benefits, and their implications for policy, including a broad transition to sustainability. Another current strand of work aims to understand household economic and health effects of Beijing’s rural household heating coal-to-electricity programme. A third interest of Chris’ is the structure of urban road networks, globally, and their implication for development and climate policy.

IRES Visiting Professor term: December 2017 to June 2018

Bradley Eyre

Previous Visiting Professor

Bio

Professor Bradley Eyre is a biogeochemist and the foundation Director of the Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry at Southern Cross University, Australia. His publications include topics such as whole ecosystem carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus budgets, net ecosystem metabolism estimates, benthic and pelagic production and respiration, dissolved organic carbon fluxes, carbon stable isotopes (fluxes and assimilation), carbon burial and air-sea GHG flux estimates, benthic denitrification, benthic habitats and seascapes, historical and ecosystem comparisons, ocean acidification, hypoxia, eutrophication, submarine groundwater discharge, permeable sands and carbonate sediment dissolution. Professor Eyre has 157 articles in Scopus listed journals (H-index = 44, Total citations >5000, Google Scholar; H-index = 35, Total citations>3500, Scopus) and has attracted over >$20 million in funding. He has mentored 14 early- and mid-career researchers and supervised 32 PhD students.

IRES Visiting Professor term: December 2017- February 2018

Rumi Naito

Adjunct Professor

Contact Details

—
rumisen@gmail.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rumi-naito-441373a/

http://chanslab.ires.ubc.ca/people/rumi-naito/ http://zhaolab.psych.ubc.ca/people.html

Research Interests

Behavioral change, Biodiversity conservation, Climate change, Cultural ecosystem services, Environmental and cultural values, Management of biodiversity, Perceived risk and new technology, Policy and Decision-making, Political ecology, Resilience, Resource governance and management, Resource scarcity, Science-policy interface, Social ecological systems

Bio

I am a conservation social scientist with a background in behavioral science, informing evidence-based solutions to advance environmental sustainability. With 15+ years in research and project management, I specialize in REDD+, community-based conservation, and behavior change. My work explores psychological and social factors driving pro-environmental behaviors, applying behavioral insights to motivate both individual and collective action. I am interested in finding effective ways to influence public behaviors and perceptions to combat climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, I design experiments to assess the impact of conservation interventions across diverse populations. My current focus includes designing effective behavior change interventions in the context of demand reduction in the global wildlife trade, human-wildlife conflict mitigation, and promoting sustainable land-use practices among rural communities.

Prior, I lived and worked in Indonesia for over 7 years, leading sustainable land-use, forestry, and REDD+ projects. I am fluent in English, Bahasa Indonesia, and Japanese. I hold a PhD in Resources, Environment and Sustainability from The University of British Columbia and a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University.

Robin Harder

Contact Details

Research Interests

Bio

Robin is an environmental systems scientist with a background in urban water management and a keen interest in farming and soil regeneration. He earned his BSc from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Civil Engineering), MSc from Delft University of Technology (Sanitary Engineering), and PhD from Chalmers University of Technology (Chemical Environmental Science). He currently aims to apply and extend his knowledge to design nutrient recycling from human excreta to food production for long-term soil health.

Robin is employed as international postdoctoral researcher at Chalmers University of Technology through a mobility starting grant for young researchers from the Swedish Research Council Formas. At UBC, he is appointed as honorary postdoctoral fellow at IRES (Egesta Laboratory) and the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes Laboratory).

Chalmers: https://www.chalmers.se/en/staff/Pages/robin-harder.aspx

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinharder/
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robin_Harder

Projects

Courses

Featured Publications

Madison Stevens

PhD with Dr. Terre Satterfield, 2023
Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Indigenous-Led Ecological Restoration, Boise State University

Contact Details

madison.stevens@ubc.alumni.ca

phone: 4065481582

https://www.linkedin.com/in/madison-stevens-616b7494/ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Madison_Stevens2 https://pif.forestry.ubc.ca/people/madison-stevens/

Bio

At IRES, Madison Stevens was a PhD candidate and UBC Public Scholar at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia, under the supervision of Dr. Terre Satterfield. Her research interests focus on the nature of conservation decision-making, asking questions about how evidence and knowledges are applied to conservation problems, who makes decisions, and how conservation models account for human rights. For her dissertation research, she employed mixed social science methods and a political ecology lens to understand the governance and stewardship dimensions of community forests in Uttarakhand, India. She was also involved in projects focused on the equity dimensions of climate adaptation and the use of evidence in conservation planning in Canada. In 2021 Madison acted as a Climate Expert for the Climate Teaching Connector program at UBC, and a Project Assistant for the Canadian Mountain Assessment project. She holds a BA in Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies from Franklin University, Switzerland, in 2015, where her thesis highlighted Indigenous land rights and conflict in Uganda. Her professional background includes a decade of experience working for conservation nonprofit organizations, notably as an Education Media Specialist and Logistics Coordinator with Polar Bears International since 2011. When not working, she likes to spend her days playing outside, immersed in appreciation for the wilder places.

Last Updated May 2023

Featured Publications

Stevens, M, & Norris, R. (2022). A mixed methodology for evaluating use of evidence in conservation planning. Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13876

Stevens, M, & Ramesh, K. (In press). ‘If there is jangal, there is everything’: exercising stewardship rights and responsibilities in van panchayat community forests, Johar Valley, Uttarakhand, India. In J. Bulkan, J. Palmer, M. Hobley, & A. M. Larson (Eds.), Handbook on Community Forestry. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9780367488710/routledge-handbook-community-forestry-janette-bulkan-john-palmer-mary-hobley-anne-larson

Adler, C, Wester, P, Bhatt, I […] Stevens, M (Contributing Author). (2022). Cross-Chapter Paper 5: Mountains. Second Order Draft. IPCC WGII (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability) Sixth Assessment Report. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-ii/

McDowell, G, Stevens, M, Lesnikowski, A, Huggel, C, Harden, A, DiBella, J, Morecroft, M, Kumar, P, Joe, ET, Bhatt, I. (2021). Closing the adaptation gap in mountains. Mountain Research and Development 41(3) A1-A10. https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00033.1

M.V. Ramana

M.V. Ramana

Contact Details

Research Interests

Bio

Amanda Giang

Contact Details

Research Interests

Bio

Projects

Air quality and environmental justice in Canada

Evaluating the role of climate change and infrastructure design on the fate and transport of toxic pollutants

Air quality, climate, and health impacts of energy transitions – technology, policy, and process

Scholarship of teaching and learning on interdisciplinary sustainability research training

Courses

Tim Cashion

Contact Details

Research Interests

Bio

Projects

Courses

Featured Publications

Susanna Klassen

Research Interests

Bio

Featured Publications

Rocío López de la Lama

Contact Detailsrocio.lopezdelalama@gmail.com

Research Interests

Bio

Featured Publications

Chris Barrington-Leigh

Bio

Bradley Eyre

Bio

Rumi Naito

Contact Details

Research Interests

Bio

Robin Harder

Contact Details

Research Interests

Bio

Projects

Courses

Featured Publications

Madison Stevens

Contact Details

Bio

Featured Publications

Contact Details
rocio.lopezdelalama@gmail.com