I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, and came to Canada for my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto. I majored in Environmental Ethics and double minored in History and Anthropology there. Currently at IRES, I am working with Dr. Hadi Dowlatabadi and Dr. Jiaying Zhao on people’s sense of responsibility for intergenerational transfers including climate impacts. Outside school, I enjoy swimming, volleyball, piano, and exploring different brunch places.
Annegaaike Leopold Msc, has joined the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, working as Co-PI with Dr. Gunilla Oberg, on a research program aimed at building transparency into the regulatory process of risk assessment and management of organic chemicals, specifically in the face of scientific controversies. This builds seamlessly on her background as EUROTOX registered applied environmental toxicologist with 30 years of experience in the field of regulatory ecotoxicology and environmental fate. Over the past 20 years she has focused on endocrine ecotoxicology, evaluating effects of potential endocrine disruptors in birds and amphibians as well as fish. Working on the hazard and risk assessment of potentially endocrine disruptive chemicals, has allowed her to work closely with scientists representing different opinions in the scientific debate on endocrine disruptors. This has led her to science for policy research program she currently working on at EGESTA. As President of the European branch of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), she is also contributing to shaping the future of science and risk communication of environmental research in SETAC.
A significant portion of career Annegaaike has worked as an executive manager in the contract laboratory world. This has allowed her to develop skills as project manager, working in a planned and systematic way, directing and executing business development, expanding and deepening client relationships, leading and developing multidisciplinary teams. She is also a keen scientific organiser of workshops and conferences on cutting edge environmental topics. Annegaaike had an international childhood and she is bilingual (Dutch-English).
MSc Student
phone: 8584494482
Originally from San Diego, California, Narayan graduated with his BS in environmental economics and policy from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2016. During his undergraduate studies, he completed research internships at the University of California, San Diego, blueEnergy (an NGO that does water and sanitation work in Nicaragua), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the California Environmental Protection Agency. He has also published peer-reviewed work in Climate Policy, on the political economy of mid-century strategies for decarbonization.
He is currently pursuing his masters’ degree in IRES under the supervision of Milind Kandlikar. For his thesis, he is comparing the life-cycle greenhouse gas footprint of conventional and electric cars in the context of India’s coal fired power grid.
(they/them or she/her)
PhD Candidate, Vanier Scholar, Public Scholar, 2023 IBioS Student Fellow
rapichan.phurisamban@ires.ubc.ca
Returning to UBC where I received a bachelor’s degree in economics, I find the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability (IRES) to be an intellectual home for problem-based, interdisciplinary researchers with deep social and ecological concerns. I started my PhD journey in the fall of 2019, working under the supervision of Dr. Terre Satterfield. My current project draws on political ontology, decolonial studies, Indigenous studies, and ethnographic methods to study river relations, lived realities of river dwellers, and knowledge politics in Mekong River science-policy-management interfaces. I’m interested in understanding the conditions for which the Mekong River is recognized as a living being, and how locally representative ways of knowing and living with the river can inform our terms of engagement beyond modern freshwater and biodiversity governance. To this end, I have been working with riparian community members on a Mekong River and Fish Monitoring Project.
Prior to my journey back to academia, I was a researcher and water policy analyst at the Pacific Institute in California. I have worked on topics including water rights and access, cost evaluations of water supply and demand management options, drought impacts on agriculture and salmon fisheries, and water infrastructures and public health. I hold a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a specialized master’s degree in human geography from the University of Zurich, where I studied the use of local ecological knowledge (LEK) and downstream communities’ response to impacts from large-scale Mekong River development.
Outside of work, you can find me hiking, rock climbing, sketching/painting, and trying out new vegan recipes.
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rapichan-Phurisamban
MSc with Claire Kremen, 2022
Lab Manager, UBC Plant-Insect Ecology & Evolution Lab
https://piee-lab.landfood.ubc.ca/people/
Carly is an ecologist driven by solutions-based interdisciplinary environmental research, with special interests in agroecological farming and biodiversity conservation. She completed her MSc in the WoRCS lab with Dr. Claire Kremen in May of 2022. Her thesis research involved evaluating the pollinator conservation potential of farm hedgerows and grassland set-aside fields in the agricultural landscapes of Delta, BC.
She is now a lab manager in the Plant-Insect Ecology & Evolution (PIEE) Lab with Dr. Juli Carrillo in Land & Food Systems. In this role, she is continuing to work with on-farm habitat enhancements, with a focus on their influence on crop pest and natural enemy insect communities. Outside of research, she enjoys hiking, climbing rocks, and baking desserts.
Last updated August 2022
PhD Student
Rudri is a Ph.D. student at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. She completed her BSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Technion- Israel Institute of Technology. During her bachelor’s degree, Rudri was an active member of Engineers without Borders (EwB) – Technion chapter for 3 years where she worked towards developing a water filtration system and household insulation for small off-grid communities. She further pursued a Master of Science at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC, working on farmers’ perspectives on alternatives to agricultural waste burning and its policy solutions in Punjab, India. Rudri is interested in working towards improved air quality and its intersection with energy security in Canada and developing countries.
PhD Student
Bassam is a PhD student at UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability. His research focuses on electric vehicle policy in India with Dr. Amanda Giang and Dr. Milind Kandlikar. His methods include quantitative modelling and interviews/surveys, and he uses data analytics tools. Bassam’s professional career included technical and leadership roles in the mining sector. After completing his M. Eng. in Clean Energy Engineering at UBC, Bassam worked at a school district, providing energy management for its facilities and engaging students in environmental sustainability initiatives. Currently, Bassam is an energy & sustainability consultant for a Vancouver-based firm. He enjoys volunteerism, which has included program development and board governance in social services, mental health, and environmental sustainability non-profits. In his spare time, Bassam enjoys swimming, reading philosophy, and practicing martial arts.
PhD Candidate
Alberto is a PhD Candidate in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, supervised by Dr. Kai Chan, and Ocean Leaders graduate fellow. His research seeks to understand the cascades triggered by defaunation – including species extinctions, local extirpations and severe population reductions – and their ecological consequences, in order to propose management and rewilding practices that could recover environmental services for the benefit of all beings.
As a conservation biologist, Alberto co-founded the NGO Aquasis (www.aquasis.org) and worked as its principal Director for nearly 20 years, promoting endangered species and habitat conservation in Brazil. He has received three Conservation Leadership Awards and the prestigious Future for Nature Award. In 2017 Aquasis received the Brazilian National Biodiversity Award for downlisting endangered species in the Brazilian and IUCN red lists, and for the long-term commitment with biodiversity conservation and community engagement.
MSc with Terre Satterfield & Rashid Sumaila, 2022
Research Analyst, UBC IOF
https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-cutting/
Allison Cutting was a Master of Science student at the Institute for Resources Environment and Sustainability (IRES), co-supervised by Dr. Terre Satterfield and Dr. Rashid Sumaila. Raised on the Salish Sea, she was captivated by the relationship between human and ocean health. She now considers herself a social ecologist who investigates the connectedness between coastal communities and marine environments, particularly with a focus on fisheries. To embrace the complexity of fishery systems, Allison draws on interdisciplinary approaches from conservation biology, environmental economics, and human-centered design.
Prior to joining IRES, Allison lived in five coastal communities around the world, worked alongside commercial fishers as an observer, interned at the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions to research the implementation of rights-based governance, and served as a field ecologist for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She received a Bachelor of Science in ecology and a minor in sociology from Seattle Pacific University. She has been a grantee of The Explorers Club, UBC Ocean Leaders, National Geographic Society, and the National Science Foundation.
Sea Turtles and Paper Parks in a Nicaraguan Small Scale Fishery
Allison’s thesis centers on the sustainability of small-scale fisheries and the tradeoffs between conservation and livelihoods, drawing on a case study from the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua. This work stems directly from voiced concerns of Nicaraguan fishers regarding sea turtle bycatch. In response, she partnered with fishers of a coastal community, called El Astillero, and a local non-governmental organization, called Casa Congo, to conduct research and fill knowledge gaps on turtle bycatch, fish catch, and the governance that influences both. This project is supported by a 2019 National Geographic Early Career Explorer grant and Casa Congo.
Infinity Fish: Economics and the Future of Fish and Fisheries
Allison served as the coordinator of the book project, titled Infinity Fish, authored by Dr. Rashid Sumaila, and published by Elsevier in October 2021. The content centers on marine ecosystem valuation and understanding costs and benefits of fishery management systems. It explains Rashid’s novel economic approach to ensure future generations have access to natural resources for food and livelihood security, known as “intergenerational discounting.”
PhD Student, Public Scholar, Mitacs Graduate Scholar, Four Year Doctoral Fellowship Recipient
Dacotah-Victoria Splichalova is a storyteller, water researcher, a surfer, fisherwoman, and photographer. A UBC Public Scholar and MITACS Graduate Scholar, Dacotah-Victoria is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Resources Management and Environment and Sustainability program at the University of British Columbia, she is supervised by Dr. Leila Harris.
Her research interests centre on storytelling coupled with people’s relations and lived experiences with water in the face of water (in)security. She explores these dimensions, namely elements beyond the quantity and quality of water that may include: culture, values, expression and identity through her engagement in community-arts-based methods i.e., storytelling, performance theatre, and participatory filmmaking as a means to encourage different responses to – and conversations around water (in)security. Collaborative aims of Dacotah-Victoria’s research include generating a broader discourse towards informing experiences of individual’s water use, access to water, well-being and promoting policy actions to address water (in)security across cultures, geographies, and scales.
In recent years, Dacotah-Victoria’s water work has taken her to Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, South Africa, Australia, the United States, and Ireland. Prior to the pursuit of her Ph.D., Dacotah-Victoria completed a year-long sabbatical employed in Dublin as the Communications and Policy Officer for SWAN (Sustainable Water Network), the only water-focused organization in Ireland working at the national-level to protect and preserve Ireland’s heritage waterways.
Dacotah received her Masters of Science degree from Oregon State University working under the supervision of Dr. Aaron T. Wolf. Implementing the methodological approaches and research tools of community participatory action research, videography and storytelling, her MSc research examined water cooperation and water security across the Sixaola River Basin, an international transboundary river basin shared between Costa Rica, Panama and the indigenous communities of the Bríbrí, Naso, Cabecar, Brunca and Ngöbe residing there.
Dacotah-Victoria holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Oregon State University majoring in Philosophy, Writing, with concentrations on environmental philosophy, the philosophy of science and peace studies. During her BSc studies, she conducted her own research at The California Institute of Technology and at The Joan. B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice housed at the University of San Diego.
In addition to her academics and writing, Dacotah-Victoria is also a trained facilitator and mediator and is bilingual in Spanish and English.