Carly McGregor

MSc with Claire Kremen, 2022
Lab Manager, UBC Plant-Insect Ecology & Evolution Lab

Contact Details

https://piee-lab.landfood.ubc.ca/people/

Research Interests

Biodiversity conservation, Ecosystem services, Environment, Management of biodiversity, Social ecological systems, Sustainability

Bio

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

Rudri Bhatt

PhD Student

Contact Details

rudrib@alumni.ubc.ca

Research Interests

Energy, Improved air quality and clean energy

Bio

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.

Bassam Javed

PhD Student

Contact Details

bassam@alumni.ubc.ca

Research Interests

Energy, Sustainability

Bio

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.

Alberto Campos

PhD Candidate

Contact Details

alberto@aquasis.org

Research Interests

Biodiversity conservation, Ecosystem services

Bio

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.

Allison Cutting

MSc with Terre Satterfield & Rashid Sumaila, 2022
Research Analyst, UBC IOF

Contact Details

acutting@mail.ubc.ca

https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-cutting/

Research Interests

Food and Livelihood Security, Small Scale Fisheries Management, Social ecological systems

Bio

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.

Projects

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.”

Dacotah-Victoria Splichalova

PhD Student, Public Scholar, Mitacs Graduate Scholar, Four Year Doctoral Fellowship Recipient

Contact Details

dacotah@mail.ubc.ca

Research Interests

Community-based research, Participatory action research, Storytelling, Water governance, Water security

Bio

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.

Bronwyn McIlroy-Young

MSc Student

Contact Details

b.mcilroy-young@alumni.ubc.ca

phone: 2268684751

Research Interests

Perceived risk, Science communication, Science-policy interface

Bio

Bronwyn began her Masters at IRES in September 2018. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo where her honours thesis focused on communicating about climate change impacts on local weather. Bronwyn’s research interests include science communication, risk perception and knowledge in the science-policy interface. She is currently working with Dr. Gunilla Öberg investigating messy topics in toxicology with the aim of improving the conduct and communication of science for regulation.

Projects

Courses

Featured Publications

Martin Z Olszynski

PhD Student

Contact Details

https://law.ucalgary.ca/profiles/olszynski

Research Interests

Ecosystem services, Environment, First Nations and Resource Management, Law, Management of biodiversity, Policy and Decision-making, Political ecology, Public policy and analysis, Resilience, Resource governance and management, Science-policy interface, Sustainability, Water governance, Water law

Bio

Martin is an associate professor of law at the University of Calgary, with several years of public service in environmental and natural resources law and policy. From 2007 to 2013, he was counsel with the federal Department of Justice, practising law in the legal services unit at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. During this period, he also spent time on secondment to the Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Division at Environment Canada. Martin holds a B. Sc. (Biology) and an LL.B., both from the University of Saskatchewan, and an LL.M. (specialization in environmental law) from the University of California at Berkeley. Martin’s PhD work considers the merits — or not — of regional land-use planning regimes.

Featured Publications

For a reasonably comprehensive list of publications, see https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1687308

Joanne Nelson

PhD Student

Research Interests

Community-based research, Cultural ecosystem services, Environment

Bio

Joanne Nelson is a Ts’msyen woman who grew up in the northwestern BC communities of Port Edward and Prince Rupert where she gained a tremendous appreciation for nature, in particular the ocean environment. She is from Lax Kw’alaams on her mother’s side and Kitsumkalum on her father’s side. Her passions include traditional Ts’msyen art forms as well as paddle sports such as dragon boat and outrigger canoe. She is a PhD student with IRES and is looking forward to conducting meaningful research with First Nations communities that favour Indigenous Ways of Knowing and traditional knowledge. Joanne has lived on the unceded land of the Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwu7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh people on and off for over 30 years. Her research will focus on the knowledges and stories of urban Indigenous peoples in Metro Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish Territory, that can contribute to water governance. Methodologies will be those that centre Indigenous ways of knowing to meaningfully communicate Indigenous knowledges and stories.

Joanne’s academic background includes a Master’s of Public Health from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science from the University of British Columbia. Her career has been dedicated to Indigenous issues including public health in First Nations communities and support of Indigenous post-secondary students, experience that she hopes strengthen her community-based research.

Joanne’s research interests focus on urban Indigenous knowledges that focus on water knowledge and practices.

Imranul Laskar

PhD Student, NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Doctoral Scholar, Mitacs Accelerate Fellow, UBC Four Year Fellowship Recipient

Contact Details

imranul.laskar@ubc.ca

Research Interests

Adaptation, Climate change, Energy, Energy policy, Environment, Improved air quality and clean energy, Policy and Decision-making, Sustainability, Technology

Bio

Imranul Laskar is a PhD student in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on global shipping emissions, and investigating the air quality, health and climate impacts, and air pollution exposure injustice of shipping for future climate change and air quality policy decision making. His works includes conducting policy analysis to mitigate in-use methane emissions (methane slip) from the use of natural gas as a marine fuel.
Imranul was previously affiliated with the University of Alberta where he completed an MSc in Environmental Engineering and held several research and leadership positions in adsorption-based air pollution control modeling and exposure assessment, waste management, and sustainability. With a background in chemical engineering, he has also worked with municipalities, environmental consulting, and petrochemical industries on air quality analysis, environmental site assessments, wastewater treatment, and zero liquid discharge systems.

Follow Imranul on Researchgate, Google Scholar, LinkedIn.

Featured Publications

Laskar, I.I., Hashisho, Z. (2020) Insights into modeling adsorption equilibria of single and multicomponent systems of organic and water vapors. Separation and Purification Technology. 241: 116681.
Laskar, I.I., Hashisho, Z., Phillips, J.H., Anderson, J.E., Nichols, M. (2019) Competitive adsorption equilibrium modeling of volatile organic compound (VOC) and water vapor onto activated carbon. Separation and Purification Technology. 212: 632-640.
Laskar, I.I., Hashisho, Z., Phillips, J.H., Anderson, J.E., Nichols, M. (2019) Modeling the effect of relative humidity on adsorption dynamics of volatile organic compound onto activated carbon. Environmental Science & Technology. 53(5): 2647-2659.
Laskar, I.I. (2017) Literature review and quantitative analysis of community impacts on local air quality. City of Edmonton.