UBC ecologist honored by American Museum of Natural History

UBC ecologist honored by American Museum of Natural History

UBC ecologist Claire Kremen has been awarded an honorary degree by the American Museum of Natural History.

 

Claire Kremen, a UBC ecologist and biologist whose research involves reconciling agricultural land use with biodiversity conservation, has been awarded an honorary degree by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).

 

Kremen received the degree Doctor of Science Honoris Causa from the AMNH Richard Gilder Graduate School in “recognition of her extraordinary contributions to science, education and society.”

 

“I’m deeply honored to follow in the footsteps of scientists I greatly admire who have received the Museum’s honorary degrees—including Rita Colwell, Alison Richards, EO Wilson and Jane Lubchenco,” said Kremen.

 

“Natural history museums around the world, including the American Museum of Natural History and Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC, play an essential and increasingly critical role in helping us better understand, and work toward preserving, our planet’s biodiversity.”

 

A professor with the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and the Department of Zoology since January 2019, Kremen holds the UBC President’s Excellence Chair in Biodiversity. Her current research focuses on exploring whether diversified, agro-ecological farming systems can promote species dispersal and survival. Kremen is also part of UBC’s BeeHIVE Research Cluster, a multidisciplinary group dedicated to tackling the complex issues that affect the health of wild and managed honey bees, the Diversified Agroecosystems Research Cluster, which assesses linked social and ecological outcomes of diversified farming, and UBC’s Beaty Biodiversity Research Centre.

 

“We face great science-based challenges today, such as climate change and habitat and species loss, all exacerbated by a growing mistrust of science, evidence and expertise,” said Ellen V. Futter, President of the AMNH. “But we also live in a new golden age for science, with powerful new technologies, cross-disciplinary ways of working, and emerging fields that are yielding and will continue to yield new solutions and sustain humanity’s progress.”

 

Kremen has worked for over a decade for the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Xerces Society, designing protected area networks and conducting biodiversity research in Madagascar. She has won numerous honours—including a MacArthur Fellowship—for her contributions to ecology, agriculture and biodiversity. Prior to her current role at UBC, she held faculty appointments at Princeton University and then at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was founding faculty director for the Center for Diversified Farming Systems and the Berkeley Food Institute.

 

The American Museum of Natural History, founded in 1869, is one of the world’s preeminent scientific, educational and cultural institutions. The Museum encompasses 45 permanent exhibition halls, and is home to approximately 200 scientists. Researchers at the Museum draw on a collection of more than 34 million artifacts and specimens and on one of the largest natural history libraries in the world. The Richard Gilder Graduate School draws on the Museum’s world-renowned collections, distinguished faculty, and tradition of globe-spanning expeditions for its PhD program in comparative biology, which covers the origins, history and range of life on Earth.

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Congratulations to the September 2019 Graduates!

Congratulations to our RES & RMES September 2019 Graduates! Sending you all of our best wishes! If you wish to check out the graduate theses & dissertations, click here.

Nayadeth Arriagada (MA)

Supervisor: David Boyd

Poushali Maji (PhD)

Supervisors: Milind Kandlikar

Marco Vazquez Perez (MSc)

Supervisor: Gunilla Oberg and Daniel Steel

Sean Smillie (MSc)

Supervisor: Hadi Dowlatabadi

 

 

UBC IRES – Statement of Support for Global Climate Strike

September 20, 2019

The Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainability dedicates its teaching and research to solving critical sustainability challenges. Our research is fundamentally linked to the search for climate solutions and we are deeply committed to climate research and education. We recognize the need for a drastic shift in public policy to combat the growing threat of climate change and join other university departments and institutions in declaring a global climate emergency and call for urgent and meaningful actions to address the issue.

On September 20th and 27th millions of people worldwide will be striking from school and work to demand that actions be taken to meet the demands of this emergency. UBC students, staff and faculty are organizing an event to take place on September 27 at 11 AM at the AMS Nest.  A convoy will leave to meet with other strikers at the Vancouver City Hall at 1 PM. The Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability (IRES) supports this action and invites participating students, staff, and faculty to join the rally.

 

 

 

2019/2020 Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master’s (CGS M) Program Award Recipients

Congratulations to the 2019/2020 recipients of the Canada Graduate Scholarships Master’s (CGS M) program!

About the Canada Graduate Scholarships Master’s (CGS M) Program:

The objective of the Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master’s (CGS M) Program is to help develop research skills and assist in the training of highly qualified personnel by supporting students who demonstrate a high standard of achievement in undergraduate and early graduate studies. The CGS M Program provides financial support to high-calibre scholars who are engaged in eligible master’s or, in some cases, doctoral programs in Canada.

Ilana Judah, IRES MSc Student

SSHRC Award Recipient

Research Summary:

Ilana’s research involves the development of an integrated building adaptation and mitigation assessment (IBAMA) framework to help policy-makers and industry professionals identify solutions that simultaneously address climate change adaptation and mitigation for urban multifamily buildings and their neighborhoods. IBAMA’s development draws from a wide range of existing literature, adaptation and mitigation policies and guidelines, and input from key adaptation and mitigation subject-matter experts. The framework is being created for BC Housing to incorporate into their building standards with the aspiration that it will influence future building practices in British Columbia and beyond. The research is being funded by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions.

Bio:

Ilana Judah is an MSc Student at IRES supervised by Dr. Stephanie Chang. An architect for over 20 years, she was most recently the Director of Sustainability at FXCollaborative, an architecture firm in New York City known for their pioneering work on sustainable high-rises. Ilana has served on several task forces to address both climate mitigation and adaptation in buildings. A Certified Passive House Designer, she was the co-author of a research study on the feasibility of implementing the Passive House standard on tall residential buildings in New York. A native of Montreal, Ilana received her Bachelor of Architecture from McGill University.

Cameron Bullen, IRES MSc Student

 

NSERC Award Recipient

Research Summary:

The human-caused extinction of countless species has fundamentally altered ecosystems and geological processes worldwide. In the North Pacific, the extinction of the Steller’s sea cow – a giant herbivorous relative of the dugong – is one such extinction that may have had significant implications for ecosystem function. While it has been suggested that the Steller’s sea cow was a keystone species that likely played a critical role in the North Pacific, the consequences of it’s extinction remains poorly understood. The objective of Cameron’s masters research is to use ecosystem models to understand the role Steller’s sea cows played in kelp forests and assess how their extinction may have altered ecosystem dynamics and function. This research project hopes to expand our understanding of kelp forest dynamics and how they have been changed by millennia of human influence, with potential implications for fisheries and ecosystem management in BC.

Bio:

Cameron joined IRES in 2018 as a MSc student supervised by Dr. Kai Chan. Cameron is broadly interested in marine conservation, marine ecology, and changing ecosystem dynamics in the context of ecosystem function and contribution to people. Before beginning at IRES, Cameron worked on Marine Protected Areas in Canada with CPAWS-BC, conducted research on plankton adaptation to changing environments with Dr. Michelle Tseng, and worked as an environmental biologist with Azimuth Consulting Group. Cameron grew up in Vancouver and enjoys spending as much time outside as possible: running, climbing, and paddling

Bronwyn McIlroy-Young, IRES MA Student

 

SSHRC Award Recipient

Research Summary:

Bronwyn’s Master’s thesis looks at science for policy around messy issues in toxicology, specifically endocrine disrupting chemicals. The global scientific community is deeply divided over how to assess the risk posed by endocrine disruptors. This scientific controversy is impeding the development of regulatory frameworks for endocrine disruptors. Bronwyn’s work aims to better characterizing the debate within the scientific community through unpacking divergent values held by scientists on each side of the controversy.

Bio:

Bronwyn joined the Institute for Resources Environment and Sustainability in Fall 2018 to begin her MA under the supervision of Dr. Gunilla Öberg. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo in an interdisciplinary program called Knowledge Integration, where her honours thesis explored Canadian weathercasters’ role in communicating local climate impacts. Bronwyn’s research interests include science-communication, risk perception, and knowledge in the science-policy interface. Her current work explores science controversy in toxicology.

Narayan Gopinathan, IRES MA Student

SSHRC Award Recipient
Research Summary:

Narayan Gopinathan is currently pursuing his masters’ degree in UBC-IRES with Dr. Milind Kandlikar, and is comparing the greenhouse gas footprint of conventional and electric vehicles in India, under different scenarios for the power grid’s evolution, for his thesis. He spent the summer doing research at the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water in New Delhi through a MITACS Globalink fellowship, collecting data for this project.

Bio:

Narayan received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley in environmental economics and policy in 2016. In addition to being a student at IRES, he is also a student fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policy at Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, and has published peer-reviewed literature on the political economy of mid-century strategies for deep decarbonization.

Congratulations Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS) Award Winner Stephen Chignell

 

Congratulations to IRES PhD student, Stephen Chignell, for recieving the 2019 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS) award.

Q&A with 2019 Vanier Scholar Stephen Chignell:

Can you tell us about your thesis?

I am working at the intersection of hydrology, human geography, and geospatial science. My thesis builds off of my master’s research in Ethiopia, where I am working to understand the recursive relationships among societal change, land use change, and watershed processes.

How do you feel about winning the Vanier Scholarship award? What does it mean to you to win this award?

I’m thrilled to have received this award! The explicit interdisciplinary mission of IRES was a major reason I wanted to come to UBC for my doctoral research. However, working at the intersection of multiple fields can sometimes feel precarious as a student who is still working out a research identity. Receiving the Vanier Scholarship is a huge vote of confidence and provides the financial security to explore new approaches that integrate the natural and social sciences. I am convinced this kind of work is necessary for addressing complex sustainability challenges, and am incredibly grateful for the support to do it.

What is your research topic?

I am studying how overlapping legacies of science, development, and conservation are influencing current research and watershed management in the Ethiopian highlands. These mountains are home to millions of people and the headwaters of many of Africa’s major rivers, and I hope to contribute new insights for their sustainable and equitable management in the face of increasing environmental change.

What is something important you’d like to share about your research?’

The knowledge and concerns of local people are often left out in the design and implementation of environmental research–even when such work is designed to be “participatory”.  I am convinced that issues of power, history, and culture influence what questions are asked, what knowledge is produced, and how such knowledge is subsequently used. Close attention to these issues–in conjunction with deep knowledge of physical processes–is necessary for research that is both scientifically rigorous and ethically sound. I am committed to this type of transdisciplinarity, and hope my work contributes towards a larger shift in human-environment research, from participation to genuine collaboration.

 

Congratulations Stephen!

November 28, 2019: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Navin Ramankutty and Terre Satterfield

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

Location: AERL Theatre (room 120), 2202 Main Mall

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*** Note: This seminar will not be recorded***

A broader view of academic integrity: doing the right thing for the right reasons

We often face many challenging situations in academia (e.g., co-authorship decisions, appropriate credit for work done) where the solutions of integrity are not obvious and for which we have little training. This workshop will provide you the opportunity to work through and discuss several such scenarios.

Standard discussions of academic integrity surround issues of plagiarism, falsifying results, etc. However, as academics, we often find ourselves in numerous challenging situations for which we have little training to navigate, and where ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are not clear or are interpreted differently by different people. There are also scant open discussions of such issues. In this workshop, we will give you several typical scenarios that we have encountered or have heard about. You will discuss them in smaller groups, after which we will invite comments from everyone on how to best navigate them.

Navin Ramankutty

Professor, IRES
Professor, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs
Canada Research Chair (t1, Food Security)

Bio:

Navin Ramankutty is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Change and Food Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. His research uses global data and models to explore solutions for sustainably feeding humanity.

 

Terre Satterfield

Professor of Culture, Risk and the Environment, IRES

Bio:

An anthropologist by training and an interdisciplinarian by design, Terre’s work concerns sustainable development in the context of debates about cultural meanings, environmental values, perceived risk, environmental and ecosystem health. Difficult environmental policy dilemmas and the qualitative and quantitative methods that might resolve these are of particular interest. Locally, her work pertains to First Nations interest in land management, oil and gas development, and regulatory contexts. Globally, her research incorporates biodiversity management and politics, and the perceived risk of new technologies (biotechnology, fracking and nanotechnology). Terre is also a board member or research scientist for several international initiatives that seek to better integrate social science research into policy analysis normally led by the natural and engineering scientists.

Website: https://ires.ubc.ca/person/terre-satterfield/
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=1nrd2msAAAAJ&hl=en

November 21, 2019: IRES Faculty Seminar with Wendy Jepson

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

Location: AERL Theatre (room 120), 2202 Main Mall

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*** VIEW SEMINAR RECORDING***

Household Water Insecurity Research: Advancing SDG 6 and the Global Water Agenda

In this talk, I discuss an emerging framework of research on household water insecurity – identifying the advances and opportunities this interdisciplinary approach offers for supporting SDG6 and the global water agenda. I expand these ideas through empirical cases taken from ongoing projects on household water insecurity in Brazil’s semi-arid Northeast region, where I have been working since 2015.  I conclude with some reflections on frontiers, challenges, and opportunities – returning (but probably not resolving) the tensions at this intersection of critical work, social scientific inquiry, and the operating space of science-policy dialogues supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Wendy Jepson

Professor, Texas A&M University

Bio:

Dr. Wendy Jepson holds a University Professorship in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University where she has been on faculty since receiving her Ph.D. in Geography from UCLA in 2003. Since 2016, Dr. Jepson has been a Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza (Brazil). Her research addresses contemporary debates in political ecology, human-environment interactions, and water security and governance. Dr. Jepson leads several research projects and institutional initiatives on water security.  Dr. Jepson was a recent Fulbright Scholar (2016-2017) and AAAS Leshner Fellow for Public Engagement (2018-2019).  She also is a recipient of several National Science Foundation grants that focus on water security – examining different aspects of water insecurity in south Texas colonias and urban Brazil.  Dr. Jepson leads the NSF-funded Household Water Insecurity Experiences – Research Coordination Network (HWISE-RCN), an international community of scholars and practitioners dedicated to advance research and work in the interdisciplinary field of water insecurity.  Dr. Jepson also is the principal investigator for a $1.5M Texas A&M University Presidential Excellence Grant, “Pathways to Sustainable Urban Water Security: Desalination and Water Reuse.” She has generated over $3 million in grants and awards as lead PI from NSF, private sources, and internal awards to support her research agenda.

Website: https://geography.tamu.edu/people/profiles/faculty/jepsonwendy.html

November 14, 2019: IRES Faculty Seminar with Paige West

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

Location: AERL Theatre (room 120), 2202 Main Mall

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*** Note: This seminar will not be recorded***

A prayer for the world: climate change, engaged scholarship, and the social sciences

Abstract:

Each new day, it seems, we wake to a barrage of terrible global news and horrifying images. This is particularly true with regard to climate news. It is enough to paralyze even the most empathetic and concerned citizens. In this lecture, drawing on her twenty three years of research in Papua New Guinea,  anthropologist Paige West asks us to consider what each of us can do as students, scholars, writers, and thinkers to understand the historical processes that set the conditions of possibility for our present world, to document or to witness the transformations of the present, and to use our scholars skills to work towards transforming the future.

 

Paige West

Professor, Barnard College and Columbia University 

Bio:

Paige West is The Claire Tow Professor of Anthropology at Barnard College and Columbia University where she holds an endowed chair and the director of the Center for the Study of Social Difference at Columbia University. Her broad scholarly interest is the relationship between societies and their environments. Since the mid 1990s she has worked with indigenous people in Papua New Guinea. She is the author of three books and the editor of five more. Dr. West has written about environmental conservation and international development, the aesthetics and poetics of human social relations with nature, and the creation of commodities and practices of consumption. She is currently writing about climate change.

Website: https://paige-west.com/

November 12, 2019: IRES Faculty Seminar with Matthew Schnurr

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

Location: AERL Room 107, 2202 Main Mall

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*** VIEW SEMINAR RECORDING***

Africa’s Gene Revolution: Genetically Modified Crops and the Future of African Agriculture

Africa has emerged as the final frontier in the global debate over the potential for Genetically Modified (GM) crops to enhance agricultural productivity and alleviate poverty and hunger. Proponents argue that GM crops represent one of the most promising means of improving yields and livelihoods across the continent, and have invested just under half a billion dollars in these new technological possibilities under the banner of Africa’s Green Revolution.  Opponents voice concerns over intellectual property, adverse health and environmental impacts, and the increasing control of multi-national corporations over the continent’s food supply.  Both sides have worked hard to frame the terms of this polarized debate, the result being they often speak past one another, rarely engaging in meaningful dialogue.

This presentation seeks to seeks to bridge this gap by assessing the ecological, social and political factors that are shaping Africa’s ‘Gene’ Revolution and evaluating its potential to achieve its lofty goals.  It summarizes an analysis of whether Genetically Modified crops constitute an appropriate technology given existing agricultural systems, and evaluates the implications of these findings for scholars, policy makers and farmers.

Matthew Schnurr

Associate Professor, Dalhousie University

Bio:

Matthew Schnurr is Associate Professor in the Department of International Development Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He received his PhD from the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia in 2008. His research interests lie primarily in agricultural development, environmental justice and farmer decision-making. His new book entitled Africa’s Gene Revolution: Genetically Modified Crops and the Future of African Agriculture will be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2019.

Dr. Schnurr will also be giving a talk on November 12 from 5-6:30 pm at UBC Green College titled “Bio-Hegemony vs. Bio-Justice: Social Movements and the Fight Against Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa.” More details here.

This is a joint seminar with UBC Green College.

 

November 7, 2019: IRES Student Seminar with David Righter and Livia Mello

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

Location: AERL Theatre (room 120), 2202 Main Mall

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*** CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING OF DAVID’S PRESENTATION (LIVIA’S PRESENTATION IS UNAVAILABLE)***

From groundwork to implementation: a longitudinal study of coastal adaptation planning in Nova Scotia, Canada

David will present initial findings from his analysis of coastal adaptation planning in Nova Scotia and discuss next steps for his research. What have communities accomplished so far, and what will they do next?

Coastal communities in Nova Scotia are at risk of impacts resulting from the anticipated outcomes of climate change in the region, including sea level rise and the increased frequency and intensity of storms. This study will examine the implementation of coastal adaptation actions across the province, using the Municipal Climate Change Action Plans (MCCAPs) from 53 coastal municipalities as a basis for investigation. Two overarching research questions are asked: 1) what types of coastal adaptation actions were proposed in the MCCAPs and which actions have been implemented since; and 2) what are some of the common local factors that have influenced the success of implementation? This study will evaluate the state of adaptation in Nova Scotia and offer insights for future policy development.

David Righter

IRES MSc Program

Bio:

David joined IRES in September 2018 as a MSc student under the supervision of Dr. Stephanie Chang. His research focuses on climate change adaptation and natural disaster resilience in coastal communities of BC and Nova Scotia. As a Research Assistant with the Resilient-C Project, David contributes to an online platform that connects communities in their efforts to reduce risk. He hopes to demonstrate that a growing network of communities sharing knowledge and experiences will not only benefit the individual contributors, but help to build resilience across entire regions.