Zia Mehrabi (IRES Postdoc) has correspondence published in Nature!

Zia Mehrabi (IRES Postdoc) has correspondence published in Nature!

Zia Mehrabi, an IRES Postdoc has a correspondence published in Nature!

To view the correspondence click here:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-02566-1

 

Zia Mehrabi

Bio

Zia Mehrabi is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at IRES, with adjunct positions in The Liu institute for Global Studies & The Centre for Sustainable Food Systems. He obtained an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford in 2011, and a DPhil in Food Security, also from Oxford, in 2016. He has worked in industry on large scale farmland expansion in sub-Saharan Africa, in a non-profit setting on developing environmentally conscious decision support tools for land managers, and with small scale farmers on the interactive effects of agricultural intensification and climate change on crop yields.

His work at UBC is focused on 3 core research areas:

(1) Technological tools for farmer evidence based decision making
(2) The impact of climate disasters on global agricultural productivity
(3) Novel solutions for monitoring the environmental and social impacts of farming activities

Congratulations to Dean of Science Excellence in Service Award recipient Gillian Harris (IRES Manager)!

Congratulations to Gillian Harris for winning the Dean of Science, Excellence in Service Award! Gillian is a truly integral and irreplaceable member of the IRES community, and so deserving of this recognition.

The award is for recognizing staff, students and faculty whose service contributions have had a significant positive impact in achieving UBC Science’s mission. Find out more here:

https://science.ubc.ca/faculty/awards/service

 

Two new IRES Faculty Associates: Nadja Kunz and Sumeet Gulati!

IRES would like to welcome Nadja Kunz and Sumeet Gulati as new IRES Faculty Associate members!

 

Nadja Kunz

Assistant Professor, Liu Institute for Global Issues and Norman B. Keevil Mining Engineering

https://liu.arts.ubc.ca/profile/nadja-kunz/

Nadja Kunz is an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and Norman B Keevil Mining Engineering at the University of British Columbia Vancouver campus. She obtained her PhD from the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) at The University of Queensland, Australia where she remains an Adjunct Fellow. She also spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Eawag Aquatic Research Institute in Switzerland. Nadja has a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (First Class Honours) and a Bachelor of Business Management (Dean’s Honour Roll), both from the University of Queensland.

Nadja is driven by a passion for transitioning the private sector towards more sustainable water management practices. Her current research focuses on the mining and extractives sector at two geographical scales of analysis: (1) within the mine lease, and (2) within mining regions. At the mine site level, Nadja develops novel engineering models to improve quantification of water risk, and investigates organizational constraints to implementing optimal system-level solutions. At the regional level, Nadja studies the evolving role of the mining sector in water stewardship and governance. She is especially interested in how mining can best contribute towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG6 which focuses on the provision of water and sanitation.

In addition to her academic credentials, Nadja maintains close links to practice. She currently consults as a Water Specialist for the International Finance Corporation where she has provided technical expertise to a Voluntary Code of Practice on Water Management for the South Gobi Region in Mongolia, as well as other projects globally. Nadja is also a member of the academic directorate for the Canadian International Resources and Development Institute (CIRDI). Previously, Nadja gained extensive operational experience in the mining, oil and gas sector within Australia, including at the Northparkes copper/gold mine, Yarwun Alumina Refinery and BP’s Bulwer Island refinery. She has also worked in corporate sustainability reporting for Rio Tinto and consulted for Anglo Gold Ashanti in South Africa.

 

 

Sumeet Gulati

Associate Professor, Faculty of Land and Food Systems.

Home Page

I am an Associate Professor in Environmental and Resource Economics at the University of British Columbia, studying the economics of urban transportation. Alongwith my co-authors I ask: at their modest values, do carbon taxes reduce gasoline consumption? Do they encourage people to buy fuel efficient vehicles? Do older consumers, especially women, perform better or worse while negotiating a price for a new car? What are the economics of car sharing—like Car2Go, and Evo? And what explains the autonomous emergence of electric rickshaws in India?

Years ago, before I discovered the world of urban mobility, I also studied the impact of international trade on the environment, and the cost-effectiveness of programs designed to improve energy–efficiency (for example, rebates to energy efficient appliances and hybrid vehicles).

Outstanding Student Paper Award Winner at the AGU-Michael Lathuillière (IRES PhD Candidate)

The winners of the Outstanding Student Paper Awards for the AGU (Advancing Earth and Space Science) Fall Meeting 2017 have been announced, and Michael Lathuillière

(IRES PhD Candidate) was one of the recipients! His presentation was on the:

Evapotranspiration measurements in rainfed and irrigated cropland illustrate trade-offs in land and water management in Southern Amazonia’s agricultural frontier

Congratulation Michael!

Click on link for more information:

https://membership.agu.org/ospawinner/michael-lathuilliere/

Michael Lathuillière

Bio: I am a Ph.D candidate in Dr. Mark Johsnon’s Ecohydro Lab working on the development and application of Water Footprint methods for agricultural products.

My research focuses on Water Footprint assessments within the context of agricultural expansion in Southern Amazonia. This work involves: (1) high frequency field measurements of crop water use using eddy covariance, (2) parameterization and validation of crop models for the region’s tropical conditions, and (3) translation of agricultural water use into environmental impacts on the water cycle.

My work contributes to the project “Integrating land use planning and water governance in Amazonia: towards improving freshwater security in the agricultural frontier of Mato Grosso” supported by the Belmont Forum in collaboration with the Tropical Agriculture Department of the Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso (UFMT, Cuiabá, Brazil), UBC’ s Faculty of Land and Food Systems, Woods Hole Research Centre, and the Université du Québec à Montréal’ s Department of Strategy, Social and Environmental Responsibility.

I hold an M.Sc. (Resource Management and Environmental Studies, 2011) and a B.Sc. (Chemistry, 2002) from the University of British Columbia. I am also actively involved in the Water Footprint community through the Water Footprint Research Alliance, ongoing participation in the Water Use in Life Cycle Assessment (WULCA) Ecosystems and Resources Working Groups, and FAO’s Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) Partnership.

Visit my website

Publications in Google Scholar

http://blogs.ubc.ca/mjlath/

 

 

Emma Luker, MSc – Sustainability and Engagement Planner, UBC Campus + Community Planning

This interview features Emma Luker, a 2017 RMES MSc graduate and current Sustainability and Engagement Planner! At the time of this interview (pre-2020), Emma was working as a Planning Analyst in UBC’s Campus + Community Planning Department, with a dual role in the Public Engagement and Sustainability + Engineering units.

What is your current position?

I am currently a Planning Analyst in UBC’s Campus + Community Planning Department, with a dual role in the Public Engagement and Sustainability + Engineering units.

What kinds of responsibilities do you have in your current position, and what kinds of challenges do you face?

My role with C+CP is unique because I have a variety of different responsibilities that I look at from two very different lenses. With Public Engagement I am responsible for planning and developing content for the range of public consultations surrounding UBC’s many, many projects, which I view from a community engagement lens. My other main responsibility is to assist in the ideation and development of emerging policy and plans for the University, such as the Urban Forest Management Plan, through my role with Sustainability + Engineering. I view these responsibilities through a more natural resource management lens, applied at the UBC planning level. The main challenge I face is to juggle these different perspectives when keeping UBC stakeholders informed and ensuring their voices are heard, while also helping to incite sustainable change within the university.

What do you like most about your current job?

I honestly love the pace and the diversity of people I get to work with. I am still relatively new to my position, and so I am still learning who to go to with what question, but being able to find out about the amazing work that goes on behind the scenes at UBC is pretty fantastic.

In what ways did your experience in IRES help prepare you for what you do now?

I think the best way that IRES prepared me for my job was through encouraging me to think critically and to be solution-oriented when looking at problems. So often it can be easy to point out flaws in a plan, which is essential, but to not couple that process with developing a solution is very frustrating. My time with IRES showed me the value of a good argument can be in the solutions it presents, instead of the obstacles.

Why did you choose the RMES program (and UBC)?  What was your previous educational background, and how did this influence your choice?

I completed my B.A&Sc at McGill University in Environment and International Development, and was super jazzed about doing a graduate degree that involved international fieldwork that would have an impact on long-term strategies for adapting to climate change effects. At the time I had no idea how broad and idealistic this plan was: What strategies? For whom? What kind of effects? The list of questions goes on and on. I chose IRES because my two potential co-supervisors gave me a structure to work with and provided me with the tools and questions to settle my vision and narrow my scope, which at the time was an incredibly hard thing for me to figure out, but was what I knew I needed.

What was the most enjoyable and/or impactful part of your experience in IRES?

The colleagues that I had the pleasure of working with at IRES made all of the difference. The sense of community and support that came out of my two lab groups made my degree and thesis so much easier to navigate, and I always felt like I had peers who would answer my questions and provide me with very thoughtful feedback. The program management staff at IRES is also stellar, and eased all of the headaches that go along with funding applications, applying for graduation and generally trying to figure out a giant institution while you are just one confused person.

Do you have any advice for current RMES/RES students?

For current students looking for work: the program that helped me the most when looking for work after my degree was the UBC Sustainability and Greenest Scholar program. I was accepted as a Scholar in the summer of 2017 when I was writing and defending my thesis and it was an amazing opportunity to make local connections, do cool research, and get exposed to what it is like working in the public sect if that is something that you are interested in. For current students trying to make the most of your degree: I would recommend reaching out to upper year PhD students and asking for advice on whatever it it is that you are struggling with because they have definitely experienced the same thing at some point. Also join the Student Society! Its a great time and you get the chance to collaborate with new and lovely people who work really hard to make the student experience better for everyone.

Any links to current work you would like to share?

Get involved in the upcoming U Boulevard consultation process! Find out more here: planning.ubc.ca/uboulevard

For more info on Emma’s work and what she’s up to, check out her LinkedIn profile and her master’s thesis.

IRES Faculty Leila Harris and previous IRES Postdoc Crystal Tremblay published a new article

February 21 2018

Faculty member Leila Harris and previous IRES Postdoc Crystal Tremblay published a new article.

Click on the link to read the full article: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1WaOP3pILM2z4

This URL has a 50 day free access to the article. Until April 8 2018 this link will be taken directly to the final version of the article on ScienceDirect.

 

Tremblay, C. and L. Harris (2018). “Critical video engagements: Empathy, subjectivity and changing narratives of water resources through participatory video.” Geoforum 90: 174–182.

 

As co-author of the article Critical video engagements: empathy, subjectivity and changing narratives of water resources through participatory video, we are pleased to let you know that the final version – containing full bibliographic details – is now available online.

To help you and the other authors access and share this work, we have created a Share Link – a personalized URL providing 50 days’ free access to the article. Anyone clicking on this link before April 08, 2018 will be taken directly to the final version of your article on ScienceDirect. No sign up, registration or fees are required – they can simply click and read.
Your personalized Share Link:
https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1WaOP3pILM2z4

 

This article engages a critical feminist analysis of a community-based participatory video (PV) process focused on water and sanitation issues in underserved settlements of Accra, Ghana and Cape Town, South Africa. With focus on emotions and empathy, we highlight these concepts in relation to participant narratives and shifting subjectivities. In so doing, we consider how arts based engagement (in this case, through participatory video), might serve to foster new ways of relating to water resources and water infrastructures. The analysis highlights how the participants themselves reflect on PV as a vehicle for personal transformation, knowledge co-creation and a shifting sense of their own ‘watered’ subjectivity. We find that the PV process helps to uncover and identify knowledge and process gaps on by enabling individuals and communities—often unheard—to participate in civic and political debates around resource governance. While many positive elements were emphasized, we also suggest that there is a need for critical engagements that also address challenges associated with these methods, including limitations with respect to fostering fundamental long-term change in communities. In the conclusion, we broaden beyond our individual case studies to consider implications for community engagement and citizenship practices in the realm of natural resource governance.

 

Leila Harris

Associate Professor, IRES

Associate Professor, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice

Bio

Leila Harris is an Associate Professor at IRES Institute on Resources Environment and Sustainability and in the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. She also serves as Co-Director for UBC’s Program on Water Governance (www.watergovernance.ca), is a member of the EDGES research collaborative (Environment and Development: Gender, Equity, and Sustainability Perspectives, www.edges.ubc.ca), and is an Associate of the Department of Geography, and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC. Dr. Harris’s work examines social, cultural, political-economic, institutional and equity dimensions of environmental and resource issues. Her current research focuses on the intersection of environmental issues and inequality / social difference, water governance shifts (e.g. marketization, participatory governance), in addition to a range of water governance challenges important for the Canadian context (e.g. First Nations water governance). Current projects include a SSHRC funded project on everyday access and governance of water in underserved areas of Cape Town, South Africa and Accra, Ghana. Dr. Harris is also principal investigator for the SSHRC funded International WaTERS Research and Training Network focused on water governance, equity and resilience in the global South (www.international-waters.org).

For more on Leila: https://ires.ubc.ca/person/leila-harris/ 

Krista English (RES PhD Candidate) co-author of a chapter in the new Handbook of Research Methods in Complexity Science

Krista English (RES PhD Candidate) is a co-author of a chapter in the new minted Handbook of Research Methods in Complexity Science!

Click the link below to view the book.

“This comprehensive Handbook is aimed at both academic researchers and practitioners in the field of complexity science. The book’s 26 chapters, specially written by leading experts, provide in-depth coverage of research methods based on the sciences of complexity. The research methods presented are illustratively applied to practical cases and are readily accessible to researchers and decision makers alike.”

 

Krista English, MBA

PhD Candidate

I am a PhD Candidate with an interest in topics at the intersection of complex systems, health systems, knowledge translation (KT) and evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM), and their general relationship with organizational complexity and public health policy design.

 

My research generally falls under the interdisciplinary umbrella of complexity sciences. This has included examining transmission dynamics on social networks. Infectious diseases and knowledge translation alike are contagious phenomena, whose transmission pathways can be mapped using networks. Understanding the properties that facilitate or inhibit their spread have proven instrumental for EIDM in the areas of infectious diseases, global health, and health policy and systems research. This novel application enhances our understanding of the new metrics available which may facilitate knowledge flow for EIDM, improving organizational capacity in support of quality improvement, client care and systems transformation. Drs Babak Pourbohloul and Hadi Dowlatabadi co-supervise my work.

 

I have an MBA which focused on health care management and organizational behaviour, and more than a decade of experience in population and public health research and management. In addition, I served a 4-year-term as a Co-Director of a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre. I am currently a Senior Scientific Researcher and a Co-Investigator on a Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) multi-year operating grant.

 

Sameer Shah and Scott McKenzie (RES PhD Candidates) published an article in Macleans

An article by two of our RES PhD candidates has been republished in Maclean’s:

What Colin Kaepernick can teach us about citizenship

Opinion: Kaepernick’s protest, about what and who makes a team and a nation, can also be connected to environmental justice

You can read the article here:

http://www.macleans.ca/society/what-colin-kaepernick-can-teach-us-about-citizenship/?t=1&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjc18y&refsrc=email&iid=9e7e6933bc9044b28ee6768c4bc9aba2&uid=331810806&nid=244+272699400

 

 

 

Sameer Shah

Sameer Shah is a PhD candidate in Resource Management & Environmental Studies under the supervision of Professor Leila Harris. He examines the social, political, and natural dimensions of water governance and its impacts on marginalized agricultural communities in India. He is deeply interested in promoting efforts designed to strengthen community adaptation and rural livelihoods in response to shifts in water access. Through his work, he is involved with the Program on Water Governance and with the EDGES Research Group. In 2012, he graduated with a Bachelor of Environmental Studies (Honours Co-operative) from the University of Waterloo and earlier this year he completed his Master of Science degree at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability.

Sameer is also actively involved in water policy planning at UBC, in British Columbia, and across Canada. At UBC, he is currently a lead organizer of Water Ways: Understanding the Past, Navigating the Future, a major interdisciplinary workshop celebrating UBC’s 100th anniversary and bringing together leading water experts to advance a global water research agenda for the coming century. He also holds an 18-month appointment as the Pacific Regional Representative for the Canadian Water Network’s Student and Young Professional Committee of emerging water leaders. In 2014, he was selected as one of about 50 applicants from across Canada to participate in the Waterlution Transformative Leaders of the Future Program. As part of this program, he co-facilitated the first Canada-wide exercise in participatory water policy planning with the aim to inject the public’s creative visions into future water policy. Having travelled to over 20 countries and lived in multiple, Sameer is passionate about nature, cooking, photography, and hiking.

 

 

 

Scott McKenzie

Scott is a PhD candidate in Resource Management and Environmental Studies working under the supervision of Dr. Leila Harris. Before UBC, Scott completed a Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Studies, Philosophy, and American Studies at the University of Kansas and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa. Scott’s research and writing focuses how contending notions of scale and regulation affect water policy (within the water-energy-food nexus). His work considers the relationship between the natural environment, human development, and law. He has also worked as a development agent for the United States Peace Corps in Morocco, in the Cairo office of the Near East Foundation, as a private practice lawyer in New Orleans, and at the International Water Resources Association in Montpellier France.

At UBC Scott is a member of the EDGES research collaborative and the Program on Water Governance. Scott’s research will be involved with Experience of Shifting Water Governance: Comparative Study of Water Access, Narrative and Citizenship in Accra, Ghana and Cape Town, South Africa. This collaborative comparative research project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and will focus on differing relationship between citizens in under served areas in Ghana and South Africa, their provision of water, and how they access and interact with the state to mediate this relationship.

 

 

Photo Credit: Keith Allison from flickr/ Creative Commons

 

 

New faculty member Amanda Giang starting in IRES in January 2018!

We are so pleased to announce that Amanda Giang will join us as a new faculty member in IRES starting January 2018!

Amanda Giang

https://ires.ubc.ca/person/amanda-giang/

Assistant Professor, IRES and Department of Mechanical Engineering

Bio

Amanda Giang’s research addresses challenges at the interface of environmental modelling and policy through an interdisciplinary lens, with a focus on air pollution and toxics. She is interested in understanding how environmental assessment processes can better empower communities and inform policy decision-making. How can we assess the environmental and health impacts of human activity given uncertainty and complexity in human, technological, and natural systems? How can different ways of knowing inform policy design and evaluation? How can we integrate scientific analysis and public deliberation in policy decision-making? Combining integrated modelling and qualitative approaches, her ongoing and past research on mercury, lead, and persistent organic pollutants has explored these questions in the context of North American and global policy.  Future areas of interest include the impacts of technology and policy on pollutant fate and transport, citizen science and community based monitoring for air toxics, and policy implications of climate and air pollution interactions. Amanda holds a PhD and MS in Technology and Policy from MIT, and a BASc in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto.

Website: www.agiang.com

New IRES Adjuct Professor – Rustam Sengupta

We are please to welcome Rustam Sengupta as a new IRES Adjunct Professor!

 

BIO:

Rustam Sengupta is a renewable energy entrepreneur, impact investor and subject matter expert with extensive research experience of over a decade in sustainable social enterprise design, rooftop solar and renewable energy access. He has an expertise in identifying, designing and analysing strategies that affect energy systems and policies with a geographical focus on South Asia. He is the author of the book ‘De-Mystifying Impact Investing an Entrepreneurs’ Guide, which provides strategic, advises and recommendations on impact investment and has served as a guide for several emerging entrepreneurs and investors.

Rustam is also the founder and Chairman of Boond (www.boond.net), an energy access enterprise that creates rural entrepreneurs and distribution channels for development products like solar rooftops and solar micro grids in remote parts of India. He was selected as one of the top 36 entrepreneurs who accompanied the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi as a part of his Start up India delegation to the US in 2015. In addition to his role in impact investment advisory and deal structuring to start-ups, he has had wide experience in private banking and strategic consulting and has worked in agencies like Standard Chartered (in Singapore), Syngenta (in Switzerland) and Deloitte Consulting (in the US). He is the board member and investor of Emsys Electronics (P) Ltd (a company that designs and manufactures high quality electronic products), Mynergy Solar (P) Ltd., (a company that specializes in leasing and asset management company for solar rooftop projects) and WithIndia (P) Ltd (a company that manufacturers environmentally friendly, insect and fire proof panels and tiles. Rustam also holds the position of Associate Director at the John Hopkin’s University Institute of Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP) where is charged with finding and implementing projects related to market-led solutions to sustainable energy policy. He is also the lead founding partner of Boond Energy Expert Group (BEEG) that works with governments, policy makers and bilateral institutions on energy storage, smart grids, distributed rooftop solar and electric transportation.