Laura studied political science and international development studies at McGill University. After graduating, Laura joined BC's Climate Action Secretariat at its inception as a Research Analyst, and then worked as the Lead for Youth Climate Initiatives at the Secretariat. Laura is now working on her M.A. at the University of British Columbia with the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and the Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning. Her thesis project is a longitudinal, qualitative evaluation of the Local Climate Change Visioning Project, funded by SSHRC and a PICS fellowship. Her previous work includes research for the International Labour Organization and the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law in Montreal. Laura has been learning and working on climate change since she spent 4 months in Kenya and Tanzania with the Canadian Field Studies in Africa program and saw some of the impacts of climate change first-hand. Laura is also a Trained Presenter with The Climate Project-Canada and a Youth Committee Member with the Fraser Basin Council.

Susanna Haas Lyons is a public engagement specialist who develops strategy and provides training for better conversations between the public and decision makers. Bridging online and face-to-face methods, Susanna has worked on some of North America’s largest and most complex citizen engagement projects. She is a senior network associate with AmericaSpeaks, a global leader in large-scale public participation on the policy issues that matter most to the public. Previously, Susanna was project coordinator with the internally recognized British Columbia Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform, which was shortisted for the prestigious Mohn Prize. Susanna is currently researching collaborative policy development, with a focus in digital engagement practices, at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for Resources, the Environment and Sustainability. She is an advisor to the Alberta Climate Dialogue project, board member of the Canadian Community for Dialogue and Deliberation, and Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) fellow.

Thesis title: 'Internal colonialism in the Canadian North: Colonial relations, closure dynamics, and cumulative impacts at Nanisivik - Canada's first High Arctic mine' (preliminary title)

Co-supervisors: Associate Professor Frank Tester, School of Social Work, UBC, and Professor Terre Satterfield, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, UBC

Research interests: Resource extraction and its effects on Indigenous communities, Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations, political development and Inuit self-determination in Nunavut, social/environmental justice and concerns in colonial contexts.

Project affiliation: 'Adaptation, industrial development and Arctic communities' (ArcticNet)

Background: Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in Marketing Management (2006) and Bachelor of Arts in PhPE: Philosophy, Political Science and Economics (2007), University of Otago, New Zealand. Climate and energy policy in Australia.

Contact: teewern(dot)lim(at)gmail(dot)com

I am an MA student working with Dr. Leila Harris. My research takes place in a context of private sector involvement in water supply in Accra, Ghana. More specifically, I look at underserved communities’ engagement, participation and negotiation around water access; as well as implications for questions of citizenship and democracy. For this research I conducted fieldwork in Accra in the summer of 2011 and was recently awarded a SSHRC-GSC Scholarship.

I completed a Bachelor of Art with a double major in Environmental Studies and International Studies from York University in 2009, as well as a Certificate in Communication and Media Studies from Université du Québec à Montréal in 2010.

Supervisor: Leila Harris

Contact: cynthia.morinville [at] gmail [dot] com

Megan is a Masters student coming from Ottawa, Ontario. The focus of her thesis research is on community water access and governance in urban informal settlements in the Accra Metropolitan Area (AMA) of Ghana, where she plans to conduct fieldwork in the summer of 2012. Megan holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences with Honors in International Development and Globalization from the University of Ottawa.

Lyudmila (Lucy) Rodina is an incoming MA student, working with Dr. Leila Harris on water governance issues is South Africa. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Relations from the University of British Columbia (2010). Among her undergraduate academic achievements are an award for Best Model UN Delegate in 2008; the successful design and facilitation of an upper level undergraduate student-directed seminar on Power and Knowledge in International Relations, for which she was recognized as an outstanding leader by the Dean of Arts of the University of British Columbia; and a publication in an undergraduate journal: Rodina, L. (2010). Burns Bog: Power Relations in the Social Production of Nature. UBC Journal Of Political Studies, March 2010, 67-75. After graduation, Lucy became involved in a development project in Nepal. In 2010, during two volunteer trips, she worked with a local village development committee in Lahachawk, Nepal, in building an irrigation canal and shaping strategies for future water development projects. Through her involvement with this project, Lucy collaborated with both Canadian and Nepalese NGOs and researchers from whom she gained valuable research and project management experience. Lucy Rodina is currently a Steering Committee member of the International Development Research Network at UBC.

As a graduate of International Relations from the University of Calgary, Darlene has a keen interest in public policy, institutions and governance. She has previous experience working for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. and the provincial government of Quebec, where she spent time researching national-level sustainable development strategies.

Her current research interests revolve around urban food systems and municipal policy, particularly with respect to participation and inclusion in alternative food networks.

Currently: UBC IRES MSc. Student - UBC Bridge Fellow - IDRN Steering Committee Member

Background: BSc. Natural Resource Conservation, UBC (2009) - Study Exchange: Norwegian Institute of Life Sciences

Thesis Title: Carbon Credit Methodology for Cookstoves: Tradeoffs for Climate and Health?

Supervisor: Dr. Hisham Zerriffi, Liu Institute for Global Issues

Area of Interest and Research:

With a background in forest ecology, resource management and development studies, my interests lie in combining the fields of resource management and international development. I am interested in how to manage resources sustainably while simultaneously reducing poverty and promoting sustainable development.

My research focuses on the implications that carbon credit certification has on cookstove programs and consequently on climate and health benefits related to improved cookstoves in developing countries.

Contact: oliviaefreeman(at)gmail(dot)com

RMES-Msc student, Forester, working on and in love with native forests of the best country of the world, Chile!

(en español abajo / in Spanish below)

Thesis: about the impacts that policies of commodities exports have had in the conservation of native forests, in Chile and in Argentina.

My current research aims to assess the impacts of specific policies and laws of Chile and Argentina, in the conservation of native forests in specific areas in both countries, in recent decades. In addition, it seeks to define proposals for the development of new policies and improvement of the existing ones, in a new climate change scenario.

Supervisor: Dr. George Hoberg

Affiliations: Agrupación de Ingenieros Forestales por el Bosque Nativo, Chile. Currently coordinator of the International Chapter.

Research interests: policy and legislation on natural resources, governance, climate change, native (natural) forests, sustainable development.

Background: Forestry (University of Chile, 2008)

Publications:

Romero, J. Cuantificación, caracterización y análisis de la comercialización de leña en Puerto Williams, Isla Navarino, XII Región (Quantification, characterization and analysis of firewood commercialization in Puerto Williams, Navarino Island, XII Region-Chile). Thesis to obtain the Forester professional degree. Universidad de Chile, Department of Forest Sciences. 2008.

Romero, J. Cruz, G. Cuantificación, caracterización y análisis de la comercialización de leña en Puerto Williams, Isla Navarino, XII Región (Quantification, characterization and analysis of firewood commercialization in Puerto Williams, Navarino Island, XII Region-Chile). Bosque Nativo 43: 9-13.

Poster (main author): Cuantificación, caracterización y análisis de la comercialización de leña en Puerto Williams, Isla Navarino, XII región (Quantification, characterization and analysis of firewood commercialization in Puerto Williams, Navarino Island, XII Region-Chile). Preliminary results. In: Thirth Chilean Forest Sciences Congress (November 2006).

Oral presentation (main author): Cuantificación, caracterización y análisis de la comercialización de leña en Puerto Williams, Isla Navarino, XII región (Quantification, characterization and analysis of firewood commercialization in Puerto Williams, Navarino Island, XII Region-Chile). In: Fourth Chilean Forest Sciences Congress (October 2008).

Other interests: Comunicactions, comunication of science, social networks, civil society organizations, governance, education.
Contact: jromerovalpreda@gmail.com

(en español)

Tesis: sobre los impactos que las políticas de exportación de commodities han tenido en la conservación de los bosques nativos de Chile y Argentina.

Mi investigación actual pretende evaluar los impactos que políticas y leyes específicas han provocado en la conservación de los bosques nativos de zonas específicas de Chile y Argentina, en las últimas décadas. Además, se busca definir propuestas para el desarrollo de nuevas políticas y perfeccionamiento de las existentes, en el mismo contexto y frente a un nuevo escenario de cambio climático.

Supervisor: Dr. George Hoberg

Afiliaciones: Agrupación de Ingenieros Forestales por el Bosque Nativo, Chile. Actual Coordinadora del Capítulo Internacional.

Intereses de investigación: políticas y legislación en recursos naturales, gobernanza, cambio climático, bosques nativos (naturales), desarrollo sustentable.

Estudios previos: Ingeniería Forestal (Universidad de Chile, 2008)

Publicaciones:

Romero, J. Cuantificación, caracterización y análisis de la comercialización de leña en Puerto Williams, Isla Navarino, XII Región. Memoria para la obtención del Título profesional de Ingeniero Forestal. Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales.

Romero, J. Cruz, G. Cuantificación, caracterización y análisis de la comercialización de leña en Puerto Williams, Isla Navarino, XII Región. Bosque Nativo 43: 9-13.

Poster (autor principal): Cuantificación, caracterización y análisis de la comercialización de leña en Puerto Williams, Isla Navarino, XII región. Resultados preliminares. En: Tercer Congreso Chileno de Ciencias Forestales (Noviembre, 2006).

Presentación Oral (autor principal): Cuantificación, caracterización y análisis de la comercialización de leña en Puerto Williams, Isla Navarino, XII región. En: Cuarto Congreso Chileno de Ciencias Forestales (Octubre, 2008).

Otros intereses: Comunicaciones, comunicación de la ciencia, redes sociales, organizaciones de la sociedad civil, educación.

Contacto: jromerovalpreda@gmail.com

Sonja Wilson holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta, and spent over four years working in industry before beginning her Master’s degree in Resource Management and Environmental Studies at the University of British Columbia. Sonja’s field of expertise is thermo-fluid systems, with her experience in industry focused on heat exchangers, boilers, combustion, micro-combined heat and power, and fluid handling systems.

Sonja’s research interest is in biomass-based combined heat and power systems for off-grid communities, specifically biomass gasification. Sonja’s goal is to synthesize the current academic literature and manufacturer data into a form that will aid communities, investors and decision makers in determining whether biomass gasification is a viable alternative to a fossil fuel based energy system in their community; and to present the basic system configuration alternatives so that they can be evaluated on their suitability to individual community requirements and resources.

Sonja is also interested in studying the direct and indirect benefits of replacing fossil fuel-based energy systems with biomass-based systems. These benefits include environmental effects such as improved local air quality, reduced risk of soil and groundwater contamination from leaking fuel tanks, and reduced GHG emissions; and socio-economic benefits such as job creation, revenue generation and self-sufficiency.

PhD student at Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability
Liu Scholar
International Development Research Network steering committee

Supervisor: Hisham Zerriffi, Liu Institute for Global Issues

Research interests: smallholder agroforestry project design, PES project benefits for climate change mitigation and rural development, institutional sustainability decision-making

When renowned physicist Richard Feynman dreamed of writing the Encyclopedia Britannica on the head of a pin during his famous “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” lecture in 1959, he captured the imagination of scientists worldwide who have since made feats of this scale possible. This burgeoning field of research and development, coined nanotechnology, involves manipulating materials one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair to make new nanomaterials with unique and often unexpected properties.  By leveraging these exciting and unusual physical, chemical, or biological properties, new technologies can be engineered that vastly improve efficiencies in material and energy use, and revolutionize electronics, energy production, drug delivery, and medical treatment.

While nanotechnologies offer tremendous benefits for society, their unique properties and small size may also lead to negative health and environmental consequences. Christian Beaudrie’s PhD research addresses the growing gap between the rapid development of novel engineered nanomaterials and our lagging ability to assess and manage potential environment, health, and safety risks.  Using a mixed-methods approach, Christian’s research bridges disciplinary domains to investigate challenging problems in risk analysis, risk perceptions, and regulatory policy across the life-cycle of nanomaterials.  His accomplishments thus far include presentations at several academic conferences, a white paper on the Life-Cycle Regulation of Emerging Nanotechnologies for the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and co-authored papers in Nature Nanotechnology and the Journal of Nanoparticle Research.  He is currently investigating the use of expert judgment for decision-making under high uncertainty, and integrating ‘screening-level’ risk assessment into life-cycle approaches for assessing and managing health and environmental risk from emerging nanomaterials.

Christian’s academic work is complimented by his involvement in the UBC community, where he has worked with UBC Waste Management and the Campus Sustainability Office to develop undergraduate student-led studies of UBC’s waste and compost operations, and has led the development of a pilot program to expand UBC’s e-waste recycling program across campus. Outside of UBC, Christian has drawn upon his past volunteering experience with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) in Tamale, Ghana to establish and direct a not-for-profit running team to build support for capacity building and human development initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa.  In the past three years the Run To End Poverty team has grown to involve more than 500 runners in nine cities across Canada, and has raised more than $150,000 to support EWB’s initiatives in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi and Zambia.

Christian works with supervisors Terre Satterfield and Milind Kandlikar within IRES, and with the risk perceptions and risk assessment research groups at the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at the University of California Santa Barbara, and the Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology at University of California Los Angeles.

My Ph.D. dissertation is called: Steering large-scale socio-technical transitions toward sustainability: Long-term planning for transformative energy efficiency and conservation in British Columbia.

This research is interested in the question of how socio-technical networks (e.g., energy, transportation, tele-communications) can be steered toward sustainability in advanced industrialized countries. More specifically, I am looking at the current efforts by BC Hydro and the B.C. Ministry of Energy Mines and Petroleum Resources (MEMPR) to plan and implement the energy efficiency and conservation measures introduced in the B.C. government’s 2007 Energy Plan. Primary research to date has been gathered by observing BC Hydro’s multi-stakeholder advisory committee on energy efficiency and conservation and its related working groups. Literatures reviewed as part of this enquiry include: sustainability transition management, technological change, institutional change, sustainability governance, and energy efficiency and conservation. A driving motivation for this research is to recommend to policy makers and planners practical and effective governance processes for steering complex, uncertain, and politically contentious efforts to foster societal-level sustainability.

My Ph.D. is supervised by Dr. John Robinson.

Research interests: water governance, environmental geography, political ecology, scale & boundaries, transboundary environmental governance.

Dissertation title: "Why a watershed? Understanding the drivers and implications of the shift towards watershed-scale governance models"

Supervisory committee: Dr. Karen Bakker (geography), Dr. Leila Harris (IRES), and Dr. Peter Dauvergne (Liu Centre for Global Issues).

Affiliations: UBC Program on Water Governance ,  Liu Scholars Program

Email: cohena(at)interchange(dot)ubc(dot)ca

More about me here

Bio:

I am a first year PhD student, working with Dr. Mark Johnson on the economic viability of biochar to promote ecosystem services while also reducing the transport of contaminants in the environment.  In addition, communication of the science to the public is a cornerstone of this research.

Additional Links:

http://blogs.ubc.ca/biochar/

http://terreweb.landfood.ubc.ca/students/current-students/

http://ecohydro.ires.ubc.ca/davis

Thesis Title: Power and Place: Local Engagement and the Construction of Clean Energy in British Columbia, Canada

Research Areas: Science and Technology Studies, Energy Policy, Local Environmental Governance

. . . . . . . . .

Dissertation Title: Biosafety and the Regulation of Agricultural Biotechnology in India

Co-supervisors: Drs Milind Kandlikar and Terre Satterfield

Research interests: techno/science controversies, the intersection of risk perceptions and agricultural practices, sustainable farming, and biotechnology policy

Abstract: Few studies have taken up the question of how particular risk debates about new technologies unfold in 'developing world' contexts. My research addresses this gap by focusing on the risk controversy that has emerged over agricultural biotechnology, and specifically the increasing cultivation of Bt cotton in India for the past decade. Analysis of the controversy emphasizes regulatory, economic development and civil society concerns. The work raises theoretical questions as to the extent to which ‘social studies of risk’, largely developed across North American and European contexts, can aptly characterize risk controversies in the contexts of the global south. It also examines how the twin imperatives of development and democracy have expanded India’s biosafety regulation (protecting human health and the environment) in order to address the economic security of farmers and to a lesser extent citizen rights to participation and consultation. To date, changes to the regulatory regime have been realized through public interest litigation (PIL) critical of agri-biotech. I have identified three key eras of oppositional claims-making about agricultural biotechnology: the first is focused on social justice for marginal farmers, which then shifts to address agri-biotech’s potential environmental impacts, and is most recently followed by a coalescence around the human health effects it may pose to consumers. These shifts reflect a growing disjuncture between farmers and civil society activists, as well as newfound productivity for NGO campaigns focusing on biotech food crops. Finally, I call attention to the unintended effects and missing debates of the controversy, arguing that there is more to the debate than has been considered to date.  This stems from stakeholders’ incomplete and sometimes plainly incorrect anticipation of an 'imagined farmer', particularly when in comes to the risks and benefits of agri-biotech and the negotiation of its biosafety. I find that there are grounds for a further expansion of the applied concept of biosafety in order to more accurately address farmer’s priorities and concerns regarding agri-biotech as a tool among others assessed for a capacity to increase productivity alongside potential economic, environmental or bodily costs.

Contact: julya(at)interchange(dot)ubc(dot)ca

I am a PhD student working with Kai Chan to investigate how to make ecosystem models more relevant to decision makers by explicitly addressing model assumptions and uncertainty. This work is complicated by extensive family and professional commitments that come with being a mature student.

Making Public Transportation More Sustainable

Public transportation and sustainability are often viewed as synonymous.   However, operation of transit systems that employ internal combustion engines produce emissions that contribute to global climate change, regional air pollution and air pollution related health impacts.  In collaboration with a team of researchers at IRES and industry partners including Translink and GIRO Inc., Brian is working on developing a method of quantifying the health and climate impacts of these emissions and reducing their impacts by optimizing how bus fleets are operated.

Typically health and climate impacts are estimated over large geographical regions such as Metro Vancouver and the Lower Fraser Valley.  However, assessments at this scale can obscure the relationship between emissions and their impacts, often resulting in an underestimate of impacts.  Health impacts in particular are sensitive to the scale at which they are assessed.  Brian’s work has focused on modeling transit bus emissions and human exposure to these emissions at scales that enable the impacts of different bus technologies along specific bus routes to be estimated.  This makes it possible to assign buses to routes in a way that optimally reduces the health and climate impacts associated with their operation.  The results of this work are in the process of being integrated into industry-leading bus scheduling software, which will enable transit authorities to make the operation of their bus fleets more sustainable.

Supervisor & Committee: Hadi Dowlatabadi, Milind Kandlikar, Steve Rogak

http://www.linkedin.com/in/briangouge

My broad research interests include marine ecosystem services, specifically the ecological processes that provide benefits to people. As a means of informing natural resource decision-making, I am interested in participatory research involving maps that combine biophysical and social information pertaining to the ocean. I am also interested in socioeconomics, the systematic study of people’s values, experiences, and attitudes with regards to marine resource management decisions. With a focus on coastal communities, I hope that my research can contribute to finding ways for communities to maintain and restore marine biodiversity while enhancing local economies.

 

Thesis Topic: "British Columbia's 'Carbon-Neutral Government' Mandate - A Systematic Assessment of Responses and Impacts"

Supervised by: Prof. Hadi Dowlatabadi

Website: http://kylau.shawwebspace.ca/

Research Statement:
In 2007, the British Columbia Government became the first major jurisdiction in North America to commit to making government operations “carbon-neutral” by 2010. My proposed research aims to undertake a systematic assessment of the effectiveness of this policy in achieving real, sustainable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The research also aims to highlight possible unintended impacts and trade-offs arising from this policy, and recommend additional support mechanisms to assist public sector organizations in achieving the desired outcomes of the policy.

My Background:
I received my Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. After graduation, I worked in the Singapore Civil Service, during which I held senior positions in 4 ministries, formulating and implementing government policies in diverse areas including economic development, talent management and restructuring of the electricity and gas sectors. I then joined the largest electricity and gas utility group in Singapore, where I was involved in new business development and venture capital investments in alternative energy. I also spent 18 months with a non-governmental organization focusing on capacity building efforts in Asian developing countries, where I helped to initiate and develop projects and oversee volunteer management.

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Website

Supervisors:
Dr. Kai M. A. Chan (IRES) & Dr. Colin D. Levings (DFO)

Research and Related Worked Experience:
With species invasions increasing, native biodiversity and species richness are at risk. This is especially true in the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound where we have already seen invading marine algae and invertebrates changing the diversity of our coastline. I am interested in looking at the response that our local ecosystems are having to these invasive stressors through field-based analyses and theoretical models of these systems.

Research Projects:
I am working with a Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) group, the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network (CAISN), to identify species invasions in ports of British Columbia and Nova Scotia. I am studying the infauna, epifauna and mobile macroinvertebrates in seagrass beds in each of these ports to classify what has invaded and if there is a relationship between these species and abiotic/biotic variables of the port, such as water flow, nutrient load, amount of ballast water released each year, human disturbance, shipping, etc. I am also interested in how these variables effect the entire community, native and non-native.

Peer-reviewed Publications
Mach ME, CD Levings, PS McDonald, and KMA Chan. 2011. An Atlantic infaunal engineer is established in the Northeast Pacific: Clymenella troquata (polychaeta: maldanidae) on the British Columbia and Washington Coasts. Biological Invasions. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10530-011-0096-6

Mach ME and PE Bourdeau. 2011. To flee or not to flee: Risk assessment by a marine snail in multiple cue environments. JEMBE. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2011.08.018

Sisk, TD, G Singh, J Tam, KMA Chan, S Klain, M Mach, and R Martone. 2011. Barriers and Incentives to Engagement in Public Policy and Science-based Advocacy. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 92:276–280. http://www.esajournals.org/doi/full/10.1890/0012-9623-92.3.276

Mach ME, L Hice, T Duffy, DO Conover and PH Barber. 2010. Regional differentiation and post-glacial expansion of the Atlantic Silverside, Menidia menidia, an annual fish with high dispersal potential. Marine Biology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-010-1577-3

Communication and Reports
Chan KMA and Mach ME. Green invading machines reach Vancouver (Daily Newspaper, Vancouver) October 5th, 2009.

Chan KMA and Mach ME. Give seals some safeguards; Hunt continues to raise discussion whether or not it is humane (Daily Newspaper, Vancouver) April 27, 2009.

Chan KMA and Mach ME. Faculty of 1000 Biology, 3 Feb 2009. Review of: Hershner C & Havens KJ. 2008. Managing invasive aquatic plants in a changing system: Strategic consideration of ecosystem services. http://www.f1000biology.com/article/id/1147205/evaluation.

Chan KMA and Mach ME. Conundrum: Save the salmon, kill the seals? Metro (Daily Newspaper, Vancouver) July 10, 2008.

I am a 2nd year PhD student; my advisor is Prof. Hadi Dowlatabadi. My research focus is electric bicycles, ie. bicycles supplemented with an electric motor and batteries to give them an extra boost when needed.

When I first considered this topic I thought, “No, electric bikes are a hobby, not a serious research topic.”  But then I realized that e-bikes are already being sold by the tens of millions – predominantly in China but increasingly in Europe and North America. They will have substantial societal effects, for better and worse.

My hypothesis is that e-bikes have great potential to benefit mankind by providing cheap, relatively clean urban transportation, and a convenient opportunity for regular exercise and recreation. In particular, I suspect that they will appeal to the elderly, the out-of-shape, and folks who’d like to bike but don’t want to haul themselves up hills, or who simply want to arrive at their destinations quicker. In the developing world e-bikes may also be one of the cheapest form of powered mobility.

I will be assessing the overall health outcome of e-bikes, for a given context. The health benefits from exercise may be offset to a degree by health risks posed by breathing more city air and by the elevated chance of injury from collisions. There are also potential effects on the broader community from improved air quality and reduced greenhouse gas emissions due to a reduction in car use – or worsened air quality due to the generation of the electricity for charging the ebikes’ batteries. And there’s a risk of leakage of lead into the environment from the making and disposal of lead-acid batteries.

Assessing these health effects will necessitate characterizing e-bike usage: who is riding them, what are their usage patterns, and what modes of transport e-bike riders would be using if they weren’t on an e-bike. In effect, this all translates to performing an interdisciplinary ‘Integrated Assessment’. IRES and Hadi are the perfect place and mentor for me to do this with.

Meg is in her final year of a PhD under the supervision of Dr. John Robinson. She studies the embodied dimension of sustainable behaviours, using arts-based methods to engage participants and community members on issues related to sustainable futures. Inviting people to explore their practices and understanding of sustainable behaviours through artistic and creative modes of inquiry opens up possibilities for new understanding, new expressions of how the self relates to the social and physical world, and potentially increasing and improving behaviours toward a sustainable future. Meg's doctoral thesis project is a critical study of sustainability at the community scale, where the beliefs and values of individuals contribute to collective levels of action, including both grassroots initiatives and political force. Drawing on her interdisciplinary background, Meg is applying an analytical framework of human action derived from Performance Studies to two groups practicing sustainable behaviours: the Otesha Project traveling theatre group who perform a play about choices for a sustainable future; and the UBU-Cart recycling project operating out of the United We Can bottle depot in Vancouver's downtown East side. Prior to joining RMES, Meg earned a Bchelor's degree with honours in Chemistry from the University of Lethbridge (2001) and a Master of Arts in Dance from York University (2004).

Maryam is an avid baker, a huge fan of Russian literature, and a collector of shoes and other pretty things.  She is incidentally a chemical engineer, with experience in both industrial and academic research in that field.  She is currently a PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Hadi Dowlatabdi.  Her research focuses on remote community energy issues, and the quantification of energy poverty (in remote communities and other places too). Maryam spends most of her days unlearning things she has already learned and generally welcomes distractions.  She can be contacted at mrezaei(at)interchange(dot)ubc(dot)ca.

Jordan Tam is a first year PhD student at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability with a broad interest in the intersection of biological conservation and poverty alleviation. Specifically he hopes to research the implications of marine management for local livelihoods and the feedbacks between policy and social systems for ecological sustainability. He is also deeply interested in understanding the perpetuation and origins of consumer culture in both the developed and developing world and its implications for development, well-being and the environment.

His past work examined the cognitive and affective constraints to adaptation under climate change. Specifically he studied perceptions of conservation policy and explored how environmental beliefs, emotion, and perceptions of risk affected people's willingness to endorse (sometimes controversial) adaptation strategies in a protected area contexts. A former SSHRC CGS Scholar, he is now a BRITE fellow and his current research is supported by a Four-Year Fellowship from UBC.

Jordan holds an MA in Resource Management & Environmental Studies (2010) and a BA in Psychology (2005) from the University of British Columbia.

Supervision: Dr. Kai Chan, tier 2 Canada Research Chair, and Dr. Terre Satterfield, both of UBC’s Institute for Resources, Enviornment and Sustainability (IRES).

bio info goes here

I am a PhD Candidate in Resource Management and Environmental Studies program at the University of British Columbia. I am also affiliated with UBC's Contemporary Tibetan Studies Program. My research interests are in political and human ecology of water resource management and development in Tibet. My PhD research explores the relationship between resource management and inequality in society. Specifically, I am studying how traditional resource management customs and institutions in Tibetan Buddhist villages function to maintain or enforce hierarchical social relationships. My research supervisor is Dr. Tsering Shakya and my supervisory committee consists of Dr. Gunilla Oberg and Dr. Felice Wyndham.

For examples of my research and advocacy work, see the Tibetan Plateau Blog and Trin-Gyi-Pho-Nya: Tibet’s Environment and Development Digest. I am also a co-founder of Tesi Environmental Awareness Movement, an environmental NGO based in Dharamsala, India.

 

PUBLICATIONS

Forthcoming book chapters

Tsering, T. (expected fall 2011). Water and Culture in the Land of the Gods. In Johnston, B. R. et. al. (Ed's).  Water, Cultural Diversity, and Environmental Change. UNESCO.

Morup, T., Namgail, T. and Tsering, T. (submitted). Wildlife vs. livestock: dilemma of the pastoralists of Changthang. In Colloquium of the International Association for Ladakh Studies, Università di Roma, Rome, 2007. Springer.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Tsering, T. (2008). The Green Primitives of the Himalayas Revisited. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education,2:4, 295-301.

Tsering, T. (2004). A Tibetan Perspective on Development and Globalization. Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies.

Commissioned Reports & Submissions

Tsering, T. (2005). Megoe Tso: Damming of Tibet’s Sacred Lake. Tibet Justice Center. The report is also published on the website of the International Rivers.

Tsering, T. (2002). HydroLogic: Water for Human Development. An Analysis of China’s Water Management and Politics. Tibet 2002: Current Environment and Development Issues (Commissioned paper by the Tibet Justice Center, distributed at the 2nd World Conservation Congress, Jordan-Amman).

MA Thesis:

Tsering, T. (2003). China’s Water Politics: In Whose Interest? Master’s thesis, Portland State University. The study has been published on the website of Global Greengrants-China.

I am a PhD student at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability in the department of Resource Management and Environmental Studies. My supervisor is Dr. Ralph Matthews and my supervisory committee consists of Dr. Matthews, Dr. Terre Satterfield and Dr. Stephanie Chang.

 

Research keywords: environmental hazards, climate change, knowledge mobilization, risk, adaptation, resilience, vulnerability

General information

I am a PhD student in the Resource Management and Environmental Studies programme here at UBC. Prior to this position, I worked as a researcher on EUR-Adapt, a four-year project on multi-level governance in climate change adaptation out of Umea University in Sweden. I hold an MA in Geography from the University of Guelph in Canada, where I completed a thesis on the vulnerability and adaptability of a rural Ghanaian community to climate change.

My PhD research will focus on possible means through which Canadian municipalities may achieve sustainability in light of climate change.  I am particularly interested in new and transformative means for reducing municipal emissions in concert with adaptive responses. I am working under the supervision of Dr. John Robinson.

Publications

Juhola S and Westerhoff L. (in press) Challenges of adaptation to climate change across multiple scales: A case study of network governance in two European countries. Environmental Science and Policy, doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2010.12.006.

Juhola S, Keskitalo ECH and Westerhoff L. (forthcoming) Understanding the framings of climate change adaptation across multiple scales of governance in Europe. Accepted to Environmental Politics.

Westerhoff L, Keskitalo ECH and Juhola S. (forthcoming) Capacities across scales: local to national adaptation policy in four European countries. Accepted to Climate Policy.

Westerhoff L (2010) Planning for today: the nature and emergence of adaptation measures in Italy. In The Development of Adaptation Policy and Practice in Europe: Multi-Level Governance of Climate Change, ECH Keskitalo (Ed.), Springer: London.

Westerhoff L and Juhola S (2010) Science-policy linkages in climate change adaptation: a multi-level governance comparison of Finland and Italy. Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, 2(3): 222-241.

Westerhoff L, Keskitalo ECH, Mackay H, Wolf J, Ellison D, Botetzagias I and Reysset B (2010) Planned adaptation measures in industrialised countries: a comparison of select countries within and outside the EU. In The Development of Adaptation Policy and Practice in Europe: Multi-Level Governance of Climate Change, ECH Keskitalo (Ed.), Springer, London.

Westerhoff L and Smit B (2009) The rains are disappointing us: dynamic vulnerability and adaptation to multiple stressors in the Afram Plains, Ghana. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 14(4): 317-337.

Pouliotte J, Smit B and Westerhoff L (2009) Adaptation and development: livelihoods and climate change in Subarnabad, Bangladesh. Climate and Development 1: 31-46.