On Earth: Recent Episodes
Pacific Museum of Earth
There is a lot of diversity under the science umbrella and not all scientists wear lab coats. On Earth showcases the people behind the science — who they are, why they got into their field, with tidbits of advice for people considering a career in science. Daniel Gowryluk explores the unexpected & interesting sides of science through conversations with researchers and educators about their work On Earth & beyond!
Anton Santos is a BSc candidate from the University of British Columbia in a Combined Major in Science comprised of life sciences, chemistry, and environmental science. His experiences working in STEAM education and science communication have inspired him to pursue a career in knowledge translation hoping to equip others with the tools to make informed decisions.
Spencer Goyette is a curatorial assistant at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Herbarium in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. He helps maintain the botanical collections for use by researchers and students at UBC and abroad. Spencer holds a BSc in Biology with a concentration in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, a BSc in Plant Biology, and minor in Creative Writing from North Carolina State University, as well as an MSc in Biology from The University of Alberta. Before coming to UBC in 2021, Spencer worked as a museum and lab technician at the Smithsonian Institution in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Sorry listeners, a few days late with this one — enjoy!
Elisabeth (Ellie) is a Master student in Geophysics and a Planetary Scientist at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where she studies a landform unique to Mercury called hollows. She focuses on those occurring at impact craters and whether a relationship can be derived between relative crater age and hollow locations within their host craters in order to better understand how hollows form, grow and "die" on Mercury. Ellie completed her undergraduate degree in Geology in France before moving to BC where she can now be found roaming the mountains in her spare time.
Correction: This episode was edited by Oli Beeby
Chris Payne is an oceanographic technician at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences. He helps people accomplish their research successfully both in the field and the lab. In addition to maintaining a wide variety of oceanographic and lab equipment, he also maintains the departmental workboat and helps teach the yearly Methods in Oceanography Field Course. He holds a BSC. in Biology from the University of Ottawa and an MSC. in Biology from McGill University. Prior to coming to UBC, Chris held technical roles at McGill University, l’Université de Montréal and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Fernanda Tomaselli is a Lecturer at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Faculty of Forestry and the coordinator of UBC’s Land One program. She teaches first- and second-year courses related to conservation, climate change and sustainability. Her research about the green economy and post-growth communication has been published in the Journals International Forestry Review and Ecological Economics. She holds a BSc. in Environmental Communication from San Francisco de Quito University (Ecuador) and a MSc. and PhD from the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia.
Flavia Orrico is a project manager and content curator at the social project Experimente Cultura, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the last 2 years, her project has been connecting Brazilian students from the public school system and NGOs in Rio with museums and cultural and scientific institutes from all over the world, democratizing access to these institutions and combining technology, creativity, and management skills. Flavia studied business administration and marketing at ESPM (Rio) and has an MBA in project management from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Dr. Kirstin Brink is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Manitoba and Adjunct Curator of Fossil Vertebrates at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, MB. She is a vertebrate palaeontologist interested in the evolution and development of biomineralized tissues (teeth and bones). Ongoing projects in the lab involve dinosaurs, marine reptiles, non-mammalian synapsids (like Dimetrodon, an ancestor of mammals) and living animal models (lizards and fish). We use histology, microscopy, Computed Tomography (CT scans), Scanning Electron Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and geochemical analyses to address our research questions.
I am Oladimeji Ayo Iwalaye, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Professor Maite Maldonado’s laboratory in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (BC, Canada), in collaboration with the PlasticLab at OceanWise (https://ocean.org/pollution-plastics/plastics_lab/).I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from Ekiti State University, Nigeria and a Master of Science degree in Zoology (major in Animal Physiology) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. I have a PhD degree in Marine Biology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.The strong passion I have for life in the marine environment because the ocean houses more life than land has led to my interest in plastic pollution and global climate change research. I investigated the effects of increasing temperature and microplastic concentrations on microplastic ingestion and retention rates in two filter- and one deposit-feeding marine invertebrates for my PhD. My Postdoctoral Research focuses on toxicological effects of polyester microfibers on indigenous marine amphipods, using microcosm and mesocosm studies. I hope to continue using my knowledge to provide evidence-based proof of the effects of microplastics and temperature on marine biota using laboratory studies.I participated in several beach clean-ups in South Africa, and was part of the support personnel at the OceanWise International Coastal Clean-up, 2022 help in Vancouver. I am always eager and excited to participate in research and activities that can provide evidence-based results that can help policymakers to make informed decisions that will promote a clean, safe and healthy environment for marine biota.
Kallie Moore is an enthusiastic paleontologist and science communicator. She is the Collections Manager, or ‘Fossil Librarian’, of the paleontology collection at the University of Montana and co-host the YouTube channel PBS Eons (youtube.com/eons). Her debut children's book, "Tales of the Prehistoric World", was released in the fall of 2022.
James is a 4th year geology undergrad at UBC. He is currently in a UBC Science co-op program and is working at UBC’s economic geology research unit; the Mineral Deposit Research Unit (MDRU). As a student, James is heavily involved in his classes by asking lots of questions, running mineralogical & petrological review sessions for his peers & loving the process of learning. In his spare time, James enjoys discovering new concepts, chatting with people of different perspectives & expanding his worldview.
Derek Tan is the Manager of Exhibitions at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. He has worked in collections and on public engagement in museums as a multimedia designer, photographer, and illustrator. Derek studied biology and art history at UBC. His projects combine his scientific background with visual creativity to encourage people to investigate the world around them and their place within it.
Madison is currently enrolled in her second year of the Masters of Archaeological Science program at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. She is studying ancient bison mobility at Promontory Caves, Utah using strontium isotope analysis. Promontory is an exceptional opportunity to explore variability in the strontium isotope compositions of multiple substrates (including dung!) to create an effective and reliable strontium baseline. Madison is also a chemistry and microbiology analyst at a laboratory where she has worked since high school. Outside of school work, Madison is a coordinator of Let's Talk Science (Lakehead Thunder Bay campus) which promotes youth involvement in STEM.
Lindsay is the Earth Science Educational Field and Laboratory Coordinator at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She recently joined the university, previously working as a field geologist in private industry. After spending many years in field camps across the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, British Columbia, and Ontario, she is now focused on using those experiences to support undergraduate students. While she was completing the Masters of Land and Water Systems program at UBC in 2020, Lindsay became more interested in how people teach and learn in the natural sciences. Through her current role, she is excited to pursue this interest further by collaboratively developing the lab and field components that are essential to Earth science education.
I am a PhD student in geophysics in the seismology field. I am developing a novel automatic numerical approach to recover the rupture mechanisms of small earthquakes. The identification of rupture mechanisms of a large number of earthquakes is then used to identify potential hazardous faults and gain a better understanding of the forces governing the tectonic plates.
Brooke is an environmental geochemist that studies metal cycling by analyzing animal tissues and byproducts, known as biomonitors. By measuring lead isotopes and metal concentrations in biomonitors a more detailed picture of how metals move through the environment can be seen. Brooke works with honey from Vancouver, chum salmon from the Pacific ocean, and bowhead whale baleen plates from the Hudson Bay, all of which tell a unique story about metals in the various settings.
Connor Heise completed his Undergraduate degree in Materials Engineering at UBC in 2019. That same year he started a Masters of Applied Science in the same department under Dr. Edouard Asselin in the Hydrometallurgy Group. Connor's research focuses on variability in mineral electrochemistry, exploring methods to combat it, and the most appropriate ways of reporting on it to allow future research to properly utilize information. The research uses chalcopyrite as its exemplar mineral as industry and consumers are requiring copper more than ever before. This research suits Connor's desire to understand foundational information from which all other knowledge builds from. It is never of enough to simply have an answer, but rather an answer the provides understanding for himself and those around him. Outside of research, Connor enjoys playing tennis and disc golf as well as writing poetry and music. And let's face it, he loves a warm tea with dark chocolate.
Anne-Martine (Marti) Doucet is a Research Technician at the University of British Columbia currently working with the CarbMin laboratory supervised by Dr. Greg Dipple and Dr. Uli Mayer. Her research focuses on measuring and monitoring CO2 exchange at the sediment-atmosphere interface in natural and engineered environments that enable carbon mineralization reactions (where CO2 from the atmosphere or water reacts with cations (Ca, Mg) and precipitate a carbon mineral). She completed her Bachelor degree at the University of Ottawa in Environmental Sciences with a focus in Environmental Geochemistry and recently completed a Masters degree here at UBC in Geological Sciences supervised by Dr. Uli Mayer. In her spare time, you can catch Marti biking (on roads and mountains) and playing disc golf.
Dante Lauretta is a Regents Professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. He is an expert in near-Earth asteroid formation and evolution. He is the leader of NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return mission. OSIRIS-REx is the United States' premier mission to visit one of the most Potentially Hazardous near-Earth Asteroids, survey it to assess its impact hazard and resource potential, understand its physical and chemical properties, and return a sample of this body to Earth for detailed scientific analysis. The spacecraft launched in September 2016 and began its journey to Bennu, a carbon-rich, near-Earth asteroid. The spacecraft rendezvoused with Bennu in 2018 and successfully obtained a sample in October 2020. The spacecraft embarked on its return voyage to Earth on May 10, 2021. Sample return to Earth occurs in 2023. He also maintains an active research program in Cosmochemistry and Meteoritics.
Davi holds a Bachelor's and Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES, Brazil), and is also an alumnus of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he studied for two semesters through the Sciences Without Borders program. At the University of British Columbia, Davi is a Ph.D. Student in Atmospheric Sciences, at the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS), supervised by Dr. Naomi Zimmerman. He received the President’s Academic Excellence Award, the W.H. Mathew scholarship, and the 4 Year Doctoral Fellowship. His work aims to investigate the air quality impacts of the emerging cannabis industry and explore the links between odours, air quality, and health.
Dave Daquioag is a research technician for the Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research at the University of British Columbia where he assists students and researchers with isotopic analysis of their samples. His main tasks include the separation and purification of radiogenic isotopes from whole rock or mineral samples using ion exchange column chemistry and the analysis of Sr isotopes with the Nu Instruments Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer (Nu TIMS). He completed his BSc in chemistry at UBC and has past experience working in different industrial lab settings from characterizing surfactant material to analyzing potash minerals.
Elise is a PhD student in Atmospheric Science at the University of British Columbia. Her research is in hydrometeorology and seeks to understand the relationships between extreme rainfall events, flooding and climate change. Specifically, her research aims to develop an improved methodology for estimating probable maximum precipitation and probable maximum flood using a coupled atmospheric-hydrological model and machine learning.Originally from New Zealand, Elise completed her Bachelor's Degree at TheUniversity of Waikato in Agribusiness and Earth Science before completing a Masters inEnvironmental Management at Massey University. Elise has also worked as a consultant hydrologist where she learnt many of the modelling skills she applies to her research today.
Dr. Erik Eberhardt is a Professor of Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia, and the Director of their Geological Engineering program. He is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan’s Geological Engineering program. His expertise is in the integration of geology, geotechnical monitoring and numerical modelling to better understand the underlying mechanisms responsible for complex rock mass responses to engineering activities. He was the Associate Director of the Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction and is currently helping to lead the International Caving Research Network (ICaRN). Erik is a registered professional engineer with EGBC and consults on international projects in North and South America, Australia, Europe and Asia. He is a past recipient of the CGS’s John A. Franklin Award for outstanding technical contributions to rock mechanics and rock engineering, and Thomas Roy Award for outstanding contributions to engineering geology.
Dr. Jim Evans is a mineralogist/physicist who is interested in the structure of minerals at the atomic level. He is an instructor in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and the Integrated Science program at UBC. At EOAS he studies the crystal structures of unusual minerals like dumortierite and harkerite. Dr. Evans received his PhD in Physics from the University of Ottawa in 2006, and did post-doctoral studies at the University of California, Davis in 2008, and at UBC with Dr. Lee Groat from 2009-2014. Amiong his non-science interests he likes tea, cookies, math, Lego, and cats.
Yulia Egorova is a PhD student (majoring in Biological Oceanography) at the University of British Columbia (Department of EOAS). She completed her Bachelor’s Degree at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in British Columbia, Canada, majoring in Environmental Chemistry. Prior to transferring to TRU, she was studying in Mendeleyev’s University of Chemical Technology (MUCTR) In Moscow, Russia (majoring in material engineering). Yulia also got a Diploma in Marine Biology at Oxford College of London. Yulia’s research is focusing on modelling mesopelagic zooplankton in a global ocean. In addition, she is very interested in teaching and curriculum design.
Ruth is an MSc student in Geophysics at UBC, under the supervision of Dr Anaïs Orsi. She is looking at the changing climate of the Western Canadian Arctic, with a particular focus on the changes to the atmospheric water cycle. Understanding how the Arctic is changing is relevant to to our overall understanding of atmospheric dynamics, Arctic climate and will bring a greater knowledge of climate change to the people of the region, informing adaptation strategies.
Before coming to EOAS Ruth did her undergraduate degree at University College Dublin, Ireland, where she studied Astrophysics. She is passionate about increasing diversity within Earth Science and working to make science more accessible.
Brenda was born and raised in Lima, Peru, and has a Chemistry degree from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. She also has a MSc and PhD in Geological Sciences from the University of British Columbia. Her PhD research focused on comparing water and carbon fluxes from different biomes (Amazon, Cerrado and Pantanal) and land uses (natural, agriculture, pasture) in Mato Grosso, which is a Brazilian state that has experienced extensive deforestation and land use and land cover change to produce different commodities such as soybean and cattle. Brenda is also a mentor and co-director of the research experience for Peruvian undergraduates (REPU) program, which is a non-profit organization that sets-up 3-month research internships for Peruvian undergraduate students in different institutions around the world. In her spare time, Brenda also enjoys reading mystery novels, hiking and watching movies.
Brenda was born and raised in Lima, Peru, and has a Chemistry degree from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. She also has a MSc and PhD in Geological Sciences from the University of British Columbia. Her PhD research focused on comparing water and carbon fluxes from different biomes (Amazon, Cerrado and Pantanal) and land uses (natural, agriculture, pasture) in Mato Grosso, which is a Brazilian state that has experienced extensive deforestation and land use and land cover change to produce different commodities such as soybean and cattle. Brenda is also a mentor and co-director of the research experience for Peruvian undergraduates (REPU) program, which is a non-profit organization that sets-up 3-month research internships for Peruvian undergraduate students in different institutions around the world. In her spare time, Brenda also enjoys reading mystery novels, hiking and watching movies.
Michael Bostock is a professor of seismology in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia (U.B.C.). He obtained his BSc (Applied Science) and M.Eng. at Queen's University in Kingston, PhD at the Australian National University. Prior to assuming his position at U.B.C., he held a postdoctoral fellowship at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Bostock's current research interests focus on seismicity and structure of the Cascadia subduction zone and associated offshore plate boundaries. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (A.G.U) and was the 2010 A.G.U. Gutenberg lecturer.
Marghaleray Amini received a Master’s degree from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany (2003), and a PhD from Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany (2007), where she studied the chemical and isotopic compositions of marine hydrothermal systems. During her postdoctoral positions in the Saskatchewan Isotope Laboratory at the University of Saskatchewan, and in Mainz within the DFG-funded Geocycles program, she worked on the application of metal stable isotope systems in biogeochemical cycles. Dr. Amini has worked aboard research cruises and in field sites in remote areas such as the North Pole and the Band-e-Amir lakes in Afghanistan. She joined Kabul University as a Scientific Advisor and lecturer as part of the German Foreign Aid development program. In 2012, she joined PCIGR as a Research Associate, where she oversaw the operation of the nUBC research facility, and is in direct charge of the laser ablation ICP-MS. Her research interests include developing new methodological approaches to trace biogeochemical reaction pathways across interphases.
Oli Beeby is a current undergraduate student in UBC’s Bachelor of Media Studies program and professional museum nerd located in Vancouver, BC. Never able to pick just one interest, Oli’s passions range from dinosaurs to the 19th-century pre-Raphaelite movement, from life in marine ecosystems to life in 18th-century America. When it comes to museums, he has serious a passion for everything design and outreach from exhibit design to video production to developing classroom resources and more. As well as being a professional area of interest, museums and their relationship to the visual culture of colonialism are one of Oli’s primary areas of academic interest, alongside more typical media studies subjects like the behavior of participatory audiences in digital space.
Rhiana Elizabeth Henry is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of British Columbia, department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, within the Mineralogical Research Group led by Dr. Lee Groat. Her specialty is gemstone mineralogy. Her Ph.D research is on the crystal-chemistry of beryl. She uses single-crystal X-ray diffraction and chemical analyses to study the H2O content within the crystal structure of beryl, related to Na content, chemical differences between beryl varieties, and to create a predictive model of how the beryl structure changes with varied chemistry. This work can be used to help inform geological and gemological studies on beryl, find unique subtypes, and the modeling method can be extended to other minerals in the future. Rhiana completed her M.Sc. in Geologic Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2018 studying the crystallography of a Be-Fe-REE mineral gadolinite. She completed her Graduate Gemologist certification in 2018 at the Gemological Institute of America. She completed her two B.A. degrees in Physics and Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2013. She has been a teaching assistant for three different physics courses and four different geology courses. She is the mineral name checker for the journal Canadian Mineralogist, ensuring mineral names are properly described before publication. She is passionate about using gemstone mineralogy as a gateway for new students into geological science.
Alice is an EOAS alumna, having obtained a BSc degree (Hon., First Class) when the department was called Geological Sciences, and a MSc degree when the department became Earth and Ocean Sciences. Her thesis projects involved the sedimentology and micropaleontology of diatomaceous marine sediments of Miocene age from southern California. She subsequently pursued a PhD at Carleton University (Ottawa), researching late Holocene diatomaceous marine sediments from Vancouver Island. This was followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Victoria, where she analyzed the geochemistry of late Quaternary marine sediments from along the western North American margin. Alice then managed analytical laboratories in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC before returning to EOAS, where she is currently a project manager at PCIGR.
After volunteering for several years, in 2012 I was hired as the Collections Curator of the Cowan Tetrapod Collection. Being the bird specialist at the BBM opens so many doors. From undergraduate involvement to participating in research projects with academics or government scientist my days and weeks are chock-a-block with unrelated projects. Professionally I travel back in time when using century old methods as well as jump forward when I supply samples for cutting edge technology. I love it all!
Lualawi Mareshet Admasu is a PhD student of Atmospheric Sciences working at University of British Columbia. Currently, he is investigating why the Arctic region warms faster than other parts of the world under global warming and its effects on weather systems. Most of his work involves analyzing climate data from model outputs and observations. He also runs climate models to study how weather systems behave in response to the rapid warming of the arctic using idealized experiments. Before coming to UBC, Lualawi did his undergrad in Civil Engineering at Addis Ababa Institute of Technology in Ethiopia and later obtained his master’s in water resources engineering at KU-Leuven in Belgium.
Scott uses stable isotopes to study the evolution of mammals and terrestrial ecosystems, with a particular interest in human origins research in Africa. His research is focused on applying and developing isotopic proxies for investigating mammal diets, terrestrial vegetation, and climates in the fossil record. He also conducts isotopic studies of modern mammals, soils, plants for studies of the ecology and conservation of modern mammals and ecosystems as well as providing a foundation for paleoecological research. He is also involved in studies of the evolutionary history of mammals over the Cenozoic, as well as the archaeology of prehistoric foragers and early food producers.
A. Bahl is a Ph.D. candidate in the Earth, Oceanic, and Atmospheric Sciences Department at the University of British Columbia. Her dissertation, “An improved understanding of Salpa thompsoni diel vertical migration and its influence on Southern Ocean ecosystem structure and function” examines the behavior of one of the most abundant zooplankton species in the Southern Ocean with an effort to interpret its importance on fisheries management and biogeochemical processes. Her motivation to address policy with science is supported by her active role in the Integrating Climate and Ecosystems Dynamics (ICED) in the Southern Ocean and the United Nations Southern Ocean Task Force working groups where she organizes workshops, leads report drafting, and manages research projects for policy stakeholder use. Previously, she worked at the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at Johns Hopkins University where she conducted research on ocean mixing uncertainty in earth system model climate projections. Alexis also served as the Coordinator of the National Geographic Society’s Perpetual Planet program. She has an M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences and Policy from Johns Hopkins University and a B.Sc in Environmental Science from Loyola University Chicago.
Farhad Bouzari is Research Associate at MDRU - Mineral Deposit Research Unit - at the University of British Columbia (UBC) where he conducts industry-sponsored research projects that focus on porphyry copper deposits and mineralogical and geochemical techniques in exploration targeting. He has expertise in establishing the anatomy and evolution of the porphyry deposits, particularly their distal and deep features, and their application in vectoring towards mineralization. He leads MDRU’s investigations to develop new exploration techniques such as Porphyry Indicator Minerals (PIMS) and porphyry vectoring techniques in altered rocks of British Columbia.
Catriona Breasley is a first year PhD student at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Dr Lee Groat. Her research focuses on the lithium mineralization, remobilization and metasomatism at the Tanco pegmatite, Manitoba. Before moving to Vancouver in September 2021, she completed a MGeol Earth Science degree at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.
Becca Beutel is a MSc student in Physical Oceanography at UBC, working with Dr. Susan Allen in the Mesoscale Ocean and Atmospheric Dynamics research group. She is looking into which water masses make up the flow into and out of the Salish Sea (the body of water between Vancouver Island and the BC and Washington Mainland) by applying water parcel tracking simulations to two ocean models. Knowing more about where the water is coming from, and how this changes throughout a year and between years, will help us figure out how this ecologically and economically important region will be impacted by a changing climate and help us figure out what we can do to protect it!
Becca completed her bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering at the University of Guelph, and did 20 months of coop throughout it to best narrow down what area she wanted to work in. She is passionate about lifelong learning and thinks that research is the ideal setting to achieve this!
Daniel Adria is a MASc student in Geological Engineering within the EOAS department at UBC, under Dr. Scott McDougall in the Geohazards Research Team. He is investigating tailings dam failures and their subsequent runout characteristics, to reduce uncertainties in risk assessments and emergency planning for mine projects and communities. Daniel completed his bachelor degree in civil engineering at UBC and worked in the consulting industry for a few years before returning to academia. When not modelling a tailings dam failure on a computer, Daniel can be often found outside, either skiing, sailing, or hiking throughout the south west coast of BC.
Sam Anderson is a PhD candidate in geophysics working with Dr. Valentina Radic at the University of British Columbia. He is curious about the relationships between ice, water, and people. His research seeks to understand how community-scale water supplies in Western Canada will be shaped by climate change through experiences such as the loss of glaciers and heat waves, and he is interested in applying data science techniques such as deep machine learning to investigate environmental problems. Before his graduate work at UBC, Sam did his undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta, obtaining a BSc in Engineering Physics and specializing in nanoelectronic engineering.
Anthony Wilson is a PhD student in climate science, currently working with Dr. Art Miller at the University of California San Diego - Scripps Institute of Oceanography. He is interested in climate variability and how heat fluxes from the mid latitudes will impact polar regions. Before joining Scripps, Anthony completed a Bachelor of Sciences at Central Michigan University, attaining a degree(s) in: Geographic Information Systems and Math. He has a passion for communicating science and truly making the field more accessible to marginalized groups and incorporating voices typically not heard in key policy making and economic affairs.
Cara James is a new Geophysics PhD student within the EOAS department at UBC, investigating the fluid dynamics of particle clouds produced during deep-sea mining and modelling how they may impact ocean health. Cara moved to Vancouver in January 2022, having completed her undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences and masters in Earth Sciences in the UK.
Garry Clarke received his doctorate in physics in 1967 from the University of Toronto and is currently Emeritus Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. His research speciality is glaciology and his particular expertise is in subglacial physical processes, subglacial hydrology, the stability of glaciers and ice sheets, and cryospheric agents of abrupt climate change. He spearheaded a 35-year glaciological field study in Yukon, Canada, that involved drilling and extensive use of subglacial instrumentation and he remains active in the development of theory and computational models of glacier and ice sheet dynamics. Clarke has served as President of the International Glaciological Society and the Canadian Geophysical Union and received the highest scientific awards of both these organizations. He was a lead author of the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment. Clarke is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Geophysical Union, and the Arctic Institute of North America.
Sheila Byers is a marine biologist and Registered Professional Biologist in BC. Having worked at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC over the past seven years as a Museum Interpreter, she recently joined the BBM Marine Invertebrate Collection (curatorial) as a Museum Volunteer. Sheila is very interested in the natural history and ecology of intertidal organisms and the enjoys raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity through education. She is active in several natural history societies including Marine Life Sanctuaries Society (Past President and a current director since 2007), Nature Vancouver, Marine Biology Section (Planning Committee since 2002) and Wonders of the Salish Sea (Planning Committee since 2017).
Dominique Weis is a leader in the innovative use of trace elements and isotope geochemistry, and is widely respected “for the elegance, precision and impact of her geochemical studies of the Earth from large igneous provinces to the environment." Specifically, her research aims to (1) improve our understanding of planetary evolution and the Earth’s environment, (2) model the geochemical and isotopic variations of the Earth’s mantle through a comparative study of large igneous provinces and more recent volcanic centres, and (3) determine the origin, source and pathways of mantle plumes, and their variations through time. As Director of the Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research, Dr. Weis is closely involved in the training of highly qualified personnel, and with industrial partners in the technology transfer and application of novel isotopic techniques for solving earth and environmental problems.
Christian earned his MPhys in Physics in 1998, his DPhil in Mathematics, 2002, and did a post-doctoral degree at UBC from 2002-2007. He’s been a teaching faculty member of UBC in glaciology since 2007. He specializes in understanding the physics of how a glacier moves, and is passionate about the outdoors.
Richard Ghail is a Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences of the Royal Holloway University of London. Richard specializes in intra-plate tectonics on Earth and Venus uses radar interferometry (InSAR) to measure fault movements on exceedingly small scales of millimetres per year. He applies the technology to monitoring the surface effects of engineering in the ground and to understanding the impact of intra-plate deformation on civil engineering infrastructure, particularly tunnels. He founded the Engineering Scale Geology Research Group to develop these ground investigation techniques and advance their study. Richard proposed Envision to study the relationship between geology and climate on Venus, and has led the ESA science study up to its selection. The mission will apply many of the InSAR technologies and techniques developed for ground engineering to characterize and measure geological processes active on Venus today.
Corey Wall is the Facilities Manager and U-Pb geochronologist for the Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research, at the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He is interested in determining the age of rocks using minerals that can be extracted from them. He aims to extract minerals such as zircon and determine the age of the rock by precisely measuring the elements Uranium and Pb on mass spectrometers. Before joining EOAS, Corey was a post-doctoral researcher and a research scientist at the Isotope Geology Laboratory at Boise State University, Idaho. Corey provides analytical services to faculty member, government geological surveys, and private sector exploration and mining companies.
Dr. Geoff Plumlee has been the USGS Chief Scientist and Senior Science Advisor to the USGS Director since January 2019. In this role, he provides strategic scientific vision and counsel to the USGS Director and other executive leaders on inter- and transdisciplinary USGS science research priorities, activities, capabilities, and partnerships. From May 2016 to early 2020, Geoff was the USGS Associate Director for Environmental Health, where he led USGS research at the intersection of the environment and health. Geoff brought to these executive leadership positions 33 years of research and science leadership experience with the USGS, as well as his ability to seek out and establish successful research collaborations with scientists from a broad range of earth, health, social, emergency response, and engineering science disciplines. From 1987 through May 2016, Geoff helped lead and carry out many research projects on linkages between mineral resources, the environment, disasters, and human health. Geoff holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Geology from the University of New Mexico, 1980, and a Doctorate in Geochemistry from Harvard University, 1989. See his staff profile page at https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/geoffrey-plumlee.
Qi Yang is a PhD student in Dr. Curtis Suttle’s lab, also known as the Marine Molecular Microbiology and Virology Lab, at the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. She is interested in finding viruses in the ocean that infect protists for which viruses are unknown and in the role of the viruses in marine ecosystems and nutrient cycles. She aims to isolate a virus that infects ecologically important marine protists and characterize the virus in terms of genome, phylogeny, and diversity in natural environments. Before joining EOAS, Qi received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biotechnology at the Ocean University of China. Beyond her research, Qi is passionate about communicating science, such as engaging with people in different disciplines of Earth Sciences and reaching out to broad audiences.
Geoffrey Winthrop-Young is Professor of German and Scandinavian at the Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies (CENES). He holds an M.A. from the University of Freiburg and PhD from UBC. After specializing in media theory. he is now working on several projects related to chronopolitics, eco-fascism and theories of evolution before and during the Third Reich and their connections to contemporary debates. Among his key interests are early theories of rewilding and species resurrection by back-breeding as well as the resurgence of catastrophist theories.
Clara Sousa-Silva is a quantum astrochemist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. She investigates how molecules interact with light so that they can be detected on faraway worlds. Clara spends most of her time studying molecules that life can produce so that, one day, she can detect an alien biosphere. Her favorite molecular biosignature is phosphine: a terrifying gas associated with mostly unpleasant life. When she is not deciphering exoplanet atmospheres, Clara works hard to persuade the next generation of scientists to become an active part of the astronomical community.
Clara holds a doctoral degree in quantum chemistry from the University College London, and a masters degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Prior to joining the Center for Astrophysics, Clara served as a research scientist at MIT. Among her many achievements, Clara is the recipient of the prestigious 51 b Pegasi Fellowship from the Heising Simons Foundation. Clara’s work and commentary has been featured in the BBC, WIRED, and the New York Times, among many others, and is the focus of her TED talk.
Cameron Muskelly is a self-taught Paleontologist working towards becoming a professional paleontologist. He is a talented science communicator based in Georgia and studies fossils from the Southern part of the United States, primarily Paleozoic invertebrate fossils.
Annie Borch is a PhD student in volcanology, currently working with Dr. Kelly Russell at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. She is interested in how volcanic eruptions can affect landscape evolution, and, in turn, how paleoenvironmental conditions such as glaciation impact volcanic eruption styles. Her current research focuses on understanding the volcanic history of extensive Quaternary basalt lava flows in the Whistler, BC area, and how they can be used to reconstruct paleovalley systems prior to and after the Fraser Glaciation. Before joining UBC, Annie completed a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences at Quest University Canada, and a Geographic Information Systems program at BCIT. She also worked in the exploration industry as a field geologist, and as a science writer and illustrator for the Sea to Sky Fire & Ice Aspiring Geopark in Whistler, BC. She has a passion for communicating science and is fascinated by how people understand and interact with the dynamic landscapes that surround them.
Pablo is a geoscientist with B.Sc. (from the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos) and M.Sc. (from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) degrees in Geology, and a Ph.D. degree in Geological Sciences from the University of British Columbia. He has worked in Brazil, the United States and Canada. In his early career he worked on subsurface geological mapping using seismic data, and estimation of rock petrophysical properties from core and borehole log measurements. During his Ph.D., Pablo researched the textural, geochemical and petrophysical properties of mudstones in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, as well the reconstruction of thermal maturation history in the basin. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow and a sessional lecturer at the University of British Columbia.
Eric Taylor is a professor of Zoology and Director of the Fish Collection at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum where he also served as museum Director from 2013-2020. He studies the patterns, and processes promoting the origins and persistence of biodiversity and the application of such knowledge to conservation, especially in fishes. He graduated with a PhD in Zoology from UBC in 1989, spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University, then 1.5 years as a visiting research fellow at the Pacific Biological Station before retuning to UBC in 1993. Between 2000 and 2018, he was involved with, or a member of, COSEWIC (the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada) and its Chair between 2014 and 2018. In 2016, he was elected as a Fellow of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Autumn 2021 saw the release of his book Rivers Run Through Us: A Natural and Human History of Great Rivers of North America (Rocky Mountain Books).
Jasmine Chase is a master’s student in geochemistry, currently working with Dr. Dominique Weis at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science. Originally from Ottawa, Ontario, she started her move westward with Alberta where she completed her undergraduate degree in Geology at the University of Calgary in 2020. Living close to the mountains and the prairies she developed a love for ancient ocean sediments and a fascination for how they’ve ended up today at the top of the Rockies. Now in British Columbia, her work has shifted to focus on modern oceans, specifically: applying geochemical metal analyses to fish from the nearby Pacific Ocean, in collaboration with the UBC Institute of Oceans and Fisheries, to learn about metal sources in the environment. Beyond just her own research, Jasmine is a keen supporter of interdisciplinary cooperation and breaking down stereotypes about the Earth Sciences that keep people from the discipline.
Dr. Hannah Bloomfield is a research scientist at the University of Bristol, who has spent the last eight years working at the University of Reading studying the impacts of climate variability and climate change on national-level power systems. Hannah specialises in modelling UK and European electricity demand and renewable generation. She has also worked on developing these tools for Mexico and multiple regions of Africa. A key outcome of her work has been to improve the accessibility of large meteorological datasets to non-specialists.
Dr. Shandin Pete was raised in Nłq̓alqʷ (“Place of the thick trees”, Arlee, Montana). His mother is from the Bitterroot Band of Salish in Montana and his father is Diné from Beshbihtoh Valley in Arizona. He is a hydrogeologist and science educator with interest in Indigenous research methodologies, geoscientific ethnography, Indigenous astronomy, social-political tribal structures, culturally congruent instructional strategies, and indigenous science philosophies. Most of his work in recent years has focused on community engagement to understanding shifts in an Indigenous paradigm of research for science knowledge production. This work has included extensive collaboration with tribal knowledge holders across Native communities and Indigenous academic scholars at institutions nationally and internationally.
Christopher Stinson is the Lead Curatorial Assistant of Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, and Cross-collections at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum (BBM). He began working as a volunteer at the Cowan Vertebrate Museum, now part of the BBM, in 2006 and the museum world has been unable to shake him ever since. Born and raised in Northwestern Ontario on the shores of Rainy Lake, Chris has always had a fascination with the natural world, collecting all manner of biological specimens from an early age. He took an animal biology undergraduate degree at UBC and is now enrolled as a Master’s of Science Student in UBC Forestry studying marten taxonomy under Dr. Cole Burton. Most of his work focuses on mammals but he continues to pursue entomology, herpetology, and palaeontology both at work and as a pastime.
Tyler Herrington is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Waterloo, in Physical Geography, where he is studying Arctic Climate Science. His dissertation research investigates the ability of reanalysis products and climate models to capture soil temperatures in permafrost environments. He is interested in how differences in the land models, which simulate aspects of earth surface, such as snow cover, vegetation, and the hydrology of the landscape, can account for differences in soil temperatures across different models. He completed a Bachelor's, and a Master's in Physical Geography at Simon University, where his thesis research focused on climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. Tyler has spent a couple of summers in the Arctic - once as a junior Geologist, assisting a junior mining firm in exploring for lead/zinc in the Yukon Mountains, and another summer in Nunavut, where he assisted with the reclamation of contaminated sites along former Distance Early Warning (DEW) Line radar stations.
Maite is an oceanographer who specializes in marine phytoplankton and the role that natural & human-produced trace metals play in their population levels. Phytoplankton may be microscopic, but on an annual basis, they convert around 45 gigatons of carbon dioxide to organic carbon, which is roughly half the total carbon fixation on the planet! She also studies how much of that converted carbon then sinks into the deep ocean (and how that sinking process happens). However, not all parts of the Earth’s oceans are equally vibrant with microbial life. Maite has studied which areas are more productive, and why, putting her on the front lines of our understanding of climate change.
Jesse is the Global Coordinator for anticipatory actions within the Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Programmes at the United Nations World Food Programme. He is managing the implementation and scale-up of Forecast-based Financing across many Asian & African nations alongside their national governments. He also works closely with the WFP's Emergency Preparedness and Support Response Division to help manage severe-weather risk assessments on vulnerable populations. Jesse has over 11 years of weather-forecasting & project management experience in the humanitarian & private sector, with a focus on early warnings, probabilistic risk assessment, and weather information communication. His UBC Master's Thesis and coursework focused on numerical weather-prediction, ensemble weather-prediction systems, statistical analysis/verification, computer science, GIS, energy policy and weather forecasting.
Throughout his 47-year career, Ross Beaty has been a leader in the international mining and renewable energy industries, making a significant and lasting impact in BC and around the world. Driven by his passion for people, communities, and nature, he has brought together the worlds of mining and environmentalism to demonstrate that mining and environmental protection are not incompatible.
After graduating from the University of British Columbia in 1979 in geology and law, Ross began a geological contracting company, Beaty Geological, which he operated from 1980 through 1987. In 1985, Ross established Equinox Resources, a public exploration and gold mining company. In 1994, Ross sold Equinox and founded Pan American Silver. Based in Vancouver, Pan American is now one of the world’s largest silver mining companies with 10 operating mines in the Americas and over 12,000 employees. Between 1994 and 2017 Ross founded 11 other mineral exploration companies and a renewal energy company that has become one of Canada’s largest independent power producers. In 2018, Ross began Equinox Gold, which now operates eight mines in the Americas with over 6,000 employees.
Through all his endeavours, Ross has been committed to sustainable development and high standards of environmental, social and governance practices. Ross’s professional accomplishments are matched by his philanthropic efforts. In 2007 he established the Sitka Foundation with a mission to protect the environment and promote biodiversity. The Foundation partners with more than 70 Canadian and global environmental organizations focused on land conservation, education, scientific research and public policy in support of protection of the environment.
Anaïs Orsi is an assistant professor in the UBC department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. Her research focuses on polar climate variability using tracers found in ice cores. Today, the Arctic is the region that is warming the fastest on Earth. Anais’s work is to provide context to the current trend by reconstructing the climate of the recent past (several thousand years) using indicators found in ice cores. These indicators can be the thickness of an annual layer of snow, the presence of an ice lens indicating melting, the isotopic composition of the water that snow is composed of, or simply the temperature inside the ice sheet. All of these indicators give a complementary information of what the past climate might have looked like, and help put the recent trends in context. This work has led her to repeatedly visit polar regions, in Greenland and Antarctica, in the search for clues of past climates. Prior to joining UBC, Anaïs completed her PhD at the University of California San Diego, and subsequently worked as a research scientist at the LSCE (Climate and Environmental Science Laboratory) in France. Her worked has been distinguished by several prizes, including the International Rising Talent of the L’Oreal-UNESCO foundation for women in Science.
Randy Smallwood holds a geological engineering degree from the University of British Columbia and is one of the founding members of Wheaton Precious Metals. In 2007, he joined Wheaton full time as EVP of Corporate Development, primarily focusing on growing the company through the evaluation and acquisition of streaming opportunities. In January 2010, he was appointed President, and in April 2011, he was appointed Wheaton's CEO. Mr. Smallwood originally started as an exploration geologist with Wheaton River Minerals Ltd., and in 2001, was promoted to Director of Project Development, a role he held through the 2005 merger with Goldcorp (which has since merged with Newmont). Mr. Smallwood was an instrumental part of the team that built Wheaton River/Goldcorp into one of the largest and, more importantly, most profitable gold companies in the world. He is now focused on continuing to add to the impressive growth profile of Wheaton and leading the World Gold Council as its current chair.
Linda Jennings is the Collections Curator at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Herbarium, Beaty Biodiversity Museum, housing the third largest natural history ‘plant’ collection in Canada. For the past 15 years Linda has curated this century old collection of preserved plants and algae specimens from around the world. Through exhibits, tours and workshops she shares the collections and their stories, developing innovative tours with hands on activities that include the public in ‘real data science’. Linda earned her B.Sc. and M.Sc. from UBC where her studies focused on population genetics of a rare and federally protected sunflower, which she continues to have a great love and curiosity of rare plants to this day. She is passionate about the history of botany and collectors, with a specialization in the history of female botanists, and greatly enjoys using the collections in teaching, research and outreach. Previously working for the UBC Botanical Garden and teaching in the Department of Botany, she also instructs the Intermediate and Advanced Master Gardeners courses and holds pressing plant workshops, open to all the general public, in the hopes that you too will take notice and stewardship of all biodiversity.
Jacob manages the Electron Microbeam and X-ray Diffraction Facility (EMXDF) in the department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He has a background in analytical chemistry, surface analysis, and electron beam microanalysis. His laboratory provides users in the province with quantitative powder x-ray diffraction services, electron microscopy services, and electron microprobe services. His key interest is in expanding automated mineralogy offerings in the facility to serve UBC and the greater provincial academic community.
Boris F. Ochoa-Tocachi is a PhD in Hydrology and a MSc in Hydrology and Water Resources Management by Imperial College London, and a Civil Engineer by the University of Cuenca, Ecuador. He is the CEO of ATUK Strategic Consultancy, founder of the Institute for Applied Sustainability Research (iiasur) in Ecuador, and scientific advisor of the “Natural Infrastructure for Water Security” project for Forest Trends. Boris has developed his professional and academic expertise around mountain hydrology, hydrological monitoring & ecosystem service management. In the past five years, he has published over 25 scientific articles and policy briefs, delivered more than 75 talks & conference presentations, seminars & webinars, and received 10 prizes & awards. Currently, he investigates how to combine ancient knowledge & nature-based solutions with conventional engineering options to solve problems related to national & global water security.
Eileen van der Flier-Keller is a Teaching Professor in Earth Sciences and Special Advisor to the Dean of Science for Public Education and Outreach at Simon Fraser University. She very much appreciates this role for the opportunity it provides to champion science education, community collaborations with local school districts and the informal education community, and to promote science communication as a critical part of the science enterprise. Eileen grew up in Ireland where her parents sparked and encouraged her passion for the natural world. After an undergraduate degree in Geology at Trinity College Dublin, she moved to Canada to pursue a PhD at Western in Ontario and then was hired at the University of Victoria in the Geography Department. Together with the geoscience community in Victoria she helped establish the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at UVic and was a founding member and faculty there for over 30 years. She and her husband moved to Simon Fraser University in 2016. Eileen is a board member and director for the Canadian Geological Foundation and past president for the Canadian Geoscience Education Network. She is very proud of two grown children Connor and Alison and over the moon to have recently become a grandma.
Stephanie is a sea-going physical oceanographer. She is interested in large-scale circulation and the ocean's role in the climate system and the inter-relationships between various components of the oceanic circulations at different times. She approaches her research both through observational & theoretical perspectives. She uses targeted field observations, observational data analysis, idealised process modeling, analytical analysis & lab studies. Her main aim is to overserve real-world systems, identify the important physical processes generating individual phenomena, and reduce their complexity to a model which is useful. She’s specifically interested in: Arctic oceanography and the mixing of different types of waters in that ocean, southern ocean dynamics, the role of “eddy fluxes” in the western boundary and geophysical fluid dynamics.
Santa J. Ono, Ph.D., FRSC, FCAHS is the 15th President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of British Columbia. He also serves as Chair of the U15 Group of Universities, on the Board of Directors of Universities Canada, and as Past Chair of Research Universities of British Columbia. In 2018, he served as co-chair of the Tri-council advisory committee on equity, diversity and inclusion policy. Prior to his appointment as President and Vice-Chancellor of UBC, Dr. Ono served as the 28th President of the University of Cincinnati and Senior Vice-Provost and Deputy to the Provost at Emory University. A molecular immunologist educated at the University of Chicago and McGill, Dr. Ono has taught at Johns Hopkins, Harvard University and University College London. He holds Honorary Doctorates from Chiba University and the Vancouver School of Theology and is a recipient of the Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award from the American Council on Education, the Professional Achievement Award from University of Chicago, a Grand Challenges Hero Award from UCLA and the NAAAP 100 Award from the National Association of Asian American Professionals.
Dan is an interdisciplinary and intersectional researcher in between the fields of climate change and renewable power. He recently joined a renewable power company in London UK; at the same time as finishing a PhD in the economic impacts of climate change on wind and solar power at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London. Dan has worked in sustainability, energy, climate change and property development roles all over the UK and across public and private sectors. Dan leans on his intersectionality and we explore how this can inform his interdisciplinary research, especially with a human centred approach to integrating climate science into power system and energy policy decision making.
Dr. Bonnie Henry was appointed as British Columbia’s Provincial Health Officer in 2018 following three years as the Deputy Provincial Health Officer. As BC’s most senior public health official, Dr. Henry is responsible for monitoring the health of all British Columbians and undertaking measures for disease prevention and control and health protection. Most recently Dr. Henry has led the province’s response on the COVID-19 pandemic and drug overdose emergency. Dr. Henry’s experience in public health, preventive medicine and global pandemics has extended throughout her career. She served in a number of senior roles at the BC Centre for Disease Control and Toronto Public Health, including as the operational lead in the response to the SARS outbreak in Toronto. She has worked internationally with the WHO/UNICEF polio eradication program in Pakistan and with the WHO to control the Ebola outbreak in Uganda and has been actively involved in mass gathering health planning in Canada and internationally. She is a specialist in public health and preventive medicine and is board certified in preventive medicine in the U.S. She graduated from Dalhousie Medical School, completed a Masters in Public Health and residency training in preventive medicine at University of California, San Diego and in community medicine at University of Toronto. She is an associate professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia.
Francis is a geoscience education specialist in Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at UBC. Before that, he spent 10 years teaching geophysics and supporting geophysical inversion research and technology transfer with the UBC Geophysical Inversion Facility. In 1987 he completed an MSc in geophysics and glaciology, then worked for 12 years as a professional geophysicist in instrumentation, mineral and geotechnical exploration, glaciology, and oil/gas well-logging. Currently, he focuses on developing interactive learning strategies for distance and classroom learning with the current emphasis on renewal of quantitative courses and curriculum in the Earth sciences. Recently, he completed 2 years as coordinator of the curriculum development partnership that built a 22-course curriculum for the University of Central Asia’s (UCA) Earth and Environmental Sciences BSc degree program currently being taught at UCA’s campus in Khorog, Tajikistan.
Jacqueline Weston is a Professional Engineer with a Master's Degree in Applied Science and certification as a Project Management Professional. Her 31 years of experience include 11 years in private consulting as a process engineer and project manager, and twenty years as a municipal engineer with progressively responsible management positions. Jacqueline is currently the Operations Manager for the Capital Regional District’s Core Area Wastewater Treatment and Conveyance System, having previously been the Project Manager for the design and construction of the new Wastewater Treatment Plant. Jacqueline has thoroughly enjoyed her career so far and encourages young people who love science, math and hands-on problem solving to consider a career in engineering!
Jim Haggart is a Research Scientist at the Vancouver office of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) specializing in Jurassic-Cretaceous stratigraphy and macrofaunal paleontology. He obtained graduate degrees from University of California prior to moving to Ottawa to join the GSC. Jim has led geological mapping programs in Haida Gwaii, the Coast Mountains and central Interior regions of British Columbia, and in the Baffin Bay area of Nunavut. He served recently as Vice-Chair of the International Subcommission on Cretaceous Stratigraphy and Chair of the North American Commission on Stratigraphy (NACS). Locally, Jim served as Chair of the British Columbia Paleontological Alliance (BCPA) for many years and helped to establish province-wide outreach and educational initiatives fostering strong relationships between professionals and amateur paleontology groups. He has also provided extensive advice and expertise to the British Columbia Provincial Government in helping to establish a Fossil Management Framework for the province as well as a Provincial Fossil. Jim has authored or co-authored over 200 scientific publications and over 125 published conference abstracts. He has also produced over 200 Paleontological Reports for the Geological Survey of Canada, many of them on British Columbia fossils.
Lindsey Heagy is joining EOAS as an Assistant Professor this July. She completed her BSc in geophysics at the University of Alberta in 2012 and her PhD at UBC in 2018, where she was a Vanier Scholar. Following the completion of her PhD, she was a Postdoctoral researcher in the Statistics Department at UC Berkeley. Her research interests are in data science and inverse theory, and she is interested in applications including minerals, groundwater, and environmental studies. She is a co-founder and project-lead for SimPEG, an open-source software project for geophysical inversions that has been adopted by geoscientists internationally at multiple universities, national labs, and mining companies. In 2019, she was awarded the Gerald W. Hohmann Outstanding Young Scientist award for advances in simulation and inversion of electromagnetic data and promotion of an open source culture for collaborative, inclusive and reproducible research.
Mark Jellinek is a Professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He is an internationally-recognized geophysicist who works on problems in magmatic and volcanic processes and hazards, geodynamics, long-term climate change, surface processes and the evolution of Earth and other rocky planets. Mark is deeply committed to education and outreach, as chair of the Public and Internal Relations Committee and recipient of various prestigious teaching awards, including the UBC Killam teaching prize. In his spare time, Mark can be found mountain biking or backcountry skiing in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains.
Roland Stull is a professor of Atmospheric Sciences in the UBC department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. During his 26 years at UBC, his focus has been on numerical weather prediction - using large computers to forecast the weather. His research team of about 15 scientists and students study renewable energy meteorology (wind, hydro, & solar power), weather disasters (forest fires, windstorms, floods), transportation weather (highway, railroad, bus, shipping), and special projects. He is a commercial pilot, and has held a multi-engine flight-instructor certificate for many decades. In his spare time, he enjoys biking.
Andy is a professional geologist living in Vancouver who is tailoring his career to bring change to the minerals exploration industry. Since 2014, he has established his consulting business, SGDS Hive, which takes on graduate geoscientists and mentors them through a variety of exploration projects to help engage and educate the next generation of geologists. He also started a non-profit society, Below BC, to provide outreach to the public around Earth Science topics, which now serves several thousand people in British Columbia each year. Andy was awarded the Bedford Young Mining Leaders Award from the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum in 2016 for his ongoing contributions to the industry, and the AME Special Tribute Award 2020 for contributions to geological knowledge in British Columbia.
He gained his bachelors degree in Environmental Geoscience from the University of Cardiff (Wales). Outside of his own businesses, Andy is an Executive Director at the Association for Mineral Exploration, and also sits on the Geological Society Committee for the Canadian Institute of Mining, Mining and Petroleum and has several other community volunteer roles beyond the exploration industry.
Dr. Kendra Chritz looks at the chemistry of ancient biological material (teeth, bones, soils) to tell what past environments were like. Her particular interest is in the intersecting interactions between people and their ecosystems over time: how the environments we evolved in made us who we are, how prone we are to modifying our environments, what we’re doing to environments now. Because of her particular focus on the ancient evolutionary aspect of her work, I do most of my research in museums around the world and in the field in eastern Africa, where we evolved.
Catherine Johnson is a professor of geophysics at UBC, Vancouver and a Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson. Her research group works on problems in planetary science using data returned by recent and older NASA missions, including the Apollo missions to the Moon. Outside work she practices and teaches yoga (RYT 500) and spends time outside with her family and Bernese Mountain Dog.
Kirsten Hodge is a volcanologist and science educator. She is currently the Director of the Pacific Museum of Earth (PME), one of the University of British Columbia’s main outreach hubs. At the PME, she oversees how the museum engages, excites, and educates the UBC community as well as local youth and teachers. Her work at the PME provides a link between the fundamental science that shapes our planet (“how science works in general”) to topics that have environmental, economic, and societal importance (“why do we care?“).
Dr. Meigan Aronson was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia (UBC) on September 1, 2018. Prior to her arrival at UBC, Dr. Aronson served as Professor of Physics and Dean of the College of Science at Texas A&M University, where she held appointments in the departments of Physics and Astronomy, and Materials Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on the discovery and characterization of quantum materials, with a particular interest in uncovering new superconductors.
There is a lot of diversity under the science umbrella and not all scientists wear lab coats. On Earth showcases the people behind the science — who they are, why they got into their field, with tidbits of advice for people considering a career in science. Daniel Gowryluk explores the unexpected & interesting sides of science through conversations with researchers and educators about their work On Earth & beyond!
Simon Peacock is a geology professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at UBC. Prof. Peacock joined UBC in 2006 and served as the Dean of the Faculty of Science from 2006 to 2018. He earned BS and MS degrees in Geology from MIT (1981) and a PhD in Geology from UCLA (1985). From 1985 to 2006, he was a geology professor and administrator at Arizona State University. Prof. Peacock’s research focuses on understanding earthquakes and mountain-building processes. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and has published more than 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals including Science, Nature, and Geology.
Dr. Michael Lipsen is an oceanographer and environmentalist who has been teaching in the Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences department at UBC since 1999. Although his original research interests included looking at where diatoms hid the loose carbon dioxide that was lurking in every environment, he is now happy instructing undergraduates on the beauty and complexity of the marine world around them.
Sarah is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia, studying earthquakes along the Queen Charlotte Fault offshore British Columbia. She is primarily interested in the mechanisms that drive earthquakes, fault-magma interactions, and evolution of plate boundaries. She analyzes earthquake waves to figure out the kinds of motion that creates the earthquakes and investigates them in the context of the seismic activity and tectonic processes in the region. Her serendipitous journey to becoming a seismologist was propelled by her early fascination with rocks thanks to her geologist dad, her affinity towards physics and materials science which she pursued as undergraduate degrees, and her firsthand experience of geohazards having grown up in the Philippines which sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Megan Russell is a planetary scientist in the Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. After completing a BSc in Space Science at York University, she moved to Vancouver to work at an Earth remote sensing company before starting her MSc in Planetary Science at UBC with Dr. Catherine L. Johnson. She uses observations collected from orbit around other planets to help determine certain characteristics about their surface or subsurface, and tie this into their evolution. She is currently studying volcanism on Venus. Unsolved questions include: Is Venus volcanically active today? Earth and Venus formed in the same solar system neighbourhood, but why did they end up so different? Is the surface composed of regular lava such as we see near Hawaii, or is it something more exotic and how can we use the shapes of volcanic features in images to test theories? She continues to follow a lifelong curiosity with anything and everything space related.
Rachel is an Assistant Professor in Climate Dynamics in the EOAS Department. She studied physics at the University of Cambridge, before completing her PhD in Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College London. She has recently moved to Vancouver after working as a post-doc in Seattle (US) and then Barcelona (Spain), and is excited to be here at UBC. Rachel enjoys climate outreach and talking to the public about climate and extreme weather, and has aspirations to one day combine her hobby of aerial circus with a climate outreach event!
Graham Young has degrees in Biology and Geology from the University of New Brunswick and University of Toronto. After completing a Ph.D. at UNB, he carried out postdoctoral work in Newcastle, England. Graham moved to Winnipeg in 1990 to do research at the University of Manitoba, and has worked at the Manitoba Museum since 1993. At the Museum, Graham is responsible for building collections, dealing with public inquiries, and preparing exhibits. Graham’s research focuses on ancient environments, ecosystems, and unusual fossils such as jellyfish and horseshoe crabs. Most of his field research is on sites in northern Manitoba.
Mika McKinnon is a geophysicist, disaster researcher, and scifi scientist. Mika is an Adjunct Professor in the department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, and a research scientist at the SETI Institute with Project ESPRESSO where she works on landslides on asteroids and other small bodies in space. As your friendly neighbourhood geoscientist, she offers tasting notes on rocks, tweaks party planning to enhance disaster preparedness, and obsesses over impending doom.
Xueya Lu is from China, Xinjiang province. She moved to Canada in 2013 and began her Master's studies at the University of British Columbia in 2017. Xueya's thesis project focuses on characterizing the reactivity of ultramafic mine tailings for low-cost carbon capture utilization and storage. To do this, Xueya conducts laboratory-scale kinetic dissolution experiments and geochemical numerical models to quantify the number of magnesium cations that can be easily leached from ultramafic tailings under atmospheric conditions. Upon finishing her thesis, Xueya aims to establish an applicable testing protocol to quickly and easily assess tailings' reactivity for carbon mineralization. Xueya sees herself progressing in the field of carbon capture, helping support the fight for climate change and supporting innovative research as a scientist and an adventurer.
Manar is a research scientist in the Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. She is interested in understanding the evolution of different parts of the solar system and its constituents. Her research career started with studying the interactions between Mercury’s magnetic field and the solar wind, and continued through her involvement as a scientific collaborator and Deputy Instrument Scientist on the OSIRIS-REx mission, the first NASA mission to attempt to bring a pristine sample back to Earth from an asteroid. Manar will begin her Ph.D. at the University of Berkley in January 2020 where she will expand her knowledge of planetary evolution through the study of the motion of material throughout Earth. Her main focus will be the interactions between the core and mantle throughout Earth’s history.
Katrin is a master’s student at in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia working in the carbon mineralization group with Prof. Greg Dipple. She studies the origin and serpentinization of ultramafic rocks in the Decar area in central British Columbia and the formation of brucite and awaruite. Specifically these minerals for their potential for carbon mineralization and nickel recovery, hopefully helping with making a carbon neutral mine.
Johan (Yoshi) Gilchrist was born and raised in New Jersey, USA, and moved to Vancouver, BC to study Geophysics at UBC in 2008. Since then, he has carved a niche for himself in the field of volcanology by studying the rise and fall of volcanic rocks, pumice, ash and gas in the atmosphere and oceans during explosive eruptions by using laboratory, field and computer based methods. Outside of academia, Yoshi loves to play basketball, however, he stays close to the volcanic mountains he studies by mountain biking, rock climbing, mountaineering and backcountry snowboarding in the Pacific Northwest of North America.
Dr. Craig Poku is an atmospheric and climate scientist based at the University of Leeds. He completed a degree in Mathematics at King’s College London, where he graduated with a 1st Class Honours in 2014. Following this, he went onto a completing a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences in 2019, where he focused on improving our understanding on fog microphysics over the UK. His current work focuses on improving fog forecasting over India, in addition to understanding how we can adapt climate change communications for different parts of society.
Kimberly is the Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences' Administrative and Office Assistant. With several years of customer service and administrative experience, Kimberly has an eye for detail and a desire to learn and to help. In her free time, Kimberly can be found attempting to stand on her hands.
Brett Gilley has been teaching geoscience in the Vancouver area for almost 20 years. He has worked at several institutions in the Metro Vancouver area and was part of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative for 7 years before becoming a Professor of Teaching in Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. His research focuses on improving Geoscience education and making Geoscience more accessible for students with disabilities.
Roger Beckie, P.Eng. FEC, is a professor and geological engineer in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He holds a B.A.Sc. degree in Geological Engineering from the University of Waterloo, and an M.A. and PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Princeton University. At UBC he was a Director of the Geological Engineering Program (2002-2011) and Department Head (2014 - 2019) of EOAS. His area of research is groundwater hydrology and geochemistry, with recent emphasis on naturally occurring arsenic is aquifers in south Asia, the hydrology and hydrogeochemistry of mine waste rock, and the impacts of fugitive natural gas associated with unconventional gas development on groundwater in the Peace Region of NE British Columbia. He is the director of the Energy and Environment Research Initiative (https://eeri.ubc.ca) at UBC.
Colin Rowell is a PhD Candidate at the University of British Columbia working with Prof. Mark Jellinek, researching explosive volcanic eruptions and their interaction with the Earth's atmosphere, ice sheets, and climate system. In particular, he studies how conditions at the eruption source govern where and how ash and climate-altering gases are delivered into the atmosphere. Outside of research, he teaches topics in climate change and climate science as an interdisciplinary guest lecturer.
Sophie is a MSc student in geology whose current research broadly focuses on volcanoes that erupt under ice, and more specifically examines the formation of the alteration product palagonite. She did her undergraduate studies at Middlebury College in Vermont, where she conducted research on cinder cone volcanism in the Cascades. She is interested in the use of volcanic records in paleoclimate reconstruction as well as they ways that volcanoes can force climatic changes. During quarantine, in addition to continuing research, she is learning to be marginally better at playing the mandolin.
Under the supervision of Dr. Dominique Weis, I am exploring the impacts of environmental pollution using honey bees as bioindicators. Trace element and isotopic fingerprints of honey samples (and other bee products) from the greater Vancouver area can serve as a proxy for chemical snapshots of ~2 km-diameter regions (the range of a typical honey bee). Thus, we can assess small-scale variations in trace elements, and their isotopes, of particular interest to pollution processes.
Dominique Weis is a leader in the innovative use of trace elements and isotope geochemistry, and is widely respected “for the elegance, precision and impact of her geochemical studies of the Earth from large igneous provinces to the environment." Specifically, her research aims to (1) improve our understanding of planetary evolution and the Earth’s environment, (2) model the geochemical and isotopic variations of the Earth’s mantle through a comparative study of large igneous provinces and more recent volcanic centres, and (3) determine the origin, source and pathways of mantle plumes, and their variations through time. As Director of the Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research, Dr. Weis is closely involved in the training of highly qualified personnel, and with industrial partners in the technology transfer and application of novel isotopic techniques for solving earth and environmental problems.
Katherine Raymond works as a research scientist with Professor Uli Mayer in EOAS. Using the reactive transport modeling code MIN3P, she builds conceptual models using high performance computing to look at different environmental solutions related to the mining industry.
Sara Harris is a Professor of Teaching in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. She typically teaches climate science, environmental science, and oceanography, which she will continue after she finishes serving in the Faculty of Science Dean's Office as Associate Dean Academic.
Anthony Di Stefano is a PhD student in the Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. Anthony is an atmospheric scientist whose work aims to improve the representation of clouds and precipitation in weather forecast models. His goal is to produce higher-accuracy precipitation forecasts in British Columbia. In the new normal brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Anthony is taking time to re-examine his purpose, in research as in everyday life. His aim is to bring social and scientific views of the weather closer together, and to be part of a science community embracing greater standards of inclusion, equity and justice.
Daniel Gowryluk is the Education Outreach Coordinator and Assistant Curator at the Pacific Museum of Earth. Daniel joined the PME team in 2018 following a successful career path through several other science museums—from Manitoba to British Columbia. He has a passion for inspiring curiosity and wonder in all museum visitors and has fundamentally reshaped the museum’s outreach voice through his whimsical and upbeat personality.
Mitch D’Arcy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. Mitch joined the faculty at UBC in March 2020, making him one of the newest faculty members. He is a geomorphologist who studies how climate change influences surface processes on Earth. Originally from London in the U.K., Mitch has been in Germany for the past years prior to his move to Vancouver.
Stuart Sutherland is a micro-paleontologist and Professor of teaching in the Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. Originally from the U.K., Stuart has been in Vancouver since 2000 when he joined the faculty at UBC. He is an award-winning educator and currently serves as a member of the Pacific Museum of Earth advisory committee.
Tara started in marine biology, but has since moved into studying how the non-living aspects of the ocean affect its ecosystems and the wider planet. This has given her an appreciation for the interconnected nature of Earth’s systems. Her research focussed on paleo-oceanography – the study of ancient oceans. She teaches full time at the University of British Columbia, and is an advocate of environmental education.
Philippe is currently the head of the Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences. He is an avid promoter of his students’ research, as well as incubating a curiosity of the ocean in the next generation. His research takes him as far away as the subarctic Pacific, and as nearby as Saanich Inlet. He studies plankton, seasonal chemical variations in the ocean, and atmosphere-altering bacteria.
Brian is a biological/ ecosystem oceanographer. His research focuses on the interactions between the different factors in the aquatic environment, and how the affect each other. He has a strong focus on the fundamental role phytoplankton plays in aquatic ecosystems. While his research has taken him to oceans around the world, he’s currently concentrating on B.C.’s coastal aquatic environments. Brian has done significant work studying the early life cycles of local salmon & herring.
Lisa is an independent palaeontologist who specializes in footprints & early bird evolution. She’s made some spectacular discoveries in B.C., and around the world. While footprints may not sound like the most exciting of fossils, Lisa is an expert in explaining why they’re some of the most fascinating fossils out there!
Laura is a PhD student at SFU who is using mammoth remains to track glaciation in B.C. She’s experimenting with carbon dating those remains to determine when parts of the province were under ice. Recently, she even tested some specimens in the PME’s collection!
Laura straddles the line between archaeology and palaeontology, and as a result, has to be very nimble in her research.
Marianne is co-owner of Gopher Productions, an entertainment production company. She has an active piano teaching practice that has thrived for more than 20 years. Among other credits, Marianne has produced a short film, two music recordings, and written and performed music for film.
In 2015, Marianne developed a passion for palaeontology while digging for fossils in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. Since that time, every summer, she has performed fieldwork at various sites across Canada. During the year, Marianne volunteers as the manager of the Pacific Museum of Earth Fossil Lab where she is in charge of organizing and cataloging the fossil collection. Her favourite activity at the lab is preparing fossils for further research.
Marianne currently resides in Kitsilano with her husband, Ronin.