Climate Researcher Database

With over 500 faculty members investigating climate-related topics 
across two UBC campuses, it can be hard to know where to start. 

This page provides a searchable list of UBC faculty members conducting climate and climate-related research across the university. 

The database allows you to filter by campus, faculty or school, and research theme, or you can search by keywords.

If you are you a UBC research associate or faculty member who wish to be added to the tool, or to adjust an existing entry, please complete this Qualtrics survey or email us at climate.collective@ubc.ca.

Would you like to partner with UBC researchers?  You can connect with Innovation + Partnerships for support in Vancouver and the Okanagan.

For support with media enquiries, please reach out to UBC Media Relations in Vancouver or UBC University Relations in Kelowna. 

You can also contact us at climate.collective@ubc.ca 

Name Campus Research Interests Faculty Department, School, Affiliations Research Theme(s)
Jörg Bohlmann UBC Vancouver Forest health; Bark beetle; Mountain pine beetle; Natural products; Conifer genomics; Chemical ecology of conifer- insect interactions. Faculty of Forestry, Faculty of Science Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; Department of Botany; Genome Sciences and Technology (GSAT) Graduate Program; Wine Research Centre; Michael Smith Laboratories; Bohlmann Lab Biodiversity, Bioprocesses and Biotechnology, Forestry, Agriculture
Nadine Borduas-Dedekind UBC Vancouver Chemical reactions within the atmosphere, focusing on the emissions from both anthropogenic and biogenic sources as starting materials; How wind and turbulence influence these reactions, along with the role of sunlight. Faculty of Science Department of Chemistry; Bioproducts Institute; NBD Group Atmospheric Science, Pollution, Health and Wellbeing
Ilan Boris Vertinsky UBC Vancouver Decision theory and corporate strategy; Resource and forest management; International business and the pacific rim; Political evaluation of policy. Sauder School of Business Operations and Logistics Division; Strategy and Business Economics Division; Commerce and Business Administration Natural Resource Management, Policy and Governance, Business Processes and Corporate Governance, Agriculture
Mathieu Bourbonnai UBC Okanagan Geographic information sciences; Spatial analysis and statistics; Movement ecology; Remote sensing. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences; Centre for Wildfire Coexistence Wildfires and Forest Fires, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Forestry, Climate Risk Management, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response
Katherine Bowers UBC Vancouver Genre; Narrative; Environmental humanities; Imagined geography; Digital humanities; Russian literature and culture; Environmental catastrophe; Eco-anxiety. Faculty of Arts Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies; Centre for Migration Studies; UBC Language Sciences; Science and Technology Studies Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Health and Wellbeing
William Bowie UBC Vancouver Climate change; Environmental degradation; Inequities and infection; Immune system; Social, economic and environmental factors which put people at risk for infection. Faculty of Medicine Department of Medicine; Division of Infectious Diseases Health and Wellbeing
David Boyd UBC Vancouver Environmental justice; Environmental rights and responsibilities; Rights of nature; Debate between regulation and economic instruments; Urban environmental issues. Faculty of Arts School of Public Policy and Global Affairs; Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS) Environmental Law, Policy and Governance, Climate Justice, Urban Planning and Cities
Hal Bradbury UBC Vancouver Marine sedimentary environments; Early-stage diagenesis; Chemical, mineralogical and petrological changes that sediments undergo before they become rocks; Early diagenetic processes such as oxidation of organic matter in marine sediments, and the effect these have on changes in carbon mineralisation. Faculty of Science Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences Oceans and Coastal Systems, Carbon Cycle, Freshwater Systems
Michael Brauer UBC Vancouver Linkages between the built environment and human health; Transportation-related and biomass air pollution; Global health impacts of air pollution; Relationships between multiple exposures mediated by urban form and population health. Faculty of Medicine School of Population and Public Health; Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory (APEL); Environmental Health Research Team; Marine Systems Research Cluster; Climate Change Health Effects, Adaptation, and ResiLience (HEAL) Urban Planning and Cities, Pollution, Climate Justice, Health and Wellbeing, Policy and Governance
Colin Brauner UBC Vancouver Environmental adaptations (both mechanistic and evolutionary) in relation to gas-exchange; Acid-base balance and ion regulation in fish. Faculty of Science Department of Zoology; Brauner's Lab; Biodiversity Research Centre Oceans and Coastal Systems, Natural Resource Management, Fisheries, Biodiversity
Emily Brigham UBC Vancouver Indoor air pollution; Asthma; COPD; Adaptation; Determinants of health (social determinants, ecological determinants); Environmental, occupational, public, mental health; Epidemiology; Equity; Environmental justice; Monitoring, exposure assessment, modeling. Faculty of Medicine Division of Respiratory Medicine; Climate Change Health Effects, Adaptation, and ResiLience (HEAL) Pollution, Health and Wellbeing, Climate Justice, Urban Planning and Cities
Joshua Brinkerhoff UBC Okanagan Healthy and efficient buildings; Human/atmosphere interactions; Laminar-to-turbulent transition; Turbomachinery in the LNG industry; Multiphase turbulent flows; Air quality simulation; Biofluid mechanics; Dispersion of atmospheric pollutants in urban and agricultural environments and in buildings employing passive ventilation systems. Faculty of Applied Science School of Engineering (Mechanical); UBC Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC); Computational Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Hydrogen, Transportation, Oil and Gas
Loch Brown UBC Vancouver Theory and practice of sustainable development; Development-related challenges facing Sub-Saharan Africa; Human environment interactions; Sustainability. Faculty of Arts Department of Geography Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Policy and Governance, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Agriculture, Natural Resource Management, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy
Sandra Brown UBC Vancouver Soil science education; Climate change; Water resources; Water governance; Land-water interactions; Water metabolism. Faculty of Land and Food Systems Soil, Water, and Sustainability Group; Applied Biology Program Land Use, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Water Resources and Supply, Natural Resource Management
Kimberley Brownlee UBC Vancouver Ethics; Social-political philosophy; Emergent climate response research; Climate justice; Loneliness; Belonging; Social human rights; Freedom of association; Civil disobedience; Punishment; Restorative justice. Faculty of Arts Department of Philosophy; Centre for Climate Justice Climate Justice, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Climate Activism and Social Movements
Harry Brumer UBC Vancouver Fundamental and applied carbohydrate enzymology; How particular enzymes act to alter the structure of polysaccharides found in biomass (especially plant cell walls and wood fibers); Molecular details of polysaccharide synthesis and deconstruction in recycling of biomass in the global carbon cycle; Improved use of renewable biomass resources in the forest products, agricultural, and textile industries. Faculty of Science Department of Botany; Department of Chemistry; Genome Sciences and Technology (GSAT) Graduate Program; Michael Smith Laboratories Bioprocesses and Biotechnology, Biofuels and Biomass, Carbon Cycle, Waste and Waste Management
Janette Bulkan UBC Vancouver Community forestry; Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD); Illegal logging; Forest certification systems; Social and cultural indicators of sustainable forest management. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management; Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Forestry, Natural Resource Management, Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems, Livelihoods and Traditional Economies, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation
Gary Bull UBC Vancouver Economics of ecosystem services; Modelling the impacts of biotechnology; Sustainability in fibre supply chains. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management; Bioproducts Institute; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Forestry, Policy and Governance, Biofuels and Biomass, Carbon Management, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation
Cole Burton UBC Vancouver Understanding mammal community dynamics in human-impacted ecosystems; Assessing conservation strategies for human-wildlife coexistence; Carnivore ecology and conservation. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS); Biodiversity Research Centre Terrestrial Ecosystems, Natural Resource Management, Biodiversity, Policy and Governance
Marc Bustin UBC Vancouver Reservoir characterisation of unconventional petroleum resources; Gas shales and oil producing shales; Coalbed methane; Organic maturation; Coal sedimentology; Impact of diagenesis on pore systems in tight rocks; Reservoir production modeling; Mechanical stratigraphy of strata. Faculty of Science Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences Oil and Gas, Carbon Management
Michael Byers UBC Vancouver Human rights; Civil liberties; Arms control; Nuclear; Treaties; Environment; Climate change; Global politics; International law; Outer Space; Arctic sovereignty; Climate change; Law of the sea; Laws of war; Canadian foreign and defense policy. Faculty of Forestry Department of Political Science Environmental Law, International Negotiations and Treaties, Policy and Governance
Holly Caggiano UBC Vancouver Social dimensions of the renewable energy transition in the US and Canada; How diverse stakeholder groups form coalitions to advocate for environmental change; Individual decision-making influences on collective action and how collective action disrupts existing relations of power. Faculty of Applied Science School of Community and Regional Planning; Centre for Climate Justice Climate Justice, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Policy and Governance, Climate Activism and Social Movements
Candis Callison UBC Vancouver The role of social movements in public discourse; How issues related to science and technology become meaningful for diverse publics; Changes to professional norms, practices and standards for Canadian Arctic journalists working in an era of environmental change and global audiences. Faculty of Arts School of Journalism, Writing, and Media; Science and Technology Studies; Centre for Climate Justice; School of Public Policy and Global Affairs Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Climate Justice, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation
Pat Camp UBC Vancouver Determinants of health (social determinants, ecological determinants); Environmental health; Occupational health; Public health; Mental health; Indigenous climate experiences. Faculty of Medicine Department of Physical Therapy; Climate Change Health Effects, Adaptation, and ResiLience (HEAL) Health and Wellbeing, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Pollution, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Warren Cardinal-McTeague UBC Vancouver Plant biodiversity; Indigenous environmental management and food systems (or more accurately, Indigenous relationships with the land); Monitoring of ecosystem health and function. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; Biodiversity Research Centre Biodiversity, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Forestry, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy
Kenneth Carlaw UBC Okanagan Evolutionary economics applied to historical technological change and sustainable long term economic growth; Application in policy analysis of economic growth, development and sustainability as well in the development of measurement methodology; Analysis of issues of socially just wealth distribution. Faculty of Arts Department of Economics, Philosophy and Political Science Policy and Governance, Climate Justice, Economic Modeling and Data Analysis, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Christopher Carlsten UBC Vancouver Air pollution; Respiratory and immunological health effects of inhaled environmental and occupational exposures, using diesel exhaust, western red cedar, and phthalates as model inhalants. Faculty of Medicine Department of Medicine; Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory (APEL); Division of Respiratory Medicine; Centre for Heart Lung Innovation; Climate Change Health Effects, Adaptation, and ResiLience (HEAL) Pollution, Atmospheric Science, Health and Wellbeing, Transportation
Juli Carrillo UBC Vancouver Plant-insect interactions; Agroecology; Invasive species; Evolution; Ecology; Supporting insect communities in their important contributions to ecosystem services in agriculture, leading to more sustainable and resilient food systems. Faculty of Land and Food Systems Plant-Insect Ecology & Evolution Lab; Centre for Sustainable Food Systems; Applied Biology Program; BeeHIVE Research Excellence Cluster; Biodiversity Research Centre; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC); Diversified Agroecosystem Cluster Biodiversity, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Agriculture, Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems
Allan Carroll UBC Vancouver Climate change and the population dynamics and impacts of eruptive forest insects; Climate change; Mountain pine beetle; Bark beetles; Forest disturbance; Integrated pest management in forests; Insect ecology. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; Forest Insect Disturbance Ecology Lab Forestry, Biodiversity, Natural Resource Management
Simone Castellarin UBC Vancouver Viticulture and grapevine physiology; Physiological and molecular aspects that underlay fruit ripening and the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and how they are modulated by the environment and viticultural practices. Faculty of Land and Food Systems, Faculty of Science Department of Botany; Wine Research Centre; Castellarin Lab; Centre for Sustainable Food Systems; Diversified Agroecosystem Cluster; Wine Production and Climate Change Agriculture
Kai Chan UBC Vancouver Ecosystem services; Ecosystem-based management; Biodiversity conservation; Sustainability science; Social-ecological systems; Environmental assessment; Environmental policy, Conservation biology; Ecology; Evolutionary biology; Policy and ethics. Faculty of Science Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; Biodiversity Research Centre; CHANS Lab; Centre for Sustainable Food Systems Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Natural Resource Management, Climate Justice, Fisheries, Environmental Psychology, Agriculture
Stephanie Chang UBC Vancouver Disaster and risk management planning; Natural hazards; Climate change; Community resilience; Urban infrastructure systems; Major urban disasters; Computer modeling and analysis of risk reduction strategies; Transportation; Urban infrastructure. Faculty of Applied Science, Faculty of Science Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; School of Community and Regional Planning; Strait of Georgia Data Centre; Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions; Master in Engineering Leadership; Cool Tools Warm World Research Cluster; Disaster Resilience Research Network Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Transportation, Urban Planning and Cities, Climate Risk Management, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Christopher Chanway UBC Vancouver Soil microbiology and plant growth; Bacterial endophytes of gymnosperms; Biological nitrogen fixation; Plant-microorganism interactions; Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences Forestry, Waste and Waste Management, Agriculture
Y. Christine Chen UBC Vancouver Control and operation of electric power systems; Power systems analysis and control; Grid monitoring and analytics; Renewable resource integration. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Electricity, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions
William (Wai Lung) Cheung UBC Vancouver Assessing the responses and vulnerabilities of marine ecosystems, fisheries and dependent human communities to global change; Examining trade-offs in managing and conserving living marine resources; Aquaculture development in a changing ocean; Developing and using scenarios and models to explore solution options and pathways to desirable and sustainable ocean futures. Faculty of Science Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries; Changing Ocean Research Unit (CORU); Solving the Sustainability Challenges at the Food-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus (Solving-FCB) Partnership Oceans and Coastal Systems, Biodiversity, Fisheries, Climate Modelling and Data Analysis, Livelihoods and Traditional Economies
Villy Christensen UBC Vancouver Ecosystem modeling; Global ocean; Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service (IPBES); Ecopath; Ecosystem modeling of aquatic ecosystems; Management systems that are resilient to climate change; Policy. Faculty of Science Department of Zoology; Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries; Strait of Georgia Data Centre Climate Modelling and Data Analysis, Oceans and Coastal Systems, Fisheries, Natural Resource Management
Kendra Chritz UBC Vancouver Evolution of cooperation; Evolutionary dynamics; Structured populations; Social networks; Game theory; Adaptive dynamics. Faculty of Science Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences Paleoclimate, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Robert Clifford UBC Vancouver Indigenous law and Indigenous legal theory, including on legal pluralism, Indigenous language revitalization, and Indigenous spirituality; How WSÁNE? laws are generated by and reflect the values, philosophies, lands, and worldviews of the WSÁNE? people; W̱SÁNEĆ law and how it functions; How revitalization of W̱SÁNEĆ law can happen given the dynamics of colonialism and climate change. Peter A. Allard School of Law Centre for Law and the Environment Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Environmental Law, Policy and Governance, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation
Peter Cole UBC Vancouver Ecojustice; Indigenous education; Indigenizing research; Indigenous community engagement, First Nations and settler relations; Language regeneration; Human nonhuman and more-than-human relationalities; Aboriginal and northern studies; Indigenous rituals and ceremonies; Cultural appropriation; Academic colonization; Aboriginal peoples and the performing/visual arts; Indigenous healing and wellness modalities; Indigenous peoples and genocide; Indigenous peoples and place-based education. Faculty of Education Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Climate Justice, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems
Patrick Condon UBC Vancouver Sustainable urban design; Landscape architecture; Sustainable communities; Urban landscapes; Carbon neutral cities. Faculty of Applied Science School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Urban Planning and Cities, Forestry, Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems, Transportation, Buildings and Sustainable Infrastructure Design
James Connolly UBC Vancouver Social-ecological conflicts in the urban environment; Institutional challenges of urban climate and environmental governance; Urban green planning; Urban riskscapes; Justice challenges with urban ecosystem services; Urban environmental stewardship; Urban Spatial Analysis. Faculty of Applied Science School of Community and Regional Planning Urban Planning and Cities, Climate Risk Management, Climate Justice
Julie Cool UBC Vancouver Wood machining and process optimization in both the primary and secondary wood manufacturing sectors; Wood-tool interaction which is critical in understanding how to improve surface quality and product durability, reduce waste, and eliminate unnecessary manufacturing operations. Faculty of Forestry Department of Wood Science Manufacturing and Heavy Industry, Forestry, Buildings and Sustainable Infrastructure Design
Nicholas Coops UBC Vancouver Ecosystem and carbon accumulation modeling for biodiversity; Production and greenhouse calculations; Wildfire; Post fire severity and fuel hazard load mapping from real-time remote sensing. Faculty of Forestry Department of Geography; Department of Forest Resource Management; Integrated Remote Sensing Studio; Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions; Diversified Agroecosystem Cluster Forestry, Biodiversity
Brian Copeland UBC Vancouver Environmental economics; International trade; Interaction between globalization, the environment, and the sustainability of renewable resources. Faculty of Arts Vancouver School of Economics Policy and Governance, International Negotiations and Treaties, Carbon Management, Economic Modeling and Data Analysis, Natural Resource Management
Jonathan Corbett UBC Okanagan Geography; Ethnobiology; Cartography; Exploration, facilitation and promotion of community and ecosystem-based models of land and resource use in communities in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and British Columbia, Canada. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Institute For Community Engaged Research (ICER); Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Climate Justice
Jean-Thomas Cornelis UBC Vancouver Science pedagogy; Feedbacks between soil processes and biogeochemical cycling of elements in terrestrial environments affected by natural and anthropogenic-induced changes; Soil biogeochemical processes; Soil-plant feedback interactions and biogeochemical cycling of elements; Applying the knowledge of soil science for the purpose of suggesting sustainable management of ecosystems. Faculty of Land and Food Systems Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC); The SoilRes3 Lab; Applied Biology Program; BeeHIVE Research Excellence Cluster Terrestrial Ecosystems, Agriculture, Carbon Cycle, Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Indigenous Ways of Knowing
Catherine Corrigall-Brown UBC Vancouver Social movements; Political sociology; Social psychology (particularly the study of identity); Global environmental movements; Social movements in Canada. Faculty of Arts Department of Sociology Climate Activism and Social Movements, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Policy and Governance
Glen Coulthard UBC Vancouver Contemporary political theory; Indigenous thought and politics; Radical social and political thought (marxism, anarchism, post-colonialism). Faculty of Arts Department of Political Science; Centre for Climate Justice Climate Justice, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Policy and Governance, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation
Kathleen Coupland UBC Vancouver Novel classification schema onto forests with the aim of trying to quantify non-timber forest values; Modeling how different forest management regimes can impact carbon storage and sequestration while constraining the model to meet biodiversity metrics. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management Forestry, Biodiversity, Carbon Management, Climate Modelling and Data Analysis
Quentin Cronk UBC Vancouver Comparative genomics; Molecular developmental biology and evolutionary biology to study plant form; Next generation sequencing of whole genomes and transcriptomes. Faculty of Science Department of Botany; Biodiversity Research Centre; Centre for Plant Research; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS); CronkLab Biodiversity

First Nations land acknowledegement

We acknowledge that UBC’s campuses are situated within the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, and in the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples.

Climate Solutions Research Collective

UBC Crest The official logo of the University of British Columbia. Urgent Message An exclamation mark in a speech bubble. Caret An arrowhead indicating direction. Arrow An arrow indicating direction. Arrow in Circle An arrow indicating direction. Arrow in Circle An arrow indicating direction. Chats Two speech clouds. Facebook The logo for the Facebook social media service. Information The letter 'i' in a circle. Instagram The logo for the Instagram social media service. External Link An arrow entering a square. Linkedin The logo for the LinkedIn social media service. Location Pin A map location pin. Mail An envelope. Menu Three horizontal lines indicating a menu. Minus A minus sign. Telephone An antique telephone. Plus A plus symbol indicating more or the ability to add. Search A magnifying glass. Twitter The logo for the Twitter social media service. Youtube The logo for the YouTube video sharing service.