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)
Tim McDaniels UBC Vancouver Climate change adaptation in linked human/ ecological systems; Building regional resilience in infrastructure systems; Citizen involvement in complex policy decisions. Faculty of Applied Science School of Community and Regional Planning; Climate and Energy Decision Making Center; Disaster Resilience Network Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Buildings and Sustainable Infrastructure Design, Climate Risk Management, Health and Wellbeing, Policy and Governance
Fiona McDonald UBC Okanagan Visual anthropology; Anthropology of art; Sensory ethnography; Material culture; Curatorial studies; Museum studies; Textiles; Oral history; Contemporary Indigenous art; Informal science learning and the environment; Anthropocene; Water rights; Open access and digital publishing; North America & Aotearoa New Zealand. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies Climate Justice, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Indigenous Ways of Knowing
Shirley McDonald UBC Okanagan Canadian literature; Colonial history; Prairie settler narratives; Racial stereotypes and postcolonial studies; Embodied and phenomenological approaches to life writing; Composition theory and practice; Scholarship on teaching and learning. Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Department of English and Cultural Studies Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation
Melissa McHale UBC Vancouver Sustainable urbanization processes; Resilient social-ecological systems; Urban ecology; Urban forestry; Green infrastructure. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management; Urban Forests Research Hub; Climate Change Health Effects, Adaptation, and ResiLience (HEAL) Forestry, Urban Planning and Cities, Rural and Northern Communities, Natural Resource Management
Ian McKendry UBC Vancouver Air pollution; Climatology; Meteorological phenomena that develop in regions of complex, urbanized terrain and the effect on the transport and dispersion of air pollution. Faculty of Arts Department of Geography Pollution, Wildfires and Forest Fires, Urban Planning and Cities, Atmospheric Science
Siobhán McPhee UBC Vancouver Economic geography; Labor geography; Newly emerging global cities; Migrant labour; Location-aware technologies; Augmented reality; Alternative methods of knowledge mobilization; Internationalized pedagogy. Faculty of Arts Department of Geography Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Urban Planning and Cities
Parisa Mehrkhodavandi UBC Vancouver The power of catalysis to address environmental challenges; “Green” polymers that are either derived from biorenewable sources and/or are biodegradable in composts, in the oceans, or in the human body; Synthesis and characterization of new families of bio-based / biodegradable / green polymers. Faculty of Science Department of Chemistry; Mehrkhodavandi Research Group Sustainable Materials and Composites, Pollution, Waste and Waste Management
Mike Meitner UBC Vancouver Environmental psychology; Scenic beauty and aesthetics of the natural world; Environmental visualization and geographic information systems; Sustainability planning. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management; Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability Environmental Psychology, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Forestry, Urban Planning and Cities, Climate Justice, Natural Resource Management
Charles Menzies UBC Vancouver Fisheries crises; Traditional ecological knowledge; Local ecological knowledge; Social inequality; Neoliberalism; Tsimshian; Ethnoecology; First Nations land claims; Natural resource management; Fish; Political economy. Faculty of Arts Department of Anthropology; Ethnographic Film Unit Natural Resource Management, Fisheries, Policy and Governance, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Livelihoods and Traditional Economies
Walter Mérida UBC Vancouver Sustainable energy systems; Transportation; Hydrogen; Fuel cells; Policies, technologies and partnerships that enable an equitable society and a low-carbon economy. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Mechanical Engineering; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC); Transportation Futures Research Network; Merida Labs Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Transportation, Hydrogen, Carbon Management, Electricity
AnnaLisa Meyboom UBC Vancouver Impact of advanced computing on the language of wood design; Design of future infrastructures and their critical and catalytic relationships to public space; Transportation infrastructure and public space. Faculty of Applied Science School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Buildings and Sustainable Infrastructure Design, Transportation, Urban Planning and Cities, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions
Carl Michal UBC Vancouver Solid-state NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; White matter brain tissue; Transport and diffusion in polymers, gels, and electrolytes. Faculty of Science Department of Physics and Astronomy; Department of Chemistry; Bioproducts Institute Bioprocesses and Biotechnology, Sustainable Materials and Composites
Sean Michaletz UBC Vancouver Links between environmental variation to plant physiology; Monitoring of climate, ecophysiology, and vegetation dynamics; Ecophysiology; Ecosystem ecology; Climate change; Macroecology; Geophysics; Scaling; Fire. Faculty of Science Department of Botany; Physiological Ecology Lab; Biodiversity Research Centre Biodiversity, Forestry, Alpine, Arctic and Antarctic, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Climate Modelling and Data Analysis, Carbon Cycle
Karin Mickelson UBC Vancouver Environmental law; International environmental law; International human rights; Impact of developing countries on the evolution of international environmental law; International law of North-South relations; Third World approaches to international law. Peter A. Allard School of Law Allard School of Law History Project; Centre for Law and the Environment International Negotiations and Treaties, Environmental Law, Climate Justice, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Petra Mikulan UBC Vancouver Climate injustice; Critical time studies; Anthropocene; Geotrauma; Energy humanities; Environmental humanities; Cultural curriculum studies; Black and Indigenous feminist studies; Race/ethnicity; Social and cultural foundations of education; Research methodologies; Sustainability. Faculty of Education Department of Educational Studies; Centre for Climate Justice Policy and Governance, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Environmental Law, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Climate Justice
Sanja Miskovic UBC Vancouver Optimization and control of mineral processing units and circuits for increased plant availability, increased productivity and reduction of water and energy consumption; Addressing the world's needs through the development of innovative solutions, new technologies and processing pathways that will enable efficient and environmentally sound concentration, extraction, and refinement of minerals, metals, fuels and waste. Faculty of Applied Science Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering Mining
Matthew Mitchell UBC Vancouver Managing human-dominated landscapes, including agricultural and urban landscapes; Understanding how the arrangement of different land uses and habitats across these areas affects ecosystem services and biodiversity; How to effectively quantify both the supply of ecosystem services and their demand by people; Identifying key management actions that can lead to win-win situations for multiple ecosystem services and biodiversity. Faculty of Land and Food Systems, Faculty of Science Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; Department of Forest Resource Management; Diversified Agroecosystem Cluster Agriculture, Forestry, Biodiversity, Urban Planning and Cities, Terrestrial Ecosystems
Bill (William) Mohn UBC Vancouver Pollutant biodegradation; Pollutant bioremediation; Biological treatment of forest industry effluents and wastes; Environmental biotechnology; Forest soil microbial ecology. Faculty of Science Department of Microbiology and Immunology; Bioproducts Institute; Biodiversity Research Centre; Mohn Lab; Life Sciences Institute Health and Wellbeing, Bioprocesses and Biotechnology
Madjid Mohseni UBC Vancouver Water treatment; Ultraviolet (UV), ozone, and advanced oxidation technologies; Environmental pollution control; Bioenergy from waste; Environmental bioprocesses; Biofiltration; Biological wastewater treatment; Advanced oxidation. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Pulp and Paper Centre; Sustainable Water Innovation and Research Laboratory; Bioproducts Institute; Research-Based Theatre Collaborative; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Pollution, Water Resources and Supply, Waste and Waste Management, Buildings and Sustainable Infrastructure Design
Bernard Momer UBC Okanagan Urban cultural geography; Urban planning; Sustainability of cities; Morphogenesis; Geography of wine; Role of local culture in urban planning and sustainability in mid-size cities; Changing landscapes of wine-producing regions in Canada. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies Urban Planning and Cities, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Agriculture
David Montwé UBC Vancouver Increasing forest resilience to climatic extremes using silvicultural interventions; Growth and yield; Tree-ring science and climate change adaptation; Evaluating silvicultural treatments on timber quality and value; Reducing impacts from forest disturbance agents under climate change. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management Forestry, Alpine, Arctic and Antarctic, Weather and Climate Extremes
Alex Moore UBC Vancouver Applied community and ecosystem ecology research; Impact of predator-prey interactions on the health and functioning of coastal wetland ecosystems; Role of cultural values and knowledge in ecosystem restoration conservation. Faculty of Forestry Department of Botany; Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS); Moore Inclusive Conservation Lab; Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability Oceans and Coastal Systems, Livelihoods and Traditional Economies, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Natural Resource Management
Dan Moore UBC Vancouver Influence of climate variability and change, in conjunction with forest and glacier dynamics, on hydrological processes and the patterns of streamflow and water quality; Environmental monitoring; Management and policy. Faculty of Arts Department of Geography Water Resources and Supply, Alpine, Arctic and Antarctic, Forestry, Policy and Governance, Freshwater Systems
Ben Mortenson UBC Vancouver Acute and residential care; Aging and assistive technology; Social participation; Caregiving and outcome measurement; Individuals with spinal cord injury and residents in long-term care. Faculty of Medicine Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy; Centre for Aging SMART Health and Wellbeing
Laura Moss UBC Vancouver Contemporary literatures of Canada and South Africa; Canadian environmental art, literature, and creative activism; Postcolonial theory. Faculty of Arts Department of English Language & Literatures Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Climate Activism and Social Movements
Shaylih Muehlmann UBC Vancouver Environmental politics; Indigeneity; Human rights; Linguistic anthropology; Drug trafficking; Water scarcity; Anthropology of the awkward; US-Mexico borderlands; Mexico. Faculty of Arts Department of Anthropology; Language Sciences Policy and Governance, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Climate Justice
Gordon Munro UBC Vancouver Economics and management of world fishery resources; Environmental economics; Sustainable fisheries; Fishery subsidies. Faculty of Arts Vancouver School of Economics Oceans and Coastal Systems, Fisheries, Economic Modeling and Data Analysis
Enda Murphy UBC Vancouver Understanding and modelling coastal systems and coastal hazards (flooding, erosion, and debris) and risk; Nature-based solutions for coastal hazard risk management; Transdisciplinary collaboration. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Civil Engineering; Disaster Resilience Research Network Weather and Climate Extremes, Oceans and Coastal Systems, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Climate Risk Management, Climate Modelling and Data Analysis
Srinivas Murthy UBC Vancouver Blood; Sepsis; Vaccines & treatment; Global public health, including outbreaks, emerging infections, and novel respiratory pathogens; Climate justice. Faculty of Medicine Department of Pediactics; Centre for Climate Justice; Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes; BC Children's Hospital Research Institute Climate Justice
Isla Myers-Smith UBC Vancouver Global change drivers and impacts with a focus on tundra ecosystems; How tundra ecosystems beyond the latitudinal and elevational treeline are responding to climate change; How an accelerating warming is leading to a ‘greening’ of the Arctic including an increase in shrubs, shifts in the timing of plant growth and altered tundra biodiversity. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; Team Shrub Alpine, Arctic and Antarctic, Rural and Northern Communities, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation
Ryozo Nagamune UBC Vancouver Robust control; System identification; Optimization; Hard disk drives servo; Automotive engine control; Machine tool servo control; Analytic interpolation; Spectral estimation; Wind turbine control; Automotive engine control; Hard disk drive track-following control. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Mechanical Engineering; Marine Systems Research Cluster; Advanced Materials Manufacturing; Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems; Control Engineering Laboratory Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Solar Energy, Manufacturing and Heavy Industry
Vin Nardizzi UBC Vancouver Ecotheory; Plant studies; Queer studies; Disability studies; English Renaissance literature, especially Shakespeare. Faculty of Arts Department of English Language & Literatures; Science and Technology Studies Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Lisa Nathan UBC Vancouver Information & climate justice; Information in times of crisis; Indigenous-led information initiatives; Information policy/ethics; Human-computer interaction; Multi-lifespan information systems. Faculty of Arts School of Information Climate Justice, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy
Astrida Neimanis UBC Okanagan Feminist studies (with a focus on embodiment, ecofeminisms, material feminisms and intersectionality); Environmental studies (with a focus on cultural studies of water, weather and climate change, and multispecies justice); Everyday militarisms; Interdisciplinarity; Epistemologies and non-traditional research methodologies. Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Department of English and Cultural Studies; Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies; The FEELED Lab; Centre for Climate Justice Climate Justice, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy
Harry Nelson UBC Vancouver Natural and environmental resource policy; Forestry; Ecosystem Services as an alternative business model for Indigenous groups managing forest lands in BC; Assessing the impacts of climate change on how we manage our forests and exploring adaptation options; Climate change; Conservation; Economics; Ecosystem services; Forest management; Forest policy; Human behaviour, International trade; Sustainability. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management Policy and Governance, Forestry, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Business Processes and Corporate Governance, Natural Resource Management
Susan Nesbit UBC Vancouver Engineering education for sustainable development; Engineering education as a socio-curricular system; Transdisciplinary education; Curricula design and assessment; Beliefs and attitude development in engineering education. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Civil Engineering Climate Education and Environmental Literacy
Lorien Nesbitt UBC Vancouver Urban forestry and socio-ecological interactions in urban environments; Environmental justice; Public health; Social science; Sustainability. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management; Urban Forests Research Hub; Centre for Climate Justice; Climate Change Health Effects, Adaptation, and ResiLience (HEAL) Urban Planning and Cities, Climate Justice, Forestry, Health and Wellbeing
Dave Ng UBC Vancouver Societal, cultural, corporate, political, economic, and ethical nuances of the general sciences, and life sciences in particular. Faculty of Science Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory (AMBL); Michael Smith Laboratories Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Environmental Psychology
Craig Nichol UBC Okanagan Hydrogeology and vadose zone processes; Regional groundwater resources; Surface water and groundwater interactions; Agricultural irrigation efficiency and nitrate leaching; Agricultural greenhouse gas production; Acid rock drainage and mine reclamation; Soil physics; Geoscience education. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences Freshwater Systems, Agriculture, Carbon Cycle, Mining, Pollution
William Nikolakis UBC Vancouver Aboriginal forestry; Forest management; Land-use change; Indigenous land and natural resources governance; Intersection between Aboriginal rights, forestry, forest management, and land-use change. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management; Bioproducts Institute; Dragon Lab Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Wildfires and Forest Fires, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Water Resources and Supply, Business Processes and Corporate Governance
Frederik Noack UBC Vancouver Interaction of economic development and the environment; How improved market access and property rights affect rural welfare and natural resources such as forests, fish stocks and biodiversity. Faculty of Land and Food Systems Food and Resource Economics Program; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS) Economic Modeling and Data Analysis, Natural Resource Management, Biodiversity, Agriculture, Policy and Governance, Land Use
Michael Noonan UBC Okanagan Animal movement; Conservation; Encounter theory; Evolutionary processes; Macro-ecology; Statistical ecology. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Department of Biology; Quantitative Ecology Lab; Okanagan Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, And Ecosystems Services (BRAES) Terrestrial Ecosystems, Biodiversity
Nathan Nunn UBC Vancouver Historical and dynamic process of economic development; Differences in the evolution of institutions and cultures across societies; Historical process of a wide range of factors that are crucial for economic development, including distrust, gender norms, religiosity, norms of rule-following, conflict, immigration, state formation, and support for democracy. Faculty of Arts Vancouver School of Economics Economic Modeling and Data Analysis, Policy and Governance
Mary O'Connor UBC Vancouver Ecological dimensions of global change, with an emphasis on the effects of warming and biodiversity change on complex ecological systems; Effects of changing predator diversity in the ocean; Consequences of invasive species in marine habitats. Faculty of Science Department of Zoology; Biodiversity Research Centre; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS); O'Connor Lab - Unifying Ecological Understanding Across Scales Biodiversity, Oceans and Coastal Systems, Climate Modelling and Data Analysis, Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems, Carbon Cycle
Gunilla Öberg UBC Vancouver Use of knowledge in environmental decision making; Chlorine biogeochemistry in soil; Chemicals of concern; Microplastics. Faculty of Science Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; Microplastic Cluster; Future Waters Group; Egesta Lab Pollution, Policy and Governance, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Health and Wellbeing, Water Resources and Supply, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Alix Ohlin UBC Vancouver Narratives, visions, and vocabularies of climate justice; Climate writing; Fiction; Nonfiction. Faculty of Arts School of Creative Writing; Centre for Climate Justice Climate Justice, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy
Colin Oloman UBC Vancouver Electrochemical engineering; Electrosynthesis; Electrochemical power generation; Coupling electrosynthesis with electrochemical power generation in carbon neutral “regenerative” fuel cell cycles; Simplified electrochemical reactors for application in new energy systems that reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Faculty of Applied Science Chemical and Biological Engineering; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Electricity, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Carbon Management
Martin Ordonez UBC Vancouver Energy systems; Renewable energy; Wind power; Solar power; Battery systems; Fuel cells; Electric vehicles; Smart grid. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Electricity, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Transportation
Anais Orsi UBC Vancouver Climate change; Polar climate; Isotope geochemistry; Data analysis; Inverse modeling; Paleoclimate; Arctic humidity. Faculty of Science Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences Alpine, Arctic and Antarctic, Paleoclimate, Atmospheric Science, Climate Modelling and Data Analysis, Carbon Cycle
Sarah (Sally) Otto UBC Vancouver Understanding how evolution has led to the remarkable diversity of life; Mathematical models to study evolutionary transitions probability; Genomic architectures; Ploidy levels; Mating systems. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Zoology; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS); Biodiversity Research Centre Biodiversity, Terrestrial Ecosystems

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 receives support for managing its research enterprise from the federal Research Support Fund.

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