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)
Blair Satterfield UBC Vancouver Use of second stream materials in construction; Design and application of energy and material efficient methods for construction; Generation of sophisticated but universally accessible tool sets and strategies for efficiently and sustainably building using low-impact materials and techniques. Faculty of Applied Science Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture; Hilo Lab; Designing for People Research Network Sustainable Materials and Composites, Buildings and Sustainable Infrastructure Design, Waste and Waste Management, Carbon Management
Terre Satterfield UBC Vancouver Sustainable development; Environmental health; First Nations; Land management; Social and cultural consequences of contamination. Faculty of Science Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS) Environmental Psychology, Natural Resource Management, Carbon Management, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Agriculture
Jeffrey Sayer UBC Vancouver Integrated approaches to natural resources management; Landscape approaches; Integrating science into natural resources decision making; Tropical forest conservation; Reconciling conservation and development in tropical forest landscapes; Forest conservation in Indonesia. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; Vibrant Forest Landscapes Lab; Biodiversity Research Centre; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS) Natural Resource Management, Land Use, Forestry, Environmental Psychology, Policy and Governance
Laurel Schafer UBC Vancouver Biodegradable polymers; Sustainable synthesis; Green chemistry; Synthesis of chiral ligands for early transition metal and lanthanide complexation suitable for enantioselective transformations. Faculty of Science Department of Chemistry; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC); Bioproducts Institute; Schafer Group Sustainable Materials and Composites, Manufacturing and Heavy Industry, Oil and Gas
Dolph Schluter UBC Vancouver Ecology of recent adaptive radiations; Ecological forces responsible for the origin and persistence of species; Evolution of differences between them in resource use, body form, and mating preferences; Natural selection in wild populations; Threespine sticklebacks. Faculty of Science Department of Zoology; Biodiversity Research Centre; Schluter lab Biodiversity, Freshwater Systems
Christian Schoof UBC Vancouver Glaciers; Ice sheets; Sea level change; Climate; Glaciology; Applied math dynamics of ice sheets; Fluid dynamics; Crevasse evolution and buckling in ice sheets and ice shelves; Evolving thermal state of ice sheets; Subglacial hydraulics and their interaction with ice flow. Faculty of Science Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences Alpine, Arctic and Antarctic, Freshwater Systems
Patricia Schulte UBC Vancouver Molecular biology; Biochemistry; Physiology; Genomics; Population genetics; Evolutionary biology to address the question, what are the physiological adaptations that allow animals to live in particular environments? Faculty of Science Department of Zoology; Biodiversity Research Centre; UBC Animal Research; Schulte Lab Freshwater Systems, Oceans and Coastal Systems
Naomi Schwartz UBC Vancouver Causes and consequences of disturbance and extreme events in tropical forest landscapes; Forest vulnerability to climate change; Effects of disturbance on forest landscapes; Processes that underlie spatial heterogeneity in forest responses. Faculty of Arts Department of Geography; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS); Biodiversity Research Centre Weather and Climate Extremes, Forestry, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Land Use
David Scott UBC Okanagan Hydrological effects of forest management and land use change; Effects of wildfire on hydrology and erosion; Effects of fast-growing timber plantations on stream flow (water yield and low flows); Analysis of paired catchment experiments. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences; Watershed Research and Extension Freshwater Systems, Wildfires and Forest Fires, Forestry
Sandra Scott UBC Vancouver Children & youth; Community research; Curriculum studies; Environmental education; Literacy; Middle years; Museum education research; Non-formal learning; Pedagogy; Science education research; Teacher education research; Ways of knowing; Narrative story; Slow science; Indigenous Science; Land and Marine education; Environmental ethics; Practitioner inquiry; Caring curriculum; Ecojustice; Climate & nature education; Climate emergency; Southern resident killer whales of the Salish Sea. Faculty of Education Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Oceans and Coastal Systems
Maged Senbel UBC Vancouver Urban design; Environmental planning; Climate change planning; Public engagement; Urban agriculture; Multimedia; Social media and youth engagement. Faculty of Applied Science School of Community and Regional Planning; Centre for Migration Studies; Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions; Balanced Supply of Housing Research Clutster; Cool Tools Warm World Research Cluster Urban Planning and Cities, Climate Activism and Social Movements, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Donna Senese UBC Okanagan Rural resilience; Tourism and sustainability; Landscapes of wine and food; International experiential education; Hazards, gender and vulnerability. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies Rural and Northern Communities, Agriculture, Land Use, Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy
Peyman Servati UBC Vancouver Advanced nanomaterials; Low-cost and flexible solar cells and batteries; Novel device engineering for medical and energy applications. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; School of Biomedical Engineering; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC); Centre for Flexible Electronics and Textiles (CFET); Bioproducts Institute; The Flexible Electronics and Energy Lab (FEEL); Microsystems and Nanotechnology (MiNa) Group Solar Energy, Electricity, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Sustainable Materials and Composites
Mohammad Shahrad UBC Vancouver Sustainability in computing; Efficiency of data centres; Cloud computing; Serverless computing. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Cloud Infrastructure Research for Reliability, Usability, and Sustainability (CIRRUS) Electricity, Carbon Management, Product Lifecycle or Circular Economy, Economic Modeling and Data Analysis
Pete Shandin UBC Vancouver Indigenous research methodologies; Geoscientific ethnography; Indigenous astronomy; Social-political tribal structures; Culturally congruent instructional strategies; Indigenous science philosophies. Faculty of Science Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; Future Minerals Initiative Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Policy and Governance, Water Resources and Supply
Ziad Shawwash UBC Vancouver Modeling and optimization of large-scale civil engineering systems; Planning, design and operation of hydroelectric generating facilities; Use of decision, policy and risk analysis techniques in water resource planning and management; Use of artificial intelligence systems in water resource and hydroelectric systems. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Civil Engineering; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Water Resources and Supply, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Climate Risk Management, Electricity, Buildings and Sustainable Infrastructure Design
Stephen Sheppard UBC Vancouver Climate change planning, outreach, and community engagement; Visioning methods and visualization of climate change causes, impacts, and mitigation/adaptation; Low-carbon future scenarios visualized in the CIRS’ BC Hydro Decision Theatre; Community energy planning, renewables, and energy literacy; Public perceptions, aesthetics and sustainability; Social aspects of forestry. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management; Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning; Asia Forest Research Centre; Cool Tools Warm World Research Cluster; Centre for Culture and Technology Forestry, Urban Planning and Cities, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Climate Justice, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Sara Shneiderman UBC Vancouver Climate migration; Cross-border mobility; Conflict and political mobilization; Territory and land use; Development discourses and practices; Disaster aftermath and preparedness. Faculty of Arts Department of Anthropology; School of Public Policy and Global Affairs; Institute of Asian Research; Centre for Migration Studies; Disaster Resilience Research Network; Centre for Climate Justice Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Policy and Governance, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Buildings and Sustainable Infrastructure Design, Urban Planning and Cities
Anil Shrestha UBC Vancouver Climate change impacts on wildlife and their habitats; Conservation sciences; Climate policy; Natural based solutions; Restoration under climate change. Faculty of Forestry Forest Resources Management Biodiversity, Carbon Management, Climate Finance and Investment, Climate Modelling and Data Analysis, Forestry, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Livelihoods and Traditional Economies, Natural Resource Management, Policy and Governance, Poverty, Terrestrial Ecosystems
Sumi Siddiqua UBC Okanagan Chemical and biological treatment of problematic soils; Underground nuclear waste disposal modeling; Contaminant migration; Sustainable infrastructure. Faculty of Applied Science School of Engineering (Civil); Advanced Geomaterials Testing Lab; Bioproducts Institute Waste and Waste Management, Product Lifecycle or Circular Economy, Buildings and Sustainable Infrastructure Design, Pollution
Suzanne Simard UBC Vancouver Forest ecology; Global change; Forest stand dynamics (regeneration, growth, mortality); Forest disturbances; Complex adaptive systems and ecological resilience. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; Simard Lab; Mother Tree Project Forestry, Biodiversity, Land Use, Carbon Cycle, Terrestrial Ecosystems
Onyx Sloan Morgan UBC Okanagan Socio-legal and colonial geographies; Queering and critical political ecologies; Healthy environments and communities in rural, remote, northern, and Indigenous locales. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies; The FEELED Lab; Centre for Climate Justice Climate Justice, Mining, Climate Activism and Social Movements, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Rural and Northern Communities
Kevin Smith UBC Vancouver Design and development of improved catalysts and catalytic processes; Issues related to Canadian energy; Investigation of hydrogen production by catalytic methane decomposition; Synthesis gas conversion to alcohols and hydrocarbons; Residue and bio-oil hydroconversion (upgrading); Hydrogen storage using heteroaromatic liquids. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Bioproducts Institute; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Hydrogen, Oil and Gas
Leslie Smith UBC Vancouver Mathematical modeling of fluid flow and solute transport in fractured geologic media, with applications to problems of groundwater contamination; Hydrogeological processes within waste rock piles; Hydrogeologic aspects of continental and oceanic hydrothermal systems; Design of groundwater monitoring networks at hazardous waste management sites. Faculty of Science Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences Freshwater Systems, Waste and Waste Management, Mining
Sean Smukler UBC Vancouver Agriculture; Environment; Sustainable development; Ecosystem services; Impact of farm management practices on plant biomass and biodiversity; Soil physical and chemical properties; Nutrients in water; Carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. Faculty of Land and Food Systems Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; Centre for Sustainable Food Systems; Soil Science Program; Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes Lab; Diversified Agroecosystem Cluster Agriculture, Carbon Management, Biodiversity, Carbon Cycle, Water Resources and Supply, Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems
Taraneh Sowlati UBC Vancouver Biomass supply chain management; Mathematical modeling and optimization; Multi-criteria decision making; Simulation; Life cycle assessment. Faculty of Forestry Department of Wood Science; Bioproducts Institute; Industrial Engineering Research Group Product Lifecycle or Circular Economy, Waste and Waste Management, Business Processes and Corporate Governance, Biofuels and Biomass, Forestry
Camilla Speller UBC Vancouver Molecular environmental archaeology; Marine ecosystems (Long-term fishing and subsistence patterns; Marine biogeography and biodiversity; Documenting shifting baselines; Patterns of resource management; Sustainable development; Traditional resources management); Human-animal interactions (Social and ecological impacts; Hunting strategies; Human impacts on biodiversity; Animal domestication; Conservation biology); Ancient microbiomes. Faculty of Arts Department of Anthropology; Indigenous/Science: Partnerships in the Exploration of History & Environments; Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Livelihoods and Traditional Economies, Biodiversity, Oceans and Coastal Systems, Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems
Jerry Spiegel UBC Vancouver Global health; International health; Environmental health; Effects of globalization on health; Ecosystem approaches to human health; Understanding and addressing influences of physical and social environments on health; Global health and human security; Economic evaluation of interventions; Health and equity in Latin America. Faculty of Medicine School of Population and Public Health; Global Health Research Program; Centre for Sustainable Food Systems Health and Wellbeing, Policy and Governance
Diane Srivastava UBC Vancouver Biodiversity; Tropics; Costa Rica; Insects; Mites; Food webs; Habitat loss; Community ecology; Conservation; How species loss from food webs can affect the way ecosystems function. Faculty of Science Department of Zoology; Biodiversity Research Centre; Srivastava Lab Biodiversity, Land Use
Jocelyn Stacey UBC Vancouver Environmental crises and the visible and invisible ways in which law creates and prevents these events; Environmental assessment law; Disaster law; Climate change; Emergency powers; Environmental emergencies; How law regulates disaster as disconnected and exceptional events, contrary to the experiences of those most vulnerable to disaster and in spite of our current era of climate disruption; Work with First Nations on legal issues related to disasters, emergency powers and Indigenous jurisdiction. Peter A. Allard School of Law Centre for Law and the Environment; Centre for Climate Justice; Indigenous Legal Studies; Centre for Feminist Legal Studies; Disaster Resilience Research Network Environmental Law, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Climate Justice
Dan Starling UBC Vancouver How strategies of repetition, sequence, and layering of images and texts can generate new ideas that challenge the myths necessary to maintaining the status quo; How art can create friction to rupture and de-stabilize normative narratives; How art can leap into the past to re-situate present cultural, social, and political configurations; How art’s speculative fictions open the door to an equitable future. Faculty of Arts Department of Art History; Visual Art and Theory Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Sheryl Staub-French UBC Vancouver Virtual Design and Construction (VDC); Building Information Modeling (BIM); Collaboration and integrated project delivery, design and construction coordination; 4D (3D + time) visualization; Interactive workspaces. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Civil Engineering; Designing for People Research Network Buildings and Sustainable Infrastructure Design, Business Processes and Corporate Governance
Daniel Steel UBC Vancouver Values and ethics at the crossroads of science, environmental policy, and public health; Philosophy; Diversity; Opioid crisis. Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Medicine School of Population and Public Health; Department of Philosophy; Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; The W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics Health and Wellbeing, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Sharon Stein UBC Vancouver Higher education; Indigenous studies; International and comparative education; Political economy of education; Post-colonial studies; Race/ethnicity; Social and cultural foundations of education; Social justice; Sustainability. Faculty of Education Department of Educational Studies; Centre for Climate Justice Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation
Craig Stephen UBC Vancouver Conservation; Global health; Emerging threat preparedness; Ecohealth; Fish and wildlife health; Health promotion; Harm reduction. Faculty of Medicine School of Population and Public Health Health and Wellbeing, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response
Mark Stevens UBC Vancouver Land use planning efforts; Sustainable development; Plan-making and implementation; Growth management; Natural hazard mitigation; Municipal climate change planning in BC; Environmental policy adoption. Faculty of Applied Science School of Community and Regional Planning Urban Planning and Cities, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Policy and Governance, Land Use
Elise Stickles UBC Vancouver Book history; Digital humanities and Media Studies; Cognitive linguistics; Contemporary linguistics; Climate justice. Faculty of Arts Department of English Language and Literatures; Centre for Climate Justice Climate Justice
Mary Stockdale UBC Okanagan Community natural resource management; Environment and resilience; Community-based management of forests, specifically non-timber forest products (NTFP); Environmental and resilience-related initiatives. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies Natural Resource Management, Forestry, Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems
Roland Stull UBC Vancouver Atmospheric sciences; Green energy; Wind power; Hydro power; Weather disasters; Natural disasters; Storms; Forest-fire weather; Avalanche weather; Wind storms; Geophysical disasters. Faculty of Science Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences; Weather Forecast Research Team Atmospheric Science, Weather and Climate Extremes, Climate Modelling and Data Analysis, Wildfires and Forest Fires
Thomas Sullivan UBC Vancouver Integrated management of wildlife resources within agricultural and forest environments; Evaluation of biodiversity and sustainability in a landscape mosaic of agro-ecosystems and natural habitats. Faculty of Land and Food Systems Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; Applied Biology Program; Applied Animal Biology Program Agriculture, Forestry, Biodiversity
Rashid Sumaila UBC Vancouver Bioeconomics; Marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies; IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing and the economics of high and deep seas fisheries. Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Science School of Public Policy and Global Affairs; Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries; Sea Around Us; Biodiversity Research Centre; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS); Decision Insights for Business & Society (DIBS) Oceans and Coastal Systems, Policy and Governance, Fisheries, Natural Resource Management
Juanita Sundberg UBC Vancouver Feminist political ecology; Nature conservation; Border security; Militarization; Environmental dimensions of United States’ border security policies in the United States-Mexico borderlands, with a specific focus on protected areas like national wildlife refuges. Faculty of Arts Department of Geography; Centre for Climate Justice; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS); Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice; Centre for Migration Studies Climate Justice, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Policy and Governance, Biodiversity
Terry (Terence) Sunderland Biodiversity; Communities and livelihoods; Conservation; Ecosystem services; Forest management; Land-use change; Landscape ecology; Social science; Sustainability. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; Centre for Sustainable Food Systems; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS); Sunderland Lab; Centre for International Forestry Research; Centre for Sustainable Food Systems; Diversified Agroecosystem Cluster Natural Resource Management, Forestry, Biodiversity, Land Use, Rural and Northern Communities, Policy and Governance
Lisa Sundstrom UBC Vancouver Russian climate policy; Democratization; Human rights; Gender politics; Politics of international democracy assistance; NGO activism in both domestic and transnational politics; Comparative climate policy. Faculty of Arts Department of Political Science; Centre for European Studies Policy and Governance, International Negotiations and Treaties, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Environmental Law, Climate Activism and Social Movements, Climate Activism and Social Movements
Curtis Suttle Marine microbiology; Arctic microbiology; Biological oceanography; Marine microbiology; Environmental virology; Bacteriophage; Bacteria; Viruses; Environmental microbiology. Faculty of Science Department of Botany; Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; Department of Microbiology and Immunology; Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries; Biodiversity Research Centre Oceans and Coastal Systems, Biodiversity, Alpine, Arctic and Antarctic
Omar Swei Asset management; Life cycle modeling; Optimization methods; Real options; Reinforcement learning; Risk analysis; Sequential decision-making; Stochastic modeling; Sustainable infrastructure management; Time-series methods; Uncertainty estimation and propagation. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Civil Engineering; Microplastic Cluster Product Lifecycle or Circular Economy, Transportation, Buildings and Sustainable Infrastructure Design, Water Resources and Supply, Climate Risk Management, Economic Modeling and Data Analysis
Fariborz Taghipour UBC Vancouver Chemical and photochemical systems with application to energy and environmental engineering; Sustainable ways of producing solar fuels by utilizing earth-abundant materials and cost-effective processes; Water purification. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Solar Energy, Water Resources and Supply, Pollution, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Health and Wellbeing
James Tansey UBC Vancouver Emerging markets and institutions for carbon trading; Social determinants of health; GM crops and animals; Social innovation; Impact investing and social finance; Social entrepreneurship; Ecosystem service markets; Social acceptability of technology; Institutional theories of risk. Sauder School of Business Centre for Social Innovation & Impact Investing; Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions; The W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics ; Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; Commerce and Business Administration; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Carbon Management, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Policy and Governance, Business Processes and Corporate Governance, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy
Alexanda Victoria Tavasoli UBC Vancouver Industrial decarbonization; Community-based and/or distributed infrastructure; Chemical and material manufacturing processes; Carbon dioxide capture and conversion; Photocatalysis. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Mechanical Engineering; Cluster of Research Excellence in Solar Energy for Net Zero; Centre for Climate Justice Carbon Management, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Solar Energy, Product Lifecycle or Circular Economy, Urban Planning and Cities
Rick (Eric) Taylor UBC Vancouver Biodiversity; Speciation; Fishes; Conservation; Biogeography; Ecological and molecular approaches to understanding the origins and persistence of biodiversity. Faculty of Science Department of Zoology; Biodiversity Research Centre; Beaty Biodiversity Museum Biodiversity, Freshwater Systems

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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