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)
Chris Tenove UBC Vancouver Political communication; Democratic institutions; Tech policy; Social media and messaging platforms; Elections and elections policy; Disinformation; Online abuse; Democratic theory; Grounded and feminist political theory. Faculty of Arts School of Public Policy and Global Affairs; Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) Policy and Governance
John R.J. Thompson UBC Okanagan Nonparametric statistics; Distance metric learning; Clustering; Change-point analysis; Applications to wildfire science; Behavioural finance and climate finance. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Department of Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics Wildfires and Forest Fires, Economic Modeling and Data Analysis, Climate Finance and Investment
Yves Tiberghien UBC Vancouver Global governance; Global climate change politics; Governance of agricultural biotechnology in China and Japan; Trade-offs between economic policy goals and public goods such as biodiversity protection, transparency in food policy, and climate change issues. Faculty of Arts Department of Political Science; School of Public Policy and Global Affairs; Hong Kong Studies Initiative; Centre for Korean Research; Institute of Asian Research Policy and Governance, Business Processes and Corporate Governance, Agriculture
David Tindall UBC Vancouver Environmental movements; Social movements; Environmental protest; Social protest; Social networks; Social aspects of climate change and of forestry; Aboriginal protest about natural resources and environmental issues; Environmental politics; Environmental attitudes; Environmental values; Protests about pipelines, oil sands, and tar sands; Wilderness; Wilderness preservation; Use of social media in social protest and social movements; Climate change policy; News media; Social psychology of environmental issues; Environmental sociology; Social research methods; Aboriginal forestry. Faculty of Arts Department of Sociology Policy and Governance, Climate Justice, Climate Activism and Social Movements, Forestry, Environmental Psychology, Land Use
Lisa Tobber UBC Okanagan Structural engineering; Tall buildings; Seismic design of precast concrete; Disaster resilient buildings; Reinforced concrete buildings. Faculty of Applied Science School of Engineering (Civil); Advanced Structural Simulation & Experimentation Group; Build Better Research Cluster; Disaster Resilience Research Network Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Buildings and Sustainable Infrastructure Design, Climate Risk Management
Marco Todesco UBC Vancouver Adaptive diversity: How it mediates the interactions between plants and their environment, what are the genes and genetic variants controlling it, and how it can contribute to producing crops that are more sustainable, more resilient, and more productive. Faculty of Land and Food Systems, Faculty of Science Department of Biology; Department of Botany; Applied Biology Program; Plant Science Program, Michael Smith Laboratories Biodiversity, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Agriculture
Fernanda Tomaselli UBC Vancouver Sustainability and climate communications; Message framing; Mental models, public opinion and environmental perception; Ecological economics; Community forestry and sustainable livelihoods. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management; LandOne Program Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Environmental Psychology, Forestry, Livelihoods and Traditional Economies
Philippe Tortell UBC Vancouver Marine biogeochemical cycles; Understanding the biological, chemical and physical factors regulating oceanic primary productivity and the concentration of climate active gases including carbon dioxide (CO2), dimethylsulfide (DMS), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O); Primary productivity and trace gas dynamics along natural iron gradients in the Subarctic Pacific Ocean; Inter-annual Methane and Nitrous Oxide dynamics in Saanich Inlet, a seasonally anoxic coastal fjord; Oceanic concentrations and turnover rates of Dimethylsulfide (DMS) and related sulfur compounds. Faculty of Science Department of Botany; Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; Future Minerals Initiative Oceans and Coastal Systems, Carbon Cycle
Babak Mohamadpour Tosarkani UBC Okanagan Operations & supply chain analytics; Blockchain-based decision support systems; Life cycle assessment & circular economy; Process design & simulation; Strategic sustainable development. Faculty of Applied Science School of Engineering (Manufacturing); Battery Innovation Research Excellence Cluster Manufacturing and Heavy Industry, Product Lifecycle or Circular Economy, Oil and Gas, Transportation, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response, Natural Resource Management, Urban Planning and Cities, Waste and Waste Management
Heather Trajano UBC Vancouver Biomass conversion; Biorefinery; Large-scale biorefineries; Pulp and paper; Hemicellulose; Extractives; Enzymatic hydrolysis; Catalysis; Kinetic modeling; Transport phenomena. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Pulp and Paper Centre; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC); Bioproducts Institute Biofuels and Biomass, Manufacturing and Heavy Industry, Waste and Waste Management, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions
Martino Tran UBC Vancouver Predictive modelling and simulation of urban infrastructure and technology to inform policy and investment strategies with positive societal and sustainability outcomes; Smart energy; Transport technologies. Faculty of Applied Science School of Community and Regional Planning; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC); Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions; Climate Change Health Effects, Adaptation, and ResiLience (HEAL) Urban Planning and Cities, Policy and Governance, Transportation, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions
Andrew Trites UBC Vancouver Seals; Sea lions; Whales and dolphins; Ecology; Nutrition; Physiology; Animal behaviour; Conservation of marine mammals; Resolve conflicts between people and marine mammals. Faculty of Science Department of Zoology; Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries; Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; Strait of Georgia Data Centre; Biodiversity Research Centre Oceans and Coastal Systems, Fisheries
Michelle Tseng UBC Vancouver Evolutionary and ecological processes underlying adaptation to changing environments; Aquatic and insect ecology & evolutionary biology; Applications to conservation biology; Healthy ecosystems; Urban biodiversity. Faculty of Science Department of Botany; Department of Zoology; Biodiversity Research Centre; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS); Tseng Lab; Microplastic Cluster Biodiversity, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Urban Planning and Cities, Pollution, Freshwater Systems
Qingshi Tu UBC Vancouver Transforming the information of engineering systems through process simulation, statistical methods and machine learning for sustainability modeling applications; Building models for analyzing the environmental, economic and social impacts of emerging technologies for bioenergy, biofuels and bioproducts at different scales; Investigating the synergies and tradeoffs between bioeconomy, product lifecycle or circular economy and climate change mitigation through a systems modeling approach. Faculty of Forestry Department of Wood Science; Bioproducts Institute; Sustainable Bioeconomy Research Group; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC); Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability Product Lifecycle or Circular Economy, Biofuels and Biomass, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Forestry, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Rebecca Tyson UBC Okanagan Mathematical biology and spatial ecology; Mathematical models of ecological systems; Development and analysis of mathematical and computational models; Cyclic predator-prey populations. Faculty of Science Department of Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics; Rebecca's Lab Group; Okanagan Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, And Ecosystems Services (BRAES) Terrestrial Ecosystems
Alexander Uhl UBC Okanagan Solar energy conversion; Photovoltaics; Solar fuels and thin film semiconductors; Printed solar cells; Tandem devices; Photoelectrochemical devices for clean and renewable electricity and storable fuels. Faculty of Applied Science School of Engineering (Mechanical; Electrical); Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC); Laboratory for Solar Energy and Fuels; Cluster of Research Excellence in Solar Energy for Net Zero Solar Energy, Electricity, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Carbon Management, Sustainable Materials and Composites
Chester Upham UBC Vancouver Heterogeneous catalysis; Clean energy; CO2-free chemical conversion; GHGs-to-fuels; Reaction engineering; Kinetics and understanding reaction mechanisms; Liquid heterogeneous catalysts; Integration of reaction and separation; Natural gas conversion; Chemical looping for process intensification and thermodynamic equilibrium perturbation. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Carbon Management, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions, Oil and Gas, Hydrogen
Will Valley UBC Vancouver Sustainable food systems education; Systems thinking and cognitive psychology; School food and nutrition education + K-12 school food systems; Community-engaged scholarship; Urban agriculture. Faculty of Land and Food Systems Applied Biology Program; Centre for Sustainable Food Systems Agriculture, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems, Policy and Governance, Climate Justice
Hamish van der Ven UBC Vancouver Tech and climate interactions; Digital activism; Sustainable production; Eco-labeling; Transnational governance; Corporate social responsibility. Faculty of Forestry Department of Wood Science; Bioproducts Institute Forestry, Business Processes and Corporate Governance, Climate Activism and Social Movements, Environmental Psychology, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Robert VanWynsberghe UBC Vancouver Citizenship and democracy; Social justice; Sustainability; Environmental education; Adaptive education; Adult education; Community engagement; Education for sustainability; Social movements, Sociology of education; Sport mega-events. Faculty of Education Department of Educational Studies; Centre for Sustainable Food Systems Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Health and Wellbeing, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Marcello (Mariz) Veiga UBC Vancouver Biogeochemical cycle of heavy metals in the environment and artisanal and small-scale mining; Improving the image of mining; Contribute for sustainable mining communities. Faculty of Applied Science Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering Mining, Pollution, Product Lifecycle or Circular Economy
James Vercammen UBC Vancouver Agri-food markets; Agri-environmental contracts; Agri-risk and insurance; Commodity futures markets; Carbon markets. Faculty of Land and Food Systems, Sauder School of Business Food and Resource Economics Program; Strategy and Business Economics Division Agriculture, Policy and Governance, Natural Resource Management, Business Processes and Corporate Governance, Carbon Management
Amanda Vincent UBC Vancouver Pressing ocean concerns; Conservation action to improve the status of marine species and habitats; Biological and social research; Empowering local communities; Establishing marine protected areas; Managing small-scale fisheries; Restructuring international trade; Promoting integrated policy; Advancing environmental understanding. Faculty of Science Department of Zoology; Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries; Biodiversity Research Centre Oceans and Coastal Systems, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Natural Resource Management, Policy and Governance, International Negotiations and Treaties, Biodiversity
John Wagner UBC Okanagan Environmental anthropology; Political ecology; Water, food security and food sovereignty; Local ecological knowledge; Conservation and development; Language documentation; Okanagan Valley; Columbia River Basin; Papua New Guinea. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies; Future Waters Group; Watershed Ecosystems Project; Okanagan Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, And Ecosystems Services (BRAES) Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems, Water Resources and Supply, Livelihoods and Traditional Economies, Policy and Governance, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Indigenous Ways of Knowing
Kristen Walker UBC Vancouver Urban wildlife; Identifying humane deterrents systems and reducing coyote conflicts for urban coyotes; UBC Farm Biodiversity Monitoring project assessing the diversity of vertebrates through the use of remote trail cameras. Faculty of Land and Food Systems Animal Welfare Program; Applied Biology Program; BC Pain Research Network; Centre for Sustainable Food Systems Biodiversity, Urban Planning and Cities
Shannon Walsh UBC Vancouver South Africa; Afropessimism & critical race studies; Documentary; Film Production; Indigenous studies; Environmental justice; Affect theory. Faculty of Arts Department of Theatre and Film; Hong Kong Studies Initiative Climate Activism and Social Movements, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Pierre Walter UBC Vancouver Environmental education; Literacy; Gender and development; Sustainability; Environmental justice; Decolonization; Climate justice; Indigenous knowledge. Faculty of Education Department of Educational Studies Climate Education and Environmental Literacy, Climate Justice, Climate Activism and Social Movements, Indigenous Relationships and Reconciliation, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change
Carl Walters UBC Vancouver Development of rapid techniques for teaching systems analysis and mathematical modeling to biologists and resource managers; Fish population dynamics; Fisheries assessment and sustainable management. Faculty of Science Department of Zoology; Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries; Strait of Georgia Data Centre Fisheries, Natural Resource Management, Policy and Governance, Oceans and Coastal Systems, Livelihoods and Traditional Economies, Business Processes and Corporate Governance
Guangyu Wang UBC Vancouver Sustainable forest management; Integrated watershed management; Computer modelling applications; Business management; Climate change; Conservation; Forest policy; Land-use change; Bioregional assessments and geographic information systems; Chinese forest management practices. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Resource Management; Adaptation of Asia-Pacific Forests to Climate Change; Asia Forest Research Centre; Multidisciplinary Institute of Natural Therapy; Forest Carbon Research Lab; Asia-Pacific Forestry Education Coordination Mechanism; Sustainable Forest Management Group; The Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFNet) American’s Office Forestry, Freshwater Systems, Business Processes and Corporate Governance, Health and Wellbeing, Natural Resource Management
Liwei Wang UBC Okanagan Power system analysis; Electrical machine and drives; Power electronic converter design; Control and topology; Utility power electronics applications; HVDC and FACTS; renewable energy sources; Distributed generation. Faculty of Applied Science School of Engineering (Electrical) Electricity, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions
Tongli Wang UBC Vancouver Developing climate models; Modeling climatic niches of forest ecosystems and tree species; Projecting shift of climatic niches under a changing climate; Building climate response functions for tree populations; Developing climate-based seed transfer systems based on genecology and genomics. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; Centre for Forest Conservation Genetics; National Parks Research Center Forestry, Biodiversity, Climate Modelling and Data Analysis, Natural Resource Management, Terrestrial Ecosystems
Stephanie Waterman UBC Vancouver Ocean dynamics; Scale interactions; Inter-relationships between various components of the oceanic circulation at different time and length scales; Implications of these interactions for the large-scale circulation and the ocean's role in the climate system. Faculty of Science Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; Waterman Lab Oceans and Coastal Systems, Alpine, Arctic and Antarctic, Carbon Cycle, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy
Adam Wei UBC Okanagan Eco-hydrological processes in forested watersheds; Forest disturbance (e.g., timber harvesting, wildfire) and cumulative hydrological impacts in large watershed; Interactions of forest change, climate and water; Sustainable forest management, aquatic habitat, carbon budget, and various watershed processes; Wholistic approach on watershed ecosystem science and management. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences; Watershed Ecosystems Project; Okanagan Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, And Ecosystems Services (BRAES) Forestry, Wildfires and Forest Fires, Freshwater Systems, Carbon Cycle
Steven Weijs UBC Vancouver Water resources management and hydrology, with a special focus on the dynamics of uncertainty and information within that context; Mountain hydrology; Catchment hydrology; Flood forecasting; Uncertainty; Information theory; Control of water systems. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Civil Engineering; Future Waters Group; Disaster Resilience Research Network Water Resources and Supply, Freshwater Systems, Natural Hazards and Disaster Response
Dominique Weis UBC Vancouver Environmental geochemistry; Geochemical constraints on mantle plume dynamics and structure; Arc volcanism; Environmental applications; Analytical applications. Faculty of Science Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; Social Exposome Cluster; BeeHIVE Research Excellence Cluster Oceans and Coastal Systems, Pollution
William Welch UBC Vancouver Design and analysis of computer experiments; Machine/statistical learning; Computer-aided design of experiments; Quality improvement; Design and analysis of computer experiments; Statistical methods for drug discovery; Machine/statistical learning. Faculty of Science Department of Statistics Forestry, Climate Modelling and Data Analysis
Brian Wetton UBC Vancouver Modelling Li-ion batteries and other electrochemical energy systems; Scientific computation; Industrial mathematics; Electrochemical systems. Faculty of Science Department of Mathematics; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Electricity
Katherine White UBC Vancouver Social influence; Social marketing; Sustainability; Prosocial consumption; Corporate social responsibility; How social contexts, identities, and emotions shape how consumers make ethical, prosocial, and sustainable choices. Sauder School of Business Marketing and Behavioural Science Division; Commerce and Business Administration; Decision Insights for Business & Society (DIBS) Environmental Psychology, Business Processes and Corporate Governance
Rachel White UBC Vancouver Atmospheric science; How large-scale atmospheric dynamics (circulation patterns, planetary-scale atmospheric waves...) contribute to extreme weather events such as heat waves and cold snaps; Fundamental aspects of our current climate; How atmospheric circulation may change in the future under anthropogenic warming. Faculty of Science Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; Climate Dynamics Group Weather and Climate Extremes, Paleoclimate, Climate Modelling and Data Analysis, Health and Wellbeing, Atmospheric Science
Lorne Whitehead UBC Vancouver Novel geometrical approaches to applied physics challenges, with a focus on the interactions of electromagnetic fields with microstructures; Sunlighting system that guides direct sunlight deep into the interior of a building. Faculty of Science Department of Physics and Astronomy Electricity
Michael Whitlock UBC Vancouver Evolution in structured populations: What are the forces which control the nature and distribution of genotypes in subdivided populations and how does this affect the outcome of other evolutionary processes? Faculty of Science Department of Zoology; Biodiversity Research Centre Biodiversity
Jeannette Whitton UBC Vancouver Conservation policy; Species at risk; Ecology and evolution related to biodiversity; Biology and climate change. Faculty of Science Department of Botany; Whitton Lab; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS) Biodiversity, Policy and Governance
David Wilkinson UBC Vancouver CO2 conversion and utilization; Clean energy; Advanced solar cells; Eelectrochromic windows; Dynamic windows; Hydrogen fuels production; Catalysis. Faculty of Applied Science Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory; Res'eau Waternet Strategic Network; Nanomat: Create Nanomaterials Science & Technology Program; Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) Electricity, Water Resources and Supply, Hydrogen, Carbon Management, Solar Energy, Clean Energy and Energy Transitions
Jennifer Williams UBC Vancouver Ecological and evolutionary processes that shape population dynamics and species interactions, particularly in a spatial context; Process-based understanding of the conservation and management of threatened and invasive species; Spread of populations through fragmented landscapes and life history evolution of reproductive strategies under changing climates. Faculty of Arts Department of Geography; Biodiversity Research Centre Biodiversity, Terrestrial Ecosystems
Brian Wilson UBC Vancouver Social inequality; Social movements; Environment; Consumer culture; Media; Youth; Peace; Qualitative methods; Sport and leisure studies. Faculty of Education School of Kinesiology; Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice; Centre for Sport and Sustainability Environmental Psychology, Climate Justice, Climate Activism and Social Movements, Business Processes and Corporate Governance, Policy and Governance
Scott Wilson UBC Vancouver Conservation of migratory species across the annual cycle; Impacts of land-use and climate change on species at macro-ecological scales; Impacts of agricultural practices on biodiversity; Development and application of demographic and population models. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences Land Use, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Terrestrial Ecosystems
Stephen Withers UBC Vancouver Molecular biology; Enzymes that catalyse glycoside formation and hydrolysis; Development of new catalysts for industrial processes; Design, synthesis and testing of new therapeutics. Faculty of Science Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Department of Chemistry; Bioproducts Institute; Withers Research Group Bioprocesses and Biotechnology, Health and Wellbeing
Hannah Wittman UBC Vancouver Social movements; Environment and society; Dynamics of social transformations; Food sovereignty; Sustainable agriculture; Socio-ecological systems; Agro-ecology. Faculty of Land and Food Systems, Faculty of Science Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability; Department of Food, Nutrition, & Health; Food Sovereignty Research Group; Centre for Climate Justice; Biodiversity Research Centre; Centre for Sustainable Food Systems; Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS); Diversified Agroecosystem Cluster Agriculture, Sovereign or Sustainable Food Systems, Climate Justice, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Social Dimensions of Climate and Systems Change, Climate Education and Environmental Literacy
Elizabeth Wolkovich UBC Vancouver Global change; Biodiversity; Conservation science; Population and ecosystem ecology; Plant invasions; Climate change; Plant communities; Temporal ecology; Wine Grapes. Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; Biodiversity Research Centre Biodiversity, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Forestry
Stepan Wood UBC Vancouver Sustainability; Globalization; Transnational governance; Voluntary environmental standards; Climate change; Environmental law; Corporate social responsibility; Social justice; Rights of nature; Environmental rights; Homelessness; Reception of English law in colonial British Columbia; Future of the International Organization for Standardization. Peter A. Allard School of Law Centre for Law and the Environment Environmental Law, Policy and Governance, Business Processes and Corporate Governance, Housing, Urban Planning and Cities

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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