Core Faculty
Director, Ocean Leaders
Simon is an interdisciplinary climate scientist and professor in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia, where he teaches and conducts research at the intersection of climate change science and policy. He is currently a lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report and a member of the federal government’s Net-Zero Advisory Body.
Professor at UBC
Natasha is an Associate Professor in the Allard School of Law. Her work explores broad topics in transnational environmental law. Her research examines the cross-cutting nature of environmental issues that transcend state borders but are not limited to interactions between states.
Professor at UBC
Kai is a Professor in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. He is also interested in ecosystem services, the evolutionary ecology of pest control, applied environmental ethics, and ecosystem-based management. Kai is a Canada Research Chair in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
Professor at UBC
Villy is a Professor in the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and Director of Global Ocean Modeling based in Institute. He is known for his work as a leader and developer of the Ecopath project, an ecosystem modelling software system widely used in fisheries management.
Professor at UBC
Chris is a Professor in the Department of Zoology. His research investigates the impact of climate change on rocky coasts. His lab is interested in how climatic factors, such as temperature, CO2, pH, and biological relationships such as predation and facilitation, interact to create ecological patterns in time and space.
Professor at UBC
Terre is a Professor in, and the Director of, the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. Her work concerns sustainable development in the context of debates about cultural meanings, environmental values, perceived risk, environmental and ecosystem health.
Professor at UBC
Curtis is a Professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, the Department of Botany, and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. His work focuses on environmental microbiology and virology, with current projects on viruses in extreme environments.
Professor at UBC
Philipe is a Professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and the Department of Botany. He has broad interest in marine biogeochemical cycles and ocean-climate interactions. His research is focused on understanding the potential climate effects on Arctic and Antarctic marine systems.
Professor at UBC
Amanda is a Professor in the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and the Department of Zoology. She is involved in biological and social research, empowering local communities, establishing marine protected areas, managing small-scale fisheries, restructuring international trade, and promoting integrated policy.
Professor at UBC
Michael is a Professor in the Department of Political Science. His work focuses on issues of Arctic sovereignty, climate change, the law of the sea, and Canadian foreign and defence policy. Michael also holds a Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law.
Fellows
Fiona Beaty
I am a graduate student in Dr. Christopher Harley’s lab in the Department of Zoology. My research revolves around evolutionary-ecology dynamics, in particular the adaptive capacity of coastal marine ecosystems to climate change. I am intrigued by how intertidal invertebrate communities react to environmental changes.
Graham Brownlee
I’m a Master’s student with Dr. Chris Harley in the Department of Zoology. My research interests are studying the impacts of climate change on coastal ecosystems through habitat-forming species. I am exploring how a host-parasite relationship between mussels and microbes within mussel beds may support their resilience to climate warming.
Salome Buglass
I am a PhD student in the Geography department at UBC and a project scientist at the Charles Darwin Research Station part of the Galapagos Seamounts Research Project team. My thesis project aims to explore the composition of benthic communities associated to mesophotic and deep-sea seamount communities in the Galapagos.
Elsa Camins
I am a M.Sc. student working with Amanda Vincent at Project Seahorse. My thesis is focused on analyzing citizen science data to determine the state of seahorse populations and if marine protected areas are working properly. Thanks to the Ocean Leaders program, I have the opportunity to learn valuable interdisciplinary knowledge that will help improve my skills.
Alberto Campos
I’m a PhD Candidate in Kai Chan’s lab. My research seeks to understand the cascades triggered by defaunation – extinctions, extirpations and severe population reductions – and their ecological consequences in marine environments, to propose rewilding practices that could recover ecosystem services.
Sara Cannon
I’m a PhD student and Ocean Leaders Graduate Fellow in the Geography department at the University of British Columbia. I recently finished my M.Sc., also at UBC, on studying coral reefs and resilience to climate change and local human activities in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Fanny Couture
I am a PhD student and Ocean Leader graduate fellow in the Zoology department of the University of British Columbia. My research interests combines marine fisheries, statistical ecological modeling, and marine mammal ecology. My current project aims to explore prey and predator population dynamics.
Allison Cutting
I am a master’s student, co-supervised by Dr. Terre Satterfield and Dr. Rashid Sumaila. My research focuses on small-scale fisheries in Nicaragua, with attention to food and livelihood security. I am passionate about finding solutions that foster harmony between the ocean and the people that depend on it.
Kaleigh Davis
I am a PhD student in the O’Connor Lab. I am interested in studying the effects of climate change on community dynamics in marine systems. Outside of school I enjoy birding, biking, and doing crossword puzzles.
Katherine Davis
I am a PhD student in Dr. Laura Parfrey’s lab in the Biodiversity Research Centre. My current research focuses on microbial communities associated with intertidal seaweeds and kelp mariculture. I am excited by using molecular tools to enhance understanding of healthy marine ecosystems and to support sustainable ocean food production and harvest.
Santiago De La Puente Jeri
I am a Peruvian researcher that studies the ecological and human dimensions of the Humboldt Current, with emphasis on Peruvian fisheries economics and governance. Currently my work is focused on linking ecosystem models with seafood value chains for management strategy evaluation.
Meaghan Efford
I am a PhD student at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and my research is in service to Tsleil-Waututh Nation. Through a project based on the needs and questions of the community, I am using Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) to create a pre-contact (AD 1792) food web baseline model of Burrard Inlet, BC.
Katie Florko
I am a PhD student in Dr. Marie Auger-Methe’s Statistical Ecology lab at UBC. My research focuses on the effects of sea ice loss on Arctic marine mammal habitat use and foraging ecology. I hope my work will help to understand how sea ice affects Arctic marine mammal habitat use and foraging success, and ultimately, identify critical habitat.
Mara Flotats Aviles
I am a PhD student, supervised by Dr. Amanda Vincent at Project Seahorse. My research focuses on seahorse biology, fisheries and trade in Latin America. I hope my work will raise awareness of the need to increase the protection of seahorses and other species with similar life-histories that are suffering from the same pressures.
Dan Forrest
I am a graduate student in Dr. Kai Chan’s lab. I am interested in regional-scale spatial patterns and relationships of biodiversity and ecosystem services and how these may change due to human activities. I hope to use insights gleaned from predictive models to make conservation, management, and rewilding plans and policy recommendations.
Rebecca Hansen
I am a Master’s student with Dr. Chris Harley in the Department of Zoology. My current research investigates how climate change affects intertidal kelp, and what implications this may have for intertidal communities as a whole. As an Ocean Leaders Fellow, I am excited to work across disciplines and understand marine systems from many different perspectives.
Adam Hicks
I am a Master’s student in Project Seahorse. My research interests are broadly centered on various marine areas of the tropics, with a specific focus on the international wildlife trade. My research thesis is looking at the International Seahorse trade in Cambodia, including the close ties behind Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Dana Johnson
I am a PhD student in Dr. Kai Chan’s lab in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. I am interested in adopting a relational lens to understand the variety of factors that shape solutions to environmental issues. My research will aim to better understand how people relate to ecosystems and biodiversity, alongside the provision of ecosystem services.
Jihyun Kim
I am a Master’s student in Dr. Michelle Tseng’s lab. My research focuses on the effects of temperature warming on aquatic phytoplankton and zooplankton communities through species and community level responses. I am very excited to be part of the Ocean Leaders program and have the opportunity to develop my interdisciplinary skills.
Rocío López de la Lama
I have been working in nature conservation in Peru since 2011, mainly exploring what motivates people to engage with pro-environmental behavior. My previous work has focused on sustainable seafood, small-scale fisheries, gender studies and exploring people’s relationship with nature.
Xinru Li
I am a PhD student in Dr. Simon Donner’s lab. My research focuses on the trends in the thermal structures of extremely warm water events at a global scale and how they influenced marine organisms. I am also interested in examining how well the global climate models can simulate marine heatwave characteristics that are critically important to marine life.
Amy Lui
I am a Master’s student in Dr. Rick Taylor’s Lab in the Zoology department and a big fan of genetics, conservation, and fishy science. My research project looks to investigate the evolution and hybridization of the Arctic char complex in North America. I’m excited to be part of the Ocean Leaders program to expand my interdisciplinary skill set.
Roshni Mangar
I am Master’s student working with Dr. Amanda Vincent at Project Seahorse. My project aims to understand the socioeconomic background of trawl fishers along the coast of India to inform policy makers about the effects of restricting trawl fisheries on fishers’ well-being. I am from Mauritius and the Ocean Leaders program is key for me to learn applied skills to bring back to my island.
Max Miner
I am a Master’s student at the Institute of Oceans and Fisheries, co-advised by Brian Hunt and Camilla Speller and in collaboration with the Gitga’at First Nation of northwestern BC. My research uses methods from molecular ecology and archaeology to examine harmful algal bloom activity, clam gardens, and Indigenous resource management strategies.
Kate Mussett
I am a Masters student in the IOF’s Centre for Indigenous Fisheries, working for and alongside the First Nations Fisheries Legacy Fund and representatives from their partner First Nations; Musqueam, Katzie, Kwantlen, Tsleil-Waututh, Tsawwassen, and Kwikwetlem. My role in this work is to co-produce a bio-cultural framework for fish and fish habitat assessment, with specific respect to riparian zones, which weaves together Western and Indigenous science.
Ben O’Conner
I am a Master’s student in Dr. Stephanie Waterman’s physical oceanography lab at UBC, co-supervised by Dr. Wiley Evans and Dr. Jen Jackson of the Hakai Institute. My research aims to combine physical and chemical methods to explore the ongoing acidification of coastal margins. I will be using ocean gliders and historical datasets to characterize the space-time variability of the carbonate system within Queen Charlotte Sound.
Greig Oldford
I am currently working on a spatial-temporal ecosystem model for the Strait of Georgia to investigate why juvenile salmon marine survival declined in the early 1980s and has not recovered. The Ocean Leaders Fellowship offers a wonderful opportunity to make a positive impact on ocean-related issues and I feel fortunate to be selected as part of this program.
Alastair Roberts
I am a graduate student in Dr. Curtis Suttle’s lab. I am working to understand the seasonal dynamics of viruses associated with crustacean zooplankton and how they impact zooplankton populations in coastal British Columbia. I am also interested in the viral diversity in marine organisms, how marine viral assemblages vary and how they structure marine communities.
Sacchi Pillai
I am a PhD student in Dr. Philippe Tortell’s lab. I am interested in the optical properties of phytoplankton and what that call tell us about phytoplankton composition, distribution and production. I am excited to be part of the Ocean Leaders Program and am grateful for the opportunity to hopefully make a difference in the problems the oceans are facing.
Anna Santo
I am a PhD student in Dr. Kai Chan’s lab in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. My primary interest is understanding the social dilemmas inherent in conservation work. My research will focus on characterizing social values around the restoration of the Salish Sea’s coastal and marine habitats.
Siobhan Schenk
I am a PhD student in Dr. Laura Parfrey’s lab in the Biodiversity Research Centre. My current projects all focus on understanding how abiotic stress (mainly salinity) influences the bacterial community of sugar kelp. I hope that my work can build foundational knowledge regarding microbiota manipulation and benefit kelp conservation and mariculture.
Kate Schuler
I am a PhD student in Dr. Philippe Tortell’s lab in the Department of Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. My research will exploit new emerging technologies for sea-going trace gas analysis that will allow for high spatio-temporal resolution measurements of methane and nitrous oxide concentrations in the Subarctic Pacific and Canadian Arctic.
Yayla Sezginer
I’m a Master’s student in Dr. Philippe Tortell’s lab. I am using fast repetition rate fluorometry to study marine phytoplankton photophysiology and productivity. I’m interested in applying these fluorometry techniques to learn more about phytoplankton physiological responses to differing environmental conditions.
Pax Templeton
I am Master’s student working in Dr. Amanda Vincent’s Project Seahorse lab. My research will investigate the health of seahorse populations in Latin America and the effects of commercial trawl fishing and habitat degradation. I am thrilled to be a part of the Ocean Leaders program to learn the hands-on skills necessary to make a positive impact for our oceans.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Rosanna Carver
I am a social science researcher focused on political ecology and political economy more broadly. During my fellowship at UBC, I will be working on the politics that are emerging from the seabed as a site of mineral extraction with Dr. Terre Satterfield.
Harmony Martell
I am honored to be an Ocean Leaders Postdoctoral Fellow. My doctoral research focused on thermal acclimation of corals. In the Climate and Coastal Ecology Lab here at UBC, I’m developing models to improve coral bleaching predictions and to examine whether repeat thermal stress can make corals more resilient.
Andy Stock
I’m a post-doc in the Connecting Human and Natural Systems Lab. My research focuses on computational methods to predict how human activities and the resulting pressures change marine ecosystems. I’m especially interested in the limitations of predictive models, and how they can nevertheless provide valuable information for environmental management.
On-Campus Collaborators
Professor at UBC
Mary is a Professor in the Department of Zoology. Her research examines the influence of environmental temperature on the dynamics of ecological communities. Her work contributes to our understanding of how patterns of species abundance are related to ocean temperature.
Professor at UBC
Evgeny is a Professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. His research spans a broad range of interests covering topics from species ecology, at the level from zooplankton to fish, to ecosystem structure as well as physical-biological and biochemical coupling.
Professor at UBC
Andrew is a Professor and the Director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit. His research spans the fields of ecology, nutrition, physiology, and animal behaviour—and is designed to further the conservation of marine mammals.
Collaborators
