LEAP UBC

Joaquin (he/him) completed an undergraduate degree in the Integrated Sciences Program. His primary focus is on the field of climate change science and sustainability. He is interested in the intersection of climate science and sustainability to inform interdisciplinary climate change policy.  His research, under the joint supervision of Dr. Amanda Giang and Dr. Milind Kandlikar, focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of carbon offsets as a strategy for mitigating climate change.

Tim completed an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC in 2023. His research looks at the fate and behaviour of toxic chemicals in the environment, with a focus on how policy tools impact chemicals emissions and human/environmental exposure

Sahil completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the LEAP team in 2023, working on the SmellVan project, linking odor reports to air quality and health indicators. He went to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur to pursue a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering. In the undergraduate program, Sahil explored multiple careers, such as sustainability in business (interned at ITC Limited), management (admitted to the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore), and research (added a year to the bachelor’s program to pursue a Master’s in Technology). Under the guidance of Dr. Y. M. Joshi, Sahil pursued challenging computational research on the rheology of complex fluids and moved to UT Austin to continue his tryst with research. At UT, Sahil jumped into the field of atmospheric science with the Delhi Aerosol Supersite (DAS) study–an unparalleled study collecting air pollution data in Delhi, India—the most polluted megacity in the world. As a part of DAS, Sahil helped to support the state-of-the-art instrumentation and collect high time resolution datasets on fine particulate matter in Delhi. Having built an expertise in receptor modeling, over the next few years at UBC, Sahil hopes to build an expertise in source-oriented modeling and attempt to combine citizen science reports (semi-qualitative data), with ground-based monitoring and satellite datasets. In the PhD program, Sahil interned at the South Coast Air Quality Management District in California, an experience that cemented his interest in research-in-policy positions in government application-focused settings. Eventually, Sahil hopes to actively shape environmental policy and contribute to organizations designing and implementing targeted solutions to tackle air pollution and climate change.

Kana completed a dual degree in B.Sc Natural Resources Conservation and Masters in Management. She is interested in diverse sustainability topics, including land use management, green building, and zero waste, as well as map making. In the LEAP Group, she assists in conducting spatiotemporal analysis to study the relationship between the sources of odorous pollutants and their impact zones.

Emma Gillies completed her MSc degree at the University of British Columbia's Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability in 2022. Her research involved modelling mercury contamination in the Beaufort Sea beluga food web using Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science. Emma holds a first-class honours degree in environmental biology from McGill University, where she completed a thesis on freshwater microplastic pollution and gained work experience in journalism, international relations, ecological research, environmental consulting, and computer science. Emma is particularly interested in ecotoxicology and environmental policy and is eager to use data science and community consultation to explore the connections between environmental and public health.

Sara Elder completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC in 2021. She specializes in understanding the local social and environmental impacts of global supply chain governance, with a focus on agricultural producers and workers in the global South. Her work bridges theoretical insights from development studies, sustainable food systems, and private governance, while being rooted in field research with commodity producers. She has led projects in Rwanda and Nicaragua, and worked with communities in Bolivia, South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania. She is active in publishing her scholarly contributions, and is dedicated to mobilizing scientific knowledge in policy, including through her postdoctoral work with the BC Ministry of Agriculture and as a Technical Officer with the International Labour Organization. She is currently leading research on the impact of voluntary sustainability standards on market access and poverty of smallholder farmers with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). She is committed to effective teaching and mentoring, and is currently designing a new course in socio-ecological systems research for undergraduate students to gain hands-on experience conducting interdisciplinary research. She holds a PhD in Resources, Environment and Sustainability from UBC (2016), an MA in Resource Management and Environmental Studies (UBC, 2010) and a BA in International Relations (UBC, 2004).

Erika Luna completed her MSc in 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Amanda Giang and Dr. Navin Ramankutty. She holds a BSc in Earth and Environmental Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Erika has gained research experience from working as Research Assistant at different universities across North America where she studied a variety of socio-environmental problems. These past research experiences contributed to build her passion on data science and food security. Her project at both LEAP and LUGE labs was focused on agricultural crop diversity in Mexico. 

Claire completed her MSc in 2021, supervised by Dr. David Boyd and Dr. Amanda Giang. Claire is interested in ecology, environmental policy, environmental justice, and more. Her research focuses on the law enforcement dimensions of environmental justice and air pollution in Canada. Before matriculating to IRES, Claire studied Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University, with minors in Biology and Environmental Studies. There, she researched the deforestation caused by artisanal-scale gold mining with Dr. Miles Silman's lab, and completed her undergraduate thesis on the effect of the US-China trade wars on the solar panel industry. Outside of Academia, Claire has worked on water conservation with a Coloradan water utility, sustainability in private companies with Xanterra Parks and Recreation, and more.

I am a fourth year undergraduate, doing a Combined Honours in Physics and Mathematics, as well as the Master of Management Dual Degree program. To mitigate impacts of anthropogenic climate change on the environment and at-risk populations, I want to use my skills to do research regarding the climate crisis in order to inform policy-making. Through my Honours Thesis, I am using back trajectory analysis based on public odour reports in order to identify major odour sources in Metro Vancouver.

Sophie is an undergraduate student working on her degree in Environmental Sciences with a minor in Health and Society. She’s passionate about climate change and planetary health. On the weekends, you can find Sophie doing pretty much anything outdoors, or frequenting her favourite coffee shops!

Hannah graduated with her Master of Science at IRES in 2020. She completed her undergraduate degree in human and conservation biology at the University of Toronto in 2017. Hannah is excited to work on tackling global environmental policy issues, such as mercury pollution, sustainable development, and climate change.

My undergraduate in natural resources conservation promoted my development of an unassailable affinity for the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest - it’s no wonder I can’t bring myself to leave the beauty that surrounds this city! Traveling internationally highlighted the disparity of air quality that exists across countries and smaller geographical areas. This drove me to study air pollution in China before and throughout my masters in geomatics, and now across Canada - where the same under-appreciated fortune is seldom granted. My current work with Dr. Amanda Giang and Dr. David Boyd seeks to provide a preliminary assessment of environmental justice across Canada with respect to air pollution, and will lay the groundwork for the inclusion of a multitude of other variables and outcomes.

Carlina is in her 5th year of Environmental Sciences at UBC concentrating in land, air, and water systems. She is interested in the impact science has on policy and how research can be translated to implement better climate change solutions. She is excited to be a part of the LEAP team to work on air pollution and climate change research.

Her research is focused on industrial air pollution in Canada focusing on oil refineries and identifying potential "super emitters". She hopes to develop hypotheses for their existence and identify how marginalized communities are affected from the distribution of production of these environmental hazards. 

I am currently in my 5th year and majoring in integrated sciences. My major is an integration of Computer Science and Environmental Science. I am very interested in how we can make energy usage more efficient, and clean through new technologies. The past research I was involved in at IRES was focused on data visualization pertaining to the concentration of air pollutants in Canada. I assisted in the construction of an interactive mapping application that was made to pinpoint where environmental injustices were happening specific to air pollution.

My primary research interests lie in the linkages between marine ecosystem and human health. Focusing on how anthropogenic environmental changes could affect the biogeochemical cycling of contaminants and the associated impacts on human health.Now working on NCP project ‘The Influences of Environmental Changes on Levels and Trends of Methylmercury in Beaufort Beluga Food Web’.

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Previous PDF at Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, & Institute of Oceans and Fisheries at UBC.

PhD from Environmental Health, Harvard University.

Ashton recently completed her 4th year of a BSc in Environmental Sciences at UBC with a concentration in Land, Air and Water and will be graduating in November 2020. She is interested in exploring ways to effectively engage the public in climate change and other complex environmental issues we face today. She is currently assisting in interdisciplinary research related to air pollution emissions from agriculture.

Joy is in her last year of undergraduate study at UBC, majoring in Biology and minoring in Psychology. She is interested in ecological conservation and environmental justice across cultures. Joy also expresses passion in health restoration through her clinical experiences.

She’s currently helping with Bassam’s research, concentrating on policy and data analysis in electric vehicles in China.

I studied Environmental Sciences and Human Geography. I am interested in feminist political ecology and the intersections of nature, power and policy. Currently, my research is centred on Canadian energy politics. I am focusing on the Trans Mountain pipeline as a case study to examine environmental assessments through the lenses of settler colonialism and legal geographies.