People

Faculty and Staff

Name	Dr. Sara Helen Knox
Pronouns	She/Her/Hers
Email	sara.knox@mcgill.ca
GitHub	https://github.com/sknox01

I am broadly interested in the impacts of climate variability and land-use change on land-atmosphere exchanges of water, energy, and trace gases. I also seek to understand how ecosystem responses to global change can feedback to slow or accelerate future climate change. My research and training is in micrometeorology, hydrology, and ecosystem ecology. I focus on biosphere-atmosphere interactions in a variety of climates and ecosystems.

Education: University of California, Berkeley, PhD; Carleton University, MSc; McGill University, BSc

Name	Rick Ketler - Project Manager (Geography)
Email	rick.ketler@ubc.ca
Office	PCMH B1100

Currently Research Projects Manager for UBC Geography Physical Labs. I have designed and installed research sites in terrain ranging from temperate bogs to arctic tundra. I primarily support professors, PDF’s and grad students with physical scientific measurements in the field and in the lab.

Education: B.Sc. Physics Co-op University of Victoria, B.C.

Name	Zoran Nesic - Senior Research Engineer
Email	zoran.nesic@ubc.ca
Office	MCML 137

I am responsible for management of numerous research and equipment design projects for various faculties and departments at UBC. I design eddy covariance and soil respiration systems that are used at various North American universities as well as by other research institutions. My main research interests are (1) the design of automated measurement systems for long-term environmental measurements and (2) the standardization of measurement and data processing procedures to ensure high quality and reproducibility of research results.

Education: B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade; M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, University of British Columbia

Name	Dr. Rosemary Howard
Position	Research Associate
Pronouns	She/Her/Hers
Email	rosemary.howard@mcgill.ca

I have worked as a Research Associate and leader in research and development strategies for over a decade, on a variety of research topics spanning numerical weather prediction and meteorology across multiple scales. My focus shifted to climate science when I joined the EcoFlux Lab in March 2024. Currently, I am working on standardizing eddy-covariance data from flux towers in Canadian wetlands, with the larger goal of evaluating the role of wetlands as a natural climate solution.

Previous experience: University of British Columbia, Weather Forecast Research Team,; Associate Director and Research Associate
Education: University of British Columbia, Canada, Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science; University of Reading, England, M.Sc. in Weather, Climate, and Modelling; University of Sheffield, England, B.Sc. in Mathematics

Name	Dr. Paul Moore
Position	Data Scientist
Email

My research has focused on understanding the ecohydrological feedbacks in boreal wetland ecosystems. My approach has incorporated both field-based methods such as eddy covariance and lab-based experiments to parameterize physically-based ecosystem models. The aim of the modelling has been to test our conceptual understanding of ecosystem processes, but also to define thresholds of disturbance which significantly impact ecosystem function under a range of current and future climate scenarios. My current research efforts are focused on supporting eddy covariance deployment, data processing, and analysis.

Name	Dr. Joyson Ahongshangbam
Position	Postdoctoral Scholar
Email	joyson.ahongshangbam@mcgill.ca
Orcid	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2678-6879

I am interested in studying the carbon and water cycle in different ecosystems (forest, urban vegetation and wetlands) using observations such as eddy covariance, sap flow and remote sensing techniques. My research includes understanding the responses of carbon and water dynamics with the land cover change, management activities and climate change (drought and heatwave).

Previous experience: University of Helsinki, Finland, Postdoctoral researcher
Education: University of Göttingen, Germany, PhD; Indian Institute of Remote sensing, India, Masters

Name	Dr. Xuicheng Yang
Position	Postdoctoral Scholar
Email	xiuchengyang@uvic.ca

I am conducting remote sensing analyses to characterize Canada’s tidal marsh ecosystems. I am also synthesizing spatial datasets on the distributions and threats to Canada’s coastal ecosystems, including land use changes and sea level rise, to develop, analyze, and visualize future ecosystem scenarios, with a particular focus on carbon storage.

Previous experience: University of Connecticut, USA, Postdoctoral Fellow
Education: University of Strasbourg, France, PhD; Peking University, China, Masters

Name	Tzu-Yi Lu
Level of Study	Ph.D. Candidate

I received my MS in Geography from National Taiwan University in 2017. I am interested in understanding the response of the wetland ecosystem to climate change, especially in quantifying the net exchange of carbon. My previous research investigated the relationship between environmental controls and CO2 flux in low-latitude wetland ecosystems, applying an Artificial Neural Network technique to simulate the variance of carbon exchange by meteorological variables.

Name	Katrina Poppe
Pronouns	She/Her/Hers
Level of Study	Ph.D. Candidate
Email	poppek@student.ubc.ca

I earned an MS in Environmental Science from Western Washington University in 2016 and continued at WWU as a Research Associate for several years. My previous research has focused primarily on blue carbon, studying soil carbon sequestration rates in Pacific Northwest estuaries and in United Arab Emirates mangroves, in addition to monitoring and modeling vegetation and sediment dynamics in relation to estuary restoration and sea level rise. I am currently interested in studying greenhouse gas fluxes in Pacific Northwest tidal wetlands – particularly how they respond to ecosystem restoration and climate change – to ultimately better understand the value of tidal wetland management actions as natural climate solutions.

Name	Sarah Russell
Level of Study	Ph.D. Student

I received a BS in Biological Sciences from Wellesley College in 2017, then worked as an ecosystem ecology field technician and research assistant before moving to Vancouver. I am interested in land-atmosphere carbon dynamics and am particularly interested in quantifying the terrestrial carbon sink. My research at UBC involves modeling greenhouse gas fluxes from restored tidal wetlands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Name	Jinshuai Li
Position	Visiting PhD Candidate
Email	jinshuai.li@mail.mcgill.ca

I am a PhD candidate at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Currently, I am doing research at McGill University as a visiting student. I am interested in the basic characteristics of the wetland carbon cycle and the main environmental response features. At the present stage, my research focuses on quantifying the environmental response characteristics of methane emissions from wetlands, and based on this, I am trying to construct models to quantify methane emissions and further reduce the simulation errors.

Name	Vanessa Valenti
Level of Study	M.Sc. Student

I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Geography/Environmental Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2019. Before coming to UBC, I worked as a scientific programmer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, providing visualization and computation support to earth system and atmosphere climate models. I am interested in modelling land-atmosphere exchanges and projecting responses of wetland and forested ecosystems to climate change.

Name	Dylan Gwilliam
Level of Study	M.Sc. Student

I received my B.Sc. in Environment from McGill in 2024, specialising in Land Surface Processes and Environmental Change. Before coming back to McGill for my Master’s, I worked 9 months in Science and Conservation Planning at the Nature Conservancy of Canada. I am interested in quantifying land-atmosphere greenhouse gas fluxes from wetlands and how they are altered after degradation and restoration. I believe understanding this missing piece of the puzzle can help to better value and protect wetland ecosystems and their role as nature-based climate solutions.

Name	Onur Kocer
Level of Study	M.Sc. Student

I’m interested in applying Machine Learning to interdisciplinary problems. With a background in Computer Science and Psychology, I explore how both new and established methods can help us better understand complex systems. Currently, I’m working on modelling ecosystem exchange using neural networks, with the goal of gaining insight into ecological processes.

Name	Alice Godbout
Level of Study	B.Eng. Student

I am a U4 student pursuing a Bachelors in Software Engineering (B. Eng.) at McGill University. I have always been interested in the intersection of technology and sustainability, and using the technical skills I learn from my degree to drive a positive impact on climate change.

Name	Lisa Stewart
Level of Study	BA & Sc. Student

I am a U3 undergraduate student at McGill University studying Sustainability, Science and Society. I am interested in how scientific research is conducted to induce societal change, especially for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Name	Karolina Bajda
Level of Study	BA & Sc. Student

I am a U2 Geography student at McGill University. I am interested in learning more about nature based climate solutions and performing data visualization and analysis to evaluate seasonal variability in fluxes driven by climatic and environmental factors.