UBC experts on drought, wildfires, heat and associated issues

UBC experts are available to comment on wildfires, drought, heat and associated issues. Updated Aug. 10, 2023

• Climate change, forests and wildfires
• Climate change and heat
• Disaster planning and response
• Drought
• Fire behaviour and fire management
• Health impacts of wildfires, heat and extreme conditions
• Urban impacts of fire and heat
• Wildlife and ecosystem impacts of fire and heat

Climate change, forests and wildfires

Dr. Lori Daniels
Professor, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences
Email: lori.daniels@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Wildfires and wildfire management
• Forest fires, past and present
• Impacts of climate change on forests

*limited availability

Dr. Greg Garrard (he/him)
Professor, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies
Tel: 250-863-2822
Email: greg.garrard@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Environmental literature
• Culture and climate change (including skepticism)
• Cultural ecology of wildfire
• Political polarization

Dr. John Innes
Professor, Faculty of Forestry
Tel: 604-603-5916
Interview language(s): English

• Climate change and wildfires, boreal forests, forest management

*unavailable until Aug. 25

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Climate change and heat

Dr. Rachel H. White (she/her)
Assistant Professor, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Email: rwhite@eoas.ubc.ca
Tel: 604-230-3504
Interview language(s): English

• Climate change, atmospheric circulation and heat waves, B.C.’s forecast for the summer

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Disaster planning and response

Dr. Werner Antweiler
Associate Professor, Sauder School of Business
Email: werner.antweiler@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English, German

• Economic costs of wildfires including higher insurance costs

* unavailable until Aug. 29

Maya Daurio (she/her)
PhD candidate, Department of Anthropology
Email: spinosese@gmail.com
Interview language(s): English

• Lived experiences of wildfire
• Cascading hazards and consequences of disaster
• Human-environment dimensions of wildfire and disaster
• Member of the UBC Disaster Resilience Research Network

Dr. Sara Shneiderman (she/her)
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
Email: sara.shneiderman@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Social elements of disaster preparedness and response
• Disaster governance

Dr. Babak Mohamadpour Tosarkani
Assistant Professor, UBCO School of Engineering
Tel: 647-551-7732
Email: babak.tosarkani@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Emergency supply chain preparedness

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Drought

Dr. Younes Alila
Professor, Department of Forest Resources Management
Email: younes.alila@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Climate and land use change effects on droughts, floods and landslides
• Logging and forest practice effects on droughts, floods and landslides

Dr. Werner Antweiler
Associate Professor, Sauder School of Business
Email: werner.antweiler@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English, German

• Water economics and management

* unavailable until Aug. 29

Dr. Sean Fleming
Adjunct Professor, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Email: sfleming@eoas.ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Water resource science and management
• Flood and water supply forecasting
• Climate variability and change
• Machine learning
• Snow and glaciers

Dr. Michael Healey
Professor Emeritus, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Phone: 250-317-7839
Email: healey@mail.ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Reduced stream flow and higher water temperature in rivers and lakes, and effects on salmon
• Increased surface temperature in the ocean, and effects on salmon

Dr. John Janmaat (he/him)
Professor, Department of Economics, Philosophy and Political Science
Email: john.janmaat@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Environmental economics
• Natural resource economics, including water resource economics

Dr. John Richardson
Professor, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences
Email: john.richardson@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Effects of droughts on natural ecosystems
• Effects of flooding and water supplies on streams and lakes, water quality and debris torrents
• Urban impacts of drainage patterns and loss of natural stream networks in many parts of the Lower Mainland
• Ways to conserve water this summer

Dr. Sean Smukler (he/him)
Associate professor, Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Email: sean.smukler@ubc.ca 
Interview language(s): English

• Effects of droughts on agriculture and farming in B.C.
• Adapting farming practices in a changing climate
• Role of agriculture in climate change

Dr. Eric Taylor
Professor, Department of Zoology
Email: etaylor@zoology.ubc.ca
Phone: 250-393-2486
Interview language(s): English

• Effects of drought on fish

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Fire behaviour and fire management

Jen Baron (she/her)
PhD Candidate, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences
Email: jenbaron@mail.ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Wildfire ecology and management, past and present
• Forest fire behaviour, fire risk and fuel treatments
• Climate change impacts on wildfires

Dr. Mathieu Bourbonnais
Assistant Professor, Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences
Email: Mathieu.Bourbonnais@ubc.ca
Tel: 778-583-0272
Interview language(s): English, written French

• Wildfire risk and fire suppression and mitigation
• Firefighting and use of satellites for wildfire detection and monitoring

Dr. Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz (she/her)
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences
Tel: 604-363-9863
Email: kelsey.copes-gerbitz@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Proactive wildfire management, coexisting with wildfires, sharing responsibility for wildfire management
• Community wildfire resilience
• Historical fires and wildfire management

Dr. Sarah Dickson-Hoyle (she/her)
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences
Email: sarah.dickson-hoyle@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Wildfire recovery
• Ecological impacts of wildfires
• Community wildfire resilience and proactive approaches

Dr. Kevin Hanna
Associate Professor, Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences
Tel: 250-807-9265
Email: kevin.hanna@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Vulnerable infrastructure
• Risk and disaster assessment wildfire management and policy
• Climate change and risk events

Dr. Kira Hoffman
Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Forestry
Tel: 250-876-8440
Email: kira.hoffman@bvcentre.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Fire behaviour, pyrodiversity and prescribed burning; proactive wildfire management

Dr. Dwayne Tannant
Professor, School of Engineering
Tel: 604-801-4301
Email: dwayne.tannant@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Landslides, rockfalls
• Below debris field flood mitigation
• Post-wildfire debris flow mitigation

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Health impacts of wildfires, heat and extreme conditions

Dr. Philip Ainslie
Professor, School of Health and Exercise Sciences
Tel: 250-878-6171
Email: philip.ainslie@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Heat, pollution and their isolated and combined influence on physiology and health
• Effect of temperature and oxygen availability on physiology, pathology and performance
• Acclimatization, adaptation and maladaptation to environmental stress

Dr. Jennifer Baumbusch (she/her)
Professor, School of Nursing
Email: jennifer.baumbusch@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Protecting seniors and other vulnerable people from extreme heat

Dr. Michael Brauer
Professor, School of Population and Public Health
Email: michael.brauer@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Health effects of extreme heat, approaches to minimize impacts
• Air quality and health impacts from smoke
• How to minimize exposure to smoke

Dr. Emily Brigham
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Email: emily.brigham@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Lung health, asthma and COPD, pollutant exposures from wildfires, co-exposure with heat

Dr. Christopher Carlsten
Physician; Professor and Head of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Medicine
Tel: 604-839-1561
Email: christopher.carlsten@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Adverse health effects related to heat, smoke, ozone and allergens
• How heat, smoke, ozone and allergens are climate-change related

Dr. Wendy Hall (she/her)
Professor Emeritus, School of Nursing
Email: wendy.hall@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Effects of heat on sleep
• Promoting good sleep, particularly for children

Dr. Sarah Henderson
Associate Professor, School of Population and Public Health
Tel: 604-910-9144
Email: sarah.henderson@bccdc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Health impacts of wildfire smoke and extreme heat and ways to protect health

Dr. Mary-Ann Murphy
Associate Professor, School of Social Work and the Department of Sociology
Tel: 250-807-8705
Email: mary-ann.murphy@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Dealing with the emotional trauma of wildfires
• Lessons from evacuees
• What to pack when evacuating
• Caring for seniors in extreme heat

Dr. Michael Schwandt
Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Population and Public Health; Medical Health Officer, Vancouver Coastal Health
Email: michael.schwandt@vch.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Health impacts of wildfire smoke
• Community and personal actions for health protection

Dr. Angela Yao
Adjunct Professor, School of Population and Public Health
Email: angela.yao@bccdc.ca
Interview language(s): English, Mandarin, Cantonese

• Health impacts of wildfire smoke

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Urban impacts of fire and heat

Dr. Melissa McHale (she/her)
Associate Professor, Department of Forest Resources Management
Email: melissa.mchale@ubc.ca
Tel: 604–827–3150
Interview language(s): English

• Urban heating and urban heat mitigation, urban ecology, sustainability and carbon cycle

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Wildlife and ecosystem impacts of fire and heat

Dr. William Cheung
Professor and Director, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries
Email: w.cheung@oceans.ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English, Cantonese

• Warming seas
• Effects of extreme heat on marine life
• Impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems and dependent human communities
• Climate solutions for the ocean and fisheries
• Biodiversity

Dr. Karen Hodges (she/her)
Professor, UBC Okanagan Department of Biology
Tel: 250-807-8763
Email: karen.hodges@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Post-fire habitats
• Wildlife impacts from heat, drought and fire
• Salvage logging and impacts on wildlife

Dr. Alison McAfee
Postdoctoral Fellow, Michael Smith Laboratories and North Carolina State University
Tel: 778-995-2151
Email: alison.n.mcafee@gmail.com
Interview language(s): English

• Honey bee biology and fertility
• Impact of high temperatures on bee fertility and survival

Dr. Matthew Mitchell (he/him)
Research Associate, Centre for Sustainable Food Systems
Tel: 778-580-8222
Email: matthew.mitchell@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Biodiversity, smoke/pollutant impacts on animal activity, ecosystem services

*unavailable until Sept. 5

Dr. David Scott
Associate Professor, Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences
Email: david.scott@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

• Effects of wildfire on hydrology and erosion
• Evaluation of fire site rehabilitation methods in terms of controlling erosion and sedimentation

Note: Dr. Scott is only available for interviews via email

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