Media Advisories

UBC experts on heat waves and extreme heat

UBC experts are available to comment on the health effects of heat waves and extreme weather as B.C. experiences another heat wave. 

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 floods and landslides
  • Logging and forest practice effects on floods and landslides

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

  • Respiratory problems, health effects of heat waves, climate change
  • Wrote op-ed on climate adaptation measures to cool our cities

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. 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 Indigenous fire stewardship

Dr. Christopher Harley
Professor, Department of Zoology
Email: harley@zoology.ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

  • Effects of extreme heat on marine life including marine invertebrates
  • Marine heat waves
  • Climate change
  • Ecology
  • Biodiversity

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

Dr. Melissa McHale
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
  • Wrote op-ed on climate adaptation measures to cool our cities

Dr. Kh Md Nahiduzzaman
Visiting Professor, School of Engineering (Okanagan campus)
E-mail: Kh.Nahiduzzaman@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

  • Flood non-structural mitigation, flood resilience and inclusive governance

Dr. Lorien Nesbitt (she/her)
Assistant Professor, Department of Forest Resources Management
Phone: 604–822–3482
Email: lorien.nesbitt@ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

  • Extreme heat events
  • Urban green space inequities
  • Urban forestry and social-ecological urban systems, with an emphasis on environmental justice, human health, well-being and climate change
  • Wrote op-ed on climate adaptation measures to cool our cities

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

  • Effects of flooding and water supplies on streams and lakes, water quality and debris torrents
  • Effects of droughts on natural ecosystems
  • Impacts of excess water on slopes and floods
  • Urban impacts of drainage patterns and loss of natural stream networks in many parts of the Lower Mainland

Christopher Rodell
Member, Weather Forecast Research Team, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Email: bluesky@eoas.ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

  • Wildfire smoke forecasting, wildfire growth modelling, wildfire weather forecasting, air pollution and air quality

Dr. Adam Rysanek
Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Email: arysanek@sala.ubc.ca
Tel: 236-992-3371
Interview language(s): English

Alexa Tanner
PhD student, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability
Email: alexa.tanner@ires.ubc.ca
Interview language(s): English

  • Risk perceptions, evacuation, decision making, multi-hazard risks and emergency management

CONTACT

UBC Media Relations
media.relations@ubc.ca

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