Ubyssey covers Harold Eyster’s dual accomplishment
Finishing a deeply interdisciplinary PhD wasn’t enough: when Harold defended, he also finished running every single km of Vancouver’s streets. See the Ubyssey article and Harold’s blog on CHANS Lab Views.
Alberto & Kai publish an op-ed on rewilding in The Province
Rewilding can restore ecosystems and biodiversity in B.C.
Opinion: Today, scientists are studying mass extinctions, and wondering if bringing back some of these and other animals could help alleviate our planet’s current climate and extinction crises, including here in B.C.
Great personal stories about transformative change and sustainability
The CoSphere site has two new Personal Stories posts:
John Robinson aka Mr. Sustainability, Kai’s long-time colleague at UBC, talks about transitions vs. transformations, the path to building one of North America’s greenest buildings, and updating the history of environmental thought.
Alanna Mitchell, one of Canada’s leading environmental journalists who now performs theatrically about the oceans and the climate crisis, wrote about her journey from the Globe and Mail and Oxford University to centre stage.
How to Identify a Research Problem, and Scan the Horizon (of Literature)—two new posts
Kai continues his blog series on Interdisciplinary Research Design for Sustainability Impact with two new posts.
The first addresses how to pick a research topic, and argues that “An Impactful Interdisciplinary Research Project Is One that Fulfills You”.
The second addresses the key issue of how to scan the horizon (of literature), to make sure you’re not blindsided by fields and literatures that you overlooked, and to realize great opportunities from cross-pollination.
Kai is appointed as a Canada Research Chair
Our PI Kai Chan is now a Tier 1 CRC in Re-Wilding and Social-Ecological Transformation. UBC announcement
Why You Need a Theory of Change
NGOs and Foundations all operate via a Theory of Change
Why not also sustainability and environmental scientists?
We should!
New post in the series, “How to Write a Winning Proposal—in 10 Hard Steps”
Alberto Campos is a 2021 Vanier Scholar!
On July 15th the three federal granting agencies announced the results of the 2021 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Congratulations to Alberto Campos for receiving this highly competitive scholarship.
Cam Bullen wins the Freda Pagani award
Congratulations to Cameron Bullen for receiving the Freda Pagani Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award for his thesis entitled, “A marine megafaunal extinction and its consequences for kelp forests of the North Pacific“!
Make COVID-19 Vaccination Mandatory at Universities?
On CHANS Lab Views, Kai weighs arguments for and against mandatory vaccination at universities, and considers alternatives. He concludes that purely voluntary approaches may be easy solutions, but they are likely not the fairest. He proposes to change the default, at least: make vaccination expected.
CHANS Lab has a new banner
Thanks to Colton Stevens for the beautiful photo and the editing!