Kai coauthors UN report “Making Peace with Nature”
Kai joined Ivar Baste and Sir Bob Watson and other Section Leads to coauthor the UNEP report “Making Peace with Nature“. This new 2021 report synthesizes major assessments from IPCC, IPBES, the Global Environmental Outlook and more to provide a blueprint for meeting the planet’s linked environmental challenges.
Remembering Adrian Semmelink
CHANS Lab is mourning the sudden passing of Adrian Semmelink, who did his Master’s with Kai Chan and Terre Satterfield from 2015-2018. Adrian was a warm, enthusiastic, empathetic person who seemed to set everyone at ease with his manner and his wonderful sense of humour. He brightened every room he walked in, and touched every person who came to know him. He made the world a better place through his research on sustainable agriculture and farmer practices, and through just being Adrian. We will miss him deeply and sorely. See Kai’s words to Adrian’s family and friends.
To honour Adrian Semmelink and in recognition of his dedication to sustainable agriculture practices, family and friends will be establishing an award in his name. The award will support students pursuing their Master’s or PhD in UBC’s Resources, Environment and Sustainability (RES) program with preference given to those whose studies focus on sustainable agriculture. Our goal is to establish either an annual award or an endowed award. The minimum amount to establish an annual award is $10,000 to be distributed in increments over 5-10 years. We will be able to endow Adrian’s award in perpetuity if we reach $50,000. The final use of funds will be determined by IRES in consultation with Adrian’s family.
http://support.ubc.ca/adrian-semmelink
Kai and Matt advertise for a PhD student
Kai and Matt Mitchell are seeking a PhD student to model biodiversity and ecosystem services in Metro Vancouver (see the job ad).
Kai and Terre reflect on a nine-year journey to critically evaluate ecosystem services research
Following their publication of a new paper in People and Nature, Kai Chan and Terre Satterfield reflect on the maturation of ecosystem services as a field, and how it has risen to some critiques but not others. In Relational Thinking, The People and Nature Blog.
Maayan Kreitzman defends her PhD
Maayan successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled “Perennial Agriculture: Agronomy and Environment in Long-Lived Food Systems“. Congratulations, Maayan!
John Driscoll defends his PhD
John successfully defended his PhD dissertation entitled “Nutrient Yields from Northwest Atlantic Fisheries: Analysis, Indicators, and Optimization“. Congratulations, John!
IPBES Podcast: Choose Your Own Adventure
Kai Chan was featured on the new IPBES Podcast Nature Insight. Rob Spaull interviewed Kai about transformative change, the personal and the global.
Re-orienting towards sustainability, post-COVID (Kai’s story in The Conversation)
With the IPBES Global Assessment, the world was poised to tackle the ecological and climate crises.
We have already lost our way.
NOW is the time to re-orient. Let’s use #Covid_19 recovery funding for CHANGE, not to lock-in to old ways.
Kai’s story in The Conversation
Another blog post in the IPBES series: How to Cite the Global Assessment Fairly and Appropriately
In the series of blog posts about IPBES, the newest entry argues that citing just the Díaz et al. Science paper or the Summary for Policymakers is usually inappropriate, and that a fairer strategy is to also cite the report itself or its chapters. For convenience, the citation info is all provided here, including a BibTeX file.
Kai launches new blog series on interdisciplinary research design for sustainability
It’s called “How to Write a Winning Proposal—in 10 Hard Steps“. The first post is “Understand How Others Go about Research. Step 0: Let Experts Reveal Their Messy Realities“. It’s based on RES 602 and 15 years mentoring grad students.