Landscapes - People - Global change

Category: Uncategorized (Page 1 of 9)

Recent SRES visitors

External assessors Christopher Ling and Michelle Gray with me as they finish up their site visit to SRES.

We hosted some important visitors into the SRES suite last week. First, on April 1 and 2 we hosted Christopher Ling (of Royal Roads) and Michelle Gray (of UNB), who are the external assessors for SRES’ unit and program review this year. I’m not sure that it is supposed to be fun when your unit is being reviewed, but thanks to Drs Ling and Gray, ours really has been. We are looking forward to hearing what they have to say about SRES, MES and MREM after their 360-degree enquiries during their stay.

Federal Liberal candidate and 2004 MES alumnus, Shannon Miedema, visits the SRES suite, April 3, 2025

Also great fun was the visit of 2004 MES alumnus Shannon Miedema to the suite on April 3. She is the current Liberal candidate for Halifax, and visited the SRES student society’s coffee break. The students were interested to see her hard-bound MES thesis about her work in Palau, which seemed like an ancient document given they only submit online these days. Was glad to host, and ‘launch’ our new SRES stickers with her and the students. They went like hotcakes! Happily we’ll have to re-order soon.

MREM class of 2024

Alex Legault and I at the mixer after day two of the MREM presentations, Dec 10, 2024.

I spent the last two days watching our 30 MREM students presenting their final projects to culminate their programs. It was an impressive showing, with students demonstrating hard work, care and rigour, as well as strong mentorship. It was also great to see the cohort showing up for one another, asking questions and cheering. Congratulations to my advisees, Alex, Bianca, Christie, Clara, Emily, and Maranda. I look forward to reading those final reports, and watching where your careers take you next!

Alumni new and ‘old’

MES grads at fall 2024 convocation ham it up.

Over the last week we got to see the new MES alumni graduate in the October convocation (top)–Congratulations!–and about 20 ‘old’ alum of SRES at a speed networking event with current MREM students (below). Thanks to WIL for organizing the latter, and the alumni for donating their time.

Generous SRES alum partaking in speed networking with current MREM students.

Election to the RSC College of New Scholars

My listing in the RSC College election announcement that came out today

I’m so honoured to be elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars’ Class of 2024. Thanks to my colleagues at Dal and elsewhere who supported my nomination, right under the wire in terms of the temporal eligibility requirement. Greyest hair in the mix, I think. Congratulations also to my co-nominee, TCA TranSECT project co-lead Melanie Lemire from Laval! I’ll be travelling to Vancouver in November for the official ceremony, and will be so glad to be able to spend more time with her, as well as meet new people.

Congratulations Kate, Yan and Emily

The committee and candidate after a successful defense, from left to right, Peter Duinker, me, Kate Thompson, Anders Hayden and Mikiko Terashima.

It has been a busy August so far, with three big defenses within a two week period.

On Friday, August 9th, Kate Thompson defended her Interdisciplinary PhD on The application of ecosystem services concepts in Canadian urban planning. Thanks so much to Luna Khirfan from the University of Waterloo for serving as Kate’s external examiner, and to her co-supervisor, Peter Duinker, and committee members, Mikiko Terashima and Anders Hayden.

Then on Monday, August 19th, Yan Chen defended her Interdisciplinary PhD on Social media data and computer vision in social impact assessment: understanding human dimensions and cultural ecosystem services in hydroelectric landscapes. Thanks to Ming-Hsiang Tsou from San Diego State University for serving as Yan’s external examiner, and to her co-supervisor Mike Smit and committee members Kyung Young Lee and Lori McCay-Peet.

Last, but not least, Emily Key (Snair) defended her MES yesterday, August 21st, on Identifying rural residents’ views about integrating solar farms into rural landscapes of Nova Scotia. Thanks to Chad Walker from Dalhousie’s School of Planning for serving as Emily’s external examiner, and Dirk Oudes from Wageningen University for serving as her committee member.

Somehow I didn’t take any photographs of the last two–apologies to Yan and Emily–but we did get one at Kate’s! And I did get a nice one of Emily doing her defense trial run at the CAG conference last week. Congratulations to all three for excellent defenses of their excellent work.

Emily Key presents at the Canadian Association of Geographers meeting in St. John’s, August 17, 2024.

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