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.