Landscapes - People - Global change

Tag: students

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.

Congratulations, Emily Wells, MES!

Emily Wells speaks during her online MES defense, Mar 2, 2022, about being gifted an eagle feather by a Mi’kmaw Knowledge Holder during her research and what it meant to her.

Delighted to share news that Emily Wells defended her MES thesis yesterday, titled Mi’kmaw relational values: Lessons for environmental valuation from Indigenous literatures and L’nuwey along the Bay of Fundy Coast. Thanks to Heather Cray who acted as Chair, Melanie Zurba who was Emily’s committee member and welcomed her into the Co-Lab community, and also Kai Chan who served as her external examiner. It was too bad that threats of poor weather drove us to an online event, but it was still a wonderful conversation, exactly the kind of insightful and reflective event you hope for out of a defense. We have new ideas with which to approach the final thesis submission and the publication process.

2017 spring convocation

MES graduand Yan Chen and her parents with me.

MES graduand Yan Chen and her parents with me.

Congratulations to our Spring 2017 graduands who convocated yesterday. Despite playing hooky from the ceremony itself, I was really pleased to see some of the students I worked with and their families. Yan Chen’s parents had come all the way from China to see her cross the stage (above) to receive her MES based on work on Instagram in my lab. Caitlin Cunningham’s parents were visiting from St. Catharines to see her receive her MES on mapping pollination services and potential, based on work led by Peter Tyedmers that I enjoyed helping with. Finally, I got to give a hug to Mhari Lamarque, graduating MREM, who did her internship with DUC and is now working for DUC and I both.  Such events are one of the more satisfying parts of being a professor.

© 2025 Kate Sherren

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑