Colleagues,

I hope that this finds you all safe and well.

As you know, July marks the official ‘beginning’ of the academic year, and with it, comes a number of administrative changes and appointments.  So, in no particular order…

Big Thank Yous:

  • Sally Aitken will be stepping down as Associate Dean, Research and Innovation, a role that she has held since July 2017.  Under Sally’s leadership, a number of new research initiatives have been launched, programs to communicate our research results have been formalized, and funding for our Faculty is at an all-time high.
  • Simon Ellis and Scott Hinch will be stepping down as Program Directors for Wood Products Processing and Natural Resources Conservation, respectively.  Collectively, Simon and Scott have ably served in these roles for nearly five decades!  During that time, both have ushered in a number of strategic initiatives, overseen incredible growth in the programs, and made sure that every individual student was well cared for.
  • Susan Day will be stepping down as Program Director for Urban Forestry at the end of the summer, a role that she has held for the past three years.  Over that time, Susan has done an amazing job of reimagining and retooling the UFOR program, and building it into one our Faculty’s most vibrant undergraduate offerings.

Congratulations – Reappointments, Promotion, and Tenure:

  • Chunping Dai was awarded Tenure as Associate Professor.
  • Feng Jiang was reappointed as Assistant Professor.
  • Tara Martin was promoted to Professor

Associate Deans:

  • Guangyu Wang will be continuing his second term as Associate Dean, Asian Strategies.
  • Taraneh Sowlati will be taking on the role of Associate Dean, Research and Innovation.

Department Heads:

  • Nicholas Coops and Richard Hamelin have both dropped their ‘pro tem’ status and will be formally appointed as Department Heads for Forest Resources Management and Forest and Conservation Sciences, respectively.
  • Shawn Mansfield has accepted a joint position in the Faculty of Science as the Department Head for Botany.

Program Directors:

  • Vincent Leung will be taking on the role of Program Director, Wood Products Processing.
  • Jeanine Rhemtulla will be taking on the role of Program Director, Natural Resources Conservation.
  • Sara Barron will be taking on the role of Director, Urban Forestry Programs, with dual responsibilities for overseeing both the undergraduate UFOR program and the graduate MUFL professional masters program.

New Appointments:

  • Warren Cardinal-McTeague, Assistant Professor / Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Natural Sciences, Forest and Conservation Sciences:   Warren obtained his PhD from the University of Ottawa and was Post-doctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History and the Université de Montréal prior to joining Agriculture and Agrifood Canada. His research program weaves together plant systematics and Indigenous science to address questions about how plant biodiversity has evolved, and how we might use that information for trait improvement and environmental sustainability.
  • Juliet Lu, Assistant Professor, cross-appointed between Forest Resources Management and the UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (Faculty of Arts):  Juliet has come to UBC as part of the Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions (IBioS) Cluster Hiring Initiative.  Her research program encompasses environmental governance and business and takes a political ecology approach to examining sustainable commodity chains.  Juliet comes to UBC from the Atkinson Center for Sustainability at Cornell University, and is a China Fellow at the Wilson Center.
  • Alex Moore, Assistant Professor, cross-appointed between Forest and Conservation Sciences and Botany (Faculty of Science):  Alex has come to UBC as part of the Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions (IBioS) Cluster Hiring Initiative.  Alex obtained a PhD from Yale University and was a Post-doctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History.  Their research program spans ecological scales – from species to ecosystems – in an effort to understand how coastal wetlands function and how to identify best practices for conserving and restoring them.
  • In addition, Wood Science will be welcoming three members to the newly formed Wood Building Science and Technology Cluster in September:  Minghao Li, Felix Wiesner, and Haibo Feng.  Stay tuned for more information when they arrive in the Fall.

Please join me in thanking, congratulating, welcoming each of the above colleagues.   And thank you to everyone in the Forestry community for all of your hard work and dedication in what has proven to be another successful year in the Faculty!  Please make sure to take some time this summer to rest, relax, rejuvenate, to enjoy the people and things that are important to you.

All the best,

Rob

Dr. Robert Kozak
Professor and Dean