Down under, and back up again!
That will describe the journey in the next few weeks for Dr. Tristan Pearce, who is migrating back to his hometown of Prince George from Queensland, Australia to become UNBC’s newest Research Chair after spending time with the Sustainability Research Centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Dr. Pearce was recently appointed as a new Canada Research Chair (CRC) and will act as an Associate Professor and CRC of Cumulative Impacts of Environmental Change in the Department of Global & International Studies at the school.
"I am delighted to bring my research program to UNBC,” said Dr. Pearce in a release. “I will continue to work with communities in the north and globally to better understand how people are experiencing and responding to changes in the environment brought on by climate change and other forces.”
Dr. Pearce’s resume includes expeditions to the Arctic, Oceania, and the Pacific Islands region of the world, deeply rooted in the human dimensions climate change with research determining what communities are experiencing and how locals are responding.
By coming to UNBC as its eighth CRC, Dr. Pearce says his goal is to develop more sustainable social policies that support communities on their journey to a better surrounding environment.
“A key focus of my research is the engagement of multiple knowledge systems, scientific and traditional knowledge, to better understand our relationship with the environment and how it is changing. UNBC faculty are at the vanguard of these issues and I look forward to building new collaborations."
The Class of 2003 graduate of UNBC will begin his new position on Canada Day (July 1).
He holds a Bachelor’s in International Studies from the post-secondary school, a Master’s in Geography/International Development and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Guelph from 2006 and 2011 respectively.
The CRC Program is a federal initiative to attract and retain exceptional scholars in fields spanning engineering and the natural science, health sciences, humanities, and social sciences.
