UBC Forestry congratulates Johanna Bock, Stephen Johnston, and Sofie McComb on their Wall Research (Graduate Student) Award.
About Johanna Bock‘s Research
Johanna’s research focuses on understanding the diverse ways urban natures, such as parks, beaches, and woodlands, relate to mental health, particularly in metropolitan areas like Vancouver. She is exploring how individual interactions with nature vary by examining daily patterns across demographics and by delving into the unique experiences of Latin American immigrants. Through surveys and walking interviews, her research aims to contribute to our understanding of how personal values and lived experiences shape people’s behaviours in relation to nature as well as their mental well-being.
About Stephen Johnston’s Research
Stephen’s research focuses on the refinement and distribution of best practices developed for anglers participating in marine salmon fisheries in British Columbia, where selective fishing must occur. He has collected surveys to better understand how average anglers participate in these fisheries and has evaluated post-release survival rates of Chinook salmon through tagging and tracking studies. As regulations are modified to protect vulnerable populations of Chinook salmon, anglers must have the knowledge and tools available to limit their impacts. Education is the key step to ensuring the conservation objectives of his research are fully realized.
About Sofie McComb’s Research
Sofie’s research aims to evaluate the health of ecocultural landscapes within the Salish Sea of British Columbia—ancestral food and resource systems such as camas root gardens and cedar food forests that have been shaped by millennia of sustainable Coast Salish First Nations management. Her work focuses on assessing how these ecologically and culturally significant landscapes are cumulatively impacted by interactive anthropogenic threats in the region, particularly the loss of Indigenous stewardship and relational caregiving, and how to use this knowledge to inform effective and just conservation decision-making to revitalize these systems in a values-centered way.
About Wall Research (Master’s and PhD students) Award
Graduate awards, ranging in value from $25,000 (for Master’s students) to $30,000 (for PhD students), have been made available through the Peter Wall Legacy Fund, an endowment established by Peter Wall, for graduate students whose thesis/dissertation research relates to one of three specific areas of interest:
- Sustainable approaches to and development of the general urban environment, including water, energy and transportation infrastructure in British Columbia;
- Environmental protection of oceans, beaches and waterfronts that impact British Columbia;
- and sustainable approaches to resource-intensive industry in British Columbia.
Projects within these areas of interest will principally relate to British Columbia, but may also apply to and address other Canadian and international regions.
These awards will be offered to students in their 5th and/or 6th year of their PhD program and to students in their 2nd or 3rd year of Master’s programs. The awards are thus intended to enable applicants to complete their degree.
Masters awards will commence September 1 2024 for up to 12 months or until program completion, whichever comes first. Doctoral awards will commence September 1 2024 for up to 24 months or until program completion, whichever comes first.