Graduate Student Opportunities

Continually asking questions and learning as a snow hydrologist and researcher — by engaging with colleagues, stakeholders, and beyond — has fueled my desire and ability to teach and communicate to a broader community. Knowledge and information are most powerful and refined when shared. I strive to enable more relationships with snow water resources, emphazing the importance of the subject at local, regional, and global levels. 

We are looking for motivated students to join the UBC Snow Program! Our lab group uses field, computational, and remote sensing-based techniques to address a wide variety of questions related to snowpack heterogeneity, snow water resources, snowpack and streamflow seasonality, and snow and ecohydrology relationships in past and future climates.

If you are interested in joining the lab, please send me a brief description of your research interests, past research and/or fieldwork experience, and what you seek from your graduate school experience (e.g., what skills you would like to learn) as well as a 1-2 page CV and a copy of your academic (unofficial) transcripts.  Informal inquiries are also welcome. 

Graduate students in my group are funded by research assistantships or fellowships. I encourage strong candidates to apply for external research fellowships, including NSERC Graduate Scholarships, and I am always happy to discuss funding and project proposals and ideas.

I strongly encourage you to reach out a few months before the UBC application deadline. For more information on applying for a graduate degree at UBC, see the UBC Graduate School website and the UBC Geography Department page. 

Why University of British Columbia? 

UBC's Geography Department is one of the top geography departments in the world. Through our research and teaching, we strive for a critical and ethical approach to the natural environment and society’s relationship with it. We have a diverse range of faculty focused on the cryosphere and water, and we offer an abundance of courses that can support you as you build your graduate career and experience, both within the Geography Department as well as across the University in Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; Forestry; Environmental Sciences; Civil Engineering Departments and more. Snow hydrology research at UBC is enhanced by collaborative opportunities with indigenous communities, industry professionals, neighboring universities, federal centres. 

Vancouver, British Columbia is the major urban centre of western Canada and offers an unrivaled blend of metropolitan and outdoor experiences. UBC's beautiful campus alone is comprised of the Pacific Spirit Regional Park, several globally recognized museums and historical sites and centres, pristine beaches along the Pacific Ocean, and a vibrant and diverse student life. Metro Vancouver includes a major international airport, downtown area, accessible bike paths, Stanley Park, and a surrounding network of trails and ski resorts. As the gateway to the Sea-to-Sky corridor, Vancouver is just an hour from Squamish, 90-minutes from  Whistler, and a 1/2 days drive to the Canadian Rockies and several Provincial Parks. 

UBC's Vancouver Campus is located on the lands of the Xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Territory.

Undergraduate Student Opportunities

Continually asking questions and learning as a snow hydrologist and researcher — by engaging with colleagues, stakeholders, and beyond — has fueled my desire and ability to teach and communicate to a broader community. Knowledge and information are most powerful and refined when shared. I strive to enable more relationships with snow water resources, emphazing the importance of the subject at local, regional, and global levels.

The UBC Snow Program has a number of opportunities for UBC undergraduates who are looking to learn more about snow, hydrology, and research! These opportunities include:

Independent Research Projects

Field Assistants (typically in the winter or summer seasons)

Lab/Data Assistants (typically in fall and spring semesters)

Undergraduate researchers and assistants can be funded via ongoing lab grants or UBC's Work Learn program, or students can take research course credits.

If you are interested in undergraduate research opportunities, please email me a brief description of: (1) what interests you about our program and lab group, (2) any prior research or field experience, and (3) your unofficial transcript.