Is it just us, or does everything feel like it’s on metaphorical and actual fire? In the words of that famous dog sipping coffee in a room filled with flames, we’re here to tell you that “This is(n’t) fine” but we’ve got a fun filled night to get your mind off those metaphorical flames and onto some actual ones. This week Nerd Nite presents a special “Nerd Nite on Fire” in collaboration with Simon Fraser University where we’re talking about wildfires, their impacts on health and the planet, and the ways communities are addressing them.
The impacts from wildfires in BC (as well as the rest of western North America) have become inescapable – amplified by climate change, fires are larger, more severe, and more frequent than any time in the previous century. However, the risks are far from over after the flames are out. In addition to consuming forests, severe wildfires will also burn the underlying soil, creating water repellent conditions that can persist for many years and cause increases in runoff and erosion. Further compounding the issue are increasingly extreme weather events. As a result, we are seeing an increase in both the frequency and magnitude of post-fire natural hazards, specifically debris flows – dense slurries of water and mud, capable of carrying boulders the size of cars, that can occur with little to no warning and will destroy virtually anything in their path. While only a few dozen post-fire debris flows had been documented in BC prior to 2015, there have been nearly 1,000 in the past decade alone. These post-fire natural hazards leave communities, already beleaguered and vulnerable after wildfire, exposed to ongoing risks to life and property and have, in some cases, caused more destruction and loss of life than the initial wildfire. Join Dr. Brendan Murphy as he talks about his research documenting these phenomena, the burn conditions and storms that trigger them, and his efforts to improve our ability to predict and mitigate the risks posed by post-fire natural hazards.
Bio:Brendan Murphy is an Assistant Professor in the School of Environmental Science at Simon Fraser University whose interdisciplinary wildfire-related research incorporates hydrology, geomorphology, and ecology. His work focuses on the aftereffects of wildfires, with the overarching goal of improving predictions of cascading natural hazards that can occur after wildfires (flooding and debris flows), as well as advancing our abilities to assess and ideally mitigate these risks before fires ever occur. He runs active research projects across western Canada and the US, including BC, California, Utah, and Colorado. When he actually gets free time between research and teaching, he enjoys photography, pottery, and playing tennis.
Stephanie Cleland: The Health Risks of Wildfire Smoke in a Changing Climate
Most of us are familiar with the hazy, orange skies and the burning sensation in our eyes and throats caused by wildfire smoke. Climate change, in combination with the expanding wildland-urban interface, is increasing many communities’ exposure to wildfire smoke. But what does this increasing exposure mean for our health, and how can we prepare? Environmental health scientist Stephanie Cleland will cover what we currently know about the health effects of wildfire smoke and the unanswered questions that scientists are tackling. She will also highlight strategies for mitigating exposure and building smoke resilient communities in the face of the ongoing climate crisis.
Bio: Dr. Stephanie Cleland is an Assistant Professor and the Legacy for Airway Health Chair in Promotion of Lung Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. She is also a Research Scientist at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. Her research uses large datasets to understand how climate change-related environmental hazards, such as wildfire smoke and extreme heat, adversely impact human health, with an emphasis on increasing community resilience to climate change. She has a strong interest in science and public health communication, environmental health justice, and increasing the accessibility of scientific research.
Sophie Wilkinson: Peatlands, People, and Wildfire: A Triple Threat for the Climate
The Earth’s carbon stores are vital for the regulation of the climate. Peatlands are the world’s densest carbon stocks, however, the carbon they’ve locked up over millennia is at risk of being released. We’ve been degrading peatlands for decades, and now climate-fuelled wildfires are taking a bite too. In this talk, Dr. Wilkinson will explain how peatlands are becoming more vulnerable to fire and what this means for the carbon they store and our future climate. She’ll also discuss the wonderful ways that science is coming to the rescue for these important ecosystems.
Bio: Dr. Sophie Wilkinson is an Assistant Professor of Applied Terrestrial Ecology in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. She is the lead of the Fire and Ecosystems Research Lab and has 10 years of experience working at the intersection of peatland ecohydrology and wildfire science. Sophie’s research focuses on understanding patterns of wildfire and identifying environmental tipping points to high-severity fire. Sophie applies her work to address critical wildfire management challenges such as reducing fire risk in the wildland-urban interface and developing improved policies for resource management.
Lyana Patrick: Fighting Fire with Fire: First Nations Community-Led Approaches to Health During Ecological Crises
In 2018, wildfire in British Columbia’s north interior burned over 183,000 km2 of Stellat’en First Nation territory. In the aftermath of these fires the community proactively sought to develop a collaborative and holistic ecosystem restoration plan that reflects Stellat’en social, cultural, political and economic values. Community-led response strategies have proven to be effective in mitigating the impacts of climate events like extreme wildfires and drought. First Nations communities recognize that a crucial component of future emergency preparedness is ensuring the health and resiliency of ancestral territories. Ensuring long-term resilience requires support for community-led responses, including education, housing, employment, and capacity building.
Bio: Dr. Lyana Patrick is Dakelh from the Stellat’en First Nation and Acadian/Scottish. She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences where her work focuses on the intersection of Indigenous health, justice and community-led responses to public health and climate crises. She incorporates film and other multimedia in her work and is committed to public scholarship as a creative and collaborative process of exploration with Indigenous communities
2025 is here already! Everyone seems to be doing their quarter-century best of lists. So why don’t we list our nerdy favourites from the last 25 years!
Lord of the Rings – CGI finally brings the world of fantasy and sci-fi into the mainstream, that paves the way for countless franchises to thrive like Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and Marvel.
International Scientific Collaboration – From the Large Hadron Collider to batting Climate Change. Solving the big issues of the world means bringing together the entire world!
Knitting and baseball card collecting become cool again – Okay maybe just for Kaylee and Michael.
Small nerdy sub-cultures find each other throught the internet – Social media and internet may be a net negative, but being able to find community to connect with has been a wonderful way for introverts to connect.
Nerd Nite – Since 2003 Nerd Nites have connected curious nerdy people in bars all around the world!
As usual your ticket and extra support will go to support a charity which this month is TBD
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) isn’t just a global issue—it’s deeply personal for the people and professionals it impacts. Join Amarachi as she shares about the veterinarians in Nigeria, their role in AMR stewardship, and the systemic challenges they navigate daily. Through a One Health lens, she’ll explore how veterinary practices can shape the future of global health and why we should all care about what happens in a vet’s office halfway across the world.
Bio: Amarachi Ezeocha is a veterinarian and public health researcher passionate about showing and bridging the gaps between human, animal, and environmental health. Currently pursuing her PhD at Simon Fraser University, Amarachi focuses on One Health communication and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). With experience spanning global health policy and community engagement, she is committed to amplifying underrepresented perspectives in health science.
Paige Hunter: The Art of Change – we need creative expression for effective climate action
Climate change is…. a lot to handle. Finding the best way to take action is hard, and sometimes it’s tough to know if biking to work in the pouring rain or attending a rally in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery is really making a difference. This presentation will explore how to tap into our creative juices to find the best way to take climate action, and how art can transform us into lifelong climate activists. Paige Hunter, co-lead of the climate community engagement group the sword fern collective, will draw from her own experiences of being a lifelong activist and musician for this talk. She will share stories and examples from the sword fern collective’s climate art event series The Art of Change, and will leave you with a hopeful perspective on how everyone can be a climate activist.
Bio: Paige Hunter (she/her) is a research analyst and a climate activist born and raised in Langley, BC and recently transplanted to Vancouver. Her passion for climate justice began with seeing land-use change in her community and watching her Fern Gully VHS every day. She recently completed her Bachelor’s of Resource and Environmental Management, where her honours thesis focused on how to improve wildfire recovery policy in British Columbia using examples from Australia and California. Paige plays bass trombone and has performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and she’s a huge fan of skiing, running, hiking, cycling, rock climbing, thrifting, and reading fantasy books. In 2023 she was named one of Canada’s Top 25 Environmentalists Under 25 by the Starfish Canada and she puts that in all of her bios because it makes her ego absolutely massive.
Group Info:the sword fern collective is a community-based group that focuses on mobilising collective climate knowledge in a hopeful and compassionate way. We aim to advance climate justice by sparking dialogue and providing people with the tools to discuss climate issues and ideate climate solutions in their own communities. The sword fern collective’s mission is to encourage collective organising through individual empowerment. sword fern collective is led by Paige Hunter (she/her), Victor Yin (he/they), and Erica Binder (she/her), three youth who bonded over their shared passion for climate action, art, and dialogue.
Ben Ashby: When Sex Makes You Sick
Have you ever wondered why peacocks have such ostentatious feathers to attract mates, or why sex even exists at all? Surprisingly, the answer to both of these questions may have something to do with infectious diseases. While infectious diseases are probably one of the least sexy topics for a first date, in the animal kingdom knowing whether a potential mate might infect you is really important for both survival and reproduction. Many species have evolved strategies to minimise their risk of infection, but infectious diseases can evolve too, so who wins in the end? Join mathematical biologist Ben Ashby for a wide-ranging talk on sex, infectious diseases, and evolution to find out more.
Bio: Ben AshbyBen Ashby is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Simon Fraser University, and the Scientific Director of the Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society. He uses mathematical models to understand how infectious diseases evolve, and in turn how they affect the evolution of their hosts. Ben is passionate about public engagement and making mathematics and science accessible to everyone
Kaylee is away being on Rat Detective duties, but we are super excited to have Desiree Nielsen as our guest host! She is a registered dietitian and plant-based recipe developer with a focus (mostly!) on plant-based nutrition and gut health. She is the host of The Allsorts Podcast, as well as the author of multiple bestselling and award-winning cookbooks, including my latest, Plant Magic which perhaps we might be giving away some copies!? Only way to find out is to get in here, and oh yeah we have a jam packed final Nerd Nite of 2024 with some heavy hitters, so you need get you tickets fast!
Marco Pasqua – Accessibility Unfiltered: Navigating a World Designed for Some
Prepare for an eye-opening journey as Marco Pasqua, an accessibility consultant, inspirational speaker, and individual with cerebral palsy, takes the stage at Nerd Nite. With his unique blend of humor and personal insights, Marco sheds light on the often misunderstood world of accessibility and the challenges faced by people with disabilities in a society designed primarily for the able-bodied.Drawing from his wealth of experience and armed with a collection of thought-provoking examples and striking visuals, Marco highlights both the triumphs and pitfalls of accessibility in our modern world. Through his engaging storytelling, he challenges common misconceptions about disability and emphasizes the importance of universal design in creating a more inclusive environment for all.As an individual with cerebral palsy, Marco offers a firsthand perspective on the daily obstacles and ingenious solutions encountered by those navigating a world not always built with their needs in mind. His talk is guaranteed to be an entertaining, informative, and impactful 15 minutes that will leave you seeing accessibility and disability in a whole new light.
Marco Pasqua is an award-winning Entrepreneur, Accessibility Consultant and Inspirational Speaker with Cerebral Palsy. Throughout his life, Marco has been involved with a number of organizations as a spokesperson, helping to spread advocacy for persons with disabilities across Canada. As an Accessibility and Inclusion Consultant, he has worked with some of the biggest change-driven business leaders who are champions for more accessible, inclusive workplaces. It’s through these experiences that he is helping to pave the way for all Canadians to have universal access to the programs, services and places that they live, work and play.
Rachel Chimuka – CARBONXCHANGE: A Climate Rap Battle
CARBONXCHANGE focuses on the two most important ways that carbon moves through the land and ocean. One of these processes helps to lower the amount of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in the air, which helps cool the Earth down, while the other process increases CO 2 levels, warming our planet. These processes are referred to as “carbon cycle feedbacks” and through storytelling and a rap battle, you’ll learn about their unique roles in cycling carbon through the earth and the implications for climate change. Come prepared to vote for your favorite rap!
Rachel Chimuka (she/her) is a Vanier Canada Geography PhD. scholar and an amateur experimental singer-songwriter, who goes by her first name, Vimbikayi. Her research quantifies the differential carbon uptake and release patterns of vegetation and soils in scenarios with CO2 emissions and removals, and the implications for climate and achieving the Paris climate goals. Fueled by her ambition to integrate the realms of science and music, Rachel created a music video for the Dance Your PhD 2023 competition – a contest for PhD students to showcase theirm research through music and dance. In her Youtube video titled Dance Your PhD 2023 | Carbon Cycle Feedbacks (w/Rap Battle + Speech), she uses song, dance and rap to share her work on climate change and the carbon cycle processes involved, while emphasizing the importance of urgent climate action.
Franck Marchis – Exploring the Cosmos: 40 Years of SETI Research
For millennia, humans have gazed at the stars, wondering if we are alone in the universe. Forty years ago, this age-old question took a scientific turn with the establishment of the SETI Institute. Franck Marchis, Senior Astronomer and Director of Citizen Science at the Institute, will provide an engaging update on the ongoing search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This presentation will cover the innovative methods and technologies currently in use, along with highlighting significant recent findings. While definitive evidence of extraterrestrial life remains elusive, our understanding has expanded dramatically.Join us as we explore the potential of discovering an inhabited exoplanet in the next decade, a discovery that could fundamentally alter our view of the universe and our place within it.
Dr. Franck Marchis is a senior astronomer and director of citizen science at the SETI Institute and Chief Science Officer and co-founder at Unistellar. Marchis moved to them United States in Oct. 2000 shortly after getting a Ph.D. from the University of Toulouse in France that he acquired while traveling around the world for his research and for the sake of exploration. He is known for astronomical research published in Nature, Science, and other high-ranking journals, including discovery of the first triple-asteroid system in 2005, study of the binary trojan asteroid Patroclus in 2006, direct imaging of the first Jupiter-like exoplanet in 2015, and significant achievements related to the use of 8-10m class ground-based telescopes equipped with adaptive optics (AO). Marchis is also involved in startups focused on science outreach and astronomy, and joined Unistellar as a Chief Scientific Officer and VR2Planets as a scientific advisor in 2017. In 2022, he founded Dope Space, a company dedicated to outreach, entertainment, and education for the New Space industry.
Welcome to Nerd Nite v54! What do salmon, work effects on health, and songs about science have in common? We wanted to learn about them so they’re next up for the first of two Fall Nerd Nites coming your way! Tickets as always go fast, so get in here!
Every Nerd Nite now, we pick a local non-profit organization that your ticket contributes to. This month we’re giving to Zee Zee Theatre whose mission is devoted to telling and celebrating stories that amplify voices from the margins, with a focus on 2SLGBTQI+ communities. They share diverse experiences as an act of resistance, while nurturing joy, curiosity, empathy, and humanity in the world.
The Creekwalkers. They may sound like a breed of moss-covered swamp monsters who are seeking revenge against a mining company for draining their wetland, but they’re actually a ragtag team of bug-bitten biologists who’ve survived for weeks on a tiny island with nothing more than muffins, canned soup, and baloney sandwiches. Their mission? To use the latest technology (their eyeballs) to count the salmon run in 15 creeks in Haíɫzaqv Territory. Join me as I recount the soggy month I spent as a creekwalker, explain why creekwalking is important, and share my tips on how to eat lunch when you’re surrounded by piles of dead rotting fish.
Bio: Auston Chhor (he/him) is a salmon habitat biologist at Raincoast Conservation Foundation. He holds a BSc. from Queen’s University where he studied what happens to fish habitat when cottagers develop shorelines, and somehow received an MSc. for studying what happens to fish when those same cottagers catch them for fun. He moved out west with a dream of becoming a “typical BC boy” and spends his free time trying his best to do so.
Alice Murage – Work Effects on Health
As part of her PhD, Alice did some digging on what others have written about the connections between work and health. She found a lot of research and policies that address classic occupational safety such as exposure to hazardous materials and physical injuries in the workplace. She also found growing literature on connections between precarious or insecure work and psychological wellbeing that in turn contribute to physical illness. Many workers experience a fight or flight biological responses to stressful work conditions. In our evolution, this response was critical for our survival. Now, work can biologically and psychologically be experienced as a lion we need to fight or flee from. This creates a cascade of hormone production that negatively affects our health.In her talk, Alice will share the psychological, biological, life course, materialist, and structural explanations of how our work might be affecting our health.
Bio: Alice Mũrage is a research fellow and PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University, Faculty of Health Sciences. She uses research as a tool to promote social and health equity. Her PhD research aims at understanding experiences of Black healthcare workers who work under conditions of limited job security, control, protections, compensation and/or support in British Columbia, and how their work conditions affect their health. Under the background of the current healthcare workforce crisis, Alice hopes to inform equitable workplace and provincial response policies.
Martin Austwick – Songs About Science
Martin will bring his songs about science to Nerd Nite, in his capacity as the Lower Mainland’s most English science music songwriter.
Bio: Martin Austwick (he/him) is a singer-songwriter, musician and podcaster (The Allusionist). Prior to running away to join the circus, he got a doctorate in Physics and Materials from Oxford University, and worked in Medical Physics, and later Urban Data Visualization. In 2023 he moved to the city voted 2nd most important boba city in the world (2015) and hasn’t looked back.
Welcome to Nerd Nite v53! Join us for a fun and nerdy evening filled with fascinating talks on Air Quality, Small Stars, and the Physics of Toilets. Get ready to expand your mind and learn something new! The event will take place on Wed Apr 24 2024 at 7:00 PM at the Fox Cabaret in Pacific Daylight Time. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to geek out with fellow nerds!
Indoor air quality from subsequent wildfire smoke exposure is a primary concern within Metro Vancouver due to geographical susceptibility and climate change. Warmer and drier wildfire seasons as a result of climate change will increase both the frequency and severity of wildfires.Within our regionanticipated air quality advisories driven from wildfire smoke will increase in frequency over the course of the next coming decades. This talk will dive into the use of low-cost air quality sensors to evaluate cleaner air spaces and empower community partners through data. This talk aims to highlight the value of low-cost sensor data in building climate resilience within Metro Vancouver.
Bio: Justin Fernandes (he/him) is a Master of Public Health candidate at Simon Fraser University and holds a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and Health Science from York University. Upon the COVID-19 pandemic, he shifted his interest from clinical care to population health. His primary interests in public health include environmental health and climate change, specifically examining air quality and the built environment. As a climate change advocate, he believes in the power of data utilization in supporting climate action and reducing health inequities.
Anna Hughes – Small Stars
This will be a talk about the lives of the smallest stars in the universe, their wild behavior, and their stormy relationship with the planets in their orbit. I’ll talk about where life could be – or rather, where it couldn’t – and how lucky we are to be here at all.
Bio: Anna Hughes is an astrophysics PhD and former quantum machine learning (a real thing!) researcher, now working in the climate and sustainability space. She’s a seasoned snowboarder and hiker, and a truly terrible surfer.
Colin Enderud – The Physics of Toilets
Physics is everywhere! It’s dancing with atoms, spinning with galaxies, and even hanging out under your butt while you’re scrolling social media. There are some surprisingly elegant principles behind the humble toilet. Find out how four-dimensional space-time and fluid dynamics influences your household hygiene along with practical tips like how to flush when the water’s turned off.
Bio: Colin Enderud got his Bachelor’s of Science in Physics at UBC. He designs superconducting circuits for quantum processors professionally but has recreationally used toilets for most of his life. His appreciation for indoor plumbing has only increased after spending the last year and a half changing diapers. He will use any excuse, no matter how thinly veiled, to make poop jokes in a public forum.
Kicking 2024 off with exciting news nerds! We are so excited to present Nerd Nite on the stage again, and this year we’re going to spread out the fun by doing 4 amazing events. If you’ve been with us before, you know how these go, but for those potential Nerd Nite newbies we’re a social evening with talks, and science revelry hosted by the Rat Detective Dr. Kaylee Byers, and Space Michael Unger.
This month we have another talk originally scheduled in that fateful March 2020 in pufferfish! Amy Liu back then was at UBC we had them on Nerdin’ About Season 2 which you can find on your podcasting platforms or read the transcript. Amy has come over from Victoria just to nerd out on pufferfish.
However that’s not the furthest nerd traveller as we one of our favourites from the Beakerhead Science Communication Course at Banff in Miranda Stahn who’s coming from Edmonton to nerd out with us on phages!
Finally Robin Barrett is going to put all of this in perspective with how we learn.
You’re bound to learn something, but most definitely you’ll have a lot of fun. Our first event back sold out quickly so get you tickets while they last!
1. Amy Liu – 15 Minutes to Convince you that Pufferfish are Amazing
Everyone has that one interest they won’t stop talking about. For Amy, it’s Pufferfish. Perhaps you’ve seen pictures or videos of Pufferfish eating carrots, or making silly faces, or even as a unique emoji on your phone. But what’s so special about these funny-looking fish? And why do people continue to be fascinated by them? From their deadly toxins, inflatable personalities, their contributions to science, to their surprising intelligence, and even beautiful works of art, by the end of this Nerd Nite, you’ll leave with a new appreciation for these humble fish.
Bio: Hi I’m Amy (They/She), a lover of Science Communication, and self proclaimed Pufferfish enthusiast. I completed my masters in Zoology at UBC on char and trout genetics, and have worked in many science outreach positions including Parks Canada, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, and the Vancouver Aquarium. Currently I work for Fisheries and Oceans Canada using the latest genetic technologies to answer fishy questions. You can find my twitter at @tetraodontidaes
2. Miranda Stahn – Ph-antastic Phage
Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses which exclusively attack bacteria, albeit a boring definition which doesn’t do them justice. These amazing viral entities are the unwritten superheroes of the microbial world. They may hold the key to humanity taking down pressing issues such as antimicrobial resistance, developing cleaner ways of extracting alternative plastics, and having unique ties to human gene editing through CRISPR. In 15 minutes, I want to share why I feel phage is fantastic and why you should too – and if that all fails, I hope to impress you with a dance move or two.
Bio: Miranda (she/her) is an Alberta-based science communicator, writer and STEM professional. She holds a Bachelor’s and Master of Science from the University of Alberta, focusing her academic research on bioengineering and synthetic biology, defending her thesis in 2019, which specifically explored the applications of phage. Outside of work, she is a classically trained ballet and contemporary dancer. She has founded the Fission 2 Fusion Dance project – a science communication initiative that uses dance as a means to communicate science to broader audiences. They can be followed on Instagram as f2fdance.
3. Robin Barrett – Psychology of Learning
Even though studying is perhaps the most important skill to being successful at learning, so few people have ever been shown by their teachers how to study. Likewise, “study hacks” shared on social media are often full of well-intentioned, but misinformed recommendations that don’t have much evidence to support their use. There’s 50+ years of research on how learning, memory, and problem-solving work, but so little of this has made it to the public in the form of usable tools to improve learning right away. In this “greatest hits” style presentation, I’ll introduce “The RISES Principles” which are five of the top skills recommended by leading experts in cognitive and educational psychology, and we’ll cover some of the experiments that have demonstrated their effectiveness. Whatever skills you want to improve, learning more about the RISES principles will help you to study more effectively and efficiently so that you can spend less time working and more time having fun!
Bio: Robin C. A. Barrett (they/them) is a specialist in learning and memory finishing their Masters degree at Simon Fraser University in Psychology where they study how the design of virtual reality learning environments can influence attention and learning. They have worked as an educator both inside academia and in industry for 8 years and have a Certificate in University Teaching and Learning. During their Masters, they spent 3 years as the Teaching Assistant for a cognitive science class on how to study using evidence-based techniques. Inspired by the impact this course had on their students, Robin has been working to bring this material to a wider audience, becoming the Sessional Instructor for that same class while having also spent the last year teaching at high schools across the Greater Vancouver Area and to the general public. If you have ideas on how we can partner up to bring evidence-based learning methods to your community or company, be sure to get in touch!
We’re baaaaaaack! We are so excited to present Nerd Nite on the stage again! If you’ve been with us before, you know how these go, but for those potential Nerd Nite newbies we’re a social evening with talks, and science revelry hosted by the Rat Detective Dr. Kaylee Byers, and Space Michael Unger.
We’re back with two guests that we featured on our podcast Nerdin’ About that we did 3 seasons of from 2020-2022! Check out their episodes below, abstracts are further down. Seriously we honestly can’t believe we’re back. Can’t wait to get the nerd herd back together!
Global change stressors, such as climate change, pollution, and habitat loss, are altering the structure of ecological communities with significant implications for the functions and services that ecosystems provide. Coastal zones are particularly susceptible to such stressors, yet our collective understanding of the cumulative effects of global change on these systems is limited. Which global change stressors are most common across coastal ecosystems? What are the impacts of these stressors? How can these impacts be mitigated? This talk likely won’t answer any of these questions, but will instead provide an overview of their importance and the research I plan to do moving forward.
My name is Dr. Alex Moore (they/them), and I am an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia. I completed my PhD at the Yale School of the Environment where my research focused on how predator-prey interactions impact the health and functioning of wetland ecosystems. At UBC, I am expanding upon on this work by branching out into new wetland ecosystems while exploring the cultural implications of habitat restoration and conservation. Through this work, I hope to engage in the co-creation of knowledge and sustainable solutions with local communities most directly impacted by conservation practice and policies.
2. Dr. Anne-Michelle Tessier – F*ckpuffins and sh*tgibbons: the secret life of new swearwords
By the time you’re an adult, you’ve had decades of experience with your particular language(s)’ words and sound patterns, and you can use that amazingly fine-tuned linguistic experience to perform advanced tasks like inventing new obscene insults for your least favorite people on the internet. As it turns out, English-speaking people have fairly consistent intuitions about which swear words sounds best — but those intuitions rely on our unconscious knowledge of English, and they come from a variety of cognitive sources and biases. What are those sources and biases? Where do they come from? And why is it so satisfying to call someone a sh*tgibbon? … The science of linguistics has answers, and there’s a lot of swearing to be done along the way. (For science.)
Anne-Michelle Tessier is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at UBC. She received her BA from McGill University and her Ph.D. from UMass Amherst; she has also been appointed at the University of Alberta, the University of Michigan and Simon Fraser University. Most of her work focuses on how children learn to sound like native speakers of their language(s) — e.g. why they sometimes say ‘lellow pitchiks’ instead of ‘yellow pictures’ — but sh*tgibbons are one of her favorite professional hobbies.
How is everyone doing with their existential crises these days? If you’ve listened to past episodes you know we’ve got climate change on our collective minds, and in this episode of Nerdin’ About we talk to someone who is tackling this wicked problem with tangible solutions in economics and politics!
Dr. Devyani Singh (she/her) is a Post-Doctoral Economist Fellow working on Energy and Climate policy at the Environmental Defence Fund. Devyani nerds out with us on how she’s integrated economics into climate change solutions and advocacy. We also explore how Devyani is closing the gap between science and policy as she pursues a position in politics. A transcript of the episode can be found here.
Follow Devyani on Twitter and Instagram @Kumari_Devyani and follow her pup Zephyrus @WestCoastPandaBoi
Grab your hip waders and waterproof phone case, because this week we’re getting ‘bog’ged down in wetland ecology! Dr. Alex Moore (they/them), who is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton University High Meadows Environmental Institute, takes us on a journey to coastlines and salt marshes to explore what wetlands are and how species shape these spaces. We also meander to mangroves to marvel at the benefits they provide for people and animals, as well as the threats they face in a warming world.
The ants go marching one by one… but how and also why? In this episode we’re joined by Aaron Fairweather (they/them) a PhD student at the University of Guelph who has been an entomologist for as long as they could hold a crayon. Join us as we learn about how ants are more than just picnic disruptors – they’re farmers, architects, pollinators and so much more! Don’t let their size fool you – they leave a very large footprint on our ecosystems (6 footprints to be exact).
