Climate Lab Personnel
Visiting Scientists
Dr. Changwei Xie - cxie@utsc.utoronto.ca
A research scientist is specializing in geocryology and glaciology. I enjoy studying on the thermal and hydraulic regime within the active layer and permafrost by numerical model. I also enjoy working on the change of glaciers and hydrology in cold regions. I have good ability to use computer programs (using FORTRAN and Matlab) to carry out scientific research as well as have rich experience in fieldwork. I have participated in many field trips to study on glaciers and permafrost in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China and Northern Ontario in Canada.
Collaborators
Ken Butler, PhD
Research Interests:
Statistics
Adam Fenech, PhD
Research Interests:
Monirul Mirza, PhD
Research Interests:
Tanzina Mohsin, PhD - tmohsin@utsc.utoronto.ca
Research Interests:
Understanding the climate processes and addressing the challenges linked to climate change issues are the major premises of current research in climate science. My research focuses on analyzing the past and future changes in climate at regional and local scales. I use historical climate data and numerical modeling approaches to study the changes in climate variables and climate processes in the context of the spatial distribution of urban warming in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). An innovative contribution of my research work is the identification of the differences in urban-rural characteristic of climatic elements. I used a hypothesis that “if there are significant differences in certain criteria between an urban and a rural site then this could be used to identify a suitable urban-rural pair”. Although the sites and settings of urban climate are remarkably diverse, much less diverse are the descriptions of the rural sites used for urban climate study. Since urban climate studies are site specific, therefore, identifying the criteria to characterize the urban-rural landscapes will be useful for future Urban Heal Island (UHI) studies for cities with similar physiographic and climatological characteristics as Toronto (Mohsin and Gough, 2011). From a climate change impact assessment perspective, it is crucial to better understand the impact of climate change at regional and local level for planning the adaptive responses to long term climate change issues. With this basis, I take a step forward by connecting and unifying a number of research domains in climate change science such as climate modeling using downscaling approaches, analysis of micro-climatology and associated physical processes, and Climate Change Impact Assessment. On e of my current research project is to study the micro-climatology of the green roofs, which provides a way to mitigate the UHI effect, at various locations in the GTA. I have set up weather station to collect temperature, humidity and soil moisture data (see the picture of a sample weather station) to study microclimatology of the green roof and its effect on the energy consumption.
Benita Tam, PhD - benita.tam@gmail.com
Research Interests:
Climate change impacts, environmental health, Aboriginal health, bioclimatology, statistical climatology, mixed-methods research
Staff
Smriti Das - sdas@utsc.utoronto.ca
Webmaster
Graduate Students
Shannon Allen - shannon.allen@mail.utoronto.ca
PhD Candidate in Geography
Research Interests:
temperature extremes, climate change, urban climate, climate modelling
For my Masters degree I researched changes in extreme temperature trends in the Greater Toronto Area. Results from this were interesting. For my PhD studies I have decided to broaden the scope of the previous project to include four other major Canadian cities. I also would like to improve my knowledge of climate modelling and try to incorporate downscaling and future projections into my work. I also work full time at Environment Canada as a Physical Scientist. I began my work there during my Masters studies in the fall of 2009. My undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo. My Masters of Science degree in geography was completed at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Professor William Gough.
Vincent Cheng - chengv@geog.utoronto.ca
PhD Candidate in Geography
Research Interests:
Tornado occurrence and activity, severe storm climatology, applied meteorology/climatology, lake eutrophication, Bayesian inference, spatial analysis and modeling, application of geographic information systems in natural hazards, risk assessment and environmental management
Cris Ches -
PhD Candidate in Geography
Research Interests
Thea Dickinson -
PhD Candidate in Environmental Science
Research Interests
Micah Hewer -
PhD Candidate in Geography
Research Interests
Hannah Yukari Hori - y.hori@mail.utoronto.ca
PhD Candidate in Environmental Science
Research Interests:
Aboriginal issues, climate change, climate models, climate variability, community adaptation, James Bay, landfast ice, traditional environmental knowledge, winter roads
My research aims to investigate the potential effects of climate variability and climate change in three areas; first, a temporal trend for the historical opening and closing dates of James Bay winter road; second, current vulnerability of James Bay Cree regarding physical, socio-economic, cultural impacts associated with changing winter roads conditions; third, community adaptability to future change. This research opportunity in my program at UTSC would prepare me for my end goal of a doctoral degree with the specialization of environmental health.
Steven Huryn - steven.huryn@mail.utoronto.ca
PhD Candidate in Environmental Science
Research Interests:
Thunderstorm & tornado climatology, ground level ozone in Ontario
Jerry Jien - jerry.jien@mail.utoronto.ca
PhD Candidate in Environmental Science
Research Interests:
tropical cyclones, global climate model, climate change impact assessment, environmental factors, large scale climatic patterns
Growing up in Taiwan, I have experienced numerous typhoon days, while enjoying those that had led to the cancellation of class sessions. My research focuses on the climate change impact assessment of eastern North Pacific tropical cyclones and influences of Atlantic hurricanes in climate extremes in Canada. I am interested at the interaction of the variation of tropical cyclone activity to local and large scale climatic changes. Current application of statistical techniques provides certain degree of accuracy on short term forecast of tropical cyclones. Based on the empirical association established in the historical record, I am looking to project how storms would change over time.
Slawomir Kowal - kowal@utsc.utoronto.ca
MSc Candidate in Geography
Research Interests:
Statistical Trends in the Thaw and Freeze Cycles of Hudson Bay Sea Ice
Andrew Leung - andrewc.leung@mail.utoronto.ca
PhD Candidate in Environmental Science
Research Interests:
Andrew completed his B.Sc in biology and environmental science and M.Env.Sc at University of Toronto Scarborough. He is currently pursuing for Ph.D. His doctoral research focuses on the impacts of climate change on air mass patterns and global oscillations in the Canadian arctic. In undergraduate and graduate studies, he researched on the conditions of permafrost in northern Ontario and the frequency and intensity of thunderstorms in Toronto as a result of climate change.
Kinson Leung - kinson.leung@mail.utoronto.ca
PhD Candidate in Environmental Science
Research Interests:
There are many factors affecting the air quality of Ontario, Canada. Although industry is one of the major sources of pollution, daily activities such as transportation and residential heating/cooling contribute polluted conditions. My researches involve with analysing the relationship between extreme tropospheric ozone and the spatial climatology of Ontario. In addition, I am also interested in understanding the effect of climate change on extreme tropospheric ozone in the next 50 and 100 years through the process of modelling.
Peter McGovern - peter.mcgovern@mail.utoronto.ca
MSc Candidate in Geography
Research Interests:
Sea Ice, Hudson Bay, Ocean-sea ice-atmosphere interaction and effects on coastal air temperatures
Peter Ng - peterquincy.ng@utoronto.ca
PhD Candidate in Environmental Science
Research Interests:
Urban forestry, Climate Change, Climate Change Adaptation, Biodiversity, Biogeography, Statistical Modelling
Future climate predictions suggest that Canada's climate will become increasingly wetter and warmer throughout the next hundred years. With climate change already triggering species distribution shifts in many parts of the world, this is expected to have profound changes on Ontario's terrestrial ecosystems of which nearly two-thirds are covered by forest. This research which will analyze the effects of climate change on future forest tree species distribution in the Greater Toronto Area. The unique geographic position of Toronto, located in Southern Ontario, has strong lacustrine influences which are too small to be modeled by global climate model output and will require the use of downscaling techniques to accurately simulate its long-term climatic patterns. In addition, the heavily-urbanized corridor of the Greater Toronto Area sits between two unique ecosystems which are largely transitional in nature: the Carolinian Forest and the Mixed-Hardwood Forests. This research hopes to simulate climate change on a regional scale to better predict how tree vegetation in Greater Ontario will change through the next hundred years. The hope of the research is to determine what species will be at risk under future climate change and perhaps serve as a risk assessment to interested stakeholders and planners looking to either maintain or reforest forested ecosystems in an urban surrounding.
Besides his research Peter spends his time volunteering for various ecosystem conservation and restoration projects in the Rouge River Watershed and is also an avid tropical fish hobbyist.
Cheryl Robertson -
PhD Candidate in Environmental Science
Research Interests
Rick Sierwierski -
PhD Candidate in Geography
Research Interests
Andrew Tam - tama@geog.utoronto.ca
PhD Candidate in Geography
Research Interests:
Permafrost (permanently frozen ground material) underlies nearly 50% of Canada’s land surface. The distribution of permafrost is expected to respond to climate change by shifting ground material. This phenomenon will affect infrastructures in Canada’s northern communities and lead to changes at a regional biogeophysical scale. My research is to assess and forecast this changing state of permafrost distributions, from continuous to discontinuous, and from discontinuous to no permafrost classifications, through a Climate Change Impact Assessment (CCIA). This CCIA research will identify permafrost classifications using both climatological and geophysical properties collected from fieldwork campaigns, historical reviews, data mining, geographical information systems, and remote sensing applications. This CCIA contains northern research sites from a south to north geographical perspective beginning at the frontline of climate change in the Canadian Subarctic region, the Hudson Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario, towards the Canadian High Arctic region, at the northern tip of Ellesmere Island at Canada’s northernmost inhabited place in the world, Alert, Nunavut. Climatological data-driven Global Circulation Models are to be coupled to various Permafrost Models (Stefan, TTOP, and the Kudryavtsev’s Approach) that can incorporate geophysical properties to predict Canada’s changing permafrost states under past, present, and future climate scenarios.