LEAP UBC

Amanda (she/her) is an assistant professor in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and Department of Mechanical Engineering at UBC. She is interested in how environmental assessment processes can better empower communities and inform policy decision-making. (CV here)

Rei Bertoldi is a PhD student at UBC’s Institute of Resources, Environment, and Sustainability. Her research focuses on better estimating highly spatially and temporally complex environmental phenomena, like air pollution, for exposure assessment and policy decision making. She holds a MS in Public Policy from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and a BA in Science and Technology Studies from the University of California, Davis.

Manvi (she/her) is an activist-scholar with extensive intersectional community organizing experience. She is recognized as one of Canada’s ‘Top 25 Under 25’ environmentalists, ‘Top 30 Under 30’ sustainability leaders and was honoured with the ‘Eco-Hero of the Year’ award in 2022. She co-founded Shake Up The Establishment, a national nonprofit dedicated to climate justice & political advocacy, alongside missINFORMED, a nonprofit focused on health promotion for women and gender-diverse peoples. She is on advisory committees for the Canadian Coalition for Environment and Climate Justice, The Harbour and Youth Climate Corps. Alongside her advocacy in environmental justice, Manvi is a published health researcher who works to centre decolonized approaches. During her MSc, her research investigated barriers towards climate action within the public health sector. Presently, she is a PhD student at University of British Columbia with SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship funding, alongside being a research mentor in the Climate Justice Research Collaborative.

Sahil is a postdoctoral fellow in the LEAP team, and is currently working on the SmellVan project, linking odor reports to air quality and health indicators. He went to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur to pursue a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering. In the undergraduate program, Sahil explored multiple careers, such as sustainability in business (interned at ITC Limited), management (admitted to the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore), and research (added a year to the bachelor’s program to pursue a Master’s in Technology). Under the guidance of Dr. Y. M. Joshi, Sahil pursued challenging computational research on the rheology of complex fluids and moved to UT Austin to continue his tryst with research. At UT, Sahil jumped into the field of atmospheric science with the Delhi Aerosol Supersite (DAS) study–an unparalleled study collecting air pollution data in Delhi, India—the most polluted megacity in the world. As a part of DAS, Sahil helped to support the state-of-the-art instrumentation and collect high time resolution datasets on fine particulate matter in Delhi. Having built an expertise in receptor modeling, over the next few years at UBC, Sahil hopes to build an expertise in source-oriented modeling and attempt to combine citizen science reports (semi-qualitative data), with ground-based monitoring and satellite datasets. In the PhD program, Sahil interned at the South Coast Air Quality Management District in California, an experience that cemented his interest in research-in-policy positions in government application-focused settings. Eventually, Sahil hopes to actively shape environmental policy and contribute to organizations designing and implementing targeted solutions to tackle air pollution and climate change.
 

Mrinmoy is a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering jointly supervised by Prof. Naomi Zimmerman. He has completed masters in environmental engineering and management from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering at West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata. He is interested in working with field observations of air pollutants using low cost sensors and evaluating the energy policies with the help of chemical transport models. His focus will be on the tools for assessing energy and health policies in developing countries like India using both numerical simulations and field studies.

Rivkah is a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and is jointly supervised by Dr. Amanda Giang and Dr. David Boyd. She holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Rice University. She recently completed an MS in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin under Dr. Joshua Apte. Her research will focus on air quality modeling of industrial chemicals and related environmental justice issues. 

Bassam is a PhD student at UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability. His research focuses on analysis of energy policy in India. Prior to his PhD, Bassam worked at a school district, providing energy management for its facilities and engaging students in environmental sustainability initiatives. Bassam also previously held technical and leadership roles in the natural resources industry. He enjoys volunteerism, reading, and martial arts.

Kana is in her fourth year pursuing a dual degree in B.Sc Natural Resources Conservation and Masters in Management. She is interested in diverse sustainability topics, including land use management, green building, and zero waste, as well as map making. In the LEAP Group, she assists in conducting spatiotemporal analysis to study the relationship between the sources of odorous pollutants and their impact zones.

Zixuan Liu is a Master's student at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability supervised by Professor Amanda Giang. She completed her first MSc in Public Policy at UCL in 2020 with a research interest in the impact of foreign direct investment on industrial waste pollution. Zixuan gained research experience and developed problem-solving and negotiation skills from working as a consultant at an international risk consulting firm. She is currently assisting in Pathways to Zero Impact Shipping, focusing on comparative evaluation process development and technology evaluation case studies.

Imranul is a PhD student in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC. His research focuses on global shipping emissions and investigating potential air quality co-benefits and trade-offs for  future climate and air quality policies. He was previously affiliated with the University of Alberta where he completed an MSc in Environmental Engineering and held several research and leadership positions in air pollution control and exposure assessment, waste management, and sustainability. He has also worked with municipalities, consulting and industries on air quality analysis, environmental site assessments, and wastewater treatment. Imranul is passionate about soccer and enjoys reading, numismatics, board/video games, hiking, and conversations on general current affairs.

Simone Philpot is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. Simone merges systems modelling and qualitative research techniques to examine environmental management and planning issues. She also works to integrate a range of real-world decision motivators into decision support systems. At the Lab for Environmental Assessment and Policy She is developing a technology assessment framework for marine shipping that captures environmental impacts. Previously, Simone completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the University of Waterloo’s Department of Systems Design Engineering where she investigated resources management conflicts. She holds a Ph.D in Geography and Environmental Management with specialized training in collaborative water management, from the University of Waterloo.

Shuoqi Ren is a Master's student in Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability supervised by Dr. Amanda. She completed a bachelor's degree in forestry from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada and a bachelor's degree in agriculture from Northeast Forestry University (NEFU) in China. She has interned at World Wild Fund (WWF) China Amur-Heilong Ecoregion Complex Program to involve in and promote environmental and species protection. Her diverse undergraduate education background and working experience bring her interests in environmental assessment and decision-making research. Her research topic in LEAP is geospatial analysis on air pollution and environmental justice. Her Broad interests are environmental modeling and visualization, specific in developing cumulative indicators to assess environmental quality.

I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC. My research looks at the fate and behaviour of toxic chemicals in the environment, with a focus on how policy tools impact chemicals emissions and human/environmental exposure

Yasamin Sharifi is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She recently completed her master's degree in energy system engineering from Shahid Beheshti University in Iran, Tehran. Under the joint supervision of Dr. Amanda Giang and Dr. Naomi Zimmerman, she aims to contribute to sustainable urban planning and transportation policies. Yasamin's research focuses on urban freight emissions mitigation and policy implications in Metro Vancouver, specifically marine, rail, and heavy-duty trucks. With a passion for interdisciplinary work, Yasamin strives to address the complex relationship between energy systems, environmental impact, and policymaking.