News

Alexis Bahl, PhD candidate in oceanography at UBC’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and the Institute of Oceans and Fisheries, and three other UBC scientists have set out for an expedition to the Southern Ocean to study how salps, a type of tiny gelatinous zooplankton, can help remove carbon from the atmosphere. Along with 40+ additional scientists with different areas of focus, the UBC team boarded the Alfred Wegener Institute’s Polarstern icebreaker on October 1^st and they will come back on November 17^th. Scroll down to watch our interviews with Alexis and Dr. Evgeny Pakhomov.

Salps travel from deep in the ocean to the surface at night and return to the cold-water depths upon sunrise, forming the world’s largest migration. “This migration, it occurs when the sun sets, and then they go up to the surface and feed on phytoplankton, which are rich in carbon. So the salps, by proxy, are rich in carbon. And then when the sun rises, they move back down to the depths to decay,” said Alexis. “So they swim down and excrete, effectively transporting carbon to the sea floor where it’s stored for centuries. Because the Southern Ocean stores about 40 per cent of global carbon, it’s important to understand how much of a role this organism will have in mitigating climate change.”

Alexis is part of the macrozooplankton and micronekton team in this journey. Funded by the National Geographic Society, the team is led by EOAS UBC professor Evgeny Pakhomov and comprised of Lora Pakhomov, Alexis Bahl, and Florian Lueskow, with a particular interest in collecting the most abundant tunicate species in the Southern Ocean. Read more about their research in Vancouver Sun and Early Career Ocean Professionals. 

Raveen Kaur Sidhu, a Senior studying Microbiology and Oceanography at the University of British Columbia, was awarded the prestigious Brooke Owens Fellowship and will intern with Space Capital this summer. The Brooke Owens Fellowship is a nationally-acclaimed nonprofit program recognizing exceptional undergraduate women and gender minorities with space and aviation internships, senior mentorship, and a lifelong professional network. Raveen was one of 47 students selected internationally this year and one of three Canadians selected over the fellowship’s six years of existence.

“I had my first impression of space when I was about seven years old and my mom took my brother and me to watch the Hubble IMAX movie. We saw all those unreally beautiful galaxies that felt like coming at us,” said Raveen. As she grew older, she fell in love with space and had several related research and outreach experiences, such as looking at a dark matter detector and its algorithms at SNOLAB and presenting at conferences on STEM outreach, particularly, in space, “because I hope that there are more structured programs for students in the future.”

When talking about what she thought made her stand out from almost 1,000 applicants worldwide, Raveen said that it was owing to her outreach and leadership experience. One of the most impactful experiences for her was the time when she led a STEM outreach program about a space-themed escape room for youth at the University of Manitoba. She has also joined the International Astronautical Space Congress and attended several conferences in the past. “I think I was able to show that I have the curiosity for space, a skillset for space outreach, and the passion to give back to my local community,” said Raveen.

The combination of Microbiology and Oceanography has helped her pursue a career in aerospace, said Raveen. “It gave me a great lens of framework to understand how life can persist in extreme environments, which is relevant to space research despite not being directly related.” She was also thankful to the professors in both departments who offered advice to her on how to get involved in research and to stand out as an applicant. Additionally, both majors have helped her acquire technical skills, such as programming, which is useful for data analysis in aerospace studies, and science communication skills.

Raveen said that she was very excited about interning with Space Capital, which was one of her dream internships for its emphasis on multidisciplinary backgrounds and its focus on space technology investments. Raveen said it was her microbiology and oceanography background that informed the Space Capital team on starting a project on applications and investment of oceanographic satellite s, which is right at the intersection of her degree.

The Brooke Owens Fellowship celebrates its ongoing mission and legacy of disrupting the historical gender imbalance in the aerospace industry. When talking about feelings of being part of women in science, Raveen said she was blessed with a great representation of women in science in the EOAS department. “I have always been inspired by the women scientists in our department. When I got a little uncertain about what I’m doing, they always empowered me and helped me improve my skills in scientific research and science communication. We have so many great scientific role models in the department, who are approachable, patient and supportive.”

Raveen also provided her advice to students who want to get involved in the space industry. “Even if you think your program and skillsets are not matched enough to the space industry, remember it is the passionate, curious person who is willing to learn that is powerful. Get involved – join the Rocket club, join the satellite club, take a look at conferences even if you're not presenting, and talk to people, who would love to point you to opportunities to get involved in space.”

EOAS has been committed to and playing an active role in bringing our research, teaching, operations and public outreach in solidarity with the UBC Declaration on the Climate Emergency. As part of the great team of faculty and staff from UBC Science and Arts, we are pleased to offer the now approved Certificate in Climate Studies and Action, and a series of Climate Action Labs (ENVR 201-402) that address pressing climate issues, which are open for registration to all students across UBC.

“The students will go through a series of workshops at the beginning of the class to prepare them for the work that they’ll be doing,” says Dr. Tara Ivanochko (EOAS Associate Professor of Teaching; academic director of UBC’s Sustainability Hub). “In the second half of the class, they’ll develop proposals to address the challenge that a community partner has given them. Some of the proposals will be selected to move on to the climate capstone course that follows.”

Read the full UBC Science article: New courses at UBC tackle real world problems
Learn more about the Certificate in Climate Studies and Action
Do you know we have a place on the EOAS website dedicated to Climate Crisis, including our actions, research, climate-related courses, undergraduate projects, etc? Visit here: Climate Crisis

Last December, the Visualizing Climate Action team from the Climate Action Lab won second place at HUBBUB, a City Hall event where students share innovative ideas and solutions for city-building with City staff and elected officials.

Members of the team come from a variety of backgrounds; they include Nicholas Samuelson (Cellular, Anatomical, and Physiological Sciences), Rachel Habermehl (Geographical Sciences), Yeslie Lizarraga (Sociology), Joaquin Gutierrez (Integrated Sciences integrating Climate and Sustainability), and Kōlea Praywell (Environment and Sustainability).

The Visualizing Climate Action project uses displays to visualize climate action in Vancouver (see poster below; click to expand). The displays link climate change to meaningful places that people already treasure and care about. “We want to make climate change personal to people, so it's easier for them to act upon it,” said the team. “The bond people have with physical locations and resources allows them to tie their climate action into a concrete contextualized goal in a hopeful tone.”

It is with great sadness that we relay the passing of EOAS Professor Emeritus Dr. Al Lewis.

Growing up in California, Al worked on commercial fish boats during high school when he developed a curiosity about why organisms occur where they do and how they get there. He completed the B.Sc. in Zoology at the University of Miami and went on to complete an M.Sc. in Marine Science with Hilary Moore when he examined the roles of light and temperature in the vertical movement of copepod crustaceans. Al received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Zoology at the University of Hawaii where he worked on a dissertation entitled “Parasitic Copepods of Acanthurid Fishes (Surgeon Fishes) of the Hawaiian Islands”. Al collected samples with his wife Carolyn by spearfishing, working with a Hawaiian trap fisherman and the curator of a small aquarium in Honolulu. He also completed collections of copepods from elasmobranchs (sharks, rays) and other teleost (bony) fishes in Hawaii and at Enewetak Atoll (Marshall Islands). In working on the life history of one species of copepod with free-living dispersal stages that must ultimately find a host to complete their life cycle, Al became interested in the factors that affect the dispersal (i.e., ocean currents) and subsequent settling of the copepod on its host.

After three years as Assistant Professor at the University of New Hampshire, Al was recruited to UBC by zooplankton biologist Brian Barry. They worked at the UBC Institute of Oceanography with oceanographers from different fields to study factors affecting the distribution of plankton. Twenty-five students worked on their master’s and doctoral theses with Al Lewis. After thirty-five years at UBC, Al retired in July 1999 from the Institute and Department of Oceanography and the Departments of Zoology and Earth and Ocean Sciences.

After his retirement, Al worked as an Emeritus Professor of Oceanography. His interests continue to reflect earlier work on understanding the interactions between oceans and plankton, especially how initial dispersal and survival, water properties, food conditions and predator numbers influence zooplankton. He was especially interested in the functional morphology of copepods, which provides information on the dynamics of copepod populations and their role in food webs when combined with distribution patterns. Al also continued to serve his research field in many ways, for example, by providing great insights into ecological research when he was interviewed in the Old Ways New Waves series by Beaty Biodiversity Museum (https://beatymuseum.ubc.ca/2019/09/26/old-ways-new-waves/).

​https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/people/allewis
University of British Columbia, Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Alumni Newsletter, 1999-2000

On Saturday 26th November 2022, we held a Gala Dinner to celebrate (albeit a little late) the 25th anniversary of the UBC EOAS Department. This event has been over a year in the planning, organised by a driven group of graduate students from our Department: Ruth Moore, Eva Gnegy, Catriona Breasley, Sacchi Pillai and Cara James. With a turnout of around 200 people, including all five Heads of the department, a three-course dinner, celebration cake, speeches and dancing until late in the evening, the event was definitely one to remember.