Faculty

Faculty are listed alphabetically. Please click on a name for personal webpages.

Lea Berrang Ford

Health geography, global health, epidemiology, ecohealth, spatial analysis, and GIS. Research interests: the role of environmental and climate changes on emerging infectious diseases in Canada and East Africa . Current projects: Sleeping sickness in Uganda ; Climate change and malaria in Canada.

Sébastien's research and teaching interests are in economic and industrial geography, international trade, global city-regions and inequality. His current research examines the impacts of trade and technological change on the wages of workers across Canadian and US regions.

Peter G. Brown

Professor Brown’s teaching, research, and service are concerned with ethics, governance, and the protection of the environment. Professor Brown’s academic appointments at McGill are in the Departments of Geography, and Natural Resource Sciences, as well as the School of Environment.

Gail Chmura

Biogeography, paleo-ecology and wetland dynamics.  Present research projects in the Everglades, on the coast of eastern Canada and James Bay examine the responses of wetland systems to variations in sea level and climate and anthropogenic disturbance.

Oliver Coomes

Environment and Development in Latin America. Peasant economy, Cultural ecology, Environmental conservation and economic development. Current research on traditional agriculture and rainforest extraction, and peasant adaptation to environmental and economic change in Amazonia.

James Ford

Global environmental change and natural hazards. Currently I am working with Inuit communities in northern Canada characterizing vulnerability to climate change and exploring how policy can reduce vulnerability. I am also active in the development and refinement of conceptual approaches to studying the human dimensions of environmental change.

Benjamin Forest

Political and social geography. My current research examines the impact of GIS technologies on political representation, the consequences of racial segregation in the US, and the use of monuments and memorials for (re)constructing post-Soviet national identities.

Margaret Kalacska

My main research interests include ecological applications of remote sensing, forensic applications of remote sensing, hyperspectral data analysis, machine learning (pattern recognition, Bayesian Networks, classification), spatial modeling and tropical ecology.

Michel Lapointe

My main research interests are in fluvial geomorphology, river ecosystem science and the conservation of river habitats. I am currently the Scientific Director of CIRSA, the Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur le Saumon Atlantique. http://www.bio.ulaval.ca/cirsa/menu.htm

Bernhard Lehner

My main research theme is global hydrology. I analyze the terrestrial water cycle of large river basins, continents, or the entire globe and investigate the effects of climate change on water resources, hydrologic regimes, and environmental flow requirements. Hydrological models, global data sets, and GIS tools are key components of my research.

Thom Meredith

Environmental management. Impact assessment procedures, especially in cross-cultural situations. Environmental conflict resolution in Canada. Thom is working on the definition of critical zones of change and environmental issues associated with NAFTA.

Tim Moore - Chair

Soils, biogeochemistry, ecology of peatlands and climate change. My work examines the controls on the biogeochemistry of peatlands, particularly the cycling of carbon, involving measurements and modeling of plant production and decomposition, nutrient cycling, emissions of methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide and dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen. Sites include both pristine conditions as well as peatlands that have been drained, harvested and restored.

Ludger Müller-Wille

(Retired) Current research interest: history of anthropological and geographical research in northernmost Europe and arctic Canada since the late 19th century.

Sherry Olson

(Professor Emerita) Geography and environmental history. Sherry is exploring the built environment and conditions of infant survival in 19th century Montreal. She is a member of CIEQ, an inter-university Centre for the study of space and culture in Quebec.

Natalie Oswin

Urban, cultural and political geography. Research interests include: sexuality and space; migration and mobilities; and, intimacy and the ‘global city’. Natalie’s work draws on empirical research conducted in Singapore and South Africa and engages with a range of critical theories (queer, postcolonial, feminist, Marxist).

Wayne Pollard

Permafrost and periglacial geomorphology. Wayne's current research includes the investigation of ground ice characteristics in the high Arctic, periglacial processes in northern Quebec and permafrost hydrology.

Navin Ramankutty

Global land use change, global ecosystem modeling, global food production and security, global carbon cycling.  I develop and use global data sets (satellite data, census data, etc.) to understand how human activities such as deforestation and agriculture are modifying the world's landscapes.  I further build and use Earth system models to study the interactions between land use, climate, and ecosystems. I study land-use change as a global environmental change problem, just as other scientists study climate change.

Jeanine Rhemtulla

Landscape ecology, social-ecological systems, historical ecology, spatial analysis, and GIS. I am interested in the long-term interactions between human land-use practices and ecosystem dynamics, with a view to understanding how inhabited landscapes can sustain human livelihoods while maintaining other critical ecosystem services. I work mostly in forest ecosystems, use a combination of field and historical research methods, and have projects in both tropical and temperate regions.

Nancy Ross

Social determinants of health, health inequalities in Canada, income inequality as a determinant of the health of populations, environment and obesity. Nancy's current research is examing the role of social factors in the long term trajectories of the health of Canadians. She is also involved in research with a diabetes cohort in Montreal examining the link between environment and health-related behaviour.

Nigel Roulet

My research interests are in how hydrologic, climatic, and ecosystems interact to control the exchange of mass and energy at the earth's surface. At present I am focusing on the measurement and modelling of the hydrologic pathways and biogeochemical transport; runoff production in wetland and forested ecosystems, the controls on the exchange of CO 2 , CH 4, DOC, H 2 O and energy in northern peatlands (boreal to arctic eco-regions), the role of climate and hydrology in the development of peatlands as complex adaptive systems (CAS), and how to incorporate wetlands ecosystems in coupled climate-ecosystem biogeochemical models.

Raja Sengupta

Geographic Information Science (including GIS), Spatial Decision Support Systems, Agent-based Modeling and Water Resources Management. He is currently working to create agent-based models of conservation payment acceptance by farmers in rural, agrarian watersheds. He is also interested in applying GIS to study preservation and protection of natural areas, and is presently working on identifying the natural regeneration patterns of mangrove wetlands.

Renee Sieber

Use and value of information technology by marginalized communities, commmunity based organizations, and social movement groups; public participation GIS/participatory GIS/participatory Geoweb; use of GIS in the environmental movement; development of e-commerce tools for use in marginalized communities. Sieber co-created the GIS-SIG study group of Canadian Association of Geographers and created the International PPGIS Conference. She currently serves on the executive committee of Spatial Knowledge and Information Canada.

Ian Strachan

Jointly appointed with Natural Resource Sciences. I conduct field-based micrometeorological research centred on the ways in which human-induced management and modification of ecosystems influences surface-atmosphere interactions. I am currently interested in agricultural trace gas exchange using the nocturnal boundary layer budget method, carbon exchange in a marsh wetland and a newly created hydroelectric reservoir and energy exchange in rural and urban settings in and around Montreal.

Sarah Turner

Development geography, Southeast Asian geography. Sarah’s research examines the means by which people on the economic margins in developing countries make a livelihood. Current research sites are Hanoi and Sa Pa, Vietnam and Makassar, Indonesia.
Research Lab

Jon Unruh

Human geography and international development - focus on Africa. Research interests: Postwar land tenure; the relationship between land tenure and environmental change. Current research includes: migration, land tenure and environmental change in southern Zambia, and postwar property rights and sustainable livelihoods.

George Wenzel

Northern peoples. Renewable resource harvesting in Arctic Canada; public policy and Native People. He and Simon Milne have launched a study on the relationship of tourism to community development among the Inuit of Baffin Island.

Dr. Geraldine Akman

Faculty lecturer and undergraduate advisor

To make an appointment for undergraduate course guidance, please email gakman@geog.mcgill.ca, or call (514) 398-4304, Room 311 Burnside Hall

Christian Blodau
Adjunct Faculty. Department of Hydrology, University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Research Activities: the regulation of biogeochemical cycles, particularly at the interfaces between atmosphere, soils and groundwater, and between ground- and surface water.

George Leblanc
Adjunct Faculty.

Dr. George Leblanc has been conducting research with the National Research Council Canada's Flight Research Laboratory for the past 12 years. He has been involved in all aspects of conducting airborne geophysical, environmental and defence projects from initiation through to data analysis.

Beginning with analyzing potential field data (magnetic and gravity) for mineral and hydrocarbon exploration, Dr. Leblanc has, over the past 10 years, been leading NRC's airborne hyperspectral imaging capabilities.

Elizabeth Levac
Adjunct Faculty. Assistant Professor, Bishops University.

Research Activities: Dr. Levac conducts research in paleoceanography and paleoclimatology, more specifically on abrupt climate changes during the Holocene, on interactions between climate systems and human cultures. She also conducts research on pollen monitoring and allergies.

Damon Matthews
Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University.

Research activities: global climate and carbon cycle modelling, modelling greenhouse gas sources and sinks, investigating the impacts of climate warming of global biogeochemical cycles, estimating allowable emissions for climate stabilization targets, evaluating the Earth-system consequences of climate engineering proposals.

Adam Millard-Ball

My research and teaching focus on urban sustainability, transportation and climate change policy. My interests are in interdisciplinary work that brings together insights from geography, environmental studies, urban planning and economics. I am jointly appointed with the McGill School of Environment.

Florin Pendea
Adjunct Faculty.

Florin is a broadly trained physical geographer with research and teaching interests in Paleoecology, Geomorphology, Geoarchaeology, and Quaternary environmental change. His current research focuses on the role of disturbance in wetland dynamics and climate and landscape change in northern prehistory. 

Links: http://orillia.lakeheadu.ca/?display=people&unit=9             http://agora.lakeheadu.ca/agora.php?st=447

Changhui Peng
Adjunct Faculty. Canada Research Chair, Institute of Environment Sciences at University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM).

Research Activities: global carbon cycles, ecological modeling and simulation, forest ecology, global ecology, and impacts of global climate change and ecosystem disturbances on spatial-temporal dynamics of ecosystem productivity, structure and function in Europe, China, Canada and USA.

Matthew Peros
Adjunct Faculty. Bishop's University.
I am a broadly trained physical geographer working at the interface between the climatological, ecological, and archaeological sciences. My research seeks to answer fundamental questions within two broad areas: (1) what have been the driving forces behind climate and landscape change during the Late Quaternary? and (2), how has the natural environment constrained/provided opportunities for cultural and biological change? To address questions in these areas, I use a field- and laboratory-based approach, integrating information derived from geological (e.g., sedimentological, geochemical) and paleoecological (e.g., palynological) investigations with archaeological data. At present, my regional specializations include northern Canada and the Caribbean, and I plan to expand my regional foci to new locations.

Karen Richardson
Research Associate.

Research activities: systematic conservation planning and the development of explicit GIS-based modelling tools and other quantitative methods as management models for biodiversity conservation. The use and efficiency of biodiversity surrogates and the potential trade-offs between biodiversity benefit and social/economic benefit. Linkages between biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation. Recent work uses data from the Wet Tropics of Australia, Papua New Guinea and Guyana.

Jonathan Seaquist
Adjunct Faculty. Lecturer, Lund University, Sweden.

Research Activities: Land cover change, carbon cycling, ecosystem phenology, grasslands, northern hemisphere peatlands.
Teaching Activities: GIS, Environmental Modelling, Remote Sensing.

Sami Ullah
Adjunct Faculty.

I am broadly interested in the biogeochemistry of nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) across a range of environments. This includes wetland, forest and cultivated soils and hyporheic sediments for water quality improvement, air and soil quality protection, C sequestration, ecosystem restoration and sustainable management of natural resources. I mainly investigate landscape scale patterns and controls (anthropogenic and natural) on biogeochemical pools and fluxes between pedosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere; however, I also undertake bench top experiments to advance mechanistic understanding of key biogeochemical processes and fluxes. This knowledge provides a framework for identifying applied techniques for maintaining ecological resilience, ecosystem restoration and sustainable utilization of natural resources under various management, land use and climate change scenarios.