Note that applicants apply directly to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies; graduate programs do not submit nominations.

Mackenzie King Memorial Scholarships

The Mackenzie King Open Scholarship is open to graduates of any Canadian university who engage in (commence or continue) graduate study (master’s or doctoral) in any field, in Canada or elsewhere. One Open Scholarship is awarded annually. The value has lately been $12,000 but is subject to change. 

The Mackenzie King Travelling Scholarship is open to graduates of any Canadian university who engage in (commence or continue) graduate study (master’s or doctoral) in the United States or the United Kingdom, of international relations or industrial relations (including the international or industrial relations aspects of law, history, politics and economics).  Four Travelling Scholarships of $13,500 have lately been awarded annually, but the number and value of scholarships are subject to change.

Eligible applicants must be a graduate (holder of a degree) of a Canadian university when tenure of the scholarship begins (September 2025).

Applications must be made to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the applicant’s home university. This is the Canadian university from which the applicant most recently graduated or at which the applicant is currently enrolled.

UBC application deadline: 1 February 2025 at 4:00 pm PT

For more information, including detailed application procedures and eligibility requirements, please see this link: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/mackenzie-king-memorial-scholarships.

Next week is our last IRES Seminar in Term 1!  In the Beaty Museum Allan Yap Theatre:

December 5, 2024: IRES Student Seminar with Victor Cardenas and Ted Scott

Time: 12:30pm to 1:20pm

Location: Beaty Museum Allan Yap Theatre (Basement, 2212 Main Mall). Please check in at front desk on main floor before going downstairs.

No food or drinks allowed in the Beaty Museum.

Click here for Zoom link. Zoom will be terminated if we encounter tech problems 5 to 10 mins into the seminar.

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Estimating climate change impact in financing to vulnerable smallholder farmers via microfinance financial resiliency

Talk summary:

Climate change may exacerbate the finance challenges faced by smallholder farmers (SHFs) due to increased capital costs affecting agricultural operations. Microfinance institutions (MFIs), as financial providers, may restrict their lending capacity to smallholder farmers (SHFs) affected by disasters, which might halt output or increase economic costs. The research on the effects of climate change on MFI lending capacity and SHF financing is still in its early stages. Since the establishment of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) by developed economies in 2016, climate change and financial institutions have garnered scholarly interest; yet, research on microfinance institutions for smallholder farmer research remains unexamined. My study investigates worldwide trends in physical risk assessments for microfinance institutions to smallholder farmers. I evaluate catastrophic tropical storms and floods that impact MFI lending ability. I analyze the effects of climate change on 4,500 microfinance institutions (MFIs) based on climatic scenarios (RCP).

 

  Victor Cardenas, IRES PhD student

Bio:

Victor is a 3rd-year PhD student at IRES, Climate and Costal Ecosystems Lab member, and Large Language Model Climate Solution Scholar.  He has 22 years of public and private practice in disaster risk and climate risk financing and experience in the field in 30 developing economies. He advises multilateral financial organizations and UN agencies; he is member of the UNFCCC expert group for the Warsaw mechanism for Loss and Damages. He has a B.A. in Economics from ITAM in Mexico and a master’s in finance from IE Business School in Spain. He is passionate in extreme risk modeling using data science and AI.

 

What is happening to summer? A global and multi-scale analysis of the changing summer season length under global warming

Talk summary:

Summer is changing dramatically in our lifetimes. The increasing frequency and severity of extreme events under global warming has been connected to changes in the timing of summer onset, duration, and withdrawal, which impact phenology, economic cycles, and energy demand. My work updates and expands prior studies of summer timing and duration by separately considering midlatitude land, ocean, and coastal margins, where many of the global population resides. I find that each of those areas has seen a substantial increase in summer length since 1990, and compared with previous work, the average rate of growth has doubled to nine days per decade when including more recent data. While changes to summer are not uniformly distributed, in most areas the onset of summer is rapidly moving earlier. If the length of summer continues increasing even under an apparent linear warming rate, associated impacts can increase non-linearly, exceeding thresholds for human health, ecosystems, and infrastructure.

 

  Ted Scott, Geography PhD student

Bio:

Ted Scott is a 2nd year PhD student in Geography in the Climate and Coastal Ecosystems Lab and the Climate Dynamics Group, co-advised by Simon Donner and Rachel White (EOAS). His current research investigates multi-scale patterns in surface temperature and heat accumulation since the late 20th century. Prior to his study at UBC, he earned a PhD in Geophysics at the University of Minnesota, has worked as a data scientist at Microsoft, and more recently taught high school math and science.

 

See you on December 5!

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

Bonnie Leung

RES Program Support (she/her/hers)

Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES)

University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus | Musqueam Traditional Territory

Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory (AERL Building)

Room 429 – 2202 Main Mall | Vancouver, BC | V6T 1Z4 | Canada

 

Email: bonnie.leung@ubc.ca

Tel: 604-822-9249

Reminders:

The deadline for students to submit their CGS-Master’s applications via the Research Portal is before 5:00 pm PT on December 2, 2024*. This deadline is set nationally and is not flexible; UBC has no administrative authority/means to extend the deadline for applicants.

• *Note: As the annual December 1 deadline for the CGS-Master’s competition falls on a weekend in 2024, per the CGS-M webpage, applications must be submitted by the following business day before 5:00 pm PT.
• However, applicants are strongly encouraged to plan to submit their applications at least a day early, to avoid any unexpected issues.

Unlike the Doctoral competition, CGS-M application materials cannot be revised after the deadline. Applicants are strongly encouraged to follow the application instructions and presentation standards when preparing their application. Applications cannot be updated or added to after the deadline, including reference assessment forms and transcripts.

Important reminders regarding reference assessment forms:

• Referees (faculty members) are strongly encouraged to complete their assessments and submit them via the Research Portal well in advance of the December 1 deadline (instructions).
• Applicants cannot submit their CGSM application until the two reference assessment forms have been completed and submitted in the Research Portal. The deadline will not be extended for applicants who are unable to submit because of missing reference assessments.