UBC is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024 Wall Fellowships and Wall Research Awards. These recipients represent a wide array of scholarly programs that will generate meaningful solutions to major sustainability challenges in BC and around the world.
The Wall Legacy Awards program is funded by the $100M+ Peter Wall Endowment and supports $4M in research annually for UBC faculty and graduate students. The program includes two Wall Fellowships valued at $1M each, and this year includes 19 graduate student awards and a total of eight faculty research awards for individual and team projects.
This suite of awards is one of the largest internal award programs at any university in North America. The outcomes of this research will elevate UBC’s global reputation, inform policy and directly impact the future of our province.
All projects align with three key areas of focus: urban sustainability, environmental protection of coastal areas, and sustainable approaches to resource-intensive industries, with a particular emphasis on the province of B.C. This year’s award recipients are leading a diverse range of research projects on issues in the province, from climate change to biodiversity loss, sustainable transportation, energy storage, urban water systems, and biodiversity conservation.
We are extremely grateful to Dr. Wall for his generous donations, which represent a sustained investment in UBC’s research and scholarly community.
Wall Fellowships of $1,000,000 each were awarded to:
Dr. Michelle Tseng, Faculty of Science
Project Title: Merging community science with computer vision to create biodiverse urban ecosystems throughout British Columbia
Dr. Stepan Wood, Peter A. Allard School of Law
Project Title: Respect for All Relations: Can Indigenous and Settler Laws Work Together?
Wall Research Awards – Team Faculty Awards of $200,000 each were awarded to:
Project Title: Development of Organic Redox Flow Batteries for Clean Renewable Energy Storage Applications
Dr. Kiana Amini (Lead PI), Faculty of Applied Science; Dr. Eva Nichols, Faculty of Science; Dr. Qingshi Tu, Faculty of Forestry
Project Title: Human-centered design for sustainable transportation in British Columbia: An inclusive approach to infrastructure design based on diverse experiences of walking and cycling
Dr. Alexander Bigazzi (Lead PI), Faculty of Applied Science; Dr. Kelly Clifton, Faculty of Applied Science; Dr. Todd Handy, Faculty of Arts; Dr. Eli Puterman, Faculty of Education
Project Title: An Artificial Photosynthesis Device to Generate Green Methanol Fuel from CO2
Dr. Eva Nichols (Lead PI), Faculty of Science; Dr. Eric Lees, Faculty of Applied Science; Dr. Alexander Uhl, Faculty of Applied Science
Project Title: Testing the influence of microbes and sediment chemistry on seagrass restoration
Dr. Laura Parfrey (Lead PI), Faculty of Science; Dr. Hal Bradbury, Faculty of Science; Dr. Alex Moore, Faculty of Science & Faculty of Forestry; Dr. Mary O’Connor, Faculty of Science
Project Title: Creating an integrated thermochemical and biological platform for waste valorization in British Columbia
Dr. Heather Trajano (Lead PI), Faculty of Applied Science; Dr. Xiaotao Bi, Faculty of Applied Science; Dr. Ryan Ziels, Faculty of Applied Science
Wall Research Awards – Individual Faculty Awards of $80,000 each were awarded to:
Project Title: Back to the Future – Revitalizing Indigenous land stewardship to enhance soil health and build resilient food-forest systems in British Columbia
Dr. Jean-Thomas Cornelis, Faculty of Land & Food Systems
Project Title: The New Politics of Fossil Fuel Subsidies
Dr. Kathryn Harrison, Faculty of Arts
Project Title: The Sustainable Urban Ocean Project
Dr. Brian Hunt, Faculty of Science
Wall Research Awards – Graduate Student Awards of up to $25,000 each for master’s students and up to $30,000 each for doctoral students were awarded to:
Usmita Adhikari, Master of Applied Science in Civil Engineering, UBC Okanagan
Thais Ayres Rebello, Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering, UBC Okanagan
Rudri Bhatt, Doctor of Philosophy in Resources, Environment and Sustainability, UBC Vancouver
Johanna Bock, Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry, UBC Vancouver
Mauricio Carvallo Aceves, Doctor of Philosophy in Resources, Environment and Sustainability, UBC Vancouver
Elnaz Ghahremani Rad, Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering, UBC Okanagan
Jay Hilsden, Master of Arts in Anthropology, UBC Vancouver
Stephen Johnston, Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry, UBC Vancouver
Juri Kim, Doctor of Philosophy in Planning, UBC Vancouver
Daniel Kovacek, Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering, UBC Vancouver
Imranul Laskar, Doctor of Philosophy in Resources, Environment and Sustainability, UBC Vancouver
Sadie Lye, Master of Science in Oceans and Fisheries, UBC Vancouver
Sofie McComb, Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry, UBC Vancouver
Grace Melchers, Master of Science in Oceans and Fisheries, UBC Vancouver
Levi Oostenbrink, Master of Science in Earth and Environmental Sciences, UBC Okanagan
Megan Pawluck, Master of Science in Botany, UBC Vancouver
Neha Sharma-Mascarenhas, Doctor of Philosophy in Resources, Environment and Sustainability, UBC Vancouver
Milos Simovic, Doctor of Philosophy in Botany, UBC Vancouver
Valerie Zimmermann, Master of Arts in Resources, Environment and Sustainability, UBC Vancouver
Learn more about our awardees here.
Read the UBC media release here.