Faculty of Forestry

Canadian Immigration Updates

Applicants to Master’s and Doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details

Notice: Canadian Immigration Updates

Forests go far beyond British Columbia; they cover 1/3 of the Earth’s land surface. Forestry graduate students learn from a dynamic and diverse group of researchers who educate and communicate how forests and forest products contribute to the well-being of all living things. The health and sustainability of forests and the people who depend on them underlies everything we do.

The Faculty of Forestry is one of the top institutions globally in forest-related education and research. The unique breadth of expertise we possess allows us to integrate new knowledge across many disciplines. Offering both master’s and doctoral programs, our graduate students learn from a dynamic and diverse group of researchers from around the world.

Faculty Website

Fact Sheet

199

Master's Students

(2022)
144

Doctoral Students

(2022)
100

Graduate Degrees Awarded

(2022)
82

Full-Time Faculty

(2022)
16.6

million in Research Awards

(2021/2022)

Research Facilities

The Forest Sciences Centre is a showcase for construction using Canadian forest products, and was architecturally designed to mimic the landscape of British Columbia: towering trees, mountains, and blue-green waters. The 17,505-square-metre Forest Sciences complex has 11 classrooms, 2 lecture theatres, teaching laboratories, office space, computer labs, study areas, and a cafeteria, and houses the Faculty’s three departments.

Built alongside the Forest Sciences Centre is the 3,730-square-metre Centre for Advanced Wood Processing. It is Canada’s national centre of excellence for education and research related to wood products processing and advanced wood products manufacturing, and works to advance knowledge that fosters job creation, stabilizes forest-dependent communities, encourages increased value recovery, and ensures the sustainable management of Canada’s forests. This building includes two 25-seat classrooms, a machine lab, a simulator lab and a computer lab.

Within the Faculty of Forestry, there are also several research groups. Visit the website of each project to find out more.

Off-campus facilities include two Research Forests: the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest in Maple Ridge and the Alex Fraser Research Forest near Williams Lake. These are working forests located throughout the province where students and faculty can study in an outdoor setting. Fish and wildlife, silviculture, forest harvesting, forest ecology, forest management, and resources management figure prominently in these field studies.

Research Highlights

UBC Forestry is turning out a new generation of foresters, and faculty are committed to meeting future challenges in forestry through in-depth, cutting edge research. In fact, UBC Forestry receives the highest level of forestry research funding of any forestry faculty in Canada.

In the 2017/2018 fiscal year, members of the Faculty Forestry were awarded a total of over $12 million in research funding.

Our wide breadth of research includes topics such as tree rings, integrated remote sensing, bioenergy, forest conservation genetics, landscape visualizations, African forest conservation and development, alpine studies, climate change, and advanced wood processing.

Schools / Departments

Department

Graduate Degree Programs

Research Supervisors in Faculty

or browse the list of faculty members in various academic units. You may click each unit to view faculty members appointed in that unit. View the full faculty member directory for more search and filter options.

Name	Academic Unit(s)	Research Interests
Nelson, Harry William	Department of Forest Resources Management	analyzing natural and environmental resource policy with an emphasis on forestry and in developing new policy options that can help enhance the long run sustainability of Canadian forests and the communities and businesses that rely upon them
Nesbitt, Lorien	Department of Forest Resources Management	Land use and environmental planning; Environmental justice; urban forestry; Liveable and equitable urban environments; Socio-ecological interactions in cities; climate change; Ecosystem services; Cities
Nikolakis, William	Department of Forest Resources Management	Aboriginal Forestry, Forest Management, Land-use Change
Paradis, Gregory	Department of Forest Resources Management
Park, Keun	Department of Forest Resources Management	Smart city design and development and related analysis; Landscape studies (except architecture); Urban design and studies; Geographic information system (GIS and GPS) applications; Land transportation systems engineering, n.e.c.; Design of healthy, just, and resilient cities through urban nature; Environmental justice; Human behaviour; Landscape planning; Public health; urban design; urban forestry; Urban planning
Renneckar, Scott	Department of Wood Science	Advanced renewable materials, biopolymer structure characterization, Clean fractionation of biomass, Electrospinning Fibers, Nanocellulose, Self-assembly of biopolymers
Rhemtulla, Jeanine	Department of Forest & Conservation Sciences	Forestry sciences; Ecology and Quality of the Environment; Ecological Trends; Landscape and Restoration; Environment Management and Protection; Biodiversity and Biocomplexity; Conservation & Poverty Alleviation; Ecosystem services; Landscape ecology & spatial analysis; Reforestation; socio-ecological systems; Temperate & tropical forest & agroforestry systems
Roeser, Dominik	Department of Forest Resources Management	Forest Operations; Wildfire Operations; Biomass supply systems; Feedstock quality improvements; Technology transfer of harvesting technologies in different operational environments; Small scale harvesting systems; Small scale bioenergy solutions
Sayer, Jeffrey	Department of Forest & Conservation Sciences	Forestry sciences; biodiversity; Communities and Livelihoods; Forest policy; Forest conservation in Indonesia; Land-use Change; Reconciling conservation and development in tropical forest landscapes; sustainability; Tropical Landscapes and Livelihoods; Tropical forest conservation
Simard, Suzanne	Department of Forest & Conservation Sciences	forestry silviculture soils mycorrhizae forest ecology, Biodiversity, climate change, conservation, ecology, ecosystems, forest biology, forest management, microbiology, silviculture, soil science, sustainability
Smith, Gregory	Department of Wood Science	Engineering, wood products
Sowlati, Taraneh	Department of Wood Science	Wood Science, Industrial Engineering in Wood Science
Stirling, Roderick
Sunderland, Terence	Department of Forest & Conservation Sciences	Earth and related environmental sciences; Social and economic geography; biodiversity; Communications; Communities and Livelihoods; conservation; Conservation Biology; Ecosystem services; Environmental communication; Forest policy; Land-use Change; Landscape ecology; Natural Resource Management; social science; sustainability; Tropical Landscapes and Livelihoods; Developing countries; Forest management
Tu, Qingshi	Department of Wood Science	Forestry biomass and bioproducts; Earth and related environmental sciences; Systems engineering; Environmental engineering; Biomass (Energy); Sustainable Development; Modelization and Simulation; Biofuels and bioproducts; climate change; Computational modeling; Forest biorefineries; Industrial ecology; Life cycle assessment; Sustainable bioeconomy; Machine Learning
van der Ven, Hamish	Department of Wood Science	Sustainable supply chain governance, Impacts of online activism on business behaviour
Wang, Tongli	Department of Forest & Conservation Sciences	climate models, climate change adaptation, ecosystem climate projection, species range projection, assistant migratoin
Wang, Guangyu	Department of Forest Resources Management	business management, climate change, conservation, forest management, forest policy, land-use change
Wiesner, Felix	Department of Wood Science	Fire Safety; Timber Construction; Timber Engineering; Wood Products
Wolkovich, Elizabeth	Department of Forest & Conservation Sciences	Forestry sciences; biodiversity; climate change; Conservation science; Global change; Plant communities; Plant invasions; Population and ecosystem ecology; Temporal ecology; Winegrapes
Zerriffi, Hisham	Department of Forest Resources Management	Environmental geography; Forestry biomass and bioproducts; Modelling and applications of systems; Environment and natural resources economics; Environmental policy; Biomass (Energy); Energy Transformation and Energy Using; International development; Environment and Society; Ideological, Political, Economical and Social Environments of Social Transformations; Social and Cultural Factors of Environmental Protection; energy poverty