People

Dr. Hisham Zerriffi
Hisham is a Professor in Forest Resources Management at the University of British Columbia (UBC).  He was previously an Assistant Professor and the Ivan Head South/North Research Chair in the Liu Institute for Global Issues at UBC.  Dr. Zerriffi’s research is at the intersection of technology, energy, and the environment, with a particular focus on rural areas of the developing world. Much of his research focuses on institutional factors impacting the diffusion of new technology, determinants, and patterns of household energy choice, and welfare implications of rural energy use. Prior to joining the UBC Faculty, Dr. Zerriffi was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, Stanford University. Dr. Zerriffi holds a Ph.D.  from Carnegie Mellon University in Engineering and Public Policy.

Research Keywords: Climate change,  Communities and livelihoods,  Economics,  Energy policy,  Modelling,  Social impact,  Social science,  Sustainability

Contact:
Email: hisham(dot)zerriffi(at)ubc(dot)ca
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Camilla Moioli, Ph.D. Candidate
Camilla is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Forest Resource Management, and she earned an MSc in Economics. Her researches focus on socio-economic impacts, management, and funding of forest restoration. In particular, the focus is on ethics, social and intergenerational justice and gender equality.

Research Keywords: Economics,  Development Economics,  Environmental Economics,  Carbon,  Restoration,  Social Justice

Contact: Email: LinkedIn

Abdulateef Gafar, Ph.D. Candidate

Gloria Mensah, Ph.D. Student

Gloria is a Ph.D. student in the Institute of Resource, Environment and Sustainability. Her research focuses on how transitions in greenhouse gas emission accounting frameworks, land-use policy downscaling, and bioeconomy biomass feedstock production strategies for bioenergy influence equitable and sustainable climate outcomes, with emphasis on distributional justice among national and subnational regions.

Gloria is a Chartered Energy Economist (Ch.EE) and a Chartered Financial Economist (Ch.FE). She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), an MSc in Economics and Development Economics from the University of Nottingham, an MSc in Business Management from the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), and an MSc in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour from Lingnan University, Hong Kong.

Prof. Deb Chachra, Visiting Scholar

Dr. Dawit D. Guta
Dawit Diriba Guta, an Ethiopian national, is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics at the University of Northern British Columbia. He was formerly an Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics in the College of Development Studies, Addis Ababa University, and a postdoc researcher at the Department of Forest Resource Management, the University of British Colombia. He has over 12 years of professional experience in research and teaching at higher education institutions in Ethiopia, Germany, and Canada. Before joining Addis Ababa University in early 2016, he held the position of senior researcher at the Center for Development Research, the University of Bonn, Germany for one year. He graduated with BA and MSc degrees in Economics from Addis Ababa University and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Bonn.

His main area of research interest is in natural and environmental economics applied to the field of energy demand model, renewable energy, water-energy and food nexus, valuation of environmental resources, forest, climate change, and rural livelihoods.

Research Keywords: Energy demand modeling,  Energy transitions,  Socio-ecological dynamics,  Forestry,  Low and middle-income countries,  Econometric modeling

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Dr. René Reyes
René is a Forest Engineer (1992-1997 Universidad de Chile) and also holds a  Master of Science from the Universidad Austral de Chile (2004-2005), and a Doctorate at the University of British Columbia (2010-2017). He co-created the National Firewood Certification System in Chile, between 2003 and 2010, in order to regulate the firewood market to reduce forest degradation and air pollution. René was the Executive Director of the Association of Foresters for the Conservation of Native Forests and has worked as a consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Environment Programme, Inter-American Development Bank, as well as other institutions in Chile and abroad. He works as a researcher in the Instituto Forestal de Chile  (INFOR) and at the Faculty of Forestry of UBC.

Research Keywords: Woodfuel consumption,  Forest degradation,  Energy poverty,  Energy transition,  Behavioral economics,  Socioeconomic drivers

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Dr. Emmanuel Ackom
Emmanuel Ackom is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Alabama and was previously a Senior Scientist (Energy and Climate) with the United Nations Environment Programme – Denmark Technical University (UNEP DTU) Partnership in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia.

He earned his Ph.D. in the interdisciplinary Environment and Resource Management Programme from the Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU), Germany in 2005.

His research centers on the intersection of policy, technology, environmental sustainability & development. He has worked in research, teaching, and advisory capacities at the UNEP DTU, Roskilde University (Denmark), University of Ghana (Ghana), Brandenburg University of Technology (Germany), University of British Columbia (Canada), and IEA Bioenergy Task39 (Canada). Emmanuel also consults for UNDP, IRENA, UNECA, etc. He continues to build capacity in climate change and clean energy to governments and stakeholders in developing countries notably in Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana, Benin, Senegal, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Zambia, Tanzania, Eswatini), Asia (India, Thailand, Philippines, Azerbaijan) and Middle East (Jordan).

His leadership in researching pressing global questions is exemplified in his work at GNESD (www.gnesd.org) which he led from 2010 to 2015.

External researchers and practitioners interested in collaborating with Emmanuel in research efforts & publications are encouraged to contact him via email.

Research Keywords: Clean energy policy and technologies,  Energy Justice and transitions,  Environmental sustainability,  Development

Contact:

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Dr. Abhishek Kar, Post-Doctoral Fellow
Abhishek is a postdoctoral research scientist at the Environmental Health Sciences department at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. He was previously a Research Fellow at the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), an Indian think-tank. He is current an ISEP (Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy) Fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and was selected in the 2018 Young Scientists Summer Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).He has obtained his doctorate in Resources, Environment and Sustainability from the University of British Columbia. Over the last twelve years, his multi-disciplinary research experience (and published work) spans aerosols, human behavior, and policy analysis related to household air pollution in specific and energy access in general.

His research has appeared in scholarly journals such as Nature Energy (featured on the cover of September 2019 issue), Environmental Science and Technology, and Energy Research and Social Science. His opinion pieces have been published in different platforms such as Nature Human Behaviour, Global News Canada, Hindustan Times, etc. His research findings have been shared widely on social media, including by the Prime Minister of India.

Research Keywords: Energy Access,  Behavior Change,  Clean Cooking,  Household Air Pollution,  Black Carbon,  Rural Energy

Contact:

Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar