Student members

Marisa Beck is a PhD student in global governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA), University of Waterloo, specializing in global environmental governance.

Thomas Bury is a PhD candidate in Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, working under the supervision of Dr. Chris Bauch. Previously, he completed the Mathematical Tripos at the University Cambridge with first class honours, specialising in applications to biological and theoretical physics. His desire to work in mathematical modelling came about during a Summer research post with mathematical biologist Dr. Julia Gog, where he analysed the spatio-temporal dynamics of the Influenza outbreak that disturbed the UK in 2009.

Ileana I. Diaz is a PhD student in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo. Broadly, her research interests lie in the intersections of sustainable food systems, feminist geopolitics, climate and environmental justice.

Kathyrn R. Fair is a PhD candidate in applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo, supervised by Professor Chris T. Bauch and Professor Madhur Anand. Prior to entering graduate school, she completed a BSc (Hons) in physical science with distinction at the University of Guelph.

Jorge is a PhD candidate of System Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. His research activities are focused on applying agent-based models on three major areas

Robert Gooding-Townsend is a master’s student in mathematical biology working under the supervision of Chris Bauch and Madhur Anand. Prior to his graduate work, he completed concurrent Bachelors’ of Knowledge Integration and Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo. His primary research area is forest dynamics and models of land cover change.

Christopher Greyson-Gaito is a PhD student with Dr. Kevin McCann in the department of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph. For his PhD, he is examining the interactions of ecological processes across scales in a variety of systems.

Chantal Lana Hutchison is a PhD student in Dr. Catherine Potvin’s neotropical ecology lab at McGill University. Her background is in theoretical physics with a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and a MSc from the University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute.

Scott is a PhD candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo, where he studies the role of deep uncertainty in political decision-making. His research investigates the intersection of science and policy in the areas of climate change, infectious disease outbreaks, and artificial intelligence. Scott's dissertation research focuses on the role played by mathematical models as decision-support tools in the governance of catastrophic threats.

Kurniawan graduated from the inaugural Master of Climate Change program at the University of Waterloo and he is now working towards his PhD.

Michael Lawrence’s work applies concepts from the complexity science literature to the study of conflict and security. He focuses on the relationship between conflict, insecurity and development, particularly on the ways in which armed violence generates complex patterns of social organization.

Kirsten Lee is a PhD student in the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo, working under the supervision of Dr. Sharon Kirkpatrick. Her research focuses on assessing the effect of consumer food environment interventions (e.g. menu labelling) on food/beverage purchases and intakes, as well as evaluating post-secondary food environments.

Adrienne Mason is a Masters Candidate in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo, supervised by Stephen Murphy.  Adrienne completed her Environmental Science degree at Trent University and worked as an ecologic

Samuel Petrie is a masters student working out of the Spatial Determinants of Health lab at Carleton University. Originally from Halifax, he completed his BKI at the University of Waterloo in 2016, before attending Carleton for graduate school.

 Ajar Sharma is a Ph.D. student in Systems Design Engineering. He has a Masters in Water Management and background in hydrology and is currently working with Vanessa Schweiser (Knowledge Integration), and Keith Hipel (Systems Design Engineering).

Kirsten Wright moved to Waterloo to go to school for engineering. Her background is in robotics and embedded systems and more recently she has worked in social innovation. She is an author of the leading manual for Social Innovation Labs and is currently finishing a PhD in Engineering, studying methods for measuring resilience in agent based models of social innovation. 

Katharine Zywert is a PhD student in the School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo, where she studies medicine in the Anthropocene.