Student members

Lesley Andrade is a PhD Candidate in the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo, working under the supervision of Dr. Sharon Kirkpatrick.  Her research interests include public health systems, healthy eating and nutrition policy, healthy weights promotions and eating disorders/disordered eating prevention, and dietary assessment methods. Lesley’s doctoral research is examining the consumption of low-calorie sweeteners and applying an innovative method to estimating usual intake in Canada and abroad.

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.

Nicholas Damer is currently completing his Masters of Arts in Political Science at Carleton University and recently discovered his passion for Complexity Science as a discipline which articulates his underlying discomfort with conventional positivistic interpretations of social phenomena. He is interested in applying computational modelling and/or GIS methods to solving problems around conflict, peace building, and institutional resilience.

Ileana I. Diaz is a PhD Candidate 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.

Fatemeh Jahanmiri is currently completing her PhD in urban planning at the University of Waterloo under the supervision of Dr. Dawn Parker.

Peter Jentsch is a PhD candidate in the Department Of Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo. Supervised by Dr. Chris T. Bauch and Dr. Madhur Anand, his research is primarily in the field of mathematical ecology and human-environment systems. 

John Lang is currently completing a PhD in applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo under the supervision of Dr. Hans De Sterck.

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

Nicholas Palaschuk is a PhD Candidate in the Sustainability Management program at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Nicholas works in the fields of corporate sustainability, environmental behaviour, and sustainability transitions. Nicholas holds both a BSc. in Biology (2015) and MSc.

Jinelle Piereder is a PhD candidate in global governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA), specializing in conflict and security, and supervised by Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon.

 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.