Graduate Program: PhD
Supervisor: Nicholas Coops
Country of Origin: Netherlands
Tags: EcologyEngineeringSustainable Forest ManagementTree Physiology
Why did you choose UBC/Vancouver?
I chose the UBC faculty of Forestry to do my PhD because it allows me to combine expertise and skills covering disciplines such as ecology and tree physiology, as well as engineering. This combination of skills allows me to be creative and to find new methods for forestry applications, or to find new applications for emerging technologies.
The Forestry department at UBC is known worldwide for its top notch research and education. UBC Forestry has offered me a great opportunity to learn and conduct research on the effects of forest and canopy structure on the internal canopy radiation regime. The distribution of sun light throughout the forest canopy regulates diurnal and seasonal variations in photosynthesis and is a critical component in research efforts around carbon accounting and modeling forest primary productivity.
What has been the highlight of your experience?
The highlight of my experience in Vancouver would be a combination of the vast outdoors that surround the city, being actively involved in the research about the forests in British Columbia, and living among all the great amenities Vancouver has to offer… It is hard to highlight one single experience that I found best, but the University of British Columbia has a unique place in the world.
Future Plans
My future aspirations are to take all the experiences I have learned so far and put it towards improving our means to measure forest health and productivity, and to improve our understanding about interactions between tree structure and physiological functioning. My hopes are that by improving our ability to measure and model forest functioning and the health of our forests, forest values to society can be better quantified and understood; this would help in our strive towards sustainable resource use.