Are you motivated, innately curious, and highly disciplined? Are you keen to hone your research skills and knowledge? Do you have a strong interest in food system sustainability issues? Are you willing and able to critically examine your own assumptions, and to challenge and be challenged in an environment of respect, collaboration, and exploration? Does the prospect of living, working and playing in the beautiful Okanagan Valley in western Canada match your lifestyle aspirations? If so, the Food Systems PRISM Lab might be a good match for you (see www.prismlab.weebly.com)...
Students interested in one or more of the projects described below should e-mail me the following documents:
- a description of research interests (referring, in particular, to how your interests and experience relate to the specific project you wish to work on, and why the PRISM Lab is a good fit for you)
- a CV (including two academic and/or professional references)
- copies of unofficial transcripts (please self-assess your transcripts against the published requirements for admission to the UBC College of Graduate Studies - only students achieving first class standing will be considered)
- a writing sample
- your IELTS or TOEFL test scores (strong English language skills are essential, with a minimum of 8.0 IELTS score in each category)
- indication of your interest in a degree program (MSc or PhD) in Biology or through the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies Program Sustainability theme (https://gradstudies.ok.ubc.ca/igs/sustainability/).
INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. ONLY SHORT-LISTED CANDIDATES WILL BE CONTACTED FOR INTERVIEWS
(1) PhD Project: Alternative Biomass Resources for Sustainable Livestock Production (4 years @ $30,000 annually)
Cultivating and processing animal feed contributes a disproportionate share of the resource and environmental impacts of livestock production. Social license for the livestock sector will also likely be increasingly predicated on its ability to reduce direct competition for arable land and human-edible feed resources. This four year, funded PhD project will answer this challenge by (a) identifying and mapping the availability of alternative feed resources for the poultry industry in Canada, including (for example), single cell proteins from forest industry residues, crop processing co-products, insects meals, and food waste-to-feed products; (b) undertaking detailed environmental life cycle assessment and techno-economic assessments of each feed resource pathway, and (c) assessing their potential for contributing to sustainable poultry production based on a combination of environmental, economic, and nutritional objectives and constraints. Project outputs will include a PhD dissertation, presentation of results at poultry industry association professional meetings, conference presentations, and submission of study results for publication in peer-reviewed venues.
This project will begin in September 2022.
(2) PhD Project: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Egg Production (4 years @ $30,000 annually)
The livestock sector faces increasing pressure to identify and adopt strategies to reduce resource use and environmental impacts so as to maintain social license within the context of sustainable production and consumption. While relatively efficient in terms of environmental outcomes per unit of product compared to other livestock species, the scale and projected increase in production in the global egg sector necessitates concerted efforts towards achieving this goal. Predictive analytics using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques provide novel and potentially powerful meanings of integrating and parsing diverse data streams from the poultry sector. In particular, AI techniques can be used to explore past trends and patterns, forecast future expectations and identify key sustainability improvement opportunities. These AI outcomes can be incorporated with Multiple-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) tools to reveal sustainable solutions (i.e. strategies/technologies) that taken into account multiple, potentially competing objectives. This four year, funded PhD project will answer this challenge by (a) preprocessing Canadian egg industry data through tasks such as outlier identification and prediction of missing data, which make data streams suitable for AI techniques; (b) identifying or developing, validating and implementing the best selected AI techniques; and utilizing life cycle-based, multi-criteria assessment methods in order to assess technology and management alternatives in order to improve sustainability decision support in the Canadian egg industry. Project outputs will include a PhD dissertation, presentation of results at poultry industry association professional meetings, conference presentations, and submission of study results for publication in peer-reviewed venues
This project will begin in September 2022.
(3) PhD Project: Life cycle assessment and techno-economic assessment of heat stress monitoring/mitigation strategies for the livestock sector (4 years @ $30,000 annually)
Livestock and poultry together account for over 50% of farm cash receipts in the ~$15 billion agriculture sector in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Industry-disclosed data suggests mortality rates as high as 5-10% in the BC egg and broiler industries during the June 2021 heat dome event as well as an undetermined number among dairy and beef herds. Longer term effects on productivity due to heat stress are also likely, with a combination of negative resource, environmental (including increased GHG emissions), economic, and animal welfare implications. The viability of livestock production is similarly influenced by feed crop availability and prices, both of which have been significantly impacted by heat and drought across the Canadian prairies this year. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada estimates a 27% decrease in Canadian field crop production in 2021 due to drought conditions. A variety of potential technological and managerial strategies (spanning a spectrum from low-tech ventilation and active cooling to advanced sensors and AI applications, to gene editing solutions) are available to monitor and mitigate heat stress risk in livestock. However, outside of basic ventilation systems, few have been implemented in the BC livestock sector to date. Moreover, their comparative feasibility (including affordability, technological maturity, and ease of implementation), relative efficacy (taking into account animal performance, resource/environmental and animal welfare considerations), and stakeholder acceptability are unknown. This four year, funded PhD project will answer this challenge by (a) identifying available heat stress monitoring/mitigation technologies; (b) mapping the heat risk for BC livestock populations under regionalized climate change projections; and (c) utilizing environmental life cycle assessment and techno-economic assessments to determine and compare sustainability benefits and trade-offs associated with a subset of priority heat stress monitoring/mitigation solutions. Project outputs will include a PhD dissertation, presentation of results at poultry industry association professional meetings, conference presentations, and submission of study results for publication in peer-reviewed venues
This project will begin in September 2022.
(4) PhD Project: Artificial intelligence to support climate change adaptation measures in the livestock sector (4 years @ $30,000 annually)
Artificial intelligence (AI) can be harnessed to develop predictive models of potential climate change impacts and mitigation/adaption measures in a variety of application contexts. In this four year, funded PhD project, predictive analytic models will be developed to estimate the probable range of morbidity, mortality, productivity, resource/environmental, economic, and animal welfare impacts associated with extreme heat events for each livestock species in British Columbia, Canada, under current climate change projections, and to assess the potential benefits/trade-offs associated with scenarios for heat stress risk monitoring and mitigation technology implementation. This information will then be used in combination with the stakeholder values data to rank the technologies and scenarios using a multi-criteria decision making (MCDA) framework. Project outputs will include a PhD dissertation, presentation of results at poultry industry association professional meetings, conference presentations, and submission of study results for publication in peer-reviewed venues
This project will begin in September 2022.
Nathan Pelletier (he/him/his)
NSERC/Egg Farmers of Canada Industrial Research Chair in Sustainability
IK Barber Faculty of Science (Biology) / Faculty of Management
Room 340, Fipke Centre for Innovative Research
3247 University Way
University of British Columbia - Okanagan
Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7
Syilx Okanagan Nation Territory
250.938.1046 nathan.pelletier@ubc.ca www.prismlab.weebly.com