• SFU Climate Research Lab

Congratulations to MSc. student, Pierre Etienne Banville, who was awarded an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's Program. Well done, Pierre!

Welcome to new M.Sc student, Geoffrey Harper! Geoffrey will explore the effects of the land-use change caused by large scale deployment of carbon removal portfolios.

Congratulations to Msc. student, Christine Leclerc, who won Reviewer of the Year at the 2023 Environmental Research Letters Outstanding Reviewer Awards. Great job, Christine!

M.Sc. student, Christine Leclerc, will join the World Climate Research Programme’s Fresh Eyes on CMIP initiative as part of the Data Analysis team. She and over 100 international colleagues are part of a new working group integrating the voices of early career researchers (ECRs), scientists and practitioners in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). Fresh Eyes on CMIP participants will sit alongside the CMIP7 task teams. These team members will also work to significantly increase collaborations with scientists in the global south.

Congratulations to M.Sc. student, Christine Leclerc, who was awarded an Outstanding Oral Presentation Award at the 3rd MeteoXchange ECS Conference this year. Well done, Christine!

PhD. student, Rachel Chimuka, gave a talk titled "Carbon Xchange: A Climate Rap Battle" at the November Nerd Nite organized by Nerd Nite YVR.

Congratulations to M.Sc. student, Christine Leclerc, who was recently awarded the Canadian Pacific Teck Award for Environmental Innovation to fund her 2024 -2025 research.

PhD. student, Rachel Chimuka, presented her research at the Workshop on Assessing TCRE and ZEC held in Bristol, UK. The goal of the workshop was to assemble current knowledge on Transient Climate Response to cumulative carbon Emissions (TCRE) and Zero Emissions Commitment (ZEC) in the context of carbon budgets and to create a plan to move forward towards an assessment over the next 1-2 years.

PhD. student, Rachel Chimuka, gave a talk titled "Carbon Xchange: A Climate Rap Battle" at the Art & Ale Nerd Nite organized by the Museum of North Vancouver (MONOVA).

Lab director, Kirsten Zickfeld, along with lab members Alexander MacIsaac and Christine Leclerc presented their research at the 2023 American Geophysical Union Meeting (AGU) Fall Meeting.

Lab director, Kirsten Zickfeld, recently published a paper with PhD. student, Alex MacIsaac, on “Net-zero approaches must consider Earth system impacts to achieve climate goals” in Nature Climate Change.

Congratulations to Takuma Mihara who defended his MSc. thesis on “Reversibility of permafrost carbon pool changes under temperature overshoot scenarios”. Great job, Takuma!

Lab director, Kirsten Zickfeld, gave a talk at the 2023 Chatham House Climate Change Workshop in London. The two-day workshop focused on accelerating progress on climate and biodiversity goals.

Lab director, Kirsten Zickfeld, convened the Earth system effects of carbon dioxide removal session at the 2023 Environmental Research Conference. She also gave a talk titled "Net zero frameworks must consider Earth system effects of carbon dioxide removal to achieve climate goals" during the session.

Lab director, Kirsten Zickfeld, and PhD. student, Rachel Chimuka presented their research virtually during the 2023 World Climate Research Programme Ocean Science Conference (WCRP OSC).

Congratulations to Ph.D. student, Rachel Chimuka, who was awarded an NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship!

Former lab member, Claude-Michel Nzotungicimpaye, recently published a paper with lab director, Kirsten Zickfeld, and PhD. student, Alex MacIsaac on “Delaying methane mitigation increases the risk of breaching the 2°C warming limit” in the Communications Earth and Environment journal.

To compliment her climate solutions research, Christine Leclerc recently became a Climate Ambassador with MIT Management affiliated Climate Interactive. As an ambassador for the En-ROADS Integrated Assessment Model, Christine will build upon knowledge gained in completing the “Mastering En-ROADS” training program and deliver climate solutions workshops.

PhD. student, Rachel Chimuka, recently published a paper with lab director, Kirsten Zickfeld, and former lab member, Claude-Michel Nzotungicimpaye, on “Quantifying land carbon cycle feedbacks under negative CO2 emissions” in the Biogeosciences journal. The article was also selected by the journal as a highlight paper and featured by SFU's Faculty of Environment.

Msc. student Christine Leclerc co-hosted 'HOW TO KEEP EARTH COOL: A climate solutions modelling workshop' at the 2023 Burnaby Festival of Learning. The workshop focused on exploring how solutions can be combined to keep Earth cool in an equitable way using the En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator.

Prospective students

The Climate Research Lab in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), led by Dr. Kirsten Zickfeld, is seeking Master’s and Doctoral students interested in pursuing research on climate change using Earth System models