Who We Are
Principal investigator
Dr. Dominik Roeser
Dominik Roeser is an Associate Professor in Forest Operations at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Over the past years, he has built a forest operations research program at UBC focusing on supply chain design, forest technology implementation, steep slope harvesting and biomass operations and their impacts on communities. Before starting at UBC in April 2018, Dominik was working at FPInnovations where he, as Senior Director, managed a multidisciplinary team focused on improving the competitiveness of the forest sector and developing practical solutions to improve the efficiency of forest operations and reduce the impact of wildfires in Western Canada. Dominik has more than 21 years of experience in forest research and innovation and has been working with the industry to develop solutions that support the emerging bioeconomy both in Europe and in Canada. Dominik has an extensive background in building and leading strong national and international networks and projects focused on academic excellence, innovation delivery and implementation.
Website: forestaction.ca
Google Scholar ID: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=JgiabEsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Keywords: forest operations, forest technology, forestry, biomass, bioenergy, supply chain design
Post doctoral fellows
Dr. Omar Mologni
Omar is a post-doc fellow in the Forest Action Hub and an associate researcher at FPInnovation. Born and raised in Northern Italy, he earned a BSc and an MSc in Forest and Environmental Sciences, and a Ph.D. in Forest Engineering from the University of Padova. Since 2014, his research work focused on various aspect of Forest Operations and Forest Engineering, with a particular lens on steep slope logging operations. Thanks to his active role with the local forest industry and extensive publications at national level, in 2017 he was nominated Director of the National Association of (Italian) Logging Companies (CONAIBO). In 2019 he moved to Canada for his first post-doc, conducting extensive studies on cable tensile forces in winch-assist harvesting operations. At present, his research is focusing on innovative processes for optimized and automatized production performance analysis of various steep slope harvesting solutions, supporting the digitalization process of the forest industry.
Website: ORCID ID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0888-0028
Scopus ID https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=56964987000
Researcher ID https://publons.com/researcher/2313507/omar-mologni/
Google Scholar ID https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VDEuAEQAAAAJ&hl=en
Keywords: Forest Operations, Forest Engineering, Steep Slope Logging, Production Performance Analysis, Safety Analysis
Ph.D Students
Steffen Lahrsen
Steffen Lahrsen joined the Forest Action Hub 2020 as a Ph.D. student. During his bachelor’s degree in forestry at the HAWK in Göttingen, he was able to gain manifold experiences in community forests. He completed his master’s degree in wood sciences at the University of Hamburg, during which he worked with Skogsstyrelsen (The Swedish Forest Agency) for four months in Sweden. As a part of the Forest Machine Connectivity project, his research focuses on measuring the productivity of commonly used forest machines in British Columbia. During his program, he will work closely with the local forest industry to develop new technologies to address current forestry challenges in the province. When Steffen is not working he can usually be found outside, as he is enthusiastic about any outdoor activity.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steffen-lahrsen-0a414814b/
Keywords: Operations, Productivity, Whole-Tree Harvesting
Camilla Moioli
Camilla is a Ph.D. student in the Forest Action Hub and in the ERDE Lab at UBC. Her interdisciplinary research is focused on forest and landscape restoration. She uses economic and econometric models, and environmental justice framework to analyze from an empirical and conceptual perspective the socio-economic implications of such interventions. The objective of her work is to provide insights into the role of restoration in achieving environmental and socio-economic benefits. In particular, she is analyzing how economic benefits arising from a restored landscape are shared between different groups of people, and the incentives required by households to implement and continue pro-environmental behaviour. Further, she is also studying the socio-environmental implications of funding restoration through the offsets market. Aside from her project, she is co-teaching Forest Economics for the online Certificate Program and TAs for other economic classes. She holds a BSc in Business from the University of Milano-Bicocca and an MSc in Economics from the Catholic University of Milan.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camilla-moioli-61899a141/
Keywords: behavioural economics, applied economics, restoration, justice, carbon
MSc students
Eric Nance
Eric Nance is a first-year master’s student pursuing a thesis-based degree in Forest Operations and Management at the University of British Columbia. His research interests include harvest residue management, wood fiber utilization, and the GHG implications of forest management practices in BC’s forest sector. His current research is aimed at updating estimates of GHG emissions resulting from slash-pile burning in BC. Eric has an undergraduate degree in Forest Operations from UBC where he specialized in Harvest Planning and Engineering and has spent three years working as a Forestry Technician for Canadian forest companies.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-nance-33ba36197/
Keywords: Operations, Harvest Utilization, Carbon
Sabrina St. Onge
Sabrina is a master’s student in the Forest Action Lab at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include social sciences linked to forest management and operations as well as bioeconomy within First Nations communities. She holds a degree in Forest Management from Laval University, Quebec as well as being a forest technician. Sabrina is working in collaboration with the spatial intelligence company LlamaZOO, based in Victoria, BC. Sabrina is also a junior researcher for FPInnovations in the Indigenous Forestry Sector Technical Support Program in which she investigates biomass availability in BC. Previously, Sabrina worked for three years, on and off during studies, as a forest technician for Natural Resources Canada in Quebec in the forest productivity research lab and the entomological research lab. She is thrilled to be in Beautiful British Columbia since January 2020. She is looking forward to making new connections here. Sabrina recently joined the Lions MMA Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu team located in downtown Vancouver and she really enjoys it! That said, if you made it to this line, you are more than welcome to contact her to talk about anything, even if it is not forestry-related.
Website: https://ovou.me/sabrinastonge_en
Keywords: Social Sciences, Forest Operations, Forest Management, First Nations, Digital Visualization
Mingrui Liu
Mingrui, who goes by Rover by his friends, is a master’s student in the Forest Action Hub at the University of British Columbia. Mingrui holds a Bachelor of Science in Forestry degree from UBC, with a major in Forest Resources Management. His interests include silviculture, sustainable forest management and forest operations. His current research aims to enhance forest resilience against natural disturbance via exploring and implementing silviculture methods. Outside of work, you can find him driving and hiking all around the beautiful British Columbia, or getting dizzy with friends in the pubs. He is also the right person to bug for a restaurant recommendation that you will never regret taking!
Website: www.linkedin.com/in/mingrui-liu-5800a0226
Keywords: Silviculture, Commercial Thinning, Forest Resilience
Jimmy Ke
Jimmy Ke is a master’s student pursuing a thesis-based degree in Forest Resource Management at the University of British Columbia. His research interests include harvest modeling for Haida Gwaii people, forest salvage harvesting, and life cycle analysis. His current research is focused on the Patchwork simulation for First Nation people. Jimmy graduated from UBC with a major in Forest Resource Management. He also worked in the bioinformatics field and published two papers as a co-author (diversity hah).
Website: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-ke
Keywords: Patchwork, Life cycle analysis
Research associates
Jocelyne Laflamme
Jocelyne is a Research Geographer for the PICs Wildfire & Carbon project. She works closely with Paul Hessburg’s lab at the US Forest Service to adapt their wildfire simulation model to British Columbia’s forests. Jocelyne’s previous research has focused on interactions between fire and harvesting in the boreal forest. She holds a Master of Forest Conservation degree from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from the University of Guelph.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjlaflamme/
Keywords: Forest Ecology, Forest Carbon, Fire Ecology
Alumni
Dr. Juliana Magalhaes
Juliana Magalhaes is an adventurous and enthusiastic postdoc researcher interested in stand dynamics, modelling and forest sustainability. She completed her BSc and MSc in Forestry in Brazil and decided to apply for the UBC Forestry Ph.D. program to contribute to the understanding of Silviculture. Her Ph.D. thesis provides insight into tree species interactions, specifically competition, influence individual tree growth responses to climate change. To tackle that problem, she tested the concept of artificial intelligence by designing software that predicts individual tree growth in a similar way that e-mail services predict sentences in a message. This tool can help with upcoming challenges regarding land use, energy, and climate change. At the Forest Action Lab, she is currently involved in the Commercial Thinning project and the online certificate in Sustainable Forest Management.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliana-magalhaes-sustainability/
Keywords: Operations, Harvest Utilization, Carbon
Dr. Sheng Xie
Dr. Sheng Xie has joined Natural Resources Canada, Government of Canada as a Research Scientist. He worked as a Postdoc in the Forest Action Lab on the Wildfire and Carbon Project funded by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions. In the new role, he continues to collaborate with members of the lab on projects related to bioeconomy.
His current research focuses on modeling the fate of carbon in harvested wood products and developing climate change mitigation strategies for the forest-based bioeconomy. His previous work includes the quantification of the greenhouse gas impacts of an inward-focused versus an export-oriented bioeconomy in British Columbia, as well as a comparison of the carbon storage and substitution effects of various woody biomass end-use applications. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of British Columbia.
Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sheng-Xie-8
https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=8jbj42UAAAAJ&hl=en
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheng-h-xie/
Keywords: Climate Change Mitigation; Carbon Modelling; Bioeconomy; Harvested Wood Products.
Brandon Bung
Brandon was raised in Vancouver, where from an early age he developed a passion for snowboarding which led to an interest in forestry. While pursuing his BSc in Forest Resources Management at UBC, he worked in Poland for Lasy Państwowe (Polish State Forests). Brandon graduated in 2016 with a specialization in International Forestry and is currently working towards completing his MSc in Forestry. His project is focused on examining the market impacts of bioheat and implications on existing silvicultural systems. He hopes that the result of this project may contribute in a small way towards Canada’s decarbonization goals.
When he is not at work, Brandon can be either found walking around town trying to hit his daily step count or sitting at his favourite bar with a boulevardier in hand.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-bung-52b08230
Keywords: District energy systems, bioenergy, operations
Carolina Rodriguez
Carolina started her thesis-based master’s in 2021. She holds a BSc. in Natural Resources Conservation major in Global Perspectives from UBC. As part of her undergrad, she had the opportunity to visit Beijing Forest University in China and the University of Sydney in Australia. Both experiences broadened her views on the complex dynamics that exist in creating a sustainable future. With her research, she aims to tackle waste management in the forestry industry as an opportunity for climate change mitigation and the development of resilient living centers. She admires the diversity of interests in the Forest Action Hub and her hope is to be part of collaborations and mutual learning opportunities from her teammates. Her other passions include drawing, photography, and learning new languages.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolina-rodriguez-b75518101/
Keywords: rural development, bioenergy, carbon market