I have worked at UBC since 1969, when I joined the Department of Soil Science as a biometeorologist. I received my Ph.D. degree that year from the University of Wisconsin. I was fortunate to work there as a graduate student in Dr. Champ Tanner’s agrometeorology/soil physics group. Champ stressed the importance of using first principles and the ability to design and build agrometeorological instrumentation. While I was there I worked on net radiometers, infrared thermometry, lysimetry, Bowen ratio apparatus and eddy correlation sensors. I also worked closely with Wilford Gardner on drainage and evaporation in bare soils. While at UBC the emphasis of my research has been the measurement of carbon, energy and water balances of forests and wetlands, as well as understanding the processes controlling these exchanges. For many years I’ve also had an interest in plant water relations. More recently I have become interested in measuring the exchange of greenhouse gases other than CO2, i.e., CH4 and N2O, in high-value agricultural crops in BC and in trying to understand the processes controlling these emissions.
I regularly teach two undergraduate courses – Introduction to Biometeorology and Agroforestry. During the last more than 45 years, I have supervised 18 MSc, 24 PhD students in addition to 15 PDFs, 5 Research Associates, and 12 technicians. Most of my HQP are holding prominent positions in academia, government agencies and industry. I have published more than 300 research papers, 1 book, 9 book chapters, and 2 white papers, and have been named a highly-cited (top 1%) Researcher for 2014 and 2015 by Thomson Reuters, and again for 2017 by Clarivate Analytics. I am grateful to the American Meteorological Society (AMS) for electing me a Fellow in 2013 in recognition of my “outstanding contributions to the atmospheric sciences”, the Agricultural and Forest Meteorology journal for publishing a special issue in 2011 “recognizing my scientific contributions” to micrometeorology, the AMS for a special Agricultural and Forest Meteorology session dedicated to my achievements in 2010, UBC for a Killam Teaching award in 2006 to the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) for the President’s award in 2003; and the Canadian Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology (CSAM) for the Research Fellowship in 1998.
