Geography student Angela Liu has been awarded the UBC Undergraduate Scholarship in Environmental Sciences, which recognizes students who have demonstrated academic excellence, as well as a firm commitment to environmental issues.
Currently in the final year of her BA in Environment and Sustainability, with a minor in Environmental Science, Angela’s work at UBC has focused on sustainable futures — for the campus and beyond.
In 2020, she worked on a Directed Studies project to study the ecosystem services provided by urban trees on the UBC Vancouver campus. Trees in this environment can draw down and store carbon, remove air pollution, and reduce the energy needed to power buildings on campus by regulating air temperature.
She conducted fieldwork over the summer and produced an estimate of the amount of carbon stored, air pollutants removed, and the energy saved by buildings on campus. This study can now provide advice for future campus planning initiatives at UBC.
In addition to her studies, Angela is an assistant policy analyst with the British Columbia Council for International Collaboration, working to inform key decision-makers within cities about integrating climate justice into their climate action plans. She is also a research assistant for the Climate and Coastal Ecosystems Lab and the Biogeography Teaching Lab at UBC Geography, where she is using GIS to investigate and visualize species responses to climate change.
“Having my work and passion in environmental science and geography recognized by the university through scholarships is so incredibly empowering,” says Angela. “Alongside the experiences I was able to gain at UBC, these awards have really motivated me to continue to pursue rigorous research, either in higher academia or within leading environmental organizations in the future!”
