OUR TEAM
Our team is interdisciplinary and collaborative. It involves social/natural scientists, engineers, planners and policy makers from academia, government and industry.
STAFF PROFILES
.,
Dr. David Sauchyn
Dr. David Sauchyn
Director
Dr. David Sauchyn has been in various roles at PARC over the past 20 years, including Director since 2017. Dave is also Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies. He has been with the University of Regina since 1983. His research interests are 1) the climate and hydrology of the past millennium and how this knowledge of the past can inform our understanding of future climate and water supplies, and 2) planned adaption to minimize the adverse impacts of climate change on the natural capital of western Canada. Dave was the lead author of the Prairies Provinces chapter of the national assessment of climate change released in late 2020. Dave likes to run, frame buildings, and follow the exploits of his adult children.
Dr. Mohammad Zare
Dr. Mohhamad Zare
Research Associate
Dr. Mohammad Zare joined PARC as a Research Associate in August 2020. His research is associate with global and regional climate change modeling, downscaling, understanding the role of soil moisture–atmosphere interaction on future by climate scenarios of CMIP5 and CMIP6. Moreover, the main research area is simulating effects of climate change and extreme events on soil moisture and temperature by using hydrological model such as SWAT model particularly, in the cold regions. Mohammad likes travel, sport, watching movies and reading historical book.
Dr. Soumik Basu
Dr. Soumik Basu
Research Associate
Dr. Soumik Basu is currently a Research Associate in PARC and Department of Geography, University of Regina. He is experienced in regional and global climate modeling, downscaling, extratropical cyclones, studying climate extremes and hydroclimate in the Prairie regions, Arctic climate variability, future climate scenarios of CMIP5, studying the role of Arctic sea ice and Tropical Pacific sea surface temperature on extratropical storms, understanding the interaction between Arctic climate variability and mid-latitude, Eurasian mid-latitude storms, and Indian climate systems. Outside of his professional career Soumik likes cooking, watching movies and he loves anything related to Dinosaurs (He has a fossilized Spinosaurus teeth and a Velociraptor claw in his collection!!).
Sheena Stewart
Sheena Stewart
Research Associate
Sheena completed her undergraduate studies in June 2018 with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Psychology. She began working in the tree-ring lab as a student Research Assistant in 2017 and took interest in the range of reactions people had to the presentation of climate research. In the fall of 2022 Sheena completed her Master of Science in Experimental and Applied Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Katherine Arbuthnott and Dr. David Sauchyn. Her Master’s Thesis research examined opinions surrounding the topic of climate change and looked to improve the effectiveness of communicating climate research to a skeptical audience.
Dr. Jon Belanger
Dr. Jon Belanger
Project Manager
Jon joins PARC as Project Manager from a diverse background which includes interdisciplinary research in water resources science, spatial analysis for hydrologic scaling and modeling, and calibration / validation of satellite-derived estimates of soil moisture. Coupled with team management, administrative, financial and instrumentation proficiencies, Jon brings leadership qualities that have been utilized in several international field campaigns. With a passion for transferring knowledge and inspiring positive change, Jon can also be found providing personal training and nutritional support to clients to utilize. Preferring the outdoors, you may catch him running, camping, or lost on a trail when outside of the office.
Dr. Zahra Noorisameleh
Dr. Zahra Noorisameleh
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Zahra Noorisameleh is a postdoctoral fellow at the PARC Centre. Her academic background includes the application of climatology to urban sustainability (PhD) and environmental planning (Master). The majority of her research and publications focuses on climate risk in a variety of environmental sectors. Her expertise in R, Python, remote sensing, and GIS mapping enables data-driven studies and the development of effective adaption methods to tackle climate change. She is presently working at the PARC Centre to develop her goals for Interdisciplinary Research on Western Canada’s Climate Risks and Evaluating Physical Climate Risks to Agriculture and the Energy Sector. Outside her work, she enjoys studying ancient history, writing poetry, listening to pop music, travelling, and exploring cultural geography. Connect with her on LinkedIn or via email at zahra.noorisameleh@uregina.ca.
Julie Ziemer
Julie Ziemer
Research Assistant
Julie Ziemer is a research assistant in the tree-ring lab at PARC. She is a MSc graduate from the Experimental and Applied Psychology program at the University of Regina. In the past, she has had the opportunity to work on many research projects ranging from organizational behavioural to more ecology-based projects. In her spare time she enjoys gardening and working on art projects.
Dylan Chambers
Dylan Chambers
Research Analyst
Hello, my name is Dylan (he/him). I am a recent graduate in the Combined Major program here at UBC. My specializations are Chemistry, Biology, and Environmental Science.
Through my time in academia and co-op positions, I have gained advanced skills in data analytics and statistical software to create interactive visualizations and analyses within Power BI. I’ve developed proficiency in Python, R, and Power BI, and I have a knack for telling compelling stories with data using effective visualizations and statistical tests.
At PARC I am responsible for creating interactive dashboards to communicate statistics and findings to stakeholders, creating a database of tree ring samples including raw data and information about sampling location in Postgres SQL, and creating a dashboard using R shiny that allows users to engage with the tree ring data stored in the database.