The search for life on other planets requires multidisciplinary approaches that center on what makes a world habitable. On a local scale we must explore how life arose and evolved on Earth and what geological processes are important for the past and ongoing habitability of the planet, such as plate tectonics, volcanism, and surface processes. Beyond Earth, we must understand how common Earth-like exoplanets are, and what planetary system and host star properties are critical for habitability. In CPS, researchers are at the forefront of investigating the interconnectivity between geological and biological processes that shape our planet, as well as characterizing planets outside of our solar system, exploring their formation and ultimately allowing us to put our Earth in an extrasolar context.
Marta Bryan
Uses a wide range of observational techniques to detect and characterize gas giant planets outside our solar system to explore how planetary systems form and evolve.
Lea Hirsch
Uses the Radial Velocity method to find and characterize nearby extrasolar planets, with a particular interest in how binary star companions influence their formation and evolution.
Kent Moore
Uses observations, satellite data and computer models to study the changing nature of the Arctic climate and weather.
Marc Laflamme
Integrates research best practices into university education while transferring project management approaches and reflection into research initiatives.
Semechah Lui
Uses seismic data and computational fault models to understand the dynamic process of earthquakes and the behaviour of seismogenic faults in long-term earthquake cycles.
Paul Ashwell
Uses field-based and geochemical observations to understand rhyolite lava dome and other volcanic eruptions.
Lindsay Schoenbohm
Investigates climate-tectonic interactions, including landscape evolution, drainage reorganization, and erosion by rivers, glaciers and wind.
Xiaoyong Xu
Integrates remote sensing and modelling to advance understanding of climate change effects on the water cycle behaviour and interactions of atmospheric, terrestrial and hydrological processes.