Partnerships Committee

A Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Victoria in Canada. She received her BSc from McGill University and her MSc and PhD from Dalhousie University, all in Biology. Julia subsequently held a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, followed by a Schmidt Ocean Institute postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara.

Dr. Elizabeth Clare is an Assistant Professor of Molecular Ecology at York University. Elizabeth completed her PhD in Ontario and a postdoctoral fellowship at Bristol University. She held a faculty position at Queen Mary University of London from 2013-2021 before returning to Canada to join York University.

Melania Cristescu is a biologist and ecologist. She is an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Ecological Genomics at McGill University and the Co-Editor of Genome. Cristescu earned her BSc Honors in Biology at Ovidius University of Constanța in 1996.

Andrew Gonzalez is Liber Ero Chair in Conservation Biology, co-Chair (elect) for GEO BON, and Founding Director of the Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science. Gonzalez obtained a BSc in Zoology (Hons.) in 1994 at the University of Nottingham, where he did undergraduate research on pollinator behaviour in honey bees, and the effects of habitat fragmentation and corridors on species diversity.

In September 2021, Dr. David Hik moved to Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, as the new Chief Scientist and Executive Director of Programs at Polar Knowledge Canada. He is also a Professor of Ecology at Simon Fraser University (previously the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto).

Dr. M. Tamer Özsu is a University Professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, where he holds a Cheriton Faculty Fellowship. He has previously served as the Director of the Cheriton School and Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Mathematics.