UNBC Professor earns award for conservation research of Canada’s Northern Lands

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Bluesky
• Share on X
• Copy Link

Wright and her team have been using various forms of satellite and social media data in order to find where people recreate, and the increase of backcountry activity due to the pandemic has actually aided her research.

Canada Post

Apprehension and excitement for local Canada Post workers preparing to vote

3h ago

Prince George Cougars

Cougars wrap up a successful season

4h ago

Business Improvement Association

BIA BC report released

5h ago

“We’ve seen a number of reports where organizations and governments are dealing with the fact that all of a sudden there’s a huge growth fo people getting outside – which is amazing, having a safe thing to right now is phenomenal – but it does mean the problem is probably accelerating,” admitted Wright. “The good part is since more people are aware, we’re able to tap into different organizations’ abilities to share data because everybody wants us to be able to do these activities in the long run in a healthy and sustainable way.”

The breakthrough work has earned Pamela Wright the Mitacs Award for Exceptional Leadership in the category of professors, awarded by Mitacs, a not-for-profit organization that fosters growth and innovation in Canada for business and academia.

Wright is one of eight Mitacs award winners nationally, chosen from thousands of researchers who take part in Mitacs programs each year. The remaining seven recipients were recognized for outstanding innovation or commercialization in other areas of research.

“Doing this kind of work is more than your standard kind of research project and it takes an awful lot of involvement,” said Wright. “It is really nice to get recognized and its really encouraging to keep me jazzed up, even when I’m sitting here in my home like everyone else, to keep going and pursuing these kinds of projects.”

Especially with the impacts from COVID-19, Wright’s accomplishments and contributions in leading her research interns are particularly notable according to Mitacs CEO John Hepburn.

“Pamela’s one of the people that had to change how she does research,” said Hepburn in a Zoom call with CKPGToday.ca. “The universities have had to change everything they do because of the pandemic, so we’re not alone in this but Pamela is a great example of working on an important project that has long-term consequences but also has short-term consequences.”

Hepburn says with 17,000 internships being offered through Mitacs from coast to coast, Wright’s accomplishments are far from a small feat, as Hepburn says the award is a recognition of the ‘best of the best’.