William Cheung

Director and Professor

Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries

Canada Research Chair

Tier 2, Ocean Sustainability and Global Change

Director and Principal Investigator

Changing Ocean Research Unit (CORU)
Solving the Sustainability Challenges at the Food-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus (Solving-FCB) Partnership (www.solvingfcb.org)

Royal Society of Canada

College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists

Advisory Board and Scientific Committee Member

Sea Around Us, Ocean Decade Regional Collaborative Center for the Northeast Pacific, Pacific Salmon Foundation, Ocean & Climate Platform

Editorship

Editor-in-chief: Discover Oceans
Associate Editor: Global Change Biology
Editorial board: Fish and Fisheries, Frontier in Ecology and the Environment, Fisheries Oceanography

Degrees: BSc (Hons); MPhil; PhD

Contact Information

Email: w.cheung@oceans.ubc.ca
Office phone: 604-827-3756
Websites: Changing Ocean Research Unit, Solving FCB

Research Unit

Changing Oceans Research Unit
Solving FCB

Research Interests

Dr. William Cheung is the Principal Investigator of the Changing Ocean Research Unit at UBC. He serves as Director for a 6-year SSHRC Partnership Solving-FCB (Solving the Sustainability Challenges at the Food-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus). His research topics include (1) assessing the responses and vulnerabilities of marine ecosystems, fisheries and dependent human communities to global change, (2) examining trade-offs in managing and conserving living marine resources, (3) aquaculture development in a changing ocean; (4) developing and using scenarios and models to explore solution options and pathways to desirable and sustainable ocean futures. His work addresses policy-relevant research questions, cut across multiple disciplines, from oceanography to ecology, economics and social sciences, and range from local to global scales.

Biography

Dr. William Cheung is a Professor and Director of the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, the University of British Columbia. He is a Canada Research Chair in Ocean Sustainability and Global Change. He studies the nexus of food-climate-biodiversity in the ocean. He is the Principal Investigator of the Changing Ocean Research Unit at UBC. He serves as Director for a 6-year SSHRC Partnership “Solving the Sustainability Challenges at the Food-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus”. He is an international leader in developing and using scenarios and models to explore solution options and pathways to desirable and sustainable ocean futures. His work addresses policy-relevant research questions and cuts across multiple disciplines, from oceanography to ecology, economics and social sciences. His research ranges from local to global scales.

William has published over 220 peer-reviewed papers and more than 50 book chapters and reports. He is actively involved in international and regional initiatives that bridge science and policy. For instance, he was a Coordinating Lead Author in the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in the Changing Climate and core author of the Synthesis Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Assessment. He has received multiple international and national awards and recognitions, including the Prix d’Excellence Award of the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas, the E. R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, and named by Reuter as the top 20 world’s most influential climate scientists. William obtained his BSc and M.Phil. from the University of Hong Kong and completed his PhD in Resource Management and Environmental Studies at the University of British Columbia.

William obtained his BSc in Biology and M.Phil. from the University of Hong Kong. He worked for WWF Hong Kong for two years, after which he completed his PhD in Resource Management and Environmental Studies at UBC. From 2009 to 2011, he was Lecturer in Marine Ecosystem Services in the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia.