Dr. William Cheung
Photo: Claire Kiernan/UBC
The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) has announced that Dr. William Cheung, Professor and Director of the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF) at UBC, has been elected as a Fellow. Fellows of the RSC are distinguished Canadians from all branches of learning who have made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities, the sciences, as well as in public life.
UBC fisheries expert named RSC Fellow
In addition to being a professor, and the current Director of the IOF, Dr. Cheung is a Canada Research Chair in Ocean Sustainability and Global Change
He is also the Principal Investigator of the Changing Ocean Research Unit, and serves as co-Director for the Solving the Sustainability Challenges at the Food-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus partnership. 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 and ecology to economics and the social sciences.
He was recently selected as an author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Seventh Assessment Report (AR7). Dr. Cheung will be the Coordinating Lead Author for the North America chapter in Working Group II, which focuses on impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Dr. Cheung has participated in the authorship of IPCC’s Assessment Reports in the past, including the Sixth Synthesis Report (AR6); the AR5 Working Group II Report on Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability; and as Coordinating Lead Author of the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC). He was also Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Assessment and Coordinating Lead Author of the Methodological Assessment Report on Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
Dr. Cheung was awarded the prestigious A. G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in the Marine Sciences, in December 2024. He received a Doctor Honoris Causa – France’s highest education honor – from the Institute Agro-Rennes in January 2024, and 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 being named as one of the top world’s 20 most influential climate scientists by Reuters.
Dr. Cheung obtained his Bachelor of Science and Master of Philosophy degrees from the University of Hong Kong. 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 University of East Anglia before returning to UBC in 2012.
RSC Announcement
UBC Science announcement
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