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UBC experts on COVID-19
Media Advisories
Thursday marks one year since the World Health Organization’s declaration of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. UBC experts are available to comment on various related topics. Interviews will be conducted by phone or virtually in order to practice effective physical distancing.
For the latest updated information on UBC’s response, please visit ubc.ca. Information on the latest confirmed cases in B.C. and globally is available here.
To visit the UBC COVID-19 research website, click here.
Please note that many of our researchers are working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response and may not be able to accommodate all media interviews. We are doing our best to assist with as many requests as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Areas of expertise
(click to jump to relevant area)
Air pollution and environment
Dr. Reza Afshari
Clinical Professor, UBC School of Population and Public Health
Tel: 604-999-6185
Email: [email protected]
- Interaction of indoor air quality and the severity of COVID-19
- Epidemiological modelling of pandemics, including COVID-19
Professor, UBC School of Population and Public Health
Email:
Professor, UBC School of Population and Public HealthEmail: [email protected]
- Interactions of COVID-19 with air pollution; impact of economic slowdown on air pollution due to COVID-19; impacts of COVID-19 on low income countries, especially related to lack of hand-washing access
Dr. Christopher Carlsten
Physician; Professor and Head of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Medicine
Email: [email protected]
- Respiratory and immunological health effects of inhaled environmental and occupational exposures
Kai Chan
Professor, Institute for Resources Environment and Sustainability
Tel: 778-839-9820
Email: [email protected]
- The environment and COVID-19
- Systemic vulnerabilities (e.g. ongoing wildlife trade, healthcare as a public good)
Steven Rogak
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Email: [email protected]
- Testing fit and efficacy of non-medical face masks
- Reducing aerosol concentrations inside buildings
Dr. Adam Rysanek
Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Email: [email protected]
- Promoting indoor air quality as we head to warmer weather
- Long-term health and wellbeing trade-offs arising from working from home
- Future of the workplace after this pandemic
- Overall assessments of indoor air quality and design for healthy buildings
*Generally available in the afternoon
Business and economics
David Clough
Assistant Professor, UBC Sauder School of Business
Email: [email protected]
- How businesses can adapt to COVID-19
- How the business landscape could change
Thomas Davidoff
Associate Professor, UBC Sauder School of Business
Email: [email protected]
- Impact of COVID-19 on housing, mortgage and cities
Harish Krishnan
Professor, UBC Sauder School of Business
Email: [email protected]
- supply chain management, supply chain coordination
*unavailable Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to noon
- Masks/mask effectiveness, ventilation and air filtration to reduce transmission, COVID-19 forecasting
Mariana Brussoni
Associate Professor, School of Population and Public Health
Email: [email protected]
- Going outside and benefits of outdoor play for children during COVID-19
- Parental engagement in supporting children’s physical activity and outdoor play
Dr. Christopher Carlsten
Physician; Professor and Head of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Medicine
Email: [email protected]
- Effects of COVID-19 on lung health and patient-reported outcomes
- COVID-19 clinical followup, including long haulers
Dr. Michael Curry
Emergency Room Physician; Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine
Email: [email protected]
- Emergency medicine; coronavirus
Ken Denike
Assistant Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography
Tel: 604-899-0564
Email: [email protected]
- vectors of disease transmission in epidemiology, forecasting COVID-19 cases for local areas
Mahyar Etminan
Associate Professor, Departments of Ophthalmology and Medicine
Email: [email protected]
- Drug safety scientist; COVID-19 and ibuprofen (Advil) drug safety
- Vaccine efficacy and safety; vaccine clinical trials
Guy Faulkner
Professor, School of Kinesiology
Email: [email protected]
- Impact of COVID-19 on movement behaviours (physical activity; sedentary behaviour) across the lifespan
Dr. Ran Goldman
Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Email: [email protected]
- Preparing for the flu season during a pandemic
- Flu vaccine and parents’ willingness to vaccinate their children
Farinaz Havaei
Assistant Professor, School of Nursing
Email: [email protected]
- Nursing workplace conditions (including in long-term care), staffing shortages, workplace mental health and safety
*unavailable Friday morning through 2:30 p.m.
Stephen Hoption Cann
Clinical Professor, School of Population and Public Health
Email: [email protected]
- Infectious disease prevention and vaccination; pathophysiology of fever in infectious diseases
Dr. Judy Illes
Professor of Neurology and Canada Research Chair in Neuroethics, Division of Neurology
Email: [email protected]
- Balancing the benefits and risks of reaching out to help people in need, such as people who are vulnerable (older people, exhausted and isolated people, and children)
- Triage and resource allocation of medical supplies and instruments, such as ventilators
- Ethics of vaccine rollout and access
Emily Jenkins
Assistant Professor, School of Nursing
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 604-315-6810
Tom Koch
Adjunct Professor, Department of Geography
Email: [email protected]
- Factors that promote or inhibit the spread of disease
- Preparing for pandemics (Globe op-ed)
Mieke Koehoorn
Professor, UBC School of Population and Public Health
Email: [email protected]
- Occupational health, unemployment and health
- Workers’ compensation
Dr. Teresa Tsang
Professor, Department of Medicine
Tel: 604-875-5067
Email: [email protected]
- COVID detection and prognostication through imaging and AI
Psychology and mental health
Assistant Professor, School of Population and Public Health
Scientist, Centre for Health Evaluation & Outcome Sciences
Email: [email protected]
- Impact of the pandemic on parent and child mental health and well-being
Azim Shariff
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 604-616-9354
- Social psychology
- Moral decision-making
- Individual vs. collective interests
Steven Taylor
Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry
Email: [email protected]
- Health anxiety (hypochondriasis); author of “The Psychology of Pandemics: Preparing for the next global outbreak of infectious disease”
Dr. Lakshmi Yatham
Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry
Director, Institute of Mental Health
Email: [email protected]
- Psychological impacts of COVID-19
Remote working and learning
Marina Milner-Bolotin
Associate Professor, Faculty of Education
Email: [email protected]
- Online education: past, present and future
- Homeschooling in the time of pandemics
- Parental engagement in children’s education
- Supporting parents and families with online resources
- Supporting teachers in online learning environments
Jason Ellis
Associate Professor, Department of Educational Studies
Email: [email protected]
- History of distance learning, events that interrupt schooling, schoolchildren’s health
- B.C. education policy/legislation
Seniors and older adults
Joanie Sims-Gould
Associate Professor, Department of Family Practice, and the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility
Email: Please contact Rebecca Collett to arrange interviews at [email protected] or 647-773-9034
- Supporting isolated community-dwelling older adults during COVID-19 pandemic
- Resources and support for older adults to keep healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic
Dr. Roger Wong
Clinical Professor, Division of Geriatric Medicine
Email: Please contact Reyhana Heatherington to arrange interviews at [email protected]
- Protecting seniors from COVID-19
- Supporting seniors during the COVID-19 outbreak
- Impact of COVID-19 on long-term care
Treatment and vaccine development
Horacio Bach
Adjunct Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, UBC Faculty of Medicine
Tel: 604-727-9719
Email: [email protected]
- Recipient of Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funding to design antibodies that neutralize and block the entrance of the virus into cells
Sarah Hedtrich
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Email: [email protected]
- Using animal models and human-based models to study Covid, and what can be done on this end to be better prepared for future pandemics
*unavailable Thursday 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Jeffrey Joy
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, UBC Faculty of Medicine
Email: [email protected]
- Recipient of Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funding to study the genomic evolution of the novel coronavirus
- Recipient of Genome Canada Grant to study new phylogenetic methods in HIV and HCV molecular epidemiology
- Molecular epidemiology and evolutionary genetics of infectious diseases
- Evolution in medicine and public health
- Evolutionary and phylodynamic analyses of coronaviruses, HIV, HCV, and other pathogens
Dr. Richard Lester
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases (Physician-researcher)
Cell: 778-836-2005
Email: [email protected]
- Researching the potential for a mobile virtual health care app, called WelTel, to help people who are self-isolating to prevent transmission of COVID-19
Dr. Srinivas Murthy
Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics; Investigator and pediatrician at BC Children’s Hospital
Email: [email protected]
- Pediatric infectious disease expert
- Co-principal investigator of the Canadian Treatments for COVID-19 (CATCO) trial
Dr. Josef Penninger
Director, Life Sciences Institute; Professor, Department of Medical Genetics; Canada 150 Chair in Functional Genetics
Email: Please contact Bethany Becker to arrange interviews at [email protected]
- Identified a crucial SARS receptor that helps explain how and why SARS coronavirus infection causes lung failure
- Member of an international research team performing studies on COVID-19
Dr. James Russell
Physician; Professor, Department of Medicine; Principal Investigator at the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation (HLI) at St. Paul’s Hospital
Email: [email protected]
- Critical care, cardiovascular/cardiac condition and COVID-19 risk; cardiac injury due to COVID-19
- Researching the efficacy and safety of re-purposing a class of drugs (called ARBs) commonly prescribed to treat high blood pressure to improve outcomes for patients with COVID-19
Urban issues
Patrick Condon
Professor, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Cell: 604-788-0747
Penny Gurstein
Professor, School of Community and Regional Planning
Email: [email protected]
- Implications for people experiencing homelessness
- Impacts on social equity and urban sustainability
