Opportunities

** Fall 2025 Update: I am not currently recruiting new graduate students. Please check back later for future opportunities. **

At the University of British Columbia, I am looking for enthusiastic, disciplined, and collegial graduate students for a Ph.D. in Forestry or a Master of Science in Forestry. We offer a full funding package, which includes stipends, a personal computer, travel support for conference presentations, and physical lab space. The funding covers 4 years for Ph.D. students and 2 years for Master’s students.

If interested, please email me at keun.park@ubc.ca with the following (general inquiries are also welcome):

  • A brief statement (1-2 paragraphs) describing your research interests and your motivation for joining the under_lab
  • Your CV
  • Your academic transcripts (unofficial)
  • Writing samples that you are most proud of (e.g., publication, thesis, report)
  • Information on whether you have applied for external funding or intend to (see examples here)
  • Your favourite city and why, in no more than three sentences 🙂

My mentoring philosophy is to ensure that all students, irrespective of their backgrounds, have multiple opportunities to contribute to advancing science in urban forestry and related fields, while staying engaged with real-world issues. I strive to foster a welcoming learning environment that promotes a growth mindset, respect for diversity, analytical thinking, and peer-to-peer training.

I recognize that historically, urban forestry has lacked racial, ethnic, and gender diversity, compared with other disciplines (Bardekjian et al., 2019; Kuhns et al., 2002, 2004; Urban Forestry, 2020). One of my core training goals is to involve students from diverse backgrounds, as I believe diversity fosters more ideas. To promote an equitable, diverse, and inclusive learning environment, I recruit and mentor underrepresented students, accommodate flexible time management needs (e.g., family care), enhance cross-cultural collaborations beyond my research group (e.g., Urban Forest Research Hub), and pursue research that benefits underrepresented communities (e.g., environmental justice, green equity, systemic bias in demographics).

Other helpful links

Previous posts

  • Project title: Bridging the Nature Access Gap through Multi-modal Strategies for Metro Vancouver
  • Research objectives
    • 1) Identify socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Metro Vancouver that have limited access to regional parks and open spaces
    • 2) Design and assess GIS-based intervention scenarios within these communities, emphasizing shared mobility solutions
  • Skills/interests needed: GIS (network analysis and simulation), mapping visualization, statistical analysis, urban and transportation design, green space accessibility
  • Deadline for email contact: June 16th 
  • Anticipated start date: January 2024
  • Project title: Developing automated visitor monitoring tools for better management of urban nature
  • Project program and period: NSERC Discovery Grant (2022-2027)
  • Overall research question: How can we monitor and predict the usage dynamics in urban parks and greenways in a reliable and efficient way?
  • Research objectives
    1. Develop reliable and valid visitor monitoring tools in parks and greenways using sensors
    2. Automate the behaviour mapping process in parks and greenways through the combination of sensors and drones
    3. Estimate visitor volume and movements using spatiotemporal models
  • Skills/interests needed: digital technology (sensors, drones, etc.), programming language (python, R, SQL, etc.), machine learning algorithms, observational research
  1. Role of urban forestry design and planning in urban developments
    • Overall research question: What are the role and impacts of urban forestry design and planning in sustainable urban developments?
    • Skills/interests needed: design/planning education background (e.g., landscape architecture, urban planning and design), GIS and/or statistics, mixed-methods research (case studies, quasi-experiments, statistical analysis)
  2. Effective monitoring of urban parks and forests usage
    • Overall research question: How can we monitor and predict the usage dynamics in urban parks and greenways in a reliable and efficient way?
    • Skills/interests needed: digital technology (sensors, drones, etc.), computer programming (python, R, SQL, etc.), machine learning algorithms, observational research
  3. Access to urban parks and forests of varying sizes and forms
    • Overall research question: How do we connect low-mobility population (e.g., children, older adults, people with disabilities, low income people) with different sizes and types of urban parks and forests?
    • Skills/interests needed: GIS, statistics, multidisciplinary interests (forest management, environmental justice, urban design and planning, transportation, etc.)