If Tristan Pearce has a dream job, then perhaps the one he currently holds is it.

In July, he returned to Prince George and his alma mater when he was appointed as an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair of Cumulative Impacts of Environmental Change in UNBC’s Department of Global and International Studies.

“Returning to my hometown and UNBC for the CRC position is truly a dream,” says Pearce. “I am passionate about contributing to sustainability in Prince George, UNBC and Canada and this position provides me the opportunity to do so. I love where I am from and strongly believe that making progress on global issues such as climate change and biodiversity starts at home.”

When he thinks about his memories as an undergraduate student at UNBC, they’re all positive.

It’s the wonderful times he shared at the University and the professors who showed confidence in him as he embarked on a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies.

“I grew up in Prince George and came to UNBC after a semester of study at CNC and after completing high school at Kelly Road Secondary,” he says. “The University provided me with a new and magical space full of opportunities. It’s exciting for me to see students today who grew up in Prince George and elsewhere embracing these opportunities.”

He graduated from UNBC in 2003 and went on to earn a Master of Arts in Geography/International Development and a PhD in Geography from the University of Guelph.

Today, Dr. Pearce is a geographer with an international research profile in the human dimensions of environmental change. His research has made a global contribution to the understanding of how communities in the Arctic, Australia and the Pacific Islands Region are experiencing and responding to climate change. He works closely with people in communities and splices local and traditional knowledge together with scientific knowledge to better understand our relationships with the environment and how it is changing.

The overarching goal of his research is to contribute to the development of more sustainable environmental and social policies that better reflect and support the needs, concerns and aspirations of communities.

Having been away for more than 15 years, Pearce says UNBC has matured in many ways, but its foundation remains strong.

“People change, buildings evolve, but the ideas and culture that are the core of UNBC are bigger than any one person or structure,” he says. “For me, UNBC has always been about having a world-class university located in northern B.C., focused on issues of importance to the North and internationally, and accessible to students from the North.”