When Dr. Michelle Tseng first learned she had been awarded a $1-million Wall Fellowship to support her research on butterflies and biodiversity in British Columbia, her immediate reaction was disbelief.
Drs. Michelle Tseng and Stepan Wood are the inaugural recipients of the $1-million Wall Fellowships, the flagship awards from the newly established Peter Wall Legacy Awards program at UBC.
"I think my very first thought was, this must be a mistake," says Dr. Tseng, an assistant professor in UBC's department of zoology and the Biodiversity Research Centre. "But afterward, I thought it was an incredible honour, because I know the calibre of my colleagues at this institution. I feel very lucky and privileged."
Dr. Tseng is one of two recipients of UBC's prestigious Wall Fellowships, the flagship awards from the newly established Peter Wall Legacy Awards program. Her project uses community involvement and cutting-edge technology to enhance butterfly conservation and create greener urban spaces across B.C.
By combining observational data collected by butterfly enthusiasts with computer vision technology, Dr. Tseng's work helps communities build habitats that support biodiversity while studying how butterflies are adapting to changes in their environment.
Joining Dr. Tseng as a fellowship recipient is Dr. Stepan Wood, professor at UBC's Peter A. Allard School of Law. Dr. Wood's project, Respect for All Relations, explores how Indigenous and settler laws can work together to promote healthier relationships between humans and nature, and between settler and Indigenous societies.
"This work is about bridging two global movements the rights of nature' movement and the Indigenous revitalization movement," says Dr. Wood. "You can't have reconciliation between humans and the Earth without reconciliation between settler and Indigenous societies, and vice versa. The key to both is respect respect for all beings, and respect for Indigenous laws."
Advancing research on sustainable approaches to pressing issues
The Wall Fellowships, valued at $1 million each, are the top prizes from UBC's new Peter Wall Legacy Awards funded through the $100-million endowment established by Vancouver entrepreneur and long-time friend of UBC, Dr. Peter Wall. Dr. Wall has invested in the research potential of UBC for many years, helping to establish UBC as a globally recognized research powerhouse. These awards represent an annual investment of approximately $4 million in UBC research in perpetuity, making them among the most significant internal research award at any university in North America.
The program includes two Wall Fellowships valued at $1 million each, and this year, 19 graduate student awards and a total of eight faculty research awards for individual and team projects. The awards support faculty members at all stages of their careers, as well as master's and doctoral students.
All projects align with three key areas of focus: urban sustainability, environmental protection of coastal areas, and sustainable approaches to resource-intensive industries, with a particular emphasis on the province of B.C. This year's graduate student award recipients are leading a diverse range of projects, including studying the impact of boat-based bear-viewing on grizzly bear activity, how cities prepare and plan for long-term climate impacts, decarbonizing marine transportation, and the effectiveness of repair and reuse on end-of-life electronics. The faculty research projects focus on issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, energy storage and urban water systems.
"We are extremely grateful to Dr. Wall for his visionary and generous donations, which will further enhance UBC's research excellence for decades to come," says Dr. Benoit-Antoine Bacon, President and Vice-Chancellor of UBC. "This year's recipients are outstanding examples of the talent and dedication UBC scholars bring to building a better world. Congratulations to all this year's awardees for their inspiring contributions to a more sustainable and inclusive future."
Saving B.C.'s butterflies to build resilient ecosystems
Dr. Tseng's project brings together ecologists, data scientists, environmental organizations, and butterfly enthusiasts across B.C. to develop tools to co-create sustainable strategies for increasing plant and animal biodiversity in urban centres.
Her team is creating tools that anyone in B.C. can use to help monitor and protect butterfly habitats in their own communities. For example, if someone plants a pollinator garden, they can use the tools to track how the butterfly populations respond over time. The tools are designed to be user-friendly, so anyone can engage with conservation efforts.
"Butterflies are more than beautiful creatures they're essential pollinators," says Dr. Tseng. "They also bring a sense of wonder to our lives and remind us of nature's resilience."
The project will also digitize historical data about butterflies in B.C., much of which has been locked away in textbooks or inaccessible databases, providing a clearer picture of how populations have changed over the past century.
"This helps us answer fundamental ecological questions about how climate change and habitat loss are impacting butterflies," she says.
The Wall Fellowship funding is transformative for Dr. Tseng's work, allowing her team to undertake activities that would otherwise be difficult with a typical research grant. For example, she says her team can prioritize meaningful relationship-building with Indigenous communities, ensuring the tools developed are inclusive and widely applicable. The funding will also support a mentorship program for undergraduate students, extending the project's impact to the next generation of conservationists and ecologists.
Bridging laws to respect nature and foster reconciliation
The Respect for All Relations project is centred on Indigenous-led, community-based, collaborative research and action. The project is coordinated by Dr. Wood with support from Dr. Robert Clifford YELKATŦE (W̱SÁNEĆ), assistant professor in the Peter A. Allard School of Law. Research partners include Haida, Lower Fraser, Tŝilhqot'in and W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations, leading B.C. environmental organizations, and Indigenous and settler academics from UBC and other universities.
"Rights of nature are being recognized legally in more and more countries," says Wood. "This fellowship allows us to explore whether they can help mend broken relationships between human and other beings and advance the resurgence of Indigenous laws in B.C."
The Respect for All Relations team will work with Indigenous partners to develop community-specific research plans and innovative legal tools to advance community-determined goals. Place-based learning in community, on the land, in accordance with Indigenous partners' protocols, will be central to this work.
The Wall Fellowship will enable interdisciplinary workshops at UBC and knowledge-sharing visits to Indigenous communities outside B.C. that are at the cutting edge of legal innovation in this area. The project will also raise public awareness of rights of nature and Indigenous revitalization through a website, podcast and other open access resources.
"By fostering recovery of Indigenous laws and protection of precious ecosystems, this project will benefit not just our partners but communities and policymakers across Canada interested in environmental protection and Indigenous-settler reconciliation," says Wood.
For a full list of Wall Legacy Award recipients and their projects, visit https://walllegacyawards.ubc.ca/awardees/
