Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Northern Hydrometeorology
University of Northern British Columbia - Environmental Science and Engineering Program

 

Stephen Déry took up his current position as Canada Research Chair in Northern Hydrometeorology upon his arrival at UNBC in 2005, and also has appointments in the Environmental Science and Engineering undergraduate and the Natural Resources and Environmental Studies graduate programs. He teaches courses in boundary layer meteorology, storms, as well as snow and ice. He holds three degrees in Atmospheric Sciences: a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from York University and a Ph.D. from McGill University. Prior to arriving in Prince George, Stephen was a researcher at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, New York and also held a Visiting Research Scientist position at Princeton University in New Jersey.

 

 

Stephen’s research focuses on the impacts of climate change on Canada’s north. It is well known that the anthropogenic (human-caused) emission of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide and methane has caused the global temperature to rise about 0.5 degrees Celsius during the 20th century, and the temperature increase is expected to be greater this century. The temperature rise in the polar and alpine regions of the Northern Hemisphere is predicted to be greater than anywhere else on Earth. Stephen is investigating the consequences of climate change on the water cycle in the region. In particular, he is attempting to ascertain what effect hydrometeorological changes will have on the environment in Canada’s north, including on snow and ice. A major aspect of this research is to develop a better understanding of the water balance in the Quesnel River basin based on field studies, remote sensing data and numerical simulations.

 

Apart from his teaching and research, Stephen contributes in many ways to the scientific and university communities as well as the general public. For instance he is a member of the science committee of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS), a member of the editorial board of the Canadian Water Resources Journal and the European Geosciences Union’s journal The Cryosphere, and the UNBC representative to the Arctic Consortium of the United States (ARCUS). He also served on the program committee for the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS). In addition, Stephen is a UNBC senator, and a member of its Northern Studies Program committee. He also enjoys presenting talks at local service clubs, schools and open forums, and routinely conducts interviews with local and national media on aspects of environmental and climate change.

A few of his recent publications are:

 

1) Déry, S. J., Hernandez-Henriquez, M., Burford, J. E., and Wood, E. F., 2009: Observational evidence of an intensifying hydrological cycle in northern Canada, submitted to Geophysical Research Letters.

 

2) Clifton, A., MacLeod, S., and Déry, S. J., 2009: Development of the Cariboo Alpine Mesonet (CAMnet) and its contribution to hydrometeorological monitoring in central British Columbia, submitted to Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research.

 

3) Burford, J. E., S. J. Déry, and R. D. Holmes, 2009: Some aspects of the hydroclimatology of the Quesnel River Basin, British Columbia, Canada, Hydrological Processes, 23, DOI: 10.1002/hyp.7253.

 

4) Tong, J., S. J. Déry, and P. J. Jackson, 2009: Topographic control of snow distribution in an alpine watershed of western Canada inferred from spatially-filtered MODIS snow products, Hydrology and Earth System Science, in press.

 

5) Déry, S. J., Stahl, K., Moore, R. D., Whitfield, P. H., Menounos, B. and Burford, J. E., 2009: Detection of runoff timing changes in pluvial, nival and glacial rivers of western Canada, Water Resources Research, in press.

 

Home page: http://web.unbc.ca/~sdery/

 

 

Tel: 250.960.5193
Fax: 250.960.5845
Email: sdery@unbc.ca