Academic Appetizer Hour with Green College Leading Scholars

’A Permanent Mirror’: Reflections in and on Painting in Nineteenth-Century France
Nikki Georgopulos, Assistant Professor, Art History, Visual Art and Theory

My research concerns European painting in the nineteenth century, particularly focusing on realism and its intersections with histories of science, philosophy, and cultural constructs of gender. My book project traces representations of mirrors in nineteenth-century French painting, examining the confluence of mechanical and chemical advances in mirror-making technology with the mirror’s rise to prominence as an artistic motif in the age of realism. Moreover, I am interested in speculative methodologies and their application in art history; I am currently collaborating on an edited volume on the topic of counter-archives, critical fabulation, and expansive writing practices in art and art history.

Learnings from Behavioral, Informational and Monetary Interventions in Household Energy Consumption.
Tarun Khanna, Assistant Professor, Public Policy and Global Affairs

I am the Assistant Professor of Energy and Climate Policy at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, and a visiting researcher at the Mercator Research Institute on Climate Change in Berlin. I am interested in the economics of the energy sector and the incentives needed to create low carbon energy systems. My wider research interests include evidence synthesis, policy evaluation, electricity markets, and the role of clean energy in development. Before turning to academia, I was a policy practitioner. I worked with regulators, governments, and utilities in the design and implementation of electricity policy in South Asia. I am excited to see the variety of interdisciplinary initiatives advancing the research on climate change at UBC. It is excellent that students, faculty, and administration are committed to placing climate research and clean energy at the center of learning. I hope to work in partnership with colleagues to further our understanding of what it takes to create the low carbon energy systems of the future while providing equitable access to clean energy to all world citizens.

Computational Principles of Human Motor Learning
Hyosub Kim, Kinesiology

My research program aims to shed light on fundamental principles of human motor learning. Towards this end, I combine behavioral experiments, computational modeling and Bayesian inference. I now lead the Computation, Cognition and Movement (CCM) Lab at UBC, where ongoing projects involve modeling and testing how the brain combines motor prediction and sensory feedback to guide reaching movements and how our recent movement history shapes future motor decision-making. 

Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture
Jonathan Proctor, Assistant Professor, Land and Food Systems

I am an environmental economist and scientist with a background in agronomy, climate science, remote sensing, and machine learning. My group develops and applies new methods to empirically estimate anthropogenic impacts on climate and, in turn, on global socio-environmental systems. I am particularly fascinated by how light, water and temperature jointly determine crop growth and how high resolution imagery can be used to measure socio-environmental conditions..