Dr Catherine Potvin is a distinguished tropical forest ecologist whose research advances understanding of carbon dynamics, biodiversity, and community-based climate solutions. With decades of fieldwork in Panama and Latin America, her work has shaped international climate policy, including through her service as a UN climate change negotiator for Panama. She has published more than 100 scientific articles in leading journals such as Nature, Science, and Global Change Biology. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, she was the first woman to receive its Miroslaw Romanowski Medal. Dr Potvin leads Sustainable Canada Dialogues, a national network of scholars developing climate action policy, and is a Trottier Fellow at the Trottier Institute for Science and Public Policy.

Dr Potvin is giving two talks at Green College during her stay: "Encounters and Serendipity: A Snapshot of my Career" on March 17, and as a panelist on "The Role of Scholars in a Time of Social and Ecological Crisis" on March 24.

Dr Potvin is in residence at Green College for five weeks, beginning in mid-March, in partnership with UBC Emeritus College.