Information for UWI Students

Supervisor: Dr. Louise Pilote

Faculty: Medicine and Health Sciences

Department: Internal Medicine

Project Location: Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC)

Project Description

Background 

Climate change has led to increased frequency and intensity of extreme heat events, significantly impacting cardiovascular health. Previous research has established that women experience different rates of heat-related cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality due to physiological, social, and environmental factors. However, current heat vulnerability assessments often overlook how gender- related factors might modify these health impacts. Understanding these contextual factors is crucial for developing targeted climate adaptation strategies. 

Objective

This research aims to quantify how gender-related neighborhood characteristics modify the association between extreme heat exposure and CVD mortality in Montreal. 

Methods 

Using data from 2018-2022 summer periods for Montreal, we will conduct a time-series analysis integrating three key components: (1) daily CVD mortality records stratified by neighborhood, (2) daily temperature data, and (3) neighborhood-level gender related factors. The analysis will apply Quasi-Poisson regression using distributed lag nonlinear models to assess heat-CVD mortality associations, followed by meta-regression to evaluate effect modification by gender-related factors. Spatial analysis will identify high-risk neighborhoods and patterns of vulnerability. 

Significance 

This study will be a comprehensive assessment of how gender-related factors influence heat vulnerability in Montreal. The methodological framework developed can be adapted for Caribbean cities, where heat vulnerability is a growing concern due to climate change. Students will gain hands- on experience with advanced statistical methods and gender-based analysis while contributing their understanding of Caribbean urban contexts. 

Project Team

While the student will work independently on literature review and manuscript preparation, they will receive comprehensive support from a collaborative research environment.The student will join an interdisciplinary research team comprising experts in epidemiology, biostatistics, and health geography at McGill University. 

The project will be led by Dr. Louise Pilote, a renowned expert in cardiovascular epidemiology and sex/gender-based analysis in health research. As the primary supervisor, Dr. Pilote will provide overall guidance on the integration of gender-related factors in health research and mentor the development of analytical frameworks. Her extensive experience in leading large-scale epidemiological studies and expertise in cardiovascular outcomes research will ensure robust methodological approaches. 

In addition, a postdoctoral fellow with expertise in environmental epidemiology and statistical modeling will provide day-to-day research supervision and technical guidance. The student will also have opportunities to interact with other researchers in McGill, including biostatisticians specializing statitical modeling and researchers from geography department. These interactions will enrich their understanding of different research perspectives and methodologies. 

Technical Skills

Strong academic writing abilities are prefered, including proven experience in literature synthesis and scientific writing. The student would be expected to demonstrate strong critical thinking skills for evaluating research literature and identifying knowledge gaps. Advanced English language proficiency, both written and verbal, is necessary for effective communication and manuscript preparation. Basic knowledge of statistical analysis software (SPSS, R or Python) is required for data analysis training. 

Experience with time series analysis and environmental epidemiology methods would be advantageous, though not required. Previous involvement in climate-related or gender-related research projects, particularly those examining health impacts, would be valuable. Understanding of basic statistical concepts in epidemiology is desirable.

Additional Project Information

Supervisor Profile 

Dr. Louise Pilote is a professor of medicine at McGill University, brings expertise in cardiovascular disease, women's health, and health services research, as well as extensive experience in conducting large-scale studies merging multiple datasets to study the sex and gender determinants of health. 

Dr. Pilote has developed the methodology to measure gender (GENESIS-PRAXY) and to test its impact on outcomes. 

Website 

https://www.mcgill.ca/going-fwd4gender/ Relevant Publications 

1. Raparelli, V. Pilote, L. et al. (2021) ʻIdentification and inclusion of gender factors in retrospective cohort studies: The going-FWD frameworkʼ, BMJ Global Health, 6(4). doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2021- 005413. 

2. Tadiri, C.P. Pilote, L. et al. (2021) ʻMethods for prospectively incorporating gender into Health Sciences Researchʼ, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 129, pp. 191–197. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.08.018. 

Supervisor: Dr. Shaifali Sandal

Faculty: Medicine and Health Sciences

Department: Internal Medicine

Location: McGill University, Royal Victoria Hospital (Glen Site)

Project Description

Kidney disease affects >850 million people globally and contributes to >3.1 million deaths each year. Unmitigated climate change will increase the burden of kidney diseases. Moreover, the care of patients with kidney diseases, especially those on hemodialysis, is a significant contributor to climate change and waste generation. Environmentally sustainable kidney care (ESKC) seeks to implement patient-centered approaches to care with lower environmental impacts. Thus, championing climate action and advancing ESKC practices is both a moral imperative and a critical aspect of patient care. Yet, our prior work has highlighted several gaps in the knowledge and practices of healthcare professionals (HCPs) with a dearth of evidence-capturing patient perspectives. Also, we noted that the climate change risk perception was skewed towards participants from higher-income countries even though lower-income countries are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. We are planning a multinational qualitative study that aims to understand the perceptions of HCPs and patients in nephrology towards climate change and ESKC in different socio-economic settings. 
 
I am looking for a student to contribute to a project that aims to better understand factors that contribute to shaping perceptions on climate change and pursuing sustainable kidney care. The ultimate goal is to strengthen climate resilience in kidney care by decreasing the burden of kidney disease and ensuring that impact of disasters is reduced.  The student will work with my team and help conduct focus groups with healthcare professionals. These will be conducted virtually. They will learn qualitative methods (conducting focus groups, recruitment strategies, data analysis) and learn how to apply a socio-ecological framework. Following these focus groups, the student will also help design interview guides. If interested, there may be a possibility of continuing this work beyond the summer internship.

Project Team

Our team includes a research assistant and student and pending funding will also include a graduate student. We have a team of international collaborators as well.

Technical Skills

The main skill set I am looking for is experience with qualitative methods (content analysis, interviews, thematic analysis, etc.). In addition, the student must demonstrate the ability to work well in a team and have good communication skills and good command of the English language. 

Additional Project Information

Supervisor Profile

Shaifali Sandal, MD, is an Associate Professor, a transplant nephrologist, and an FRQS and CIHR- funded clinician investigator at the McGill University Health Centre. Her research program aims to strengthen health systems that deliver kidney care to patients and address inequities in access to kidney care 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=shaifali+sandal&sort=date

Supervisor: Dr. Ebenezer Miezah Kwofie

Faculty: Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Department: Bioresource Engineering

Location: McGill University, Macdonald Campus

Project Description

Approximately a quarter of food produced worldwide is traded, increasing the supply and diversity of foods to consumers. Africaʼs new initiative, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), hopes to take advantage of this trend, emphasizing the increase of sustainable, fair, and equitable trade of African products globally. Consequently, the development and optimization of sustainable agri-food supply chains is critical to this trade agreement. However, significant gaps remain in the alignment of African agri-food commodities with established sustainability indicators, affecting food safety, nutrition, economics, environmental, and socio-cultural dimensions. The proposed FCI4Africa project seeks to close these gaps by developing digital tools, platforms, and decision support systems to promote climate-neutral, fair, and efficient agri-food supply chains, thus expanding the growth of trade of African agri-food commodities across intra-continental and international communities. 

In this context, the assigned student will focus on three primary tasks to support the FCI4Africa project goals: 1) collaborate on a gap analysis of reported agri-food value chains to identify gaps in acquired sustainability data. 2) coordinate the development of an eco-efficiency risk assessment framework, highlighting the sustainability performance of extended agri-food value chains, and identifying value chain commodities needing sustainability improvement. 3) assess the eco-efficiency of extended value chain assessments against urban, rural, and industrial stakeholders. 

This research will provide insights into value chain specific sustainability issues and support the design of targeted interventions. The tasks conduced by the student will also contribute to the broader goal of ensuring equitable access to sustainable food systems for Africa. 

While the project is based in Africa, it provides the intern with the opportunity for transferable learning that can be applied in the case of Trinidad. 

Project Team

The proposed work will be part of the FCI4Africa initiative, which is led by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and experts from McGill University and partner industries. The Graduate Research Trainee from the University of West Indies will work closely with the lead investigator, Dr. Ebenezer Miezah Kwofie, and project coordinators Dr. Marilyne Chicoine and PhD student Joël Mongeon. The trainee will have access to support and guidance in the collaboration of assigned projects, spanning environmental and agri-food data analysis from partner institutions such as Wageningen University, the University of Pretoria, and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The projectʼs integrated approach will provide the student a unique opportunity to collaborate on an international, multi-stakeholder project while gaining experience in eco-efficiency and value chain assessments and modeling.

Technical Skills

• Broad general knowledge about food system sustainability. 
• Basic beginner's skills in Python or MATLAB programming languages. Broad knowledge of food system mapping. 
• Broad general knowledge of eco-efficiency principles. 

Additional Project Information

Supervisor website: https://www.mcgill.ca/bioeng/faculty-and-staff/academic-staff/ebenezer-miezah-kwofie 

Publications and Affiliated Contributions: 

A Nutrition Sensitive Circular Bioeconomy for Food Systems in Africa 

Bioeconomy: A Path to African Food Systems 

A forensic framework and decision support system for harmonized and holistic food system resilience and sustainability analysis 

Primary member in the Food Safety 4 Africa Project; https://foodsafety4africa.eu/ 

Supervisor: Dr. Jura Augustinavicius

Faculty: Medicine and Health Sciences

Department: Equity, Ethics and Policy

Location: McGill University, downtown campus

Project Description

The overarching goal of EnGen is to develop and pilot an intervention model for incubating climate focused innovation, cultivating intergenerational connection, and promoting mental health and well- being. The intervention model will bring together intergenerational teams of youth and adults to work together to identify the impacts of climate change in their communities and to co-develop a local climate change adaptation and/or mitigation innovation with mentoring and support. The EnGen intervention model will be focused around three pillars of: 1) innovation on climate solutions; 2) intergenerational connection, and 3) mental health and well-being promotion. Our model draws on literature suggesting that intergenerational programs can be mutually beneficial across age groups, particularly when they focus on political or social issues relevant to all generations. In this phase of the project we will develop the EnGen intervention model in Montréal in partnership with the Black Community Resource Centre and prepare for pilot testing. The workshop model will be developed and implemented drawing on contextualized data, local and international knowledge and expertise on the project focus areas, and in accordance with interdisciplinary best practices for community-based research. 

Project Team

The student will be embedded in a larger team and must have strong collaborative skills and interest in learning from and sharing knowledge with others. The team will include other trainees, from the undergraduate to postdoctoral levels, and community partners from the Black Community Resource Centre. Teamwork will involve drafting and editing materials integral to implement Phase 2 activities, including developing content for co-design workshops, interpreting co-design results, and planning for the intervention pilot in Phase 3 of the project. The student should expect to work closely with other team members daily but to execute their specific tasks through independent work and self- directed learning. Further, the student will be recognized as bringing a unique skill set and lived experience that can contribute to the learning environment of others. 

Technical Skills

Students should have an interest in community-based research, experience using Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint), and strong written and oral English language skills. Students should be highly organized and pay attention to detail in their work. In addition to climate change adaptation and resilience, students should have an interest in community-based program implementation (implementation science) methods and mental health well-being. Experience with and/or interest in learning to use bibliographic reference software (e.g. Endnote) and/or qualitative data analysis software (e.g. NVivo) is considered an asset. 

Additional Project Information

Student(s) will join the Climate Change and Mental Health Lab and will be supervised by Dr. Jura Augustinavicius (School of Population and Global Health, Faculty of Health Sciences): https://www.mcgill.ca/equity-ethics-policy/jura-augustinavicius. The students will benefit from lab and project infrastructure (e.g. weekly lab meetings and project specific meetings, project administrative supports, opportunity to participate in a large multi-phase research project, etc.). Relevant publications from the supervisor include: 

Augustinavicius, J., Graef, V., Massazza, A., Engels, M., Eaton, J., Hill, K., Ungar, M., & Snider, L. (2022). Priorities for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Intervention Research in the Context of the Climate Crisis: A Modified Delphi Study. Intervention, 20(1), 68-80. https://doi.org/10.4103/intv.intv_39_21 

Charlson, F., Ali, S., Augustinavicius, J., Benmarhnia, T., Birch, S., Clayton, S., Fielding, K., Jones, L., Juma, D., Snider, L., Ugo, V., Zeitz, L., Jayawardana, D., La Nauze, A., & Massazza, A. (2022). Global priorities for climate change and mental health research. Environment international, 158, 106984. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2021.106984 

Massazza, A., Teyton, A., Charlson, F., Benmarhnia, T., & Augustinavicius, J. L. (2022). Quantitative methods for climate change and mental health research: current trends and future directions. Lancet Planetary Health, 6(7), e613-e627. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(22)00120-6 

Supervisor: Dr. Djordje Romanic

Faculty: Science

Department: Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences

Location: McGill University, downtown campus

Project Description

Caribbean islands are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters, including hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and landslides, which pose significant risks to lives, infrastructure, and local economies. This project aims to develop a comprehensive, data-driven risk management framework for natural disasters on a selected Caribbean island. The project will address disaster preparedness, risk reduction, emergency response, and resilience-building by integrating meteorological, geological, and socioeconomic data with innovative computational modeling techniques. 

The primary objectives of the project are (1) to assess hazard exposure and vulnerability by analyzing historical disaster data, topographic and climatic features, and population and infrastructure distributions; (2) to quantify potential impacts of various natural disaster scenarios on critical infrastructure and communities; and (3) to propose and simulate adaptive strategies for mitigation and rapid recovery. 

Leveraging advanced modeling, including downscaled climate projections and probabilistic risk assessments, we will work with local stakeholders to understand unique island-specific risks and incorporate local knowledge. This project will culminate in a strategic, actionable disaster risk management plan tailored to the Caribbean island's specific vulnerabilities and resources, ultimately strengthening its disaster resilience. Findings and tools from this project will be shareable with neighboring islands, potentially fostering a collaborative network for risk reduction across the Caribbean. 

Project Team

The student will be working under the supervision of Prof. Djordje Romanic from the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. This will be an individual project that is not part of another project. The work will mostly be independent.

Technical Skills

• Strong writing skills (technical writing suitable for journal manuscripts)
• Data processing 
• Coding skills would be additional plus

Additional Project Information

Supervisor Profile

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. My research focuses on urban resilience and sustainability, atmospheric boundary layer processes with a particular emphasis on severe wind events, and the applications of atmospheric sciences across diverse fields, including wind engineering, hazard modeling, wind energy, and public health. To date, I have published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and presented my research extensively at both national and international conferences. 

My research group currently comprises four PhD students investigating urban resilience to thunderstorm winds, one MSc student specializing in aerosol number concentration measurements, and multiple undergraduate students working on various topics within atmospheric sciences. 

Additionally, I have supervised two students as part of the McGill-UWI Queen Elizabeth Scholars Program (2022, 2024). One student conducted a comprehensive meteorological and damage assessment of Hurricane Elsa, which impacted Barbados in July 2021. The other student examined the response of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to multiple natural disasters, contributing valuable insights into disaster preparedness and response strategies in the Caribbean context. 

See my website for more information about my research, teaching, and outreach: https://web.meteo.mcgill.ca/~dromanic/. 

Paper published with the student that I supervised through this program: 

Sandiford S, Romanic D, Gyakum J. 2024. Meteorological analysis and damage survey study of the impact of Hurricane Elsa in Barbados. Natural Hazards Review. 

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1061/NHREFO.NHENG-1843 

Supervisor: Dr. Blane Harvey

Faculty: Education

Department: Integrated Studies in Education

Location: McGill University, downtown campus

Project Description

Youth (and young women and girls in the global South in particular) are increasingly being recognized for the important leadership and convening roles they are playing in response to the climate crisis. 

This project will study youth-led efforts to respond to climate change and promote climate justice in the global South. In particular, it will examine how justice-oriented climate action integrates gender considerations in ways that might open up new forms and spaces of climate action and address broader gender-based social issues. We see the concept of “gender transformative climate justice work” (GTCJ) as an important way of looking at intersectional action on gender and climate change, and one that youth-led initiatives, networks, and movements are increasingly adopting. We will undertake a review of youth engagement in GTCJ practice to understand: 

1. Where are youth-led initiatives undertaking GTCJ work in the global South? 

2. How do youth engaged in GTCJ work understand the opportunities and challenges at the intersection of gender and climate transformation? 

3. What practices do these youth use to understand and act upon priorities in their GTCJ work? 

4. Where might the opportunities for supporting or amplifying youth-led GTCJ work in the global South? 

We will use a combination of desk based research, key informant interviews with GTCJ youth leaders, and focus group discussions to explore these questions. 

Project Team

This project is part of a wider set of activities undertaken through the TRANSFORM partnership in collaboration with the Leadership and Learning for Sustainability Lab (LL4S). The student will be working as a part of the TRANSFORM and LL4S teams. They will be directly supervised by a PhD student and Prof. Harvey. They will also be able to benefit from the wider TRANSFORM team at McGill, led by Prof. Claudia Mitchell.

TRANSFORM: Engaging with Young People for Social Change is a 5-year SSHRC-funded partnership (2024-2030) involving 40 researchers, 17 universities, and 10 partner organizations, with intervention sites to support youth-led work on gender transformation in six countries in the Global South (Argentina, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and South Africa). As part of the TRANSFORM partnership, the student will have the opportunity to build robust research skills through hands-on experience with qualitative research methodologies, receive mentorship support from researchers, practitioners, and educators around the world. Additionally, the project offers valuable networking opportunities for the student to connect with NGOs, universities, and other organizations focused on gender transformative education and actions. 

Technical Skills

• Experience with qualitative data collection and analysis 
• Strong academic writing skills in English 
• Good understanding of social dimensions of climate change, preferably with an understanding of key concepts related to gender and climate change 
• Experience with or understanding of youth-led climate/gender initiatives desirable
• Working proficiency in Spanish desirable. 

Additional Project Information

https://learn2sustain.ca/

https://www.mcgill.ca/participatory-cultures-lab/transform

https://www.mcgill.ca/education/blane-harvey