Athabasca University's Master of Science – Earth System Science (MSc ESS) is an interdisciplinary graduate program grounded in an Earth-systems perspective—one that examines how the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, and biosphere interact, and how these interconnected systems are influenced by both natural processes and human activities.

This page is designed to help you explore research fit by outlining the program’s six focus areas and highlighting faculty whose research aligns with each area. Use these profiles to refine your interests, identify promising research directions, and connect with potential supervisors for thesis or project work.

Environmental Science

Quaternary Earth Systems

Environmental Analytics

Bioinformatics

Environmental Space Science

Climate Change

This focus area examines the structure and dynamics of the climate system and how climate-driven changes propagate through the hydrosphere, cryosphere, biosphere, and geosphere. Students integrate climate and hydrological modeling, ecohydrology, Quaternary perspectives, remote sensing, and environmental analytics to assess climate variability, impacts, risks, and system responses. Research spans multiple spatial and temporal scales and supports improved understanding of past, present, and future climate change.

Chris Glover Email Profile	My research is focused on developing a mechanistic understanding of the interactions between animals and their environments, using techniques from multiple disciplines including environmental chemistry, biogeochemistry, molecular biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, cell biology, physiology, ecology, and behaviour. Supervised projects would align with these research interests and utilize tools from these disciplines.
Frédérique Pivot Email Profile	My research in physical geography focuses on remote sensing and geospatial analysis to investigate land surface processes and environmental change across spatial and temporal scales. Advancing remote sensing methods and observing systems for environmental monitoring and understanding climate-related environmental change, with particular interest in applications to cryospheric and other land surface dynamics such as snow cover and soil moisture variability, wildfire disturbance, and vegetation or land cover change.
Junye Wang Email Profile	I am a full professor in computational sustainability and environmental analytics, specializing in multiscale, multidisciplinary modeling of energy and environmental systems. My work spans micrometer to watershed scales, combining physical and data-driven models. Applications include ecosystems, water, greenhouse gases, bioremediation, soil carbon, pollutant transport, bioenergy, and machine learning for environmental management, air pollution, and resource security.
Ken Munyikwa Email Profile	My research focuses on Quaternary Earth systems, examining environmental change over the past ~2.6 million years, particularly in western Canada. Using geological proxy records and dating techniques such as luminescence dating, I reconstruct processes since the Last Glacial Maximum. This work connects local and global patterns and includes analysis of modern processes to better understand natural baselines and future environmental change.
Scott Ketcheson Email Profile	My research advances ecosystem sustainability by understanding hydrological processes. As a field hydrologist, I study water movement among forests, wetlands, and streams in northern Alberta using traditional methods and sensor networks. I have established a research Headwater Catchment Observatory and I also collaborate on oil sands reclamation, peatland biogeochemistry, mercury dynamics, seismic line restoration, and wildfire impacts.
Shauna Zenteno Email Profile	I focus on understanding environmental impacts related to water quality and their downstream effects on health and food security. I work collaboratively with other researchers and First Nations communities, integrating Traditional Knowledge with multidisciplinary Western science approaches. My current research examines the role of biofilms in preserving biodiversity and aquatic system health, with the goal of restoring ecosystems impacted by human development and climate change.
Shawn Lewenza Email Profile	My research focuses on oil sands microbiology, bioremediation, genomics, biofilms and antibiotic resistance. We use genetic and bioinformatic approaches to identify specific genes required for resisting antibiotics or degrading oil sands pollutants. Our current focus is the application of naphthenic acids biosensors for monitoring NA in oil sands tailings and to identify NA degrading bacteria for applications in bioaugmentation.
Srijak Bhatnagar Email Profile	My interest is in studying microbial ecology of contaminated ecosystems, with an emphasis on global-scale impacts, bioremediation, and biomonitoring using DNA/RNA-based sequencing. This includes leveraging large public data sets for regional, continental, and global trends in microbial communities and their roles and interconnectedness in a one health paradigm.