Vanessa Egginton

Research climatologist with the BC Forestry service in Prince George, BC

Although originally from Victoria BC, I ventured north into the interior of the province to obtain my undergraduate degree at the University of Northern British Columbia. My friends and family thought I was crazy to leave beautiful Vancouver Island for the industrial town of Prince George but it proved to be a wonderful experience. I majored in Environmental Science with a focus in Atmospheric Science, and I also obtained a minor in Political Science and completed the co-operative education program. The highlight of my co-op experience was an 8 month term with the Mountain Weather Centre in Kelowna, BC where I learned how to forecast the weather. In my final year at UNBC, I was awarded a NSERC undergraduate research grant in which I studied mountain gap winds with Dr. Peter Jackson.

As you can see, my main passion is in meteorology and I was so dedicated to this field I worked part-time for Environment Canada releasing weather balloons at 3:00 in the morning and the following afternoon, often on Saturday nights and in below freezing temperatures. So what I am doing in an Earth Sciences program among geologists? I am also very interested in geomorphology and obtained a position at the BC Ministry of Forests as the research assistant to the regional geomorphologist after graduation. I worked for 8 months in Prince George, and then was transferred to Smithers for the following 8 months. I had an awesome field season flying around the icefields near Atlin, falling down landslides in Fort Nelson, digging soil pits in the foothills of the Rockies, and much more! Field work was not my main task at MoF though. My bosses were starting to realize that current climate change scenarios may be responsible for triggering landslides in northern BC and felt this deserved some investigation. With my atmospheric science background, I started researching climate change, analyzing climate station data and comparing weather data to landslide events in British Columbia. This allowed me to combine my two interests of meteorology and geomorphology into one research project, which is currently being continued as my Masters thesis at Simon Fraser University.

Education

B.Sc., Environmental Science 2002 University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC

For more information, please send e.mail to: Vanessa.Egginton@gov.bc.ca