Chris Darimont
 Science Director and Chair of Raincoast Applied Conservation Science Lab

Chris is a Professor, Provost’s Engaged Scholar, and the Raincoast Chair of Applied Conservation Science Lab in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria.

Favouring an interdisciplinary approach, he has been – and continues to be – influenced by a broad network of mentors and collaborators. He earned a PhD in Ecology and Evolution from the Biology Department at the University of Victoria with Dr. Tom Reimchen. Postdoctoral opportunities took me to the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he worked with Dr. Chris Wilmers.

Chris’s long-term affiliation with the science-based Raincoast Conservation Foundation has also shaped him and the work in which he engages. He received mentorship and partnership with many Raincoasters. Dr. Paul Paquet in particular has influenced, taught and empowered me since he first met him at a pizza restaurant in Canmore in December 1998. Colleagues, friends, and Knowledge Holders among the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk), Wuikinuxv, Kitasoo/Xai-xais, and Nuxalk Nations have also been enormously influential in guiding what he does, and how he does it.

Teaching and mentoring students, however, is his favourite form of outreach. Currently, he teaches GEOG 353 (Coastal and Marine Resource Management) during the spring term. He and Jessie Housty also teach a field course about integrating western science and Indigenous knowledge in the use, monitoring and study of resources (GEOG 453). This amazing course takes place in the village of Bella Bella and at the Koeye River.

darimont [at] uvic [dot] ca