{"id":6,"date":"2016-05-25T19:58:49","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T19:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/?page_id=6"},"modified":"2025-02-18T18:16:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T18:16:16","slug":"background","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/background\/","title":{"rendered":"Background"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was born and raised in the United Kingdom where I completed all my formal education. I have a Bachelor of Science degree with Honours in Geology from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/\">University of St. Andrews<\/a>, and a Doctorate in Earth Sciences from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.liv.ac.uk\/\">University of Liverpool<\/a>. Part of my graduate studies were spent in the Geography Department at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ed.ac.uk\/\">University of Edinburgh<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After completing my doctorate in 1991 I emigrated to Canada to work at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dal.ca\/\">Dalhousie University<\/a> in Halifax, Nova Scotia as a post-doctoral Research Fellow. I moved to British Columbia in 1994 to teach physical geography and GIS at <a href=\"https:\/\/coastmountaincollege.ca\/\">Northwest Community College<\/a> (now Coast Mountain College) in Terrace, and worked at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.viu.ca\/index.asp\">Vancouver Island University<\/a>, where I was a Professor in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.viu.ca\/geography\/\">Department of Geography<\/a> from 2003 until I retired in 2024. I taught courses in environmental geography, geomorphology, hydrology, GIS and natural resource management in the Geography and Geoscience degree programs at VIU. In addition to having taught I am also active in research (see details on separate pages), and I am a former Chair of the Geography Department (2011-2013).<\/p>\n<p>I have also worked as a Professional Geoscientist (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.egbc.ca\/\">EGBC<\/a>) assessing hillslope and river channel stability and managing watersheds for industry, First Nations and government in the forest resource sector.<\/p>\n<p>I like to spend my free time in the outdoors doing a variety of human powered sports with my family and friends.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-147\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/files\/2016\/05\/IMG_2193-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"467\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/files\/2016\/05\/IMG_2193-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/files\/2016\/05\/IMG_2193-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/files\/2016\/05\/IMG_2193-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 467px) 100vw, 467px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Alaska Trail in Moab, Utah, USA.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was born and raised in the United Kingdom where I completed all my formal education. I have a Bachelor of Science degree with Honours in Geology from the University of St. Andrews, and a Doctorate in Earth Sciences from &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/background\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions\/234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/gilchrisa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}