Wilderness wanderer to climate warrior

As a youngster, Dr. Bryan Mood (PhD) would frequently get lost in the wilds of southwestern Nova Scotia.

At the time, no one knew those experiences would lead to an academic career, but the foundations of his passion for environmental science were clearly built early in life.

“From that I always had an interest in forests, in wetlands, being in them and trying to understand them,” Mood said.

Today, three degrees later, Mood is a lecturer and the Renewable Resource Management Program Co-ordinator in the Department of Soil Science at the University of Saskatchewan (USask). His lifelong connection to the land has also led him to additional passions for connecting with communities, particularly Indigenous ones.

His first degree was in environmental science at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B. He then moved to the University of Victoria, where he earned his master’s and PhD.

“A lot of that was looking at paleoclimate and what the earth has looked like in the last 10,000 years and the last 300 years,” he said, noting that included evaluating glaciers and water resources via tree-ring reconstructions in B.C.

“What my supervisor (Dr. Dan Smith (PhD)) was really driving home was understanding the landscape and how it informs us about different things—whether it’s what the glaciers are going to do, what the trees are going to do, what the risks are to snowpacks, snowmelt, all these different variables.”