Postdoctoral researcher Vanessa Lamb ’03 working on international environmental issues

Environmental issues in Southeast Asia are the focus of postdoctoral researcher Vanessa Lamb ’03 of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Lamb first traveled to Thailand after graduation and stayed for six months.

“Professor (George ‘Skip’) Wittler at Ripon College first connected me with an internship in Bangkok, Thailand, at the end of my degree,” she says. “I had worked in East Africa on issues of biodiversity and conservation previously in my undergrad studies, and was interested in better understanding how people and organizations outside the United States were addressing environmental problems. But this was my first connection to Thailand and Southeast Asia.”

Lamb majored in environmental studies at Ripon College. She received a master’s degree in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Ph.D. in geography, focused on environmental politics, natural resources and development geographies, in 2014 from York University, Toronto, Canada.

She currently works for the University of Toronto on the Urban Climate Resilience in Southeast Asia Partnership, and she will take up a permanent position at University Melbourne Geography later this year.

Her current projects are with the Greater Mekong Program for CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). The first project, for which she is the lead project investigator, is a basin-wide study of “governance” of the Salween River which flows through parts of China, Myanmar and Thailand in Southeast Asia.

“What we mean to accomplish with this project is to assess the policies related to the river and how they are being implemented —or not — and what that means to people who live in the basin and rely on the river as a source of livelihood and food,” she says.

Her second project includes another WLE grant to support 12 research fellows focusing on the Salween basin and building the Salween University Network. “This includes natural scientists, social scientists and practitioners who will take a range of approaches to understanding riverine ecology and water governance of the Salween in Southeast Asia,” Lamb says.

The Salween River project has inspired Lamb to continue improving the basin and the lives of the people whose livelihoods depend upon this river. It is a sustained effort that already has begun to have inspired further initiatives in other regions.

Mra Than ’17
New York, New York


Related Posts

Jesse Lillis, Ripon College Class of 2013, co-artistic director of the touring Starling Shakespeare Company

Jessie Lillis ’13 returns to Ripon for summer residency, presentation of Shakespeare plays

When a series of free performances of plays by William Shakespeare is presented in the Ripon/Green Lake area this summer, Jessie Lillis ’13 will be […]

Andrew Limouris '94

New book by Andrew Linouris ’94 focuses on building a resilient company culture

Culture through Crisis, by Andrew Limouris ’94, recently was released with Forbes Books, the exclusive business book publishing imprint of Forbes. Limouris is the founder, […]

Zachary S. Morris '02

New Ripon College graduates urged to seek joy in life and in careers

The Ripon College Class of 2023 celebrated the 157th Commencement ceremony at Ripon College Sunday afternoon. The theme was “Strategic Thinkers who Ignite Change.” A […]

Zachary S. Morris '02

Zachary Morris ’02 will be honorary degree recipient, speaker at Sunday’s Commencement

Dr. Zachary Morris ’02 will be the honorary degree recipient at Ripon College’s Commencement May 14. Morris is a tenured associate professor and vice chair […]

Vanessa Lamb ’03