Team | PARLAP

Project Leaders

Yoshito Takasaki

Dr. Takasaki is a Professor of Economics at the University of Tokyo. He specializes in development economics, empirical microeconomics, field experiment, and resource economics. His research interests include poverty, political economy, institution, geography, space, community, social network, ethnicity, conflict, crime, disability, labor, education, health, behavior, risk, natural disaster, tropical forest, shifting cultivation, rural livelihoods, and conservation.

Email
Webpage

Oliver Coomes

Dr. Coomes is a Professor of Geography at McGill University. He works on issues related to environment and development in tropical forests and forest communities of Latin America, including peasant livelihoods, forest resource use, the forest-poverty nexus, land cover change, adaptation to environmental change, and agrobiodiversity.

Email
Webpage

Christian Abizaid

Dr. Abizaid is an Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto. Prof. Abizaid is a human-environment geographer with an interest in the livelihoods of peasant and indigenous peoples in tropical forest regions of Latin America. He is particularly interested in traditional resource use practices, floodplain dynamics and riverine livelihoods, environmental shock vulnerability and social networks in agrarian societies.

Email
Webpage

Collaborators

Mari Tanaka

Dr. Tanaka is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tokyo and the Institute of Economic Research at Hitotsubashi University. Her fields of research interest are in Development Economics, Labour Economics, International Trade.

Email
Webpage

Margaret Kalacska

Dr. Kalacska is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at McGill University. Her main research interests include ecological applications of remote sensing, forensic applications of remote sensing, hyperspectral data analysis, machine learning (pattern recognition, Bayesian Networks, classification), spatial modeling and tropical ecology.

Email
Webpage

J. Pablo Arroyo-Mora

Dr. Arroyo-Mora is a Research Officer at the National Research Council of Canada. He is a multidisciplinary scientist whose main focus is conservation in tropical regions using field and remotely sensed data. His expertise in database management and mobile mapping technologies allows him to participate in projects across different disciplines aiming to design and implement databases in the social sciences, humanities and physical sciences.

Shunsuke Tsuda

Dr. Shun Tsuda is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Essex. His research fields are development economics, environmental economics, spatial economics, and political economy.

Email
Webpage

Student Opportunities

PARLAP is interested in recruiting Masters and PhD students to be part of the project. Students with field experience in Latin America, an interest in rural livelihoods, and/or data management/statistical/ GIS/ Remote Sensing skills are encouraged to apply to work with one of the PIs at McGill University or the University of Toronto. Students with an interest in environment and development, strong microeconomics background and quantitative skills are encouraged to apply to work with the PI at the University of Tokyo. Please see the respective universities for application requirements and deadlines.

Students

University of Tokyo
Soyoung Kim (Ph.D. student, Public Policy, underway)
Yuma Noritomo (Ph.D. student, Applied Economics, Cornell University, underway)

McGill University
Lia Ferguson (B.A. & B.Sc. student, Sustainability Science and Society, 2024)
David Poissant (M.Sc. student, Geography, 2021)
Daniel Zayonc (M.Sc. student, Geography, 2021)
Ms. Michelle Cheng (B.A. Hrs student, Geography, 2020)
Peter Garber (B.A. Hrs student, Environment, 2018)
Danielle Girard (B.A. Hrs student, Environment, 2018)
Laura Donohue (B.Sc. Hrs student, Geography, 2015)
William Miller (B.A. & B.Sc. Hrs student, Environment, 2013)

University of Toronto
Leila Tjiang (Hrs student, Geography and Biology, underway)
Dena Coffman (M.A. student, Geography and Environment, 2021)
Wenxi Liao (Hrs student, Geography, 2019)
Jennifer Langill (M.A. student, Geography and Environment, 2018)
Laura Bryson (M.Sc. student Geography and Environment, 2017)

Research Assistants

University of Tokyo
An Le My (Survey data analysis)
Yuma Noritomo (Survey management, Survey data analysis)
Soyoung Kim (Survey management, Survey data analysis)

McGill University
Lia Ferguson (Data analysis and report compilation)
Léa Vadez-Reyes (Data analysis and report compilation)
Erica Skye Schaaf (Web designer)
Tristan Grupp (GIS cartography)
Samantha Carr (GIS cartography)
Nicolas Cadieux (Programming, GIS)
Lesley Johnson (Remote sensing analysis)
Dena Coffman (GIS cartography)
Noe Schultz (Remote sensing analysis)
Victoria Aziz (Data compilation)
Florence Tang (Data compilation)
Keira Webster (GIS)
Nicolas Otis (Data management)
Leona Siaw (Data management)

University of Toronto
Jared Connoy (Riverbank erosion analysis)
Alondra García Villacres (Seed networks analysis)
Dena Coffman (Data compilation, GIS)
Tina Lee (Flood analysis)
Dylan Shaul (Social network analysis)
Jennifer Langill (Flood vulnerability analysis)
Laura Sanchez (Environmental shock analysis)
Girum Hagos (GIS cartography)
Jackie de Santis (GIS cartography)
Karl Tablante (Network visualization)

Field Teams in Peru

Loreto
Carlos Rengifo Upiachihua (team leader)
Iris Anelís Arevalo Piña
Judiht del Castillo Macedo
Jacob Gonzales Bardales
Kathicsa Naydu Mendoza Montalvan
Norith Paredes Salas
Claudio Sinuri Lomas
Inelza Zumbilla Ajón

Ucayali
Luis Angel Collado Panduro (team leader)
Diego Fernando Dávila Gomez
Eduardo Carlos Perea Tuesta
Segundo Jorge Vázquez Flores
Claudio Sinuri Lomas