Tom Beckley
University of New Brunswick

Social demands and forest policy

Dr. Tom Beckley has been working in the field of forest sociology in Canada for over 17 years. He teaches in the Faculty of Forestry at UNB, though his Ph.D. is in Sociology and his Masters degree is in Rural Sociology (both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA). Prior to joining UNB in 2000, he worked for the Canadian Forest Service in Alberta and New Brunswick. His research topics include; forest dependent communities, public participation in resource management and policy, criteria and indicators of sustainable development and community forestry. Tom is also a woodlot owner.

Sophie D'Amours
FOR@C, Université Laval

Sustainability and business innovation
in the forest industry

Dr Sophie D'Amours holds a mechanical engineering bachelor degree, a MBA and a Ph.D. in Mathematics for engineers. She joined University Laval in 1995 and currently leads the FORAC Research Consortium. Dr D'Amours holds a Canada Research Chair Tier 1 in Planning Forest Sustainable Networks as well as an NSERC Industrial Chair on Collaborative Integration and Synchronization of the Forest Products Supply Chains. Her research activities include advanced planning systems, integrated simulation and operation research and the impacts of new information technologies on business models. Finally, Professor D'Amours was awarded the YWCA Women Award in Technology (2003), the Practice Award from the Canadian Society of Operational Research (2007) as well as the "Distinction Henri-Gustave-Joly-de-Lotbinière" for an exceptional contribution to the forest sector in Québec.

Yves Gagnon
Université de Moncton

Sustainable development, energy and the forest sector

Dr. Yves Gagnon is professor and holds the K.C. Irving Chair in Sustainable Development at the Université de Moncton, along with being Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UNB, UNBSJ and the École de technologie supérieure (Montréal). He is regularly solicited as an expert on alternative energy sources, on economic and community development and on public policy. Prior to joining the Université de Moncton, Dr. Gagnon held the position of Visiting Executive at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, he was founding President and CEO of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and he was Associate Vice-President of Research and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at the Université de Moncton.

William Keeton
University of Vermont

Ecosystem management

William Keeton is an Associate Professor of Forest Ecology and Forestry at the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. His current research focuses on forest carbon management including modeling, climate change impacts on forest ecosystems, natural disturbance-based silvicultural systems, natural disturbance ecology, the structure and function of late-successional forest systems, forest-stream interactions, and forest biodiversity. Dr Keeton directs UVM’s Carbon Dynamics Laboratory, has been a Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine (2008) and continues to work actively on sustainable forest management in Eastern Europe