David Ferguson

Current Position
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M.Sc. Candidate, Department of Natural Resource Science, McGill University
Co-supervised by Dr. Elena Bennett and Dr. Klara Winkler


Degrees Received

B.Sc. in Environmental Science (2018)
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Minors: Geography, Natural Resource Conservation
UMass Certificate in Native American Indian Studies






       

                                                         
Research interests

David’s research focuses on the interactions between ecosystems and human well-being. He is interested in better understanding both how landscapes change over time and the human dimensions of that environmental change. He is further interested in the challenge of thinking about scale in relation to these questions.

David enjoys work that is multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary in nature. The overarching goal of his research is to develop information that can be used in decision making processes around management decisions in the present and open up how we imagine sustainable futures.

For his MSc, David will be working with the NSERC ResNet Synthesis team. His research will compare ecosystem service frameworks across ResNet landscapes, with the goal of improving understanding of how different ES frameworks lead to different understandings of the world around us.

Past experience

David’s past work and research has spanned several disciplines, including ecology, geography, community development, applied economics, sociology, and archeology. 

While pursuing his BSc, David worked as a research assistant for Dr. Alexander Bryan at the Northeast Climate Adaption Science Center on a project exploring potential future impacts on air quality of climate-induced shifts in forest composition. Additionally, he was a 2017 participant in the NSF-REU on the Cultural, Economic and Ecological Significance of Church Forests in South Gondar, Ethiopia. His primary project focused on documenting and examining forest cover change over time, driven by an interest in better understanding the rapid expansion eucalyptus plantations since the 1960s. He was also a 2018 USDA-REACCH intern, working with Dr. Jennifer Alix-Garcia to examine application patterns to Mexico’s payments for ecosystem services program from 2003 through 2015.

After earning his B.Sc in Environmental Science from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, David spent three years working for the U.S Federal Government. He spent two years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development; there he worked with the team that developed the U.S. EPA’s Human Well-Being Index, working primarily on a project exploring the associations between natural and social factors across geographic scales and how these interactions influence community-level well-being. David then moved back to the Northeast U.S., where he worked for the U.S. National Park Service’s Northeast Regional Cultural Resources Program. David was a GIS technician with the Northeast Archeological Resources Program, there he worked to develop guidance for archeological GIS development, prepared report maps and park GIS data for project planning and reporting, and assisted in the development of tablet-based forms for a pilot volunteer monitoring program.

Selected Awards

Elizabeth and Andre Rossinger Fellowship (2021-2022)

Contact information
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[email protected]

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