Dr. Frederik Noack is an assistant professor and the co-lead of the Wildlife Conservation and Economics Laboratory at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Hailing originally from Germany, Dr. Noack received his PhD. In Economics from the University of Kiel before moving to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to work with the Center for International Forestry Research. He then continued his research as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Noack arrived at UBC in 2017.
Currently, Dr. Noack is working on various projects related to the environmental impact of agriculture and the regulation of marine resources. His aim through these projects is to help organize food production more efficiently while taking the negative impacts on the environment fully into account.
“I love nature but I also recognize that it will be difficult to convince societies to give up our current living standard in order to improve the environment.” Says Dr. Noack, “I am therefore trying to find possible changes with large impacts on the natural environment that require little changes to our standards of living. I am convinced that environmental degradation is often inefficient and that we can improve the environment significantly by reducing the activities with large environmental impacts but little private benefits.”
Due to the current COVD-19 pandemic and being a full-time researcher, husband and father of two, Noack has had to reduce his working hours to half time. When asked about his favourite aspect of the Wildco lab Noack states “I think we have great students and the interactions often inspire me.” When he isn’t conducting research and leading the lab, Noack and his family enjoy kayaking, fishing and backpacking. His favourite natural spaces include Cheakamus River, Chilliwack lake, North Coast Trail, Cévennes, Sweden, Costa Rica, Corsica, Caucasus and Alborz mountains