UBC researchers Dr. Melissa McHale, left, and Dr. Lisa Tobber have each received $1-million Wall Fellowships to lead transformative projects addressing climate resilience and housing challenges across BC.
Two UBC faculty members—Dr. Melissa McHale at UBC Vancouver and Dr. Lisa Tobber at UBC Okanagan—have received $1-million Wall Fellowships, the university’s most prestigious internal research awards. The fellowships will support transformative research to help communities across British Columbia adapt to a changing climate and growing housing needs.
For both researchers, the recognition comes at a pivotal moment—highlighting the importance of their work and their persistence through personal and professional challenges.
At UBC Vancouver, Dr. Melissa McHale had spent much of the past year navigating grief after losing both of her parents within months of each other.
At UBC Okanagan, Dr. Lisa Tobber hesitated before applying. Dr. Tobber had joined the School of Engineering as a faculty member just four years earlier, right after completing her PhD. When the fellowship application opened, she was on parental leave, making the decision to apply feel especially daunting.
“I debated whether to apply at all,” says Dr. Tobber. “Early-career researchers don’t often win fellowships of this scale, and the timing didn’t seem ideal. I thought, this probably isn’t going to happen.”
What ultimately convinced her was that the fellowship recognized research making a tangible difference in British Columbia, the very work Tobber was already leading to improve the seismic safety and resilience of the province’s buildings.
One of North America’s most significant internal research awards
The Wall Fellowships are the flagship awards of UBC’s Peter Wall Legacy Awards program. Funded through a gift of more than $100 million from Vancouver entrepreneur and philanthropist Dr. Peter Wall, the program invests about about $4 million in UBC research each year—making it one of the largest internal research awards offered at a university in North America.
This year’s fellows are leading community-focused research on two of BC’s most urgent and interconnected challenges: climate resilience and access to safe, sustainable housing.
“We remain deeply grateful to Dr. Wall for his extraordinary vision and generosity,” says Dr. Benoit-Antoine Bacon, President and Vice-Chancellor of UBC. “Dr. McHale and Dr. Tobber are remarkable scholars driving innovations that will make British Columbia more livable, equitable and resilient in the face of our changing climate. Their contributions will be felt for generations—and so will Dr. Wall’s.”
Building climate-resilient cities
Dr. McHale’s project helps BC communities prepare for a hotter, drier, more fire-prone future—while rethinking the way climate research is done. Partnering with the City of Kelowna and Indigenous knowledge holders, her team is laying the groundwork for creating Canada’s first long-term social-ecological research site, part of a global network of more than 800 locations dedicated to sustainability science.
Through data mapping, land use analysis and local engagement, the project will identify where green infrastructure—like trees, shaded spaces and vegetation—can offer the most benefits: cooling hot neighbourhoods, conserving water, reducing wildfire risk and improving community wellbeing.
But for Dr. McHale, an internationally recognized urban ecologist, the work is about more than data. It’s about changing a narrative she believes is holding us back as a society. “Too often, we think of people as bad for nature,” she says. “But we have incredible capacity—we can solve problems, connect ideas and design ecosystems that work even better with us involved.”
That philosophy will shape every stage of the project. “The science matters, but how we do the science matters even more,” says Dr. McHale. “That means listening to communities, amplifying Indigenous leadership and co-creating lasting solutions.”
While building this platform in Canada, the team aspires to create the first international long-term ecological site to centred on Indigenous knowledge, with leadership and priorities set in partnership with local Nations. They are also working with a third-party organization that adds expertise in supporting respectful, long-term engagement between Indigenous communities and researchers.
As Dr. McHale puts it: “By bringing together science, Indigenous leadership and local priorities, we can create solutions that work for people and the planet—not just today, but for generations.”
Engineering safer, stronger homes
Dr. Lisa Tobber is a structural engineer specializing in earthquake engineering—a field that studies how buildings behave during earthquakes and improves design standards to keep people safe.
Her path to academia wasn’t linear. After high school, she worked as a receptionist for a construction company in northern BC Being around engineers sparked her interest, and she realized she wanted to build things that help people. She went on to earn her bachelor’s degree and PhD at UBC while raising two young children, and joined UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering in 2021.
With the support of the $1-million Wall Fellowship, Dr. Tobber is tackling one of BC’s most urgent challenges: creating seismically-safe, climate-resilient, sustainable and affordable housing—especially for midrise buildings of four storeys or more.
While wood construction is common in BC, it is limited by height restrictions. Her project will investigate whether precast concrete construction—a method where large building components are manufactured in a facility, transported to site and then assembled—can provide an additional solution to expand housing options, particularly for midrise buildings.
Precast concrete could make buildings more durable, fire-resistant, faster to build, less wasteful and higher quality through factory production. But, as Dr. Tobber notes, there’s little research on how it performs in earthquake-prone regions like BC.
This research relies on experimental testing. Under Tobber’s leadership, UBC is building the Multi-Axis Subassembly Testing system—the first of its kind in Western Canada. With support from the Wall Fellowship, her team will use it to study how precast concrete buildings perform in earthquakes.
They will also design new systems and create computer models to test performance. The findings could help update Canada’s building code, work Tobber is well placed to support as a member of the National Model Code Committee on Seismic Design.
Her project also integrates Indigenous knowledge into housing design, creating culturally informed solutions and opportunities for Indigenous students and communities. As a Métis person, Tobber finds this work personally fulfilling: “There’s enormous potential to make housing more equitable and resilient—and to ensure the next generation of buildings in BC is ready for the earthquakes we know will come,” she says.
For a full list of Wall Legacy Award recipients and a description of their projects, visit walllegacyawards.ubc.ca/awardees.
