Dr. Yousry El-Kassaby, RES-FOR Project Co-Lead

Associate Dean, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, Faculty of Forestry

Dr. Yousry El-Kassaby and his reesarch group are investigating the use of various applied forest genetics techniques on a variety of tree species. Population and quantitative genetics, breeding theory, reproductive biology and ecology, seed and seedling production, GIS, and biotechnology techniques and genomics tools. All of these approaches can help forest geneticists supply our forests with improved seedlings that will grow a superior forest. Dr. Yousry El-Kassaby and his group at the UBC Faculty of Forestry are investigating the use of such applied forest genetics techniques on a variety of tree species. Yousry is Head of the Department of Forest Resources Management at UBC, and the holder an NSERC Industry Senior Research Chair (IRC) in Applied Forest Genetics and Biotechnology. Yousry graduated with a PhD from UBC and has returned here with over 20 years of extensive research and applied forest industry/biotechnology start-up experience under his belt. Yousry’s research focuses on forest tree improvement delivery systems and the use of modern biotechnology and genomics tools to increase their efficiency and effectiveness. He collaborates extensively with BC Ministry of Forests and Range scientists, forest industry practitioners and forest genetics researchers nationally and internationally. Yousry is the IUFRO Biotechnology TaskForce co-coordinator and serves as an associate editor for Forest Genetics and Canadian Journal of Forest Research.

Dr. El-Kassaby's Current and Former Team Members:

Dr. Shuzhen Sun, RES-FOR Postdoctoral Fellow - May 2017 to Present
Dr. Eduardo Pablo Cappa, RES-FOR Research Associate - January 2019 to Present
Dr. Blaise Ratcliffe, RES-FOR Postdoctoral Fellow - April 2019 to Present
Blaise Ratcliffe, RES-FOR PhD Student - January 2017 to March 2019