Dr. Brad Bass: Program Officer

In his 31 years with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Dr. Brad Bass has worn many hats. His focus areas have included climate change, green infrastructure, the economic valuation of algal blooms and optimizing regional energy supply. While the topics have changed, his goal has stayed the same: analyzing and understanding complexities and using this information to solve environmental issues.

His work has garnered praise and awards such as the Green Roof for Healthy Cities Lifetime Achievement Award for Green Infrastructure Research. He, along with thousands of other experts across the world, also contributed research to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), resulting in a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Throughout his career, Brad has seen his contributions make significant impacts. For example, his work on climate change has led to the acceptance of statistical downscaling for presenting scenarios. This means that model outputs can be adjusted to provide more locally relevant projections of long-term climate patterns.

His efforts in green infrastructure have led to its growth, meaning that more natural vegetative systems and green technologies provide society with economic, environmental and social benefits.

While Brad is often focused on the next problem to solve, he makes time to reflect on the collective accomplishments of ECCC employees over the years. “I often realize the enormous value of our work. It just smacks me in the face and I stop and say, ‘Wow’.”

To learn more about Brad’s work, visit Harmful Algae, in which his most recent work, “Estimating the economic costs of algal blooms in the Canadian Lake Erie Basin,” was published.

Here are a few random facts about Brad:

• What was your first job? Assembling testing devices for electricians.
• If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be? Italy.
• What is your favourite game or sport to watch and play? Favourite sport to watch is hockey. Favourite game to play is Monopoly.
• Would you rather ride a bike, ride a horse, or drive a car? Ride a bike.
• If you could go back in time, what year would you travel to? 1971.
• What is your favourite flavour of ice cream? Any of the coffee flavours.
• What form of public transportation do you prefer? (air, boat, train, bus, car, etc.) Train.
• Summer or winter? Summer.
• If you could share a meal with anyone, living or dead, who would it be? Ludwig Wittgenstein.
• What's your favourite fast food? A&W.