Contact Information

Department of Geography
University of the Fraser Valley,
33844 King Road,
Abbotsford, B.C. Canada  V2S 7M8

e-mail: olav.lian@ufv.ca
Phone: (1) 604-504-7441 local 4307

Office: 406F (A building)

Biography

I was born in Vancouver and grew up on the North Shore at the fringe of the Coast Mountains. I earned my BSc in physics from Simon Fraser University (SFU) in the late 1980’s. This was followed by a Research Assistant position in the SFU Physics Department. In 1989 I joined the graduate program in SFU’s Geography Department, and completed my MSc degree (physical geography) in 1991; I was then employed as a Sessional Instructor in the same department. In September 1993 I joined the Geology Department (which later became the Department of Earth Sciences) at University of Western Ontario where I completed my PhD (Geology) in 1997. I was then hired by the School of Earth Science at Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) as a Research Fellow in Geology (1997-1999). In the spring of 1999 I resigned from that position and returned to SFU and worked as a Research Associate in the Physics Department until 2002. This was followed by permanent faculty position in the Geography Department (Centre for Quaternary Research) at Royal Holloway, University of London (England). In early 2005 I escaped the high cost of living in southern England and returned to Canada to take up a post as a faculty member in the Geography Department at University College of the Fraser Valley. I currently hold three adjunct professorships: two at SFU – one in Geography, and the other in Earth Sciences, and one in Geography at University of Victoria.

Research Interests and Field areas

My NSERC-funded research includes Quaternary sedimentology and stratigraphy, glacial geology, geomorphology, and geochronology (luminescence dating). I collaborate with physicists, geophysicists, and biologists. I am mainly interested in understanding the character of environmental change in British Columbia over the Quaternary Period (last ~2.5 million years), but I am also working on research projects in the eastern Canadian Arctic and in New Zealand, and I have collaborated on projects in Russia and Indonesia. For more information on my research see my research page and my publications & seminars page.

I am the director of the UFV Luminescence Dating Laboratory, currently the only one of its kind in western Canada.  For further information on this facility, go to Luminescence Dating Research at UFV 

Professional memberships/service

• Fellow of the Geological Association of Canada
• Member of the Canadian Quaternary Association
• Member of the Geological Society of America
• Member of the Quaternary Research Association (United Kingdom)
• Section Editor: Encylopedia of Quaternary Science
• Editorial Board Member: Quaternary Geochronology (2006-2009)
• CANQUA Regional Councillor (West), 2009 - present