Mickey Chen

Mickey Chen

Title/Position
PhD Candidate
Dr. Trevor Porter, supervisor

Research and Professional Interests

I am interested in understanding the feedback cycle between wildfire regimes (e.g., paleofires) and vegetation during a period of rapid climate warming in the Pleistocene-Holocene transition period approximately 18,000 years ago. 

My work is focused on the Alaska-Yukon region (collectively referred to as Eastern Beringia), which was unglaciated during the last ice age. On this unglaciated landscape, Late Quaternary megafauna fed on a nutrient rich steppe-like biome until its gradual replacement by advancing boreal forests. It is possible that wildfire, acting as an agent of climate warming, played an important role in the replacement of ancient steppe with boreal forests. Understanding the cascading effects of re-vegetation in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions during the last major warming event will be critical to better evaluate future environmental trends, which can impact weather patterns and alter the viability of human habitation in various communities around the globe.

Honours and Awards

  • NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship - Doctoral
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship
  • Queen Elizabeth II/William G. Dean Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology
Education
PhD Student - University of Toronto
MSc. in Archaeological Science - University of Oxford
BSc. Honours in Chemistry - Queen’s University

Publications

  • Chen, M.H.Y., Kendall, I.R., Evershed, R., Bogaard, A., Styring, A.K., 2023, Reconstructing herbivore diets: a multivariate statistical approach to interpreting compound specific isotope values, Oecologia, 201, 599-608.
  • Zhang, Z., Chen, M., Alem, S., Tao Y., Chu T-Y., Xiao G., Ramful, C., 2022, Printed flexible capacitive humidity sensors for field application, Sensors Actuators B: Chemical, 359, 131620.
  • Miron, C.E., Chen, M., Mergny, J., Petitjean, A.., 2022, Portrait of a Family of Highly Stabilizing and Selective Guanine Quadruplex Platinum(II)-Based Binders, Chemistry- A European Journal, 28, e202103839.
  • Miron, C.E., van Staalduinen, L., Rangaswampy, A.M., Chen, M., Liang, Y., Jia, Z., Mergny, J., Petitjean, A.., 2021, Going Platinum to the Tune of a Record-high Affinity Guanine Quadruplex Binder: Solution- and Solid-State Investigations, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 60, 2500-2587.

Research

Research Supervisor / Mentor
Dr. Trevor Porter