Thomas Fox Email & Phone Number

Calgary, Ab, Ca

Calgary, Ab, Ca

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

I work with industry, government, and innovators around the world, leveraging data and knowledge to optimize GHG emissions management. Currently, our work focuses on reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. Highwood’s mission is to innovate, collaborate, and educate the path to a world with effective and affordable emissions management solutions.My role as Highwood’s President is to work with:• Oil and gas producers to develop long-term, holistic emissions reduction strategies that include baseline assessments, abatement plans, leak detection and repair programs, top-down and bottom-up reconciliation, reporting, dissemination, dynamic learning, and predictive maintenance.• Technology innovators and solution providers to design, evaluate, and deploy their product or solution. We combine industry experience and simulation to accelerate commercialization trajectories, identify and overcome barriers to success, understand global product-market fit, plan and implement pilot programs, access new markets, and manage the logistics of moving to the oilfield.• Regulators, policymakers, industry associations, financial institutions, and research institutions to deliver on a broad range of programs related to emissions reductions, including policy development, policy evaluation, tracking emissions reductions, compliance strategies, applied research, reporting, investment strategies, and recommended practices.

Calgary, Canada Area

This position focuses on evaluating technologies for methane leak detection and repair in the upstream oil and gas sector. My work seeks to find faster and cheaper ways of locating and quantifying fugitive emissions, which will ultimately lead to reduced GHG emissions, cleaner air, and product loss prevention for producers. I also work to understand and improve methane-sensing platform integration and methane mitigation policy.My primary projects are (1) Leading the development of LDAR-Sim, a modeling framework for evaluating alternative LDAR programs, and (2) Leading an international group of scientists, industry groups, regulators, and technology companies in developing the world's first emissions reduction equivalence framework for emerging technologies.https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab0cc3https://www.elementascience.org/articles/10.1525/elementa.369/

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Teaching assistant for:Geog 607 (GIS Basics and Beyond) - 2016Geog 439 (Quantitative Methods in Geography II) - 2018Geog 639 (Advanced Spatial Analysis and Modeling) - 2018 and 2020Guest lecturer in Geog 205 (2017) and Geog 439 (2018)

Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Working to understand the effects of fog events on glacier radiation balance at McCall Glacier. We presented the first systematic analysis of the influence of fog on surface energy balance components of McCall Glacier, Brooks Range, Alaska, where fog is partly advected from the Beaufort Sea and partly moisture-sourced over the Alaska North Slope. Our results show that fog can both reduce and enhance the main surface energy balance components, but that the net effect is likely a reduction in energy for melt.

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

My work at McGill focused on understanding land-use change trajectories in India. I used high-resolution satellite remote sensing and semi-structured interviews with farmers and politicians to reveal changing agricultural land-use practices. We show a move away from agricultural activity in homegardens, but conclude that these ecologically and culturally important systems are not disappearing, but rather evolving to meet the needs of a less agricultural Kerala. Our research highlights the value of using mixed methods for characterizing land-use and land-cover histories in tropical regions.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880917301950

Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Using historical weather data to quantify long-term trends in dust emission rates across the Canadian Prairies. The research looked at the frequency of airborne dust between 1961 and 2006 from seven weather stations and correlated the data to changes in farm management, such as the increase in direct seeding and reduction of summer fallow.https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/7/1/014008https://www.fmc-gac.com/risk-management/direct-seeding-an-environmental-success-story/

A study of the historical effects of bison herds on ecological heterogeneity in Canadian sandhill regions. Present information to suggest that bison were attracted to sandhills for a number of reasons, and that in great numbers they had considerable influence on sandhills ecosystem functions. Behaviours such as grazing, trailing, wallowing, horning, and trampling created a patchwork mosaic of disturbance effects. We hypothesize that it may be beneficial to reintroduce bison to sandhills ecosystems in the Canadian prairies to restore biodiversity at all levels.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-012-0255-9

Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

We sought to determine whether wild, free-living rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) learning a single reward location within a rectangular array of flowers would employ both nearby visual landmarks and the geometric relationships of the array. The hummingbirds showed no evidence that they used the geometry of the rectangular array of flowers to remember the reward. Rather, they used our experimental landmarks, and possibly nearby, natural landmarks, to orient and navigate to the reward.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10071-014-0748-x

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.) And Vanier Scholar, Geography, 4.00

Evaluating current and emerging technologies for monitoring methane emissions in upstream oil and gas.

Master’S Degree, Geography, 4.00

Combining remote sensing, human geography and ecology to develop a better understanding of agricultural land use practices in Kerala, India.

Bachelor’S Degree, Environmental Science, 4.00

B.Sc. Environmental Science with honours thesis and great distinction (4.00/4.00 GPA). Awarded 2011 Arts and Science Gold Medal.