Lian, Olav B.

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 in the late 1980s. 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 (later, the Department of Earth Sciences) at the 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 a permanent faculty position in the Geography Department, Centre for Quaternary Research, at Royal Holloway, University of London.

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 UFV. I currently hold adjunct professorships in the departments of Geography and Earth Sciences at SFU, and in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria.