Dr. Ira Tanya Handa holds a B.Sc. (1996) in biology from McGill University, a M.Sc. in botany from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. (2006) in plant ecology from the University of Basel (Switzerland). Following a post-doctoral fellowship (2007–2010) at the Center of Functional Ecology and Evolution (CEFE-CNRS) in Montpellier (France), she joined Université du Québec à Montréal as a Professor (August 2010). Broadly, her research interests are linked to the desire to understand the consequences of global change on ecosystem processes. She is interested in how changes such as rising atmospheric CO2 or urbanization affect tree growth, as well as how changes in biodiversity influence litter decomposition and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems.