Alex believed in a future where cities would play a vital role in maintaining and rebuilding our natural systems while being thriving, safe, and inspiring places to live. He was Professor of Urban Sustainability Governance and Innovation at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Montreal, and co-founder of ecoHackMTL. Alex was honoured to be a Trudeau Scholar (2007) and could not have achieved such a high level of academic success without the Foundation’s support. He was a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, presenting the results of his research as the keynote speaker at the 2014 Resilient Cities Congress in Bonn, Germany.

Alex’s research continues to impact the work and the people in the organisations of which he was a part, helping practitioners to adopt more effective planning processes and advance toward truly sustainable cities. The largest part of Alex’s academic and professional achievements happened after he was diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer in 2003. He did not allow his disease to limit what he wanted to achieve. He continued his research and was a partner on several initiatives through the spring of 2016. Alex was a creative and generous scholar, a wonderful husband, a great dad and the best of sons. An extraordinary person we were proud to know and to love.

The Dr. Alexander C.E. Aylett Graduate Research Award in Environmental Studies has been created at UBC by friends and family in Alex’s memory. This award will recognize a graduate student in the fields of human geography or environmental geography, whose work focuses on sustainable urban development.

Your gift will honour Alex’s memory and provide invaluable financial support for graduate students who share Alex’s passion for, and commitment to, sustainable urban development. Please join us in making sure his vision is carried on. Thank you.

Congratulations to Caroline Ponder, PhD Geography, winner of the 2016/17 Research Award, Madison Ferrara, winner of the 2017/18 Research Award, Michael Simpson, PhD Geography, winner of the 2018/19 Research Award, Natasha Fox, PhD Geography, winner of the 2019/20 Research Award, and Peter de Montmollin, M.A. Geography, winner of the 2020/21 Research Award.