In Memory of Maya Bhatia

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Maya Pilar Bhatia, just 44, lost her life during a tragic accident while conducting field research on a glacier in the High Arctic near Aujuittuq (Grise Fiord), Nunavut on August 16. Maya was a joyful, vivacious, and deeply caring person who lit up every room she walked into—in Ottawa, Manila, and Virginia as a child, in Kingston, Edmonton, Oxford, Massachusetts, and Vancouver as a young adult, and most recently on Bowen Island and once again in Edmonton. She will be profoundly missed and forever loved by her family in Canada, the Philippines, India, and the United Kingdom, as well as many cherished friends, colleagues, and students.

Maya laughed, loved, accomplished, and experienced more in her 44 years than most people do in an entire lifetime. At the time of her death, she was a tenured professor at the University of Alberta, holding the Campus Alberta Innovates Program (CAIP) Chair in Watershed Science in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. It was a reflection of her soul, and of her values, that she used her capacious mind and tireless work ethic to understand the impacts of climate change on glacial melting and the marine environment, an area of research with tremendous consequences for so many lives in the decades to come.

While Maya touched so many people in her life, she always maintained an unbounded, sacred space for her family and chosen family. Maya met her husband Ben doing field work on the ice in Greenland in 2008, and they soon fell in love. They married a few years later, then welcomed a son, Rowan, and daughter, Fiona. Ben, Rowan, and Fiona shared a full life with Maya—often exploring the wilderness together, marveling at the natural world—and they felt the warmth of her love always. Her passing is profound and painful.

During her time as an arctic climate researcher, Maya forged a deep and lasting connection with the people of Aujuittuq in Nunavut. Maya deeply loved and was loved by the community. In lieu of flowers, Maya’s friends have set up this GoFundMe to hopefully cover the costs of sending Ben, Rowan (8), and Fiona (7) to Aujuittuq to mourn her death.