Congratulations
Congratulations to Bryce Mulligan, student in the Biology M.Sc. program, for obtaining the COSPAR (Commitee on Space Research) Outstanding Paper Award for Young Scientists by being the first author of the paper "Effects of geomagnetic activity and atmospheric power variations on quantitative measures of brain activity: Replication of the Azerbaijani studies," published in Advances in Space Research (2010, 45: 940-948).
Dr. John Gunn has been appointed Director of the Vale Living with Lakes for a period of three years effective July 1, 2010. Dr Gunn, a Biology professor, is a renowned environmental scientist who has worked in the Sudbury area for more than 30 years addressing research topics related to acidification, fisheries management, climate change, trace contaminants, land use impacts and other factors that affect our northern waters. He is best known for his research work on restoration and recovery processes in damaged ecosystems, but has also been very active in community outreach work directed at improving environmental conditions in the city and region. He completed his graduate studies at Ottawa and Guelph Universities and worked as a aquatic research scientist for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources for 27 years. It was as an MNR scientist that he came to Laurentian in 1989 to help establish the Cooperative Freshwater Ecology Unit (Co-op Unit) as a research partnership of OMNR, OMOE and LU. He joined Laurentian University as the Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Stressed Aquatic Systems in 2003 (and currently still holds that postion) and has maintained an active NSERC funded research and graduate student training program while still committing much of his time leading the development and fund-raising efforts for the construction of the Vale Living with Lakes Centre as a new home for the Co-op Unit research team. Congratulations!
Theses defended
Congratulations to the following graduate students who successfully defended their theses:
Jennifer-Babin Fenske (Ph.D., 29 July) - Stress-mediated relationships between insects and forests: Empirical and modelling studies (Co-supervised by Drs. Madhur Anand and Yves Alarie)
Jennifer Babin-Fenske (3rd from right in blue) poses with several members of her
examining committee. From left: Dr. Céline Boudreau-Larivière, Dr. Joe Shorthouse,
Dr. Madhur Anand, Jennifer, Dr. Yves Alarie (hiding!), and Dr. Charles Ramcharan.
Jolene Laverty (M.Sc., 27 August) - Measuring the effects of water-based recreation on turtle populations in an Ontario park (Supervised by Dr. Jacqueline Litzgus)
Mathew Hunter (M.Sc., 31 August) - Utilizing the canonical correlation analysis to discern neuronal networks in theoretical models and applied experimental paradigms (Supervised by Dr. Michael Persinger)
Events
BIObus visits Laurentian University
As part of the Department of Biology celebrations for the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity, we had a visit in early June by the University of Guelph BIObus.
Biodiversity Institute of Ontario field technician and photographer Jay Cossey, second from the right, along with three University of Guelph biology students, stopped in Sudbury to sample insects for a project aimed at obtaining a DNA barcode for all the insects of Canada. (photo by Dr. Joe Shorthouse)
A specially equipped RV is the mobile field research vehicle of the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, located at the University of Guelph. The vehicle carries researchers across Canada to collect insects and other invertebrates which are returned to Guelph where a tissue sample is analyzed to recover its DNA barcode. A DNA barcode is a unique genetic signature that occurs naturally within the genome of all living species. By reading a short piece of DNA from a tiny tissue sample, scientists can determine to which species the animal, plant or microorganism belongs. Eventually, a database will hold a barcode sequence for every species on the planet. The first step in this process is for researchers to obtain specimens of all species and this is the reason the BIObus stopped in Sudbury on June 7 and 8, on its way to British Columbia. Not only are insects from the Sudbury area of value to the University of Guelph project, data obtained here will be helpful to a BioBlitz underway on campus which is designed to assess all the species found in Sudbury’s unique Birch Transition Zone forests.
BioBlitz
The public was invited to participate in a campus BioBlitz on Saturday, June 19. This event was organized by Dr. Joe Shorthouse in order to celebrate the international year of Biodiversity, and to support the City of Greater Sudbury's Biodiversity Action Plan. A poster, designed by campus media people under the direction of 'Chief of Staff'' Chris Mercer and outlining the event, is shown below.
The BioBlitz event was a success with numerous participants. Dr. Ryser thanked the numerous faculty members, technologists and students who helped to inform the participants on the field trip, and to put together a nice exhibition for the open house in our first-year lab. Many people now know more about the biota in Sudbury, and who knows, maybe one or two of the younger participants got the "bug" and starts studying biology in a few years!
Publications
St. Amour, V., T.W.J. Garner, A.I. Schulte-Hostedde, and D. Lesbarrères. 2010. Developmental instability in relation to two amphibian pathogens in the green frog (Rana clamitans). Conservation Biology 4: 788-794.
Balke, M., Wewalka, G., Alarie, Y. and Ribera, I. 2010. Dytiscidae: the genus Rhantus Dejean. In Water Beetles of New Caledonia, 129-148. Jach & Balke (eds.) Koleopterologische Rundschau 459 pp.
Alarie, Y. and Longing, S. 2010. Description of the larvae of Heterosternuta sulphurius (Matta and Wolfe) with a key of identification of the known species of Heterosternuta Strand. The Coleopterists Bulletin 64: 85-90.