Congratulations
The J.N. Desmarais Library is pleased to announce that James Paterson, a second-year M.Sc. Biology student, has been selected as the recipient of the 2011 ESRI Canada Student Scholarship Award. Jame's GIS project focusing on Snapping Turtles is an excellent example of how he is using GIS to pursue his studies in Biology, and that he will use GIS into his career. James is supervised by Dr. Jackie Litzgus. Congratulations James!
Biology graduate student, Fallon M. Kirkey, won the Best Student Poster Award during the 2011 Sudbury Restoration Workshop, Science for a Changing North II. Her poster was entitled "Antagonistic and Additive Responses to Heavy Metals and Drought in Leaves of White Birch (Betula papyrifera)." Fallon is being supervised by Dr. Peter Ryser. Congratulations!
New Book Published
Dr. Mazen Saleh, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology, and several colleagues contributed to a recently-published book entitled "Molecular Aspects of Infectious Diseases," (Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, New York). Dr. Saleh is also the editor of the book.
Drs. Leo Leduc (Professor, Department of Biology), Garry Ferroni (cross-appointed in Biology from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine), Robert Lafrenie (cross-appointed in Biology from the Northeastern Regional Cancer Centre),and Nadia Mykytczuk (Ph.D. in Boreal Ecology, 2009), as well as Johanna Delongchamp (M.Sc., 2011) all contributed to various sections of the book.
For more information, please visit the publisher's web site.
NSERC-CRD grant awarded
Drs. Kabwe Nkongolo (Professor) and Peter Beckett (Associate Professor) were recently awarded a Canada National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) - Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) Grant grant in the area of molecular monitoring of land reclamation. The grant is $350,000 for 4 years.
Theses Defended
Congratulations to the following graduate students who successfully defended their theses:
Phil Evans (M.Sc., January 21) - Biological aspects of aging: Organ measures, neurohistology, and the predictive value of mild brain injury (Supervised by Dr. Michael Persinger)
Robert Harniman (M.Sc., February 1) - Genetic divergence of the African cyprinid Barbus neumayeri across oxygen regimes (Supervised by Dr. Mery Martinez and Dr. Thomas Merritt)
Kelly Major (M.Sc., February 22) - Regeneration ecology of the alien tree species Quercus rubra L. (northern red oak) in south-western Germany (Supervised by Dr. Peter Nosko and Dr. Daniel Campbell)
Linda St-Pierre (Ph.D., February 22) - Singular and brief exposures to pharmacological and electrommagnrtic stimuli during periods of heterostasis in Rattus norvegicus produces long-term changes in obesity and mortality
Linda St-Pierre is the last candidate from Laurentian and Guelph Universities' co-operative Biology Ph.D. Program. She successfully defended her dissertation (in Guelph). Her committee members included Dr. M.A. Persinger (co-supervisor), Dr. Glenn Parker, Dr. G.J. Van Der Kraak (co-supervisor), and Dr. G. Bubenik. The Departmental examiner was Dr. F. Laberge. The External Examiner, Dr. Steven Schachter from Harvard University and Editor of the journal Epilepsy and Behavior, was also present.
Johanna Delongchamp (M.Sc., February 25) - Cloning, purification and characterization of a Mycobacterium tuberculosis laccase (Co-supervised by Dr. Mazen Saleh and Dr. Garry Ferroni)
Seminars
Graduate Student Symposium February 15 & 16, 2011
Congratulations to the following Biology graduate students who were winners during the Graduate Student Symposium held February 15 and 16:
Oral Presentations
2nd place - Miles Yuanmeng Zhang - Two roses, one gall: the implication of a gall was shifting hosts
3rd place - James Patterson - Picky generalists? Habitat selection in a northeastern population of snapping turtles
Honorable mentions
Sheetal Pundir - 100 different ways to kill: mode of action of novel anticancer agents
Ashley Stasco - The role of water quality in structuring walleye and smallmouth bass populations
Darryl Edwards - Genome size and phenotype
Posters
3rd place - Nayana de Silva - Influence of heavy metals and drought on morphology and anatomy in red maple
Ontario Biology Day 2011
Fourth-year Honour's students from the Department of Biology participated in the 24-th Biology Day held March 12-13 at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.
Ontario Biology Day is an annual meeting where 4th-year Honour's undergraduate students from Ontario universities present the results of their research projects. It provides a great opportunity for biology students to meet students from other schools and to identify potential supervisors for graduate work. The meetings are hosted and organized on a rotating basis by a number of Ontario Universities.
The names of the student presenters and abstracts of their presentations are available here (PDF).
The Biology students that participated this year are shown in the photo below.
Left to right: Jacey-Anne Jackson, Rashmi Narendula, Melanie Chown, Maxine Myre, Julie Tessier, Natacha Montpellier, Kristen Ethier, Michael Shebeski, Anna Li, and Derek Chung in front. Not attending were Darcy Campbell, Darlene Skinner, Lynne Racette, and Olivia Lobban.
Department of Biology Seminar Series
March 4 - Dr. Dennis L. Murray (Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair in Terrestrial Ecology, Department of Biology, Trent University) - New World Canids: Confusion, Controversy, and Conservation
March 30 - Dr. Howard Riessen (Department of Biology, SUNY - Buffalo State College, Buffalo, New York) - Calcium Kairomones, and Growth of Cladocera
Publications
Alarie, Y., Short, A., M. Garcia, and L. Joly. 2011. Larval morphology of Meruidae and its phylogenetic implications (Coleoptera: Hydradephaga). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 104(1): 25-36.
Schulte-Hostedde, A.I., and S.C. Elsasser. 2011. Spleen mass, parasite load and body condition in male American mink. Journal of Mammalogy 92: 221-226.