Congratulations
Congratulations to the following Biology students and their supervisors, who received a Sudbury '95 Scholarship. The scholarship provides $5000 to the student and $2000 to the supervisor to support the research of that student.
- Nadia Mykytczuk (Ph.D. candidate in Boreal Ecology), supervisor Dr. Leo Leduc
- Katherine Garrah (M.Sc. student), supervisor Dr. Daniel Campbell
Congratulations also to the the following recipients of the Department of Biology 2009 Scholarships and Bursaries. Well done, everyone!
Dan-Yi Yang, a Ph.D. student in Boreal Ecology under the supervision of Dr. N. Belzile, has been awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) for 2009-10. Well done!
Historic event - the first Ph.D. graduate of the Boreal Ecology Program !
Dr. David Kreutzweiser is the Department's first Ph.D. graduate (2009) of the Boreal Ecology program! Dr. Kreutzweiser’s Ph.D. research involved a series of large-scale experiments to study the environmental impacts and possible benefits of partial-harvest logging in areas along boreal forest streams. His work will contribute to the development of alternative forest management strategies for Boreal regions of Ontario.
Dr. Kreutzweiser obtained his master’s degree in freshwater ecology from Laurentian in 1996. He later decided to pursue his studies, and was happy to have the opportunity to participate in the new Boreal Ecology Ph.D. program at Laurentian University. He currently is a research scientist at the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) in Sault Ste. Marie.
Theses defended
Congratulations to the following graduate students who successfully defended their theses:
Neville Hewage (M.Sc. - March 12) - Enzyme-based detection and differentiation of Escherichia coli and total coliforms in drinking water (Supervised by Dr. M. Saleh)
David Kreutzweiser (Ph.D. - March 26 -The Department of Biology's first Ph.D. graduate in the Boreal Ecology program!) - Environmental effects of partial-harvest logging in riparian reserves of Boreal Shield streams (Supervised by Dr. J. Gunn)
Seminars presented
March 6 - Brandon Schamp (Algoma University, Sault Ste. Marie, ON) - Competition and the assembly of plant communities (Invited by Dr. A. Schulte-Hostedde)
March 12 - Mamdouh Abou-Zaid (Canadian Forest Service, Great Lakes forestry Centre, Natural Resources Canada) - Bioprospecting (Invited by Dr. M. Saleh)
March 13 - Matthew Pickard (Manager of Sustainable Development Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation Toronto, ON) - The challenges of mine development on North Baffin (Invited by Drs G. Courtin and R. Dirszowsky)
March 20 - Damien D'Amours ((L'ACFAS speaker) (Faculty of Medicine, Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC) - Playing polo with chromosomes: Mitotic regulation of chromosome condensation (Invited by Dr. M. Martínez)
March 27 - Shane de Solla (Wildlife Biologist, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, Burlington, ON) - Exposure and effects of pesticides on turtles (Invited by Dr. J. Litzgus)
BIOL 5056 Research Seminars April 2-3, 2009
4th-Year Research Thesis Defences (BIOL 4035 E/F) - April 6
Dr. D. Lesbarrères, Course coordinator
As this year’s Research & Seminar course (BIOL 4035) comes to an end, I would like to congratulate all of the students for the effort and dedication invested into their research projects. I have always believed that working on a 4th-year research project and defending the results in front of one’s peers is the “icing-on-the-cake” of a B.Sc. degree. I know all are proud of their achievements. Their experience in research over the last two terms has been rewarding and enjoyable. For most of them it was their first experience with research but likely not the last one. One of the students told me afterwards that although they fear the questions, they are so proud when they can answer them and show how much understanding they have on their project.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of the professors from the Department of Biology, the Biochemistry & Chemistry Department, the NOSM and the Cancer Research Centre for supervising these students, as well as Diane Mayer and the Graduate students who helped me during our mini-symposium.
Congratulations to the recipients of the best presentations : Matt Piche (Molecular Biology, also rewarded at Ontario Biology Day) and Kevin Little (Ecology and Evolution).
See you next year!
Schedule of presentations
Ecology & Evolution - session I (Chair: Hélène Filion)
8:00 - 8:20 D. Lesbarrères - Comments on program and procedures / Présentation de la journée
8:20 - 8:40 K.-A. Ward - Visual and olfactory determinates of female mate choice in the eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus)
8:40 - 9:00 C. Andrews - Reproductive success in relation to baculum size in muskrats
9:00 - 9:20 S. Fortin-Ukrainetz - Assessing habitat suitability for terrestrial mesocarnivores
9:20 - 9:40 H. Black - The Effects of Body Mass and Temperature on the Standard Metabolic Rate of Three Species of Colubrid Snakes
9:40 - 10:00 J. Quinn - Effect of Acidification on Benthic Invertebrates
10:00 - 10:30 **COFFEE BREAK / PAUSE-CAFÉ**
Ecology & Evolution - session II (Chair: Andrée-M. D'Aoust-Messier)
10:30 - 10:50 K. Little - Factors Affecting Virulence of Frog Virus 3 on Northern Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens) Tadpoles
10:50 - 11:10 K. Hackett - The Effects of Predation on the Reproductive Ecology of Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens)
11:10 - 11:30 M. Levesque - Metabolic responses to stress in the fathead minnow Pimephales promelas
11:30 - 11:50 A. Gervais - Faunistic Analysis of the Hydradephaga of New Caledonia (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae, Gyrinidae, Noteridae)
11:50 - 12:10 T. Walsh - Species or not species: that is the question
12:10 - 1:30pm **LUNCH / DÉJEUNER**
Ecology & Evolution - session III (Chair: Krista Gooderham)
1:30 - 1:50 M. Kotipelto - Le régime alimentaire du carcajou (Gulo gulo) au Yukon
1:50 - 2:10 J. Bradley - The natural regeneration of peatlands damaged by winter roads in the Hudson Bay Lowlands
2:10 - 2:30 A. Dukes - Insect Herbivory on Northern Wetland Grasses and Sedges
2:30 - 2:50 A. Canapini and S. Smith - Uptake of nutrients and metals in Brassica napus on an organic residual cover on goldmine tailings
2:50 - 3:10 M.E. Shain - Effects of Nitrogen and Phosphorous Nutrition on the Timing of Leaf Senescence
3:10 - 3:30 M. Talarico - Dendrochronology and Baseline Characterization of Picea mariana at the DeBeers Canada Victor Mine near Attawapiskat, Ontario
Molecular Biology & Microbiology - session I (Chair: Thomas Lum)
8:20 - 8:40 W. Yates - Characterization of Secreted and Membrane Bound Enzymes of Salmonella enterica
8:40 - 9:00 S. Evans - Characterization of Cyanobacteria and their Toxins from Sudbury Area Lakes
9:00 - 9:20 J, Matthews - Metal Tolerance in White Birch (Betula papyrifera) and Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
9:20 - 9:40 J. Labelle and F. Pearson - Market Basket Survey of Vegetables Grown in the Sudbury Area
9:40 - 10:00 J. Charette - Nuclear Localization of STAT1 and STAT3 transcription factors in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells
10:00 - 10:30 **COFFEE BREAK / PAUSE-CAFÉ**
Molecular Biology & Microbiology - session II (Chair: Camille Roussel)
10:30 - 10:50 J. Vargas - Sensitivity of ovarian cancer cells to carboplatin: Role of Aldo-Keto Reductase expression
10:50 - 11:10 T. Peart - The Interaction of NADP-reducing enzymes in starved and dessicated Drosophila melanogaster
11:10 - 11:30 J. Dickieson - Regulation of Catecholamine Biosynthetic Enzyme Phenylethanolamine-N methyltransferase by Nitric Oxide
11:30 - 11:50 M. Piche - Protective effects of polyphenolic compounds on oxidative stress-induced apoptosis and mitochondrial membrane potential in PC12 cells
11:50 - 12:10 J. Grandbois - Isolation and identification of acidophilic bacteria from a boreal mine site
3:35 AWARDS & CLOSING REMARKS / REMISE DES PRIX ET CLÔTURE
Events
Information session for first-year Biology students
On March 18, an information session for first-year Biology students in English was held in the Arboretum pavilion. An equivalent session in French took place on March 25. This was the first time such an occasion has been organized in this Department and it was attended by 40 or more first-year students.
The professors who attended this event were asked a lot of questions. There very obviously is a need for more information for the first-year students. Many of them do not really know what lies ahead, despite all the information on the internet. Dr Peter Ryser mentioned that there is at least one case where the information provided during this session prevented a first-year student from leaving Laurentian for another University - now she will just switch Biology options. That is one of the 1000 new/retained students the University needs to keep for its sustainability plan. We will definitely continue organizing such information events.
Dr Peter Ryser, Biology Chair, would like to thank the students of the BioSoc who suggested organizing this event and were there providing the first-year students information from advanced students' points of view, Lorraine Brosseau and Jackie Litzgus for enthusiastically taking care of the organization of the event, and all the advisors and other professors present who attended and answered the students' questions.
Publications
Kidd, A.G., J. Bowman, D. Lesbarrères, A.I. Schulte-Hostedde. 2009. Hybridization between escaped domestic and wild American mink (Neovison vison). Molecular Ecology 18: 1175-1186.
Bonanno, V.L., and A.I. Schulte-Hostedde. 2009. Sperm competition and ejaculate investment in red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 63: 835-846.
Parker, Glenn H., and Chris G. Blomme. 2007. Fish-line entanglement of nesting Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura. Canadian Field-Naturalist 121: 436-437.