Congratulations
Dr. Yves Alarie has been elected Councilor of the Coleopterists Society for 2010-2011. The Coleopterists Society is an international society devoted to the study of beetles, which includes more than 800 members.
Dr. Joe Shorthouse was appointed President of the Biological Survey of Canada Corporation for a period of two years at a meeting of the Board of Directors on November 25, 2009. Based at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa for about 32 years, the Biological Survey of Canada is a not-for-profit organization that coordinates a network of scientists who discover, synthesize, and share knowledge in Canada’s biodiversity. The Survey has produced 13 major books, and numerous briefs, papers, newsletters, and symposia on Canada’s entomological fauna. The Survey recently completed a book on the arthropods of Canada’s grasslands. The current major project of the Survey is a comprehensive northern biodiversity assessment to survey and document the distribution, biodiversity and changes in the entomological fauna in the boreal, subarctic and arctic zones over the past 50 years.
2009 ESRI Canada Student Scholarship Award
Congratulations to Michelle Martin, winner of the 2009 ESRI Canada Student Scholarship Award.
Michelle is in her second year of a master’s of science in biology (co-supervised by Drs Hamr and Litzgus). Her submission is based on an advanced GIS analysis done for her thesis entitled: "Spatial behaviour and habitat use by Elk (Cervus elaphus) in response to highway construction and interprovincial relocation." This is a long-term study (11 years) which shows interesting trends over time relevant to a Canadian species that has been struggling for some time.
Overall, Michelle demonstrated a strong engagement in GIS research as it relates to the field of wildlife conservation and management.
2009 Bursary Award in honour of Mr. Allan Epps
Congratulations to Simon Chewchuk, the 2009 recipient of the Allan Epps Bursary Award. This award is named in honour of Mr. Allan Epps in recognition of his commitment and leadership to the Northern Cancer Research Foundation.
The Northern Cancer Reseach Foundation offers this bursary to students registered at an Ontario university in a Master's or Ph.D. program relevant to cancer research and on placement in the Regional Cancer Program in Sudbury.
Simon is a graduate student in the Masters Program in Biology. His research entails the study of drug resistance in breast cancer, under the supervision of Dr. A. Parissenti.
Theses defended
Congratulations to the following graduate students who successfully defended their theses:
Dominique Ansell (M.Sc., November 13) - Regulation of chatecholamine biosynthetic enzymes by nitric oxide (Supervised by Dr. T.C. Tai)
Jana Bélanger (M.Sc., November 27) - Antimicrobial activity of naturally-occurring substances against select microorganisms (Supervised by Drs. L. Leduc and G. Ferroni)
Nadia Mykytczuk (Ph.D., December 3) - Adaptation of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans to the extreme acid mine drainage environment (Co-supervised by Drs. L. Leduc, G. Ferroni, and J. Trevors)
Hsia-Pai Wu (M.Sc., December 11) - The effects of near-infrared radiation on cells and organisms: empirical tests and theoretical support (Supervised by Dr. M. Persinger)
Seminars presented
Department of Biology Seminar Series
November 6 - Beren Robinson (University of Guelph) - The complex role of the environment in the origin and evolution of novel traits (Invited by Dr. J. Litzgus)
November 13 - Michael Persinger (Neuroscience program, Laurentian University) - The importance of geomagnetic activity and Earth-Ionospheric cavity changes for biological and ecological systems (Invited by Dr Peter Ryser)
November 20 - David Green (Redath Museum, McGill University, Montreal) - Amphibian ecology and population declines in Canada (Invited by Dr. J. Litzgus)
November 27 - Hoyun Lee (Senior Career Scientist, Regional Cancer Program, Sudbury Regional Hospital) - Asymmetric bidirectional DNA replication in mammalian cells; Is it a rule or exception? (Co-sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Department of Biology; hosted by Dr Peter Ryser)
December 2 - Susan Twine (Institute for Biological Studies, National Research Council Canada) - Never take candy from a stranger - glycoproteins of C. difficile (Invited by Ms. N. Mykytczuk)
December 4 - Doug Gould (ReMining and Mineral Sciences Laboratory, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa) - 57FE as a tracer of bacterially-mediated iron mobilization in lake sediment (Invited by Dr. L. Leduc)
Conférence-midi with Daniel Campbell
L’ACFAS - Sudbury and l’Institut franco-ontarien (IFO) presented a lecture by Daniel Campbell entitled: The story of a vast peatland, a diamond mine and the restoration of ecosystems.
The Hudson Bay Lowland is poorly known by most Canadians, even by Northern Ontarians. In 2008, De Beers Canada began production at the Victor diamond mine in this subarctic region. It is an open pit mine and the first in the region, but it is only one of the reasons for our increasing interest in this vast ecosystem.
Daniel Campbell spoke on the natural history of the Hudson Bay Lowland, the Victor diamond mine and our efforts to develop protocols to rehabilitate disturbed peatlands and reclaim uplands formed by the mine.
The lecture was held on Thursday, November 19, 2009. It was open to the public and was given in French.
Publications
Bennett, A.M., M. Keevil, and J.D. Litzgus. 2009. Demographic differences among populations of Northern Map Turtles (Graptemys geographica) in intact and fragmented sites. Canadian Journal of Zoology 87: 1147-1157.
Enneson, J.J. and J.D. Litzgus. 2009. Stochastic and spatially explicit population viability analyses for an endangered freshwater turtle, Clemmys guttata. Canadian Journal of Zoology 87: 1241-1254.
Fairn, E., Alarie, Y. and A. Schulte-Hostedde. 2009. Temporal variation of adult sex ratio in the whirligig beetle Dineutus nigrior Roberts (Coleoptera:Gyrinidae). The Coleopterists Bulletin 63(3): 298-300.
Alarie, Y., Michat, M.C., Nilsson, A.N., Archangelsky, M. and L. Hendrich 2009. Larval morphology of Rhantus Dejean (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae: Colymbetinae): descriptions of 21 species and phylogenetic considerations. Zootaxa 2317: 1-102.
Alarie, Y., Michat, M.C. and C.H.S. Watts. 2009. Larval morphology of Paroster Sharp, 1882 (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae: Hydroporinae): reinforcement of the hypothesis of monophyletic origin and discussion of phenotypic accommodations to a subterranean environment. Zootaxa 2274: 1-44.