This article is part of a monthly series celebrating research breakthroughs and successes at Brock University over the past 60 years. To read other stories in the series, visit The Brock News.

It was the lifeless amphipods that sealed Cyanamid Canada’s fate.

In 1979, then-Brock Biology Professor Michael Dickman’s second-year ecology class conducted an experiment in which the shrimp-like crustaceans were placed into two tanks, one filled with tap water and another with water drawn from where the now-defunct chemical fertilizer company poured its waste into the Welland River.

The wildlife in the Cyanamid tank was dead within five minutes, whereas 95 per cent of the amphipods in the tap water tank were still alive four days later.

This and other research Dickman and his students conducted led to the class suing Cyanamid Canada. On Aug. 28, 1981, the Ontario Provincial Court found the Niagara Falls company guilty of depositing a deleterious substance — ammonia effluent — under the federal Fisheries Act.

“It gave us a standing that we didn’t have before,” says Dickman of the ruling. “We were just people at Brock University interested in the ecology of the Welland River. After the case, we had political power that enabled us to conduct more research involving another company.”

The Cyanamid case is one of many examples where Brock University research has made a difference safeguarding the natural environments of Niagara and well beyond.

Water and air pollution were big research topics in the 1980s and 1990s, with many successes in building Brock’s reputation.

For example, Professor of Chemistry Eugene Cherniak and his assistant Ron Corkum developed a system to continually measure the amount of peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) in the air. A 1981 Brock Campus News report says they were the first researchers to detect and monitor PAN in skies over a Canadian urban centre at the parts per billion level.

Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Ian Brindle’s decades-long research earned him many accolades including the 1991 Ministry of the Environment Excellence in Research Award for his advanced technique to measure arsenic and other toxic elements in water and materials.

By the early 2000s, research on ways to prevent pollution was taking root.

The 2003 arrival of Tomas Hudlicky, one of North America’s top organic chemistry researchers, put the spotlight on ‘green chemistry,’ the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate hazardous substances.

Hudlicky’s specialty was creating environmentally friendly synthetic versions of anti-cancer drugs and pain medication. Subsequent decades saw an array of researchers creating processes and products with environmental protection in mind.

Also gaining traction were social, economic and political dimensions of the environment.

Professor of Economics Diane Dupont’s expertise in the management and valuation of water was pivotal in the work and leadership of the Water Economics, Policy and Governance Network (WEPGN), an eight-year, Canada-wide research initiative headquartered at Brock to improve the management of water resources in Canada and abroad.

Dupont was also one of the co-founders of Brock’s Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC), which launched in 2011.

“We began as a sustainability hub for those at Brock to connect and collaborate and continue to attract and engage researchers from all Faculties across the University as well as adjuncts from across the globe,” says ESRC Director Julia Baird.

“Sustainability has never been as important and urgent as it is now, and the ESRC is ideally positioned within Brock to tackle the pressing environmental challenges we face,” says Baird, who became Canada Research Chair in Human Dimensions of Water Resources and Water Resilience in 2017.

Brock’s reputation for expertise in environmental sustainability took the world stage with Professor of Biological Sciences Liette Vasseur’s 2014 appointment as UNESCO Chair on Community Sustainability: From Local to Global.

Her research includes developing concrete actions and best practices in sustainable agriculture and community-based natural resource management in Canada, China, Ecuador and Benin.

These and other research developments — particularly the cutting-edge work at the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) — have laid the groundwork for the Brock University Research Farm.

The $8.9-million multi-institutional project, supported by funding from the Ontario government, the Canada Foundation for Innovation and industry partners will contain state-of-the art facilities and research in the areas of clean vines for the grape and wine industry, precision agriculture, ecological interactions and urban landscaping.

“Brock’s decades-long passion for preserving the environment has cemented our leadership role in providing critically needed sustainable approaches to Canada’s agri-food sector,” says Acting Vice-President, Research Michelle McGinn.

“For 60 years, environmental research at Brock has been about far more than satisfying scientists’ curiosity,” she says. “Our insights, leading-edge equipment, partnerships and classroom activities have had substantive effects on the ways that we view and manage the natural world in which we live.”