Liette Vasseur’s research work doesn’t end in a lab or with a published article. The real test begins when knowledge meets the realities of a working farm, a community or a classroom.

Her commitment to knowledge mobilization has earned the Brock University Professor of Biological Sciences the Canada Organic Trade Association’s 2026 Organic Leadership Award for Outstanding Leadership in Organic Science.

“I was truly honoured by this award that is not only for me but for my lab and our partners who are highly involved and passionate in finding safer solutions for the future of us and environment,” she says.

Professor of Biological Sciences Liette Vasseur has received the Canada Organic Trade Association’s 2026 Organic Leadership Award for Outstanding Leadership in Organic Science.

The award recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to organic agriculture through research and education, including research that improves or has the potential to improve practices in organic operations and communication of organic science to stakeholders.

Those priorities reflect Vasseur’s approach to research. As UNESCO Chair in Community Sustainability: From Local to Global, she strives to empower farmers, industries and communities — both in Canada and around the world — to preserve their local ecosystems and navigate challenges created by climate change.

Vasseur believes that work must happen on the ground because laboratory and experimental field conditions can’t fully capture the circumstances farmers face, from optimizing existing management practices to unexpected events such as flooding.

“You have to put your boots on and go into the field,” she says. “The experiments in greenhouses are not the same than the operating conditions that farmers have to deal with on the land.”

Working directly with farmers allows Vasseur and her research team to test how knowledge translates into practice, though she says that approach also means learning to accepting unexpected results.

As a mentor, she aims to equip her students to translate knowledge for on-the-ground application by ensuring they have opportunities to connect with farmers, other researchers and industry through field experiences and conferences and encouraging them to communicate research beyond academic audiences through blogs, articles and public-facing publications.

Vasseur has held the UNESCO Chair in Community Sustainability at Brock since 2014 and has served as Chair of the Commission on Ecosystem Management of the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 2025. She is also a Fellow of Brock’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute and an affiliate of the University’s Environmental Sustainability Research Centre.

Her community-based work with the City of Greater Sudbury was recognized with a 2011 Latornell Pioneers Award from Conservation Ontario. Vasseur was also honoured with a Women in Business Award for Excellence in Environmental Leadership from the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce in 2025 and the Professional Agrologist (Honorary) Award from the Ontario Institute of Agrologists in April 2026.