News

  • Students honoured as Math and Science’s best, brightest

    Wednesday, November 29, 2017 | By

    Just a few days shy of his 19th birthday, Matthan Condez was given several more reasons to celebrate. The second-year Biochemistry Co-op student was honoured with five awards at the Nov. 25 Faculty of Mathematics and Science Celebration of Student Excellence.

    Condez said he was “extremely humbled” by the recognition. He was named to the Dean’s Honour List, and received the Ontario Paper Thorold Foundation Scholarship in Science, Brock University Science Mentorship Award, the Brock University Science Fair Scholarship and a Brock University Entrance Bursary.

    “There is so much that goes on behind-the-scenes to maintain a good GPA: a good social life, good personal health, all while striking a balance,” he said. “I’m grateful to my colleagues and the people who have helped get me to this point.”

    The Niagara Falls native was among 150 students, family members, faculty and staff who filled the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre for the 10th annual awards celebration. Held every November, the event celebrates the academic excellence of mathematics and science students. This year’s celebration recognized undergraduate students named to the Dean’s Honour List, and saw more than 50 donor-funded scholarships and awards presented.

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  • Biomedical Sciences student receives Daughters for Life scholarship

    Tuesday, November 28, 2017 | By

    Brock will provide additional opportunities for women in the Middle East to seek higher education through an expanded partnership with the Daughters for Life (DFL) Foundation.

    Daughters for Life is led by Nobel Prize nominee Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian physician and renowned peace activist who created the organization after three of his daughters were killed by tank shells in Gaza in 2009. Abuelaish was given an honorary doctorate from Brock in 2016.

    Brock will grow its connection with DFL by funding scholarships for one master’s and one PhD student starting in 2018. This will provide women who face socio-economic hardship in challenging regions in the Middle East with an opportunity for higher education.

    Yousra Benradi, of Morocco, was selected for the opportunity. She is now in her level four of ESL, pursuing an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences.

    “Brock University has not just given me an education, it has given me a beautiful life and a hope and vision for the future,” Benradi said in front of the gala’s sold-out crowd.

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  • Karl Kaiser left indelible mark on Brock University

    Friday, November 24, 2017 | By

    The Brock University community is mourning the death of a national figure and longtime associate who helped forge Brock’s leading role in grape and wine research, while also turning Niagara into a world-renowned wine region.

    Inniskillin Winery co-founder Karl J. Kaiser, an industry pioneer and a key figure behind Brock’s oenology and viticulture programs, passed away on Wednesday, Nov. 22. He was 76 years old.

    Kaiser’s impact on the Niagara and Canadian wine industry is unmatched, and it was through his guidance and drive that Brock created the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) and the Oenology and Viticulture (OEVI) undergraduate program in the 1990s, said CCOVI Director Debbie Inglis.

    “Karl truly believed that a successful wine region needed a research institute to support it,” said Inglis. “And he was passionate about passing his knowledge on to the next generation.”

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  • Brock celebrates the ‘science of where’ on GIS Day

    Thursday, November 16, 2017 | By

    Undergraduate and graduate students demonstrated how Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software can be used to visualize and analyze geographic information in order to solve the real-world problems that are the focus of their research at the annual Esri Canada Scholarship Competition.

    “The Esri Canada GIS Scholarship program aims to recognize excellence in research at institutions across Canada by supporting and encouraging students in their future work,” said Krista Amolins, Higher Education Developer and Analyst with Esri Canada, who visited Brock to hear the presentations.

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    The competition was the highlight of Brock’s seventh annual GIS Day, hosted by Brock’s Map, Data & GIS Library and the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies. GIS Day falls during Geography Awareness Week.

    Competitor Brian Giordano, a PhD candidate for the Centre for Biotechnology who studies the spread of West Nile virus, finds that GIS software helps him share his findings more widely.

    “Trying to explain complex analyses to the general public can be difficult,” said Giordano. “Mapping software provides a simple yet elegant way to showcase the data in a way that the general public can relate to and easily understand.”

    Brent Thorne, who is working on a master’s degree in the Department of Earth Science, believes that GIS can be applied to almost any project.

    “I’ve had the opportunity to work on an accessibility web map application and remote sensing of Niagara region vineyards, and to conduct GIS analysis on Arctic vegetation,” said Thorne, who also completed a BSc in Physical Geography at Brock. He credits his GIS courses with opening his eyes to the possibilities of GIS software.

    Thorne now shares his GIS knowledge and experience with others by posting tutorials on his YouTube channel.

    With presentations complete, Assistant Professor Kevin Turner and instructor Brodie Hague, both of the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies, and Colleen Beard and Sharon Janzen, both of the Map, Data & GIS Library, will meet to deliberate and choose a winner, who will be announced in mid-January.

    In addition to a cash award of $1,000, the winner will receive several of Esri’s ArcGIS products, including desktop software, an ArcGIS Developer subscription, publications, training, conference registration, and eligibility for future awards and opportunities — a value of more than $50,000. They will also be added to the gallery of recipients at scholars.esri.ca.

    Students, staff, and faculty interested in obtaining ArcGIS software can learn more on the Map, Data and GIS Library web page.

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  • Brock physicist Thad Harroun on the hunt for neutron beam source

    Wednesday, November 15, 2017 | By

    A team of Canadian scientists, headed up by Brock University Associate Professor of Physics Thad Harroun, is travelling to Sweden next week in hopes of striking up a partnership to access the European Spallation Source (ESS), a neutron beam source facility being built there.

    The meetings are meant to prepare for next year’s closure of Canada’s National Research Universal nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ont.The 60-year-old reactor — the world’s oldest operating research reactor — is slated to shut down in March 2018, after which Canadian and other scientists will no longer be able to use the highly specialized equipment in their experiments.

    “We understand the decision, but we’re a casualty of that decision,” says Harroun, who is President of the Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering and a working group leader within the Canadian Neutron Initiative (CNI).

    Harroun says until another Canadian nuclear research facility is built, “We’d like to press the Canadian government to put in a stop-gap emergency measure so that we can continue our research elsewhere.” That could mean the government purchasing ‘beam time’ at a foreign facility, as well providing upgrades to the nuclear reactor at McMaster University, says Harroun.

    The CNI has its eye on Sweden’s European Spallation Source, a highly sophisticated facility under construction in the southern Swedish city of Lund that is expected to “both greatly exceed and complement today’s leading neutron sources,” says the ESS website.

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  • Math kits made by Brock students for young learners

    Tuesday, November 14, 2017 | By

    Students in the fourth-year math course, Mathematics at the Junior/Intermediate/Senior Level, have been working to create kits to help make math more accessible to young learners. Coinciding with National STEM Day, the first of three presentations related to the kits took place Nov. 8 and offered faculty, students and Let’s Talk Science Outreach at Brock volunteers a sneak peek into the hands-on, interactive math-based activities.

    The project, a new addition to the long-running Math 3P91 course, provides the class of future math educators an opportunity to apply the theoretical concepts they learn in class. The idea for this experiential component emerged last year when Dan Lonergan, Experiential Education Co-ordinator in the Faculty of Mathematics and Science, and Anna Hudlin, Let’s Talk Science Outreach at Brock Site Co-ordinator, discussed a potential partnership.

    In 2016, Brock became a new site for Let’s Talk Science, a national organization that offers science education and programs for all ages from preschool to high school using ready-made science, technology, engineering and math-related kits. Recognizing the need for more math-based kits, Hudlin approached Lonergan about creating the experiential opportunity.

    Following feedback and final tweaks, the students’ work may become part of available Let’s Talk Science kits used in classrooms by volunteers at Brock and beyond.

     

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  • Miriam Richards’ research highlights environmental stressors affecting bees

    Wednesday, November 08, 2017 | By

    Between 2003 and 2013, Brock University biology professor and bee expert, Miriam Richards and her research team collected and recorded the number of bees and number of species they got from traps at the Glenridge Quarry Naturalization site in St. Catharines and compared that to traps they set in three sites at Brock that had not been restored.

    The team found that the numbers of individual bees and bee species in the Glenridge Quarry Naturalization site went up, at first.

    “Our results suggest that ‘If you restore it, they will come’: restored foraging and nesting sites were re-occupied by bees as soon as they became available, then bee numbers continued to grow for three to four years,” says the study, “Rapid initial recovery and long-term persistence of a bee community in a former landfill” published recently in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity.

    Richards’ study, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, puts the spotlight on a trend that has scientists and environmentalists worried: the worldwide drop in bee populations.

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    Brock Bee Lab – headquarters of Richards’ research

     

     

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  • Canadian UN body appoints Brock biologist Liette Vasseur to senior position

    Monday, October 30, 2017 | By

    The Canadian Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (CCUNESCO) has appointed Brock biologist Liette Vasseur to President of its Sectoral Commission on Natural, Social and Human Sciences, an 11-member group of Canadian scientists, academics and others providing knowledge and expertise on a range of issues.

    These include social and environmental impacts of climate change; conservation of natural heritage and water resources; inclusion of newcomers and vulnerable groups; reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous people; youth engagement; and measures to fight discrimination, racism, violence, bullying and radicalization.

    “We’re producing reflection papers on some of the topics we believe are important to come up with a long-range vision of how Canadians and the federal government can implement various actions related to sustainability,” explains Vasseur.

     

     

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  • CCOVI connected to award-winning wine tourism book

    Tuesday, October 24, 2017 | By

    As the region prepares to celebrate another year of the popular Niagara Icewine Festival, Carman Cullen and Linda Bramble are reflecting on the event’s history.

    The origin story of the January festival was chronicled by Cullen, Chair of Brock’s Marketing, International Business and Strategy Department (MIBS), and Bramble, author and professional affiliate at Brock’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI), in a chapter within the book Best Practices in Global Wine Tourism.

    That book has been amassing accolades since its publication last year, including Best Wine Tourism Book in the United States. It was more recently honoured with the Best Wine Tourism Book in the World award at the 2017 Yantai China International Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in May.

    Both Cullen and Bramble said it was gratifying to have played a part in bringing the book to fruition, and in sharing the fascinating stories of the local wine industry with the world.

    The Niagara Icewine Festival takes place Jan. 12 to 28 and includes a series of events and activities devoted to one of the country’s most unique products.

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  • East meets west in Great Chardo Swap

    Friday, October 20, 2017 | By

    Niagara has been named as the host for the prestigious International Cool Climate Wine Symposium(ICCWS) in 2020, the event’s 10th anniversary. As part of the lead-up to the symposium, 12 Niagara winemakers are using grapes from two specific vineyards to produce an assortment of one-of-a-kind Chardonnays.

    The Great Chardo Swap will see six winemakers from east of the Welland Canal making wine from grapes grown on the west side of the canal, and six winemakers from the west side making wine from chardonnay grapes grown on the east side. Two of those winemakers, Emma Garner (BSc ’04) from Thirty Bench Wine Makers and Shiraz Mottiar (BSc ’00) from Malivoire Wine Company, are graduates of Brock’s Oenology and Viticulture program. All of the fruit to make the Chardonnays is being donated by Inniskillin Wines and Thirty Bench.

    Brock’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) collaborated with stakeholder organizations across the country to bring the ICCWS to Canada, and it was CCOVI Senior Oenologist Belinda Kemp who came up with the idea for the Great Chardo Swap after hearing about a similar initiative that took place in New Zealand.

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