Department of Chemistry – Seminar Series
Daniel Leznoff
Department of Chemistry
Simon Fraser University
DATE: Friday, Feb. 16
TIME: Noon
LOCATION: H313
Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Seminar Series
Categories: Events
In November, Dr. Francine McCarthy presented a talk on “Freshwater resources in the Great Lakes Region – yesterday, today, and tomorrow…” as part of the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre’s Transdisciplinary Seminar Series.
Now, you can access the invited paper on which her Sustainability talk was based.
Abstract
Management of freshwater resources requires an understanding of the response of lakes to human impact. The long sedimentary records in lake archives hold the key to accurate forecasting. The remains of algae in “pollen” slides record two distinct phases of cultural eutrophication and siltation/turbidity resulting from soil erosion in sediments from two lakes in southern Ontario, Canada: 1) agricultural settlements by Iroquoian (Wendat/Huron) people around the middle of the last millennium and 2) widespread land-clearing by European colonists in the mid-nineteenth century, followed by industrial expansion and urbanization in the Great Lakes watershed to the present day. The half-cells of benthic desmids were particularly sensitive to turbidity associated with land clearing. In contrast, planktonic algae adapted to eutrophic waters thrived in response to increased agricultural runoff and human and animal waste during both intervals in cores from Lake Simcoe and in the well-documented varved sediments from Crawford Lake. These under-utilized microfossils can be useful proxies of human impact, particularly where mineralized microfossils are sparse due to dissolution.
Access the paper here
Come and join us to celebrate and discuss how to enhance the importance of women and girls in science.
DATE: Monday, Feb. 12
TIME: Noon to 1:30pm
LOCATION; Mackenzie Chown F Block, room 237
Everyone welcome! Coffee, bean and cookies provided.
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is celebrated by UNESCO and the UN on February 11.
Brock University invites you to participate on Feb. 12.
Faculty of Mathematics and Science
Categories: Events
Department of Chemistry – Seminar Series
Richard Oleschuk
Department of Chemistry
Queen’s University
DATE: Friday, Feb. 9
TIME: 12pm
LOCATION: H313
Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Seminar Series
Categories: Events
What kind of future do you want? That’s the question being asked this year as part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Poetry Day.
Brock University Biological Sciences Professor and UNESCO Chair in Community Sustainability Liette Vasseur, along with Brock’s Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, is putting out a call for submissions in this year’s 2018 Sustainability Poetry Contest. All Niagara residents are eligible to enter their original, unpublished poems with the theme of ‘The Future We Want’ for this year’s contest.
UNESCO has been celebrating World Poetry Day annually since 1999. The idea is to use poetry as a social tool to bring awareness to social issues, give a voice to the community, promote linguistic diversity and change the way people view their place in the world.
The Sustainability Poetry Contest, which is under the patronage of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, includes categories for elementary, high school and post-secondary students, as well as the general public. Both French and English poems are welcome.
This year’s topic is derived from a 2015 United Nations outcome document that spurred the development of the 2030 Agenda, citing 17 sustainable development goals to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved by 2030.
Poems can be submitted online until 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 19 by visiting the UNESCO Chair’s website. Prizes such as books and gift cards, will be awarded in each of the four categories. Winners will be announced at the UNESCO World Poetry Day celebration on Friday, March 23 at Mahtay Café in downtown St. Catharines. The event is free, but registration on the Chair’s website is required as space is limited.
The Canadian Society for Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CSEB) invites you to submit an abstract to their upcoming interdisciplinary student health conference.
A wide range of health-related research is eligible, including completed, ongoing and proposed projects. Presenters must be students at any level of study, including trainees and post-doctoral researchers.
View the call for abstracts here: 2018 CSEB National Student Conference
Or, visit the abstract submission portal at https://www.cseb2018.com/abstracts/ for more information and to submit your abstract.
The submission deadline is Friday, February 16th, 2018.
More than $14,000 of travel awards will be available for student presenters thanks to the generous support of conference sponsors. The opportunity to apply for travel awards will be available at registration.
The 2018 National Student Conference of the Canadian Society for Epidemiology and Biostatistics will be held at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario on June 15th-17th, 2018. For more details, visit our website: www.cseb2018.com
If you have any questions about the conference, feel free to contact the organizing team via communications@cseb2018.com. Connect with us on Facebook at www.facebook.com
Faculty of Mathematics and Science
Categories: News
Faculty and staff members who have set positive examples for their colleagues were honoured by the Faculty of Mathematics and Science during Wednesday’s Celebration of Excellence. The fourth annual event, held Jan. 24 in Pond Inlet, saw awards of distinction presented for research, teaching, student experience and experiential learning.
“This awards ceremony provides us with an opportunity to gather together and acknowledge the accomplishments of our faculty and staff in front of their Math and Science family, as well as our larger Brock family,” Dean Ejaz Ahmed told the group during his remarks at the Jan. 24 event in Pond Inlet.
“Once again, we have much to celebrate and recognize. From research excellence and distinguished teachers and scholars to those who provide our students with exceptional experiential learning opportunities that further the Faculty’s mission, vision and values. I am proud of your dedication and commitment and I look forward to continuing to celebrate your accomplishments at this great event.”
Following remarks from Gary Comerford, Board of Trustees Chair, and Thomas Dunk, Provost and Vice-President, Academic, the awards portion of the event began with Associate Dean Research and Graduate Studies Cheryl McCormick serving as Master of Ceremonies.
Department of Chemistry Professor Jeffrey Atkinson received this year’s Distinguished Teaching Award – Faculty for his long and successful record of supervising students, mentoring high school seniors through Brock’s Science Mentorship Program, his involvement in the design and implementation of Brock’s first PhD program in Biotechnology as well as his outreach teaching activities through BioTalent Canada.
“During his career at Brock, Dr. Atkinson has earned a reputation for being one of our most gifted teachers,” said McCormick. “His teaching evaluations are outstanding and he routinely receives comments from students calling him an excellent professor, the best professor they’ve ever had and more equally enthusiastic and complimentary praise.”
Atkinson’s dedication to his students and their education has helped create an environment of teaching excellence within the Faculty, she said.
The Distinguished Teaching Award for Staff was captured by full-time instructor Paul Zelisko, also from the Department of Chemistry. Zelisko was recognized for his untiring dedication to education and graduate student recruitment.
McCormick noted that Zelisko has been a consistent representative of the Faculty, organizing Brock representation every year for a number of events including the McMaster University Graduate Fair, undergraduate trips to the east coast and, most notably, last year’s Graduate Studies Open House. This event, created for undergraduate students at Brock thinking of transitioning to graduate research, helped increase student engagement and was well received.
This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award – Faculty was awarded to professor Jon Radue from the Department of Computer Science, who has earned a reputation for caring deeply about many aspects of teaching and education.
A true innovator, he incorporated technology such as clickers into the classroom to further student engagement long before it was commonplace. He has been actively involved with the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation as a faculty associate and member of the Teaching Council and his work on academic integrity extends beyond the department and throughout the University.
“In the Department of Computer Science, Radue spearheaded the development of the Applied Computing minor along with many of its courses. His knowledge and dedication made him an easy choice for teaching large first-year context courses taken by a wide variety of students from all disciplines,” said McCormick.
“His passion for education, combined with his knowledge and dedication have become part of his legacy at Brock.”
The Distinguished Research Award for Faculty was presented to Henryk Fuks from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics for his excellent record of accomplishment in research, focused in the areas of mathematical modelling, complex networks as well as the history of mathematics and numismatics, the study of currency.
Along with serving on editorial boards for several prestigious journals and on scientific program committees for international conferences, Fuks also regularly receives international recognition for his research. Last August, the Royal Canadian Numismatic Society honoured him with the Guy Potter Literary Award, recognizing two of his articles which popularized the history of mathematics in the area of numismatics.
Gaynor Spencer from the Department of Biological Sciences also received the Distinguished Research Award for Faculty. Promoted to Full Professor in July, she is currently supervising three graduate students and two undergraduate thesis students in her lab.
“Gaynor has maintained high quality research productivity while providing great service to the University and research community,” said McCormick. Her longstanding history of research excellence is evidenced in part by her strong record of NSERC Discovery Grant funding, an Ontario Premier’s Research Excellence Award as well as quality, peer-reviewed publications; 38 papers, five invited reviews and four book chapters.
Additional awards distributed at the Jan. 24 celebration included:
From funding a course held in Algonquin Provincial Park to supporting volunteer initiatives with local seniors, the impact of Teaching and Learning Innovation Grants within the University has been widespread.
A new round of grant funding is now available and faculty members are being encouraged to apply.
The Teaching and Learning Innovation Grants are administered by the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation (CPI) and Experiential Education and are designed to support initiatives that make a positive contribution to the teaching and learning environment of Brock University.
Funding is available in the categories of experiential education, high-impact practices, international course development, online/blended courses, and professional development and special projects. The first four categories may receive a maximum of $3,000 per course (or up to $5,000 for international course development), while the professional development and special projects may receive a maximum of $500, which must also be matched by another source in order to be distributed.
Proposals are adjudicated as they come in and distributed until March 1 or earlier if funds are exhausted.
An information session is being held Tuesday, Jan. 30 from noon to 1 p.m. in TH135 (beside CPI).
All full-time, tenured and probationary faculty are eligible to apply. To access details of the grants or to submit a proposal, visit the CPI website.
Faculty of Mathematics and Science
Categories: News
Aditya Joshi, a candidate in the Centre for Biotechnology, will present his Master of Science thesis defence by video conference on Wednesday, Jan. 24 at 1 p.m. in WH 147.
His thesis is titled “A systematic view on mobile elements’ contribution to human transcriptomes.”
His examination committee members are Dr. Michael Pisaric, Chair; Dr. Teresa Crease, External Examiner, (University of Guelph); Dr. Ping Liang, Supervisor; Drs. Charles Depres and Trevor Dudding, Committee Members.
A chemist and a parasite expert at Brock University have teamed up to produce and test out a simple device that can detect diseases from DNA samples. It’s a scaled-down version of what is normally an expensive and complicated DNA laboratory technique, yet it’s fast, inexpensive and accurate, making it ideal for use in developing countries.
Brock University Assistant Professor of Chemistry Feng Li’s device consists of a strip of paper attached onto a glass slide. The paper contains several rows of what look like thermometers, lines with markings projecting out of bulb-like circles. DNA samples are loaded onto the circles and move up the lines, much like mercury rises in a thermometer.
“Different concentrations of the genetic disease biomarkers in the samples would migrate different distances,” says Li. “So, all you need to do is read the distance they penetrate, just like you’d read a ruler.”
Known as the quantitative paper-based DNA reader, each device costs only about 10 cents. They work with a scaled-down version of a traditionally expensive and complex DNA laboratory technique.
While testing for the presence of disease markers, health-care workers use a technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which makes millions of copies of a particular section of DNA. The PCR technique normally requires highly specialized equipment and expensive molecular probes. But Li’s device is able to read DNA samples through a PCR technique using simple technology and low-cost chemicals.
“This is going to be extremely useful in resource-limited settings where you don’t have a lot of facilities to interpret the results,” says Li.
One such setting is the National Autonomous University of Honduras, where Brock University Professor of Health Sciences Ana Sanchez runs an internationally-renowned research program focusing on parasites. She and her research team collected worms that had been expelled by children suspected of having soil-transmitted helminth infection, a disease affecting about 1.5 billion people worldwide and a major cause of childhood malnutrition and physical impairment.
The researchers used the quantitative paper-based DNA reader to test the worms for helminth infection. She applauds the speed and sensitivity of the device, saying that diagnostic techniques in developing countries are traditional, basic and rely on the expertise of the person observing the sample.
Sanchez says the device goes beyond just a yes or no result by measuring the amount of genetic disease biomarkers in the DNA sample.
Both Sanchez and Li say they are happy with their research partnership, which evolved from casual conversations as they worked next to one another in their labs in Brock’s Cairns Family Health and Bioscience Research Complex.
The research team’s results are in their study “Paper-Based DNA Reader for Visualized Quantification of Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infections,” published Tuesday, Jan. 16 in the journal ACS Sensors. PhD student Alex Guan Wang and master’s student Tianyu Dong are the study’s first authors.
Read the full story here
Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Feng Li
Categories: News
