[pre·science] noun having foresight or foreknowledge
PRESCIENCE
TEACHING AND LEARNING 4 RESEARCH 7 STUDENTS 22 ALUMNI AND DEVELOPMENT 28 FACULTY AND STAFF 31
FACULTY OF SCIENCE NEWSLETTER VOL. 9
FROM THE DEAN
PRESCIENCE Prescience is a publication of Memorial University’s Faculty of Science. We welcome all comments, submissions, story ideas and letters. GRAPHIC DESIGN: Perfect Day COVER PHOTO: John Jamieson CONTRIBUTORS: Kelly Foss Jeff Green Janet Harron Lisa Pendergast Rebecca Rebeiro Dave Sorensen
The province of Newfoundland and Labrador’s role within Canada is changing, and so too is the role of Memorial University and the Faculty of Science.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Rich Blenkinsopp Chris Hammond Ian Joughin
Memorial continues to strengthen its stature as a research-intensive university while maintaining our high quality undergraduate and graduate education. Our faculty has committed itself to enhancing its standing globally as a leader in advancing knowledge and producing high calibre graduates by including our graduate and undergraduate students in our research endeavors. Throughout the pages of this issue of Prescience magazine, you’ll see examples of some of the incredible research being conducted by our faculty and students – from our work on cancer research, to defining the experience of mothers in this province, to searching for extraterrestrial life on Mars, to the discovery of a new bird species. The Faculty of Science is also dedicated to providing our undergraduate and graduate students with the best possible educational experience, acknowledging the needs and interests of our province. Our instruction ranges from the traditional lecture format, to learning opportunities that place greater emphasis on experiential learning – and not just for those enrolled in our programs. Find out how thousands of junior and senior high school students come to Memorial every year to participate in hands-on field trip and enrichment opportunities in our labs. Our strong reputation for excellence and innovation in teaching, research, and outreach, is a consequence of the skill and dedication of our faculty and staff. I hope you enjoy reading about them, and much more in this issue of Prescience. Dr. Travis Fridgen Acting Dean of Science, Professor of Chemistry
FACULTY OF SCIENCE St. John’s, NL A1B 3X7 T 709 864 8153 F 709 864 3316 E science@mun.ca MUNScience @MUN_Science mun_science www.mun.ca/science
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BY THE NUMBERS
EMPLOYEES (PERMANENT)
ENROLLMENT
PROGRAMS
Undergraduates
Undergraduate single majors
(FALL 2019)
Graduates
Faculty
Undergraduate joint majors
Staff
OUTREACH & ENGAGEMENT
International undergraduates Undergraduate single honours
Bonne Bay Marine Station
Public Lectures
International graduates
visitors
Undergraduate joint honours
Marine Education Program, Ocean Science Centre
Undergraduate minors
visitors FOSTER high school program
DEPARTMENTS
Graduate (departmental)
students
Graduate (interdisciplinary)
Ocean Science high school program
students
RESEARCH & TEACHING Tier 1 Canada Research Chairs
Tier 2 Canada Research Chairs
Other Chairs
Faculty awards received
Science Rendezvous
visitors Other outreach events*
*School visits, Eastern School Board Science Fair, mini-enrichment courses, Discovery Days, Let’s Talk Science events (Harry Potter Day, Lab Extravaganza Days), MedQuest, WISE Summer Program, Blundon Seminar, Canadian Math Kangaroo, Junior and Senior High Math League
GRANTS & CONTRACTS Tri-council
Other sources
(DISPERSED APRIL 1, 2019–MARCH 31, 2020)
BUDGET (APRIL 1, 2019– MARCH 31, 2020)
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TEACHING AND LEARNING Biochemistry experiments included extracting DNA from fruit.
Unique field trip opportunities for N.L. junior high schools A group of junior high school students participated in field trips hosted by three departments in the Faculty of Science. Members of the Biochemistry, Biology and Chemistry departments brought almost 1,600 students from 12 Eastern Newfoundland schools to the St. John’s campus – some from schools two hours away. Facilitated by members of the Chemistry department, students carried out a number of experiments, including dissolving aluminum foil into a blue solution containing copper to make copper metal. Biochemistry experiments included extracting DNA from fruit, while in Biology, one experiment involved isolating chloroplasts from
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plants and testing it for photosynthetic properties. A Public Engagement Accelerator Grant allowed the group to hire graduate and undergraduate students to help staff deliver the program and open registration to any school interested in attending. The departments designed their activities to meet junior high science curriculum outcomes. Program organizers say they hope offering students a fun and stimulating opportunity to visit Memorial’s science labs will give them a greater connection to the university and reduce some of the intimidation that inevitably goes with enrolling at a large campus.
TEACHING AND LEARNING
BIOLOGY STUDENTS CREATE FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND PROVINCIAL BIODIVERSITY REPORT A group of Memorial students have created a comprehensive biodiversity report of wildlife in Newfoundland and Labrador. Modeled after the Living Planet Index created by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the report details changing population trends and explanations for why these changes are occurring. While the WWF has created such reports at a national and global level, the students’ biodiversity report is the first of its kind for the province, providing residents with a comprehensive guide to the species that share the province with them.
During the 12 weeks the students were given to complete the project, they reviewed similar types of reports which helped them decide the themes they wanted to include in their own. Along the way they developed their skills in oral, written and visual communications, data analysis, graphic design and outreach, and demonstrated energy and commitment to the project.
Dr. Yolanda Wiersma teaches BIO 4651/7944: Conservation and Practice, the class that created the report. She says for the past 10 years, the fourth- year undergraduate and master’s students who take the course are given a semesterlong, real-world group project to complete together.
Sigrid Kuehnemund, vice president of WWF-Canada’s Oceans Program, attended the launch and had praise for the valuable report. She said that wildlife in Canada is in steep decline and their own reports reveal that half of the monitored vertebrate species – 451 out of the 900 – have shown steep declines between 1970 and 2014.
Graduate students sharpen analytical skills on OPE work term Surveys are invaluable for gathering information from a sample of people and can provide a critical source of data and insight. Although mobile technology makes survey taking easier, shorter attention spans can impact how many people begin and complete surveys. Asking the right questions, concisely, is critical.
Scott Taylor, a second-year MAPS student with previous experience administering a survey, was responsible for planning the project, drafting the survey tool, uploading and formatting the survey in Qualtrics, analyzing the data and creating comprehensive reports. He was joined on the survey team by Kristen Dyson and Kelly Greenfield.
To that end, the Office of Public Engagement hired graduate students from Memorial’s Master of Applied Psychological Science (MAPS) Program and the Department of Sociology to apply proven evaluation techniques when it launched a survey project regarding Memorial’s Public Engagement Framework.
From left are Office of Public Engagement survey team members Kristen Dyson, Kelly Greenfield and Scott Taylor.
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TEACHING AND LEARNING
Snapchat makes professors available to students when they are needed.
Science professors using Snapchat to connect with students Some professors in the Faculty of Science are meeting their students in their natural environment: Snapchat. The mobile messaging app sends photos, videos, text and drawings that disappear once viewed on a smartphone. Since providing his Snapchat handle to his students, Dr. Travis Fridgen, acting dean, Faculty of Science, and a professor in the Department of Chemistry, has seen a dramatic increase in questions coming from students and a reduction in students looking for help during office hours. He delivered a presentation on using Snapchat at the annual Faculty of Science Teaching and Learning Retreat. Since then, other faculty members have begun using it, including Dr. Kelly Shorlin and Dr. Rick Goulding, Physics and Physical Oceanography; and Dr. Barry Power, Chemistry. Dr. Shorlin uses snapstreaks – when Snapchatters message each other for consecutive days – giving prizes at the end of the semester to students who have maintained a streak with her. She also puts bonus questions in her Snapchat story – posts that are visible for 24 hours and can be viewed more than once. Dr. Goulding has found Snapchat to be a great time-saver. When a student sends him a picture of a question, he can quickly sketch a solution on paper and “snap” it back to them. Dr. Power also uses Snapchat to field questions, but his students, who are put into groups of 32, can choose to ask him for help, or from other members of the group. Carter McNelly is an ocean sciences student. He’s taken classes with Dr. Fridgen and Dr. Shorlin and says Snapchat builds a better environment between students and their professors. He’s taken advantage of Snapchat groups to meet and arrange study sessions with his classmates.
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Biology department recognized for accessibility efforts The Glenn Roy Blundon Centre supports more than 1,000 students annually in undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programs. As those demands increase, close collaboration with faculties and other units has become essential. The centre recognizes individuals or groups who contribute to the development of equitable and accessible learning and living environments for Memorial students at an annual awards ceremony. The Department of Biology received the 2019 Glenn Roy Blundon Award for its efforts in improving accessibility and ensuring all students receive the same laboratory experience. Department head Dr. Tom Chapman says lab instructors, instructional assistants and science technicians were the focus of the department’s nomination for this award as they “unfailingly find a way to implement any accommodation requests, regardless of the time available or resources required.” Some examples of recent accommodations offered by the department include deconstructing and rebuilding lab benches to ensure appropriate space is available; providing materials in alternative formats and additional teaching assistant support; and staff donating time to ensure students have a quiet, reduced-stress environment and the opportunity to take breaks, as needed, when writing exams.
RESEARCH
Dr. Jacqueline Blundell
MEMORIAL RESEARCHER STUDIES GENERAL IMPACTS OF STRESS Dr. Jacqueline Blundell has been studying the science behind fear since she was a student, and now as an associate professor in the Department of Psychology.
demonstrates brain and behavioural changes by exposing prey animals to predators in a protected environment.
Her PhD centred on using predator stress as a way to induce fear in an animal model of post-traumatic stress disorder, while her current research looks at the long-term effects of fear.
Despite the fact that their offspring have never been exposed to a stressor (i.e. the predator), they avoid open spaces, and don’t like bright light. Surprisingly, this anxiety-like behaviour is also seen in their grandchildren, suggesting that the effects cross multiple generations.
The goal of her research is to understand why some people are resilient to traumatic stress while others develop psychopathologies. One potential explanation she is currently exploring is parental experience. Experiments in rodents confirm the effects of stress can be transmitted to future generations. She’s been working to produce an animal model which
Now that she has a model, her next step is to identify the mechanism by which this transference occurs. By helping to illuminate the mechanistic underpinnings of these generational effects of stress, her research may help identify at-risk individuals and potential novel targets for treatments, with the overall goal of improving mental health outcomes.
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RESEARCH
Researcher tackles antimicrobial concerns Penicillin, the laboratory-curiosity turned life-saving drug, has saved countless lives. However, over-prescribing and over-use is decreasing its effectiveness and antibioticresistant diseases are on the rise. Dr. Kapil Tahlan, an associate professor with the Department of Biology, has been working in the field of antimicrobial drug discovery and resistance (AMR) for more than 20 years.
Dr. Kapil Tahlan
He says the field has been getting a lot of attention in recent years, but those working in it have been trying to draw awareness to the issue for the past 70 years through discussions of such issues as antibiotic resistance in epidemiology, livestock and agriculture, and poultry, as well as drug discovery approaches, the use of probiotics and nanotechnology to combat AMR and the economic and social impacts of AMR. While many assume the problem is going to be solved by clinicians, microbiologists or drug companies, Dr. Tahlan believes the issue will require more than just experts working on antibiotic discovery, requiring everyone from MDs to basic chemists to get involved. His research group has been working with clavulanic acid, a widely used anti-resistance drug, to see how it is made and how to make analogues of it. Previously, Dr. Tahlan worked with a drug now in clinical trials for tuberculosis that is also hard to get resistance against.
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Earth scien origins of Archaic co
RESEARCH
ntist tracing Maritime opper artifacts
Dr. Derek Wilton, Honorary Research Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, is working with The Rooms’ museum division to uncover a mystery thousands of years old. He is using the CREAIT Network’s Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry laboratory to study archaeological samples of native copper with the goal of determining where the copper originated. Dr. Wilton used the machine’s laser to generate fine particles from Maritime Archaic artifacts made of copper, which were then transported to its mass spectrometer for elemental and isotopic analysis. The information allows him to geochemically “fingerprint” the copper in order to compare it to samples from other North American deposits. The copper used by ancient peoples for jewelry and tools, and traded over large areas of North America, came primarily from four areas: the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan; Coppermine River in the North West Territories; small occurrences from the eastern North Atlantic seaboard (Nova Scotia–New England); and Seal Lake, Central Labrador. Researchers have previously conducted analysis of the copper from three locations and on traded artifacts. But the chemistry of the native copper from Seal Lake had not yet been investigated. Armed with information about the chemistry of the copper from Labrador and about the artifacts from The Rooms, including information previously collected from the other North American copper sites, the researchers hope to trace the artifacts back to their origin. It may provide new information on trading paths, how far people travelled and more.
A Maritime Archaic artifact made of copper from the collection at The Rooms.
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Study shows guided self-help aids with binge eating problems
The snipe’s outermost spread tail feathers create a distinctive bleating or winnowing sound.
Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest rate of obesity in Canada, at 35 per cent. It’s estimated that as many as 14,000 people also struggle with binge eating; however, there is no specialized treatment program in the province. Binge eating is characterized by eating an unusually large amount of food during a short period of time and feeling out of control over what, and how much, is eaten and when to stop. It’s seen as a disorder when these episodes occur at least once a week for three or more months. Dr. Jacqueline Carter-Major, a professor in the Department of Psychology, conducted a study to see if a self-help program could benefit people who binge eat when specialized therapy sessions with health-care professionals are not available. Since people often engage in binge eating to cope with uncomfortable feelings, one treatment, called dialectical behaviour therapy, or DBT, teaches healthier ways of managing emotions. Dr. Carter-Major ran a trial with participants randomly assigned one of three treatment conditions. The first group saw people receive a self-help book featuring DBT and six half-hour support sessions with a graduate student in clinical psychology over a 12-week period. The second received the book with no support sessions, and a third used another self-help book that focused on improving self-esteem but had nothing to do with binge eating. She found individuals in all three reduced their binge eating significantly, but the strongest effect was in the first group. Those participants reduced their binge eating by 75 per cent.
Dr. Jacqueline Carter-Major
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STUDY SHOWS IMMEDIATE TO INVASIVE SPECIES CAN P A new study indicates that invasive species can have a dramatic impact on native species – and that a strong proactive response can help mitigate those impacts. Dr. Amanda Bates is the Canada Research Chair in Marine Physiological Ecology and an associate professor in the Department of Ocean Sciences. She is part of an international research team that has conducted the first global meta-analysis of the characteristics and size of invasive species’ impacts on native species as invaders become more abundant.
The distinctive sound of the Wilson’s snipe is produced by the outermost spread tail feathers of male birds as they descend rapidly in aerial displays over their breeding territories. That sound, which is different from that of the common snipe of Eurasia, was used as scientific evidence in 2002 to recognize Wilson’s and common snipes as separate species. It also led Dr. Ted Miller, a professor in the Department of Biology, to wonder if there were more. Of the other 18 snipe species in the world, 17 also have aerial displays and all differ strikingly in the number, size and shape of their tail feathers. Dr. Miller began with the South American snipe, suspecting it might actually be two separate species because of the two distinct geographic races of the bird and that it breeds over a large and ecologically diverse geographic range.
RESPONSE PAY OFF
In 2004, he began recording breeding birds in various locations and complemented the samples with recordings from others. He ultimately discovered the northern bird’s mating sounds differed enormously from those of the southern race and these differences held through the ranges of the two. The research on the South American snipe also revealed species-level differences in mating displays between the two geographic forms. The differences were so great even a brief recording of a call could be unequivocally assigned to either the northern or southern bird. Additionally, tail-generated sounds differed even more than calls. Dr. Miller believes that it is only the second time that geographic races of a bird have been elevated from subspecies to species ranks using both vocal and non-vocal displays.
They found impacts depend strongly on the invader’s position in the food chain, also known as tropic level. Invasive species at higher trophic levels have the greatest impact early in the invasion. When a few invasive individuals higher in the food chain show up and begin eating native species, there’s an immediate sharp decline in native populations and they can cut those populations in half if preventative measures aren’t taken.
Dr. Amanda Bates
RESEARCH
Biologist identifies a new bird species by tail sounds and calls
For native species faced with an intruder at the same level of the food
chain, competition for the same resources does not lead to a sharp initial decline. However, as the number of invaders increases, native species decline in abundance and community diversity because they are fed on or have to compete for space and resources. The team hopes their findings will encourage governments around the world to make a stronger commitment to proactive policies designed to prevent the introduction of invasive species, as well as increased management targeting the early stages of invasion.
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RESEARCH
Post-doc represents Memorial at Nobel Prize winner meet up Dr. Robie Hennigar, a Banting Post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, attended the 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany. There he had the rare opportunity to meet 39 Nobel prize winning physicists and other top researchers in the field, present his research findings and build his professional network. Every year, a select number of Nobel Laureates gather in Lindau where they meet with the next generation of researchers, including undergraduate students, PhD candidates and post-doctoral scholars. The goal is to nurture exchange among the different generations of scientists, who each come from different cultures and disciplines. Each meeting focuses on one of the Nobel Prize disciplines – physiology and medicine, physics and chemistry – the three natural science Nobel Prize disciplines. Dr. Hennigar joined Memorial after receiving a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, a highly competitive honour, valued at $70,000 a year for two years. As part of his research, he’s studying the thermodynamic properties of black holes and has been working on some problems concerning the interplay between quantum information and black holes.
Dr. Robie Hennigar
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RESEARCH
Canadian Space Agency funding research into finding extraterrestrial life Dr. Penny Morrill’s research may help detect life on other planets. The associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences received a grant from the Canadian Space Agency to study electrical potential, remote sensing and preservation of biosignatures at serpentinization sites. Serpentinization occurs when groundwater flows through ultramafic rock. It reacts, creating a texture similar to the skin of a snake, as well as water chemistry with very high pH values. This extreme environment is inhospitable to most forms of life. However, some life is capable of surviving at these sites and there is evidence that serpentinization may have happened on Mars or Saturn’s moon, Enceladus. Since serpentinization happens in the subsurface, it’s difficult to find sites to study. The goal of Dr. Morrill’s project is to develop remote sensing and subsurface methods to help identify more of these sites. Visual clues, such as the absence of plant life, can show up on satellite or drone images. Partner researchers will also test the ability of near-infrared spectroscopy to detect the specific types of minerals found in the rocks around these springs. The team won’t just be looking at spring sites from above. They are also developing methods for imaging the subsurface using magnetic and electrical methods. Serpentinization can produce “magnetite,” and the subsurface fluid pathways of two known springs show up in magnetic surveys.
Serpentine texture within a rock.
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RESEARCH
Greenland ice losses faster than expected Researchers in the Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography joined a team of 96 polar scientists from 50 international organizations to produce the most complete picture of Greenland ice loss to date.
The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE) team, which includes Dr. Lev Tarasov and his graduate student Benoit Lecavalier, combined 26 separate surveys to compute changes in the mass of Greenland’s ice sheet between 1992-2018. Altogether, data from 11 different satellite missions were used, including measurements of the ice sheet’s changing volume, flow and gravity.
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The findings show that Greenland has lost 3.8 trillion tonnes of ice since 1992 – enough to push global sea levels up by 10.6 millimetres. The rate of ice loss rose from 33 billion tonnes per year in the 1990s to 254 billion tonnes per year in the last decade – a seven-fold increase within three decades. In 2013 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that global sea levels will rise by 60 centimetres by 2100, putting 360 million people at risk of annual coastal flooding. This new study shows that Greenland’s ice losses rose faster than expected and are instead
RESEARCH
Memorial leading Atlantic Canadian mathematical collaboration Memorial is now home to the Groups, Rings, Lie and Hopf Algebras collaborative research group. It was announced by the Atlantic Association for Research in the Mathematical Sciences (AARMS) and is administered by Dr. Yorck Sommerhäuser of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Collaborative research groups consist of university researchers with common research interests who want to work together. Members typically organize intensive workshops, share post-doctoral fellow appointments, co-ordinate graduate training programs, propose and assist in AARMS summer school programs, jointly supervise graduate students and carry out other activities supporting their research.
Turbulent water overflow from a large melt lake carved this 60-foot deep canyon.
tracking the IPCC’s high-end climate warming scenario, which predicts seven centimetres more. On current trends, Greenland ice melting will cause 400 million people to be flooded due to all sea-level rise. The team also used regional climate models to show that half of the ice losses are due to surface melt as air temperatures rise. The other half is been due to increased glacier flow, triggered by rising ocean temperatures.
The goal is to improve connections between researchers in Atlantic Canada who work in algebra and related fields in pure mathematics and mathematical physics. Groups also offer young researchers a larger community for growing their research program. The critical mass achieved by collaborative research groups can help the Atlantic provinces recruit and retain faculty in the mathematical sciences, attract post-doctoral fellows and offer enhanced graduate student training programs. Participants in Memorial’s newest collaborative research group come from Dalhousie University, Saint Mary’s University and the University of New Brunswick, as well as other Canadian universities and international collaborators from Argentina, Germany, Great Britain, Spain and the U.S.
Dr. Yorck Sommerhäuser
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RESEARCH Dr. Annie Mercier
QUIRKY BEHAVIOUR INDICATES MAJOR IMPLICATIONS FOR PRIZED LUXURY SEAFOOD Dr. Annie Mercier, a professor with the Department of Ocean Sciences, has been investigating strange behaviour in sea cucumbers – sausage-shaped marine animals with soft, cylindrical bodies. Sea cucumbers can usually be found on the seafloor in large herds. Suckers on their tube feet allow them to stick to the ocean floor as they crawl in search of food. But Dr. Mercier has seen them rolling around the ocean floor or bloating up and becoming rounder when predators were present. She set out to gather evidence and conduct controlled lab experience to
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see if she could trigger the behaviour, what was causing it and how it developed. Her team named the behaviour active buoyancy adjustment, or ABA, and found it could be triggered when animals were in very high densities in a tank and also when they encountered certain conditions, such as salinity or increased water turbidity. They concluded ABA helps sea cucumbers move away from unfavourable conditions. In mildly unpleasant conditions, such as when there were too many competing for food in one area, they would become slightly buoyant for a short period of time so
they could spread. Strong and rapid responses occurred when animals were in threatening and stressful conditions, such as poor water conditions, and needed to get away quickly. Their findings could have critical implications for worldwide management and conservation of these commercially and ecologically significant animals, as sea cucumbers are a highly prized, luxury seafood. Ranch operators will want to avoid ABA triggers or adapt sea pens with nets going right up to the surface – something that wasn’t considered necessary for benthic animals.
Dr. Julie Gosselin is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and Shannon Bedford is a doctoral student in the PsyD program. They collected data from more than 1,000 biological, adoptive, married, single, separated, divorced and widowed mothers and stepmothers of children 18 years and under from across the province to determine what the motherhood experience is like for women in Newfoundland and Labrador. The aim of the study was to increase understanding of the motherhood experience through better knowledge of the impact of psychological distress, sense of parental competence, social support and satisfaction with family life
RESEARCH
Study shines a light on the N.L. mother experience From left, Dr. Julie Gosselin and Shannon Bedford and co-parenting. It also investigated province-specific issues related to geographic inequalities and access to social and health services. With the data, they were able to create a demographic portrait of motherhood in the province. While they did not find stark differences between urban and rural populations, they did find family structures to be fairly traditional. Almost 41 per cent of moms, mainly rural moms, had a partner who works away. Women who mostly mother alone, such as single mothers, are known to experience higher stress and have a
poorer socio-economic experience. That was not the case with mothers whose partners worked elsewhere. Mothers who had positive interactions with their co-parent felt they were doing a better job, while healthy children and child-parent relationships that were close and low in conflict made a mother feel more satisfied with her role. While the survey showed a healthy, educated population, mothers are still facing issues around mental health, which impacts satisfaction and efficacy.
Study shows cancer-related insomnia can be treated without medication Although insomnia is a common and debilitating disorder that affects up to 60 per cent of cancer survivors, it is under-recognized and under-treated. Drug treatment for insomnia can have a lot of side effects, such as sedation, dependence and falls and patients want to improve their sleep without the use of drugs.
Dr. Sheila Garland insomnia (CBT-I) in cancer survivors. Both treatments produced clinically meaningful reductions in insomnia severity which persisted over time – up to 20 weeks or three months without therapy.
Dr. Sheila Garland, a clinical psychologist and the director of Memorial University’s Sleep, Health and Wellness Lab, was part of a study that found cancer-related insomnia can be effectively treated without medication.
CBT-I was more effective overall than acupuncture posttreatment. It was also more effective for those who were male, white, highly educated and who had no pain when they began the study. Between acupuncture and CBT-I, the comparative benefit is not significantly different for those who are female or with lower education.
The team conducted a randomized trial comparing eight weeks of acupuncture and cognitive behavioural therapy for
The results of this study increase the evidence for both acupuncture and CBT-I as treatment options for insomnia.
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RESEARCH
COMBINING BIOLOGY AND ALGORITHMS TO SOLVE COMPLEX MEDICAL CHALLENGES Can powerful machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques be used to understand what genes are responsible for disease? And can that knowledge help doctors prepare better treatment plans for patients or prevent some diseases completely? Dr. Ting Hu (PhD’10) thinks so. The assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science is working to develop new, intelligent learning methods and complex network models for biomedical knowledge discovery. She is combining her knowledge of biology and algorithms to solve some of medicine’s most challenging problems. Dr. Hu says the concept of AI has evolved over the years, but the idea is for machines to develop human-like intelligence and figure out how to solve complex problems for themselves. Her specialty is in evolutionary computing, a creative approach to AI. It uses a learning process similar to natural evolution, an iterative process. One key to the success of machine learning is having access to vast amounts of data and in medicine, data is in great supply. In recent years, new biotechnologies have advanced the collection of biological and medical data. There are thousands to a million variables that can play a role in disease and they are often intertwined. If science can use technology to identify those factors, says Dr. Hu, patients who know they are at risk can take preventative action, or doctors can develop personalized and effective treatments – also known as precision medicine.
Dr. Ting Hu
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Rethinking the conservation value of oldgrowth forests
RESEARCH
Dr. Yolanda Wiersma
New research is recommending a paradigm shift in how old-growth forests in North America are assessed and managed. Dr. Yolanda Wiersma, a landscape ecologist in the Department of Biology, and Dr. Troy McMullin, a lichenologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, are proposing a lichen-focused system. Lichens are found on every continent and grow in all climates – from polar regions to harsh deserts. A symbiotic association between different organisms, lichen can be part fungus and part green alga or a cyanobacterium, or both, and are sensitive bioindicators of environmental change. In Newfoundland and Labrador there are about five species of trees and 12 of shrubs, but over 300 documented species of lichen, and likely many more that just haven’t been found yet. Old-growth forests, especially those in North America, are usually defined by the age of the trees, with conservation and management practices developed accordingly. But Drs. Wiersma and McMullin say this overlooks the importance of biodiversity in those habitats. The researchers propose developing “an index of ecological continuity” for forests of interest. This scorecard of lichen species could be used by conservation biologists and forest mangers – the more lichen it contains that are associated with old-growth areas, the higher the forest’s conservation value. Their recommendation would see the development of lists of appropriate
lichen suites for forest types such as Carolinian, boreal or Great Lakes-St. Lawrence. Further steps would include training those responsible for assessing the forests, offering access
to the expertise of trained lichenologists and taking advantage of new technologies such as DNA barcoding.
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RESEARCH Dr. Brad de Young
Memorial researcher helping focus global attention on need for ocean observation A global team of researchers, including Dr. Brad de Young in the Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, is hoping to bring the world together in a co-ordinated effort to observe the Atlantic Ocean.
countries don’t work together to ensure the greatest value is obtained. AtlantOS aims to ensure that data is collected and prepared in a way that is useful to society, and scientists, and make it available as widely as possible.
Dr. de Young has helped develop the vision for AtlantOS, the All-Atlantic Ocean Observing System, which aims to establish a sustainable, multidisciplinary, multi-thematic system supported by countries around the Atlantic, building on the observing platforms, networks and systems already in place.
Dr. de Young has been part of a similar initiative in Canada, which led to the Canadian Integrated Ocean Observing System (CIOOS) led by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
AtlantOS is meant to fill a clear gap in ocean observing around co-ordination and integration. A lot of money and time is spent observing the Atlantic, but
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The Canadian goal for CIOOS was to co-ordinate ocean observing in Canada from the Pacific and Arctic to the Atlantic. The approach in AtlantOS was to bring together ocean observing across the Atlantic, east and west, north and south, building a basin-scale system.
Dr. Sherri Christian
Dr. Craig Purchase’s research into the toxicological effects of chemical dispersants on capelin reproduction shows capelin are at high risk if oil spills occur near spawning areas – and not just from the oil. Capelin are one of the most important fish species in the Northwest Atlantic, and significant in the Arctic, Pacific and Northeast Atlantic, being a major forage for cod, seabirds and marine mammals. However, their reproductive behaviour puts them at higher risk from oil spills than other fish.
Memorial University is set to join hospitals, cancer centres, universities and research institutes from across Canada to improve delivery of personalized and precision medicine to cancer patients.
During their short reproductive season, capelin form dense schools near shore areas and spawn on beaches or the sea floor. That makes them susceptible to oil spills that concentrate near shore.
The pan-Canadian Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network, led by the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI), is a network of regional and cross-country consortia to be made up of the Montreal Cancer Consortium in Quebec, the BC-Ontario pilot project, the Prairies Cancer Consortium and the Atlantic Canada Cancer Consortium (ACC) – led by Memorial researcher Dr. Sherri Christian.
Marine oil spills are frequently treated with dispersants that contain solvents and surfactants that separate floating oil into small droplets. The associate biology professor’s first experiment found chemically dispersed oil diminishes the ability of sperm to fertilize eggs, even though sperm were only exposed to the chemicals for a few seconds.
This unprecedented collaboration will bring together resources to improve cancer diagnoses, predict how different people will respond to treatments and deliver more personalized and effective treatments with fewer side-effects. Dr. Christian is an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and is cross-appointed with the Faculty of Medicine.
RESEARCH
MEMORIAL TO JOIN NATIONAL CANCER NETWORK
Capelin at risk from dispersants used to treat oil spills
To test the impact of contaminants on capelin embryo development, tens of thousands of embryos were exposed to solutions of crude oil in water; dispersant and oil in water; and dispersant in water alone. Certain concentrations of chemically dispersed oil were found to be lethal to embryos within 10 hours of exposure, and it completely impaired their survival if exposed longer. There were other long-term, non-lethal affects, as well. Dispersant alone also caused similar levels of embryotoxicity.
The national network has received seed funding of $150 million from the Government of Canada to create linkages between researchers and institutions across Canada and enable a team of dedicated cancer researchers to share knowledge, harness technology and champion collaboration. Partner institutions will have to match these funds to join the network. The ACC will focus on colorectal and lung cancers, the two most prevalent cancers in the region, and will include 40 researchers and clinicians from across the region, half of them from Newfoundland and Labrador.
Dr. Craig Purchase
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Tegan Padgett
STUDENTS
CITIZEN SCIENTISTS COLLECT MOSQUITO SAMPLES The Newfoundland and Labrador Mosquito Project has been using citizen scientists to collect mosquito samples in Newfoundland and Labrador and the French territory of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Tegan Padgett is the project’s manager and a master’s student in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science. She says the aim of the project, which is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, is to gain a better understanding of the distribution of mosquito species across the two regions, and what, if any, viral pathogens they may carry. The project team includes Dr. Atanu Sarkar, a public health specialist from the Division of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine; Dr. Andrew Lang and Dr. Marta Canuti, both virologists; Dr. Tom Chapman, an entomologist; and Kate Carson,
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a mosquito identification expert, all with the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science. Also on the team are Dr. Joel Finnis, a climate scientist from the Department of Geography, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Dr. Hugh Whitney, the retired chief veterinary officer with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. Ms. Padgett says the main goal is to try to get as many samples as possible, process them for identification and do a viral analysis to see what viruses they carry. After that, they’ll do a comparison to see if climate change is affecting the distribution and range of the mosquitos and viruses. She says the project is important because mosquitoes in this province are an understudied health concern.
It’s an image those who have seen it will never forget: the moment a submarine’s windows reveal their first glimpse of the ocean floor. Earth Sciences graduate student Sarah Moriarty got to experience the rare sight for herself on a research cruise north of the Galapagos Islands. She was invited aboard the R/V Atlantis, which also holds the human-occupied vehicle (HOV) Alvin. Dr. John Jamieson, Ms. Moriarty’s supervisor, joined her on the research cruise. The purpose of the five-week trip was to collect samples from active and dead hydrothermal vents located along a volcanic ridge at a depth of 2.5 kilometres to better understand how the microbial communities they contain change once a vent dies. Active vents are biological hotspots, attracting predators who feed off the animals who feed on the bacteria living in the vents. While underwater in the Pacific, Ms. Moriarty got to view a diverse cross-section of ocean life, including crabs, mussels and octopuses. Alvin usually launches right after breakfast and is back on deck by 5 p.m. The sub takes about 1.5 hours to get to the bottom of the ocean and another 1.5 hours to return to the surface. During the cruise, Dr. Jamieson collected rock samples so he could determine the age of dead chimneys while Ms. Moriarty was responsible for producing maps of each submersible dive and where samples were collected.
STUDENTS
Earth Sciences grad student dives off Galapagos in submersible Gabriel Sindol works with acids under a fume hood
PROVIDING VISUALLY-IMPAIRED STUDENTS THE TOOLS TO WORK INDEPENDENTLY Earth Sciences master’s student Gabriel Sindol is extremely near-sighted, which can make hands-on research difficult. He was born with retinopathy of prematurity, which caused blindness in his left eye and affected depth perception in his right eye. As a result, when he transfers acids into sample beakers using a pipette, he struggles to properly locate the openings. The issue is exacerbated by the fact that all of the surfaces in the trace metal clean laboratories he works in are translucent, or in shades of white, which provide very little colour contrast to aid with constraining depth perception. Pipetting acids is a potentially hazardous task, if done incorrectly, and Mr. Sindol needed to ensure he was not pipetting acid onto work surfaces, instead of into the vessels, or contaminating the pipette tip by touching it against sides of the vessel, a sleeve or another work surface. To solve the problem, Mr. Sindol worked with his supervisor, Dr. Mike Babechuk, on a design for a geochemical pipette station, which they took to Memorial’s Technical Services division. The technicians built a customizable fixed pipette station, featuring an all-plastic construction that is acid-resistant and compatible with the requirements of trace metal clean laboratories (ie. non-metal); a collapsible design for transport; a height adjustable arm to accommodate different sized containers underneath the pipette; a pivoting arm to allow for pipetting anywhere along an arc; a fixed dot on the base along the arc positioned directly below the pipette, which provides the contrast needed to slide a vessel underneath and be aligned with the pipette tip; and exchangeable pipette cradles machined for a variety of pipette styles and sizes.
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STUDENTS
Student organization in ‘upper echelon’ of geology students globally The Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) is the largest scientific organization for mineral deposits research in the world, with over 6,500 members from all over the globe. The group of students from the Department of Earth Sciences, who comprise the organization’s Memorial chapter, led by society president Carly Mueller, is finding great success. At its bi-weekly Beers ‘n’ Peers meeting, the group discusses geology papers over drinks, while industry meet and greet sessions foster important ties with the mining and exploration community in Newfoundland and Labrador. The group has attended Geological Survey of Newfoundland and Labrador talks, volunteered at the province’s Mineral Resource Review and attended Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Newfoundland and Labrador events. Members have also attended global SEG meetings and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention, building their connections to the global industry. Being a part of the international organization has also opened doors to student fellowships, research grants and field trip
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funds, with individual members receiving more than $50,000 from the SEG in 2017-19 to sponsor their own research. Additional funds from industry and government to sponsor networking events, out-of-province field trips, workshops and support visiting speakers has totalled more than $10,000. These dollars are being used to fund field work to study sites, travel to international laboratories to collect state-of-the-art data on samples and present research at conferences. Approximately 30 people annually receive fellowships and another 100 receive student research grants worldwide. Competition for these fellowships is intensely competitive and anyone who receives the top prize of $10,000, as a number of Memorial’s students have done, is considered to be in the upper echelon of economic geology students globally.
From left are Nikola Denisova, Gabe Sindol, Dennis Sánchez Mora, Robert King, Carly Mueller, and Maciej Pawlukiewicz at Hollinger Pit on the Abitibi Greenstone Belt field trip.
STUDENTS
Kathleen Prior and Adrianna Warren
York vision program ‘totally reshapes’ students’ career planning Two science students have new insight into the wide range of research areas involved in vision research. Fourth-year students Kathleen Prior, a cell and molecular biology minor, and Adrianna Warren, a cognitive psychology student, took part in York University’s annual undergraduate summer school on vision science. Hosted by York’s Centre for Vision Research (CVR), the competitive entry one-week, all-expenses-paid program included faculty presentations on current research topics in vision science, as well as hands-on experience in CVR laboratories. The program’s curriculum reflects the current research areas of the centre, including human visual perception, computer vision, machine
learning, visual neuroscience, 3D film immersive environments and disorders of vision. While most of the 35 student participants are from psychology programs, other majors benefit from being introduced to new areas they might never have considered researching. The program is designed for undergraduate students from around the world who are interested in pursuing a career in scientific research and who are planning to apply to graduate school in the fall, particularly those who are interested in vision science as an area of research.
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STUDENTS From left are Élie Pellerin and Carter McNelly at the Ocean Sciences Centre in Logy Bay.
OCEAN SCIENCES STUDENTS MAKE WAVES WITH NEW UNDERGRADUATE SOCIETY What do you do when you discover your department doesn’t have a student society? You create one, of course. The Department of Ocean Sciences has only recently become an academic unit. Early in his second-year, Carter McNelly, who is a member of the department’s first cohort of majors, reached out to his fellow students and began the process of electing an executive. Shortly after, OceanUS, the Ocean Sciences Undergraduate Society, was formed. Mr. McNelly became president and Élie Pellerin its treasurer. They say joining a student society has many benefits, from social activities to academic support. Dr. Annie Mercier, the department’s deputy head, says she was delighted the students formed a coherent group fairly quickly. They invited representatives from
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OceanUS to join departmental meetings and the undergraduate studies committee and encouraged them to participate in the departmental review, making sure the students have input on future decisions. The department is also working to build ties between faculty and undergrads, participating in social activities with the society, including trivia nights and mixers at the Ocean Sciences Centre (OSC) in Logy Bay and tours of all the labs in that facility. The Logy Bay location does create some unique challenges, however. Dr. Mark Abrahams, dean of the Faculty of Science at the time, provided a society room for OceanUS on campus and Dr. Mercier was successful in securing funding to install conferencing equipment in the space, which will allow them to link up to the OSC.
ALUMNI AND DEVELOPMENT
Chemistry-physics graduate follows ‘wise advice’ to graduation Kazakhstan native Andrey Zelenskiy originally planned to study chemistry and biology – but all that changed when he got to Memorial University. Dr. Jon Lien
The exceptional legacy of Dr. Jon Lien From developing a series of whale alarms designed to make noise and keep whales away from fishing nets to creating the Whale Research Group, an educational and conservation campaign running a marine animal release program provincewide, Dr. Jon Lien used his empathy, work ethic and education to leave a whale of a legacy.
In high school, he disliked physics. However, in his first year at Memorial, he had an opportunity to take Physics 1050 with Dr. James Munroe, who reintroduced Mr. Zelenskiy to the subject in a way that left him possessed with ‘unending curiosity and excitement.’ Mr. Zelenskiy was a constant visitor to Dr. Monroe’s office – not to get help, but to chat about physics and mathematics. Dr. Munroe advised him to consider the Faculty of Science’s chemistry-physics joint honours program. He decided to give it a try, and says it was the best decision he’s ever made. Andrey Zelenskiy
He also recognized the need for a partnership between biology and psychology to fully prepare students for thorough and comprehensive animal studies. This thinking led to the cognitive and behavioural ecology program (CABE) at Memorial. On April 14, 2010, at the age of 71, Dr. Lien passed away after a five-year battle with a mental illness. Shortly after his passing, a former colleague, Ted Rowe, chaired a committee that led to the creation of the Dr. Jon Lien Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to a full-time graduate student undertaking studies in marine animal behaviour, marine conservation, coastal community revitalization or a current fishery challenge. Rebecca LeDrew, a master of science student with the Department of Geography is the recipient of the 2018 scholarship. Her focus is on rural and cultural geography, specifically rural planning, development and sustainability issues in Newfoundland and Labrador. The play Between Breaths is another tribute to Dr. Lien’s life. Written by Dr. Robert Chafe and directed by Dr. Jillian Keiley, the play goes backwards in time, telling the story of Dr. Lien’s inspiring career. Artistic Fraud, the production company behind Between Breaths, has made a presentation to the scholarship from funds collected during performances of the play.
Over the past four years, Mr. Zelenskiy’s keen interest has won him 21 different scholarships and awards, as well as six summer research grants. But he says his greatest achievement was receiving the Canadian Society for Chemistry’s Silver Medal, presented annually to the top student at each Canadian university entering their final year of chemistry studies. For three summers, he worked with physics professor Dr. Guy Quirion studying the magnetic properties of materials at temperatures close to absolute zero. The results of Mr. Zelenskiy’s research projects were presented at several conferences, including the Canadian Undergraduate Physics Conference at Carleton University in 2017 and the University of Alberta in 2018, as well as the Atlantic Undergraduate Physics and Astronomy Conference at the University of New Brunswick, also in 2018.
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ALUMNI AND DEVELOPMENT
THE VALUE OF AN EDUCATION Dr. Liqin (Larry) Chen didn’t have much when he arrived in Canada in 1990 to begin a PhD at Memorial University. In fact, he spent the entire day walking around Pearson Airport with his suitcase because he couldn’t afford a hotel room while waiting for a flight to St. John’s. Thirty years later, he’s the head of TLC Pharmaceutical Standards, a multi-million-dollar international pharmaceutical company, and says he owes much of his success to his time at Memorial. “I work with many people who have great business skills, but it was my knowledge of science that enabled me to see opportunities that others missed,” said Dr. Chen. In recognition of the value of that education, Dr. Chen is donating $100,000 annually for 10 years, for a total of $1 million, to the Department of Chemistry to fund the Chen Graduate Scholarships in Chemistry.
on completion of his degree he was awarded the distinction of Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies. For the next 13 years, he held senior research positions at Xerox Research Centre of Canada and PDI Research Laboratories. In 2006, he returned to academia as a professor of chemistry at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Nanjing Tech University in China. However, in 2007, with his scientific background and the insight that an underserved, niche market existed in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Chen took a leap of faith and mortgaged his home to establish TLC Pharmaceutical Standards in Aurora, Ontario. The company currently has approximately 250 employees and sells its product to 75 countries around the world.
These include the Dr. Liqin Chen Graduate Entrance Awards, which provides $3,000 to eligible masters and PhD students; the Dr. Liqin Chen Graduate Excellence Awards, which provides $5,000 to doctoral students; and the Dr. Liqin Chen Thesis Writing Scholarships for doctoral students who are actively preparing their thesis but no longer receiving support from the School of Graduate Studies. “Memorial University and the people there helped me when I needed it the most,” he said. “I came to Canada with all travel expenses borrowed from family and friends. It was the place that changed my life and my family’s life.” “In my family, my parents always reminded us to be grateful – like an old Chinese saying: Return a favour many times more.” Dr. Chen received his PhD in Chemistry from Memorial in 1993, under the supervision of Dr. Laurence (Laurie) Thompson. The focus of his doctoral work was on complexation reactions of thio-ether based ligands designed to create polymetallic assemblies. “I have a lot of good memories from this time – how my supervisor helped me with chemistry, with my career and my family, and memories about other faculty members, staff and people in St. John’s,” he said. “They were very nice and helped a lot of overseas students like me.” Dr. Chen completed high quality research during his three years at Memorial, producing many new compounds with novel structures and properties. The high-caliber work resulted in 11 scholarly research papers in top journals and
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Tiffany Small
“I was bored with the routine job I would have to do every day until my retirement,” he said. “I also believed a company could do better if they listened to scientists more, which was lacking in the company I worked for before I resigned.” Dr. Chen recently purchased a former automobile manufacturing plant in Nanjing, China, which will serve as the company headquarters in that country, and he is also expanding to India and Brazil. Under his leadership, the company has led the field in the synthesis of pharmaceutical reference standards for biomedical and pharmaceutical research and has collaborated with international pharmaceutical companies to develop more effective drug entities from existing drug metabolites. TLC clients include biotechnology corporations, pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies, clinical and bioanalytical contract research organizations, manufacturers of specialty chemicals, as well as hospital researchers, universities and other research institutions.
Dr. Laurie Thompson and Dr. Liqin (Larry) Chen “I am person who wanted to do a good job, a perfect, job, since the first time I stepped into a chemistry laboratory,” said Dr. Chen. “It doesn’t matter what you study, which field you are in or what you do. If you are persistent enough, you will be successful one day.” For information on establishing scholarships, bursaries and awards at the Faculty of Science, please contact the faculty development officer at (709) 864-2696.
Eighty-year-old convocation gown worn by fourth-generation graduate When Tiffany Small crossed the St. John’s Arts and Culture stage to pick up her B.Sc.(Hons.) degree in biology (marine) in spring of 2019, she was literally carrying decades of family history on her shoulders. The 80-year-old black robe she was wearing had made an appearance at convocation many times before, worn by several members of her family. Ms. Small’s great-grandmother, Gladys Mae Pike of Freshwater, N.L., received the gown from her cousin, Louise Pike. She wore the gown when she graduated from Memorial University College in 1941 with a teacher’s certificate. At the time, all students were required to wear formal academic robes. Following graduation, Ms. Pike moved to Summerford, N.L., to teach. During her time there, she met and married Elmo Small. The couple had six children together: Cordell, Wayne, Rosemary, Christine, Robert and Donald, before Ms. Small died of tuberculosis in 1955 at age 33.
Cordell, Christine and Robert also attended Memorial. Cordell and Christine interspersed periods of study with teaching, as was normal at the time, while Robert, BA, B.Ed.’72, attended straight through to a degree and wore his mother’s black robe at his convocation ceremony. Cordell’s son, Keith, who is Ms. Small’s father, wore the gown when he received his diploma in electronics engineering technology from the Fisheries College (now Marine Institute) in 1985, as did Robert’s children, Mark (BFA’99) and Jillian (B.Ed.’02). Wayne’s son, Andrew (B.Eng.’97), and Rosemary’s daughter, Christine (BN’86), are also Memorial graduates. The gown has now begun to make appearances at convocation ceremonies of a fourth generation. Jillian’s son, Nick, recently wore the gown to his graduation ceremony at the College of the North Atlantic, and Keith’s daughter wore it to her own.
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ALUMNI AND DEVELOPMENT
A psychology graduate’s long road to a PhD Dr. Lynn Frizzell always intended to get a PhD, but “life happened.” While it may have taken her a few years longer than expected – 11 of them, to be exact – in 2019 she received her PhD in psychology (developmental) during fall convocation at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre. Dr. Frizzell completed her B.Sc. (Hons.) in psychology (behavioural neuroscience) at Memorial in 1990, and a master’s in 1995, under the supervision of Dr. Carolyn Harley. Her plan was to move from that into a PhD. However, she began to develop a severe allergy to the lab rats she worked with. She investigated programs at other universities, but then started a family and stayed home with her young children. Ultimately, she returned to Memorial to work as a research co-ordinator for the Centre of Excellence for Children and Adolescents with Special Needs, under the direction of Dr. Mary Courage and Dr. Patricia Canning. For the next decade they encouraged her to start her PhD.
Dr. Lynn Frizzell
This time, Dr. Frizzell decided to switch her focus to children. She completed courses in 2008 and her comprehensive exam in 2009. She wrote her paper and defended it, with distinction. Then she began a research project on whether background television interfered with children’s learning. She started collecting data at Memorial’s Childcare Centre and eventually included children from seven other daycares in the region. It took several years to recruit and test 132 children, analyze and write up the data. Finally, she submitted her thesis for examination in September 2018 and defended it in June 2019.
THE FREEDOM OF RESEARCH Dr. Donald Dingwell says there isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t think about Newfoundland and Labrador, its story and its place in the world. Currently a full professor and chair of mineralogy and petrology, and director of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, at the University of Munich, Dr. Dingwell grew up in Corner Brook and graduated from Memorial University in 1980 with a B.Sc. (Hons.), majoring in Earth sciences (geology/geophysics). “I was a member of the initial cohort at the West Coast College in Corner Brook,” he said. “That was an enormous privilege and I would especially thank my professors there from physics, chemistry, mathematics and geology, especially Gary Pedersen and Bill Iams.” In his fourth semester, he moved to St. John’s and found the transition from Corner Brook to St. John’s the first of many major adjustments, both organizationally and personally.
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“There I was adopted by Hugh Miller and then rapidly fell under the spell of the world class members of the Department of Earth Sciences, who are too numerous to list here,” said Dr. Dingwell. “Of course, Dave Strong, together with Hugh, was my mentor for my B.Sc. thesis and he opened up vistas to me marvellously.” A fascination for rocks, glass, melting and experiments, as well as the influence of many teachers in Corner Brook and St. John’s, drew him to the field and he went on to complete a PhD in Geology in 1984 from the University of Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Chris Scarfe. “In terms of content, I was inspired by the problems of Earth science and fascinated by the materials that control the Earth’s behaviour,” said Dr. Dingwell. “In terms of path, it was not so well planned, but I tremendously enjoy the freedom of research in an academic setting where one is basically also responsible for setting a research agenda.
FACULTY AND STAFF
Dr. Fran Kerton
RESEARCHER RECOGNIZED FOR PIONEERING SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS A chemistry professor at Memorial is excited and surprised to be named the 2019 recipient of the Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Award (Individual Winner), presented by the Chemical Institute of Canada.
The award recognizes an individual working in Canada who has made significant contributions to advance green chemistry and/or engineering, including the technical, human health and environmental benefits.
“Studying science convinced me that we are all scientists – what I mean is that the scientific method is an intrinsic part of being human, and the freedom of research and the contributions of science explain our past and secure our future.” Previously, Dr. Dingwell served as secretary general of the European Research Council and in 2020 he became an officer of the Order of Canada. In his free time, he tries to understand history and “what it can tell us about where we are today and where we might be headed,” and at work he enjoys the freedom of pursuing new ideas – which explains his advice to current Memorial students... “Never follow the crowd – always go your own way.”
Dr. Donald Dingwell
Dr. Fran Kerton is the second female, and the only person outside of Ontario and Quebec, to receive the honour. According to the institute, Dr. Kerton “enjoys a global reputation for her pioneering research on sustainable chemistry related to the oceans and has built significant collaborations with researchers in France, U.K., Singapore and the Canadian aquaculture industry.” Here at Memorial, Dr. Kerton established the Green Chemistry and Catalysis Group, where she is developing environmentally friendly technologies to reduce plastic pollution and food waste generation. Her research focuses on understanding how carbon dioxide and waste from fish processing, such as mussel shells, can be used to make new materials. Dr. Kerton says she feels the national honour will help put the green chemistry and catalysis group at Memorial on the international map. The Chemical Institute of Canada is a national not-for-profit organization committed to advancing the chemical sciences and engineering through its three constituent societies.
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Chemistry professor receives national honour for studentfocused work The Department of Chemistry’s Dr. Chris Flinn received the Chemical Institute of Canada’s Canadian Society for Chemistry Faculty Advisor Award. The award is presented to a faculty advisor who has demonstrated exceptional performance working with students. Recipients can only be nominated by members of their student chapter. Dr. Flinn came to Memorial from Nova Scotia in 1984. He spent several years as the senior science faculty advisor, something he says was good preparation for becoming deputy head of the department. The administrative position allowed him to use his skills to contribute to the smooth functioning of the department and help students in a broader sense, and not just chemistry majors. Dr. Flinn feels that being deputy head has made him a more effective advisor for students – adding to his special joy in teaching. Sorarya Moore is the student president of Memorial’s Chemistry Society, which is also the university’s Canadian Society of Canada student chapter. She co-wrote the nomination letter along with current and past members of the society. She said Dr. Flinn advised and assisted the student chapter in fundraising, community outreach and conference participation activities. Dr. Flinn has also been the co-ordinator for the London International Youth Science Forum since 1991. The program provides funds for students to travel to England to participate in enrichment activities with other young scientists. He was made honorary vice-president in 2005 because of his longtime efforts in sending Memorial students to the forum. In addition to his service, the students noted that Dr. Flinn was a gifted and dedicated lecturer and that he was always approachable and more than happy to help out. Dr. Flinn recently retired from the department after 35 years of service.
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Dr. Chris Flinn
FACULTY AND STAFF
Dr. John Brosnan and Dr. William Driedzic (centre) with members of the Faculty of Science.
SCIENCE FACULTY MEMBERS RECEIVE HIGH HONOUR Four Memorial University professors have been accorded the designation professor emeritus/ emerita, an honour reserved for highly distinguished faculty members. The new professores emeriti are Dr. Ali Engin Aksu, Department of Earth Sciences; Dr. John T. Brosnan, Department of Biochemistry; Dr. William Driedzic, Department of Ocean Sciences; and Dr. Raymond A. Poirier, Department of Chemistry. A professor emeritus or emerita is a retired faculty member who has served at least 10 years as a regular
full-time faculty member and held the rank of professor upon retirement. The prime criterion for nomination is a sustained and superlative record as a scholar, as a teacher or as an academic administrator or any combination of these. Candidates for the rank of professor emeritus/ emerita are nominated by their academic units and, as with candidates for honorary degrees, the nominations are then reviewed by the Senate’s Committee on Honorary Degrees and Ceremonial. The candidates are approved by the university’s Senate and Board of Regents.
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FACULTY AND STAFF
Memorial honours outstanding faculty and staff Ernest Stapleton
Dr. Gary Kachanoski recognized outstanding educators, researchers and staff members during the 2019 President’s Awards ceremony held at Signal Hill Campus, including a number of people from the Faculty of Science. Dr. Travis Fridgen, Department of Chemistry, received the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, recognizing teaching excellence in the university community. Dr. Valerie Booth, Department of Biochemistry, received the Outstanding Graduate and Postgraduate Supervision award. The award recognizes exemplary efforts to foster success in the research and scholarship of their graduate or postgraduate students and to advance their students’ success in their profession.
Dr. Valerie Booth
Dr. Scott MacLachlan, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, received the President’s Award for Outstanding Research, which recognizes young researchers who have made significant contributions to their scholarly disciplines. Ernest Stapleton of the Faculty of Science Supply Chain Management group received the President’s Award for Exemplary Service. The award is presented to employees who have demonstrated outstanding service and/or who have made significant contributions to the university community beyond that normally expected for their positions.
Dr. Scott MacLachlan
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FACULTY AND STAFF
Dr. Rick Goulding
Students, staff and faculty recognized at Faculty of Science awards The dean of the Faculty of Science recognized 283 students representing the top 10 per cent in the faculty during the annual Dean’s Awards ceremony.
Biology student Tiffany Small and computer science student Freddie Pike each received the Science Co-op Student of the Year Award.
During the event, Dr. Mark Abrahams presented the Dean of Science Book Prize to Emily Benteau, Biology; Zoe Breen, Biochemistry; Sarah Cross, Psychology; Sophie Drolet, Ocean Sciences; David Drover, Earth Sciences; John Healey, Physics; Ben Morrison, Computer Science; Meghan Power, Geography; Neil Power, Economics; Brady Ryan, Mathematics and Statistics; and Pauline Seviour, Chemistry.
Dr. Abrahams also honoured Dr. Rick Goulding, the undergraduate academic program officer with the Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, with the Dean of Science Distinguished Service Award and Dr. Annie Mercier, the academic program officer and deputy head of Ocean Sciences, with the Dean of Science Distinguished Scholar Medal. The Dean of Science Distinguished Teacher Award was presented to Dr. Ronald Haynes, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
He also presented the Lou Visentin Award, the highest award for undergraduate achievement in the Faculty of Science, to 20 students who have held a place on the Dean’s List for four consecutive years.
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