ReserachLIFE Summer 2010

Summer 2010 | Volume 2

ResearchLIFE University of Manitoba

Delving Deep Into Arctic Ice

inside: On the Flow Edge Strengthening the North Disposable Cameras, Enduring Images

BOOKS New Titles From Leading Researchers

Message

from the Vice-President (Research)

The Winter 2010 Olympics in Vancouver marked a first for Canada—the first time we won Gold in our home country. This issue of ResearchLIFE marks a first as well: our first theme issue.

Our theme centres around the northern research strength at the University of Manitoba. This strength exists across disciplines and some of those are highlighted in this issue. In fitting with the theme—and another first—is the announcement in May of the first Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) for the University of Manitoba, in Arctic Geomicrobiology and Climate Change: depicted on this issue’s cover.

This issue is another first in that it is the first to be published since winning the Gold CCAE Prix D’Excellence award from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education for this publication.

We continue to strive to meet the highest standard possible in every issue and I’m sure you will find this issue is no exception.

As you read through the many northern research stories, whether they be about our new CERC Søren Rysgaard or the work of Peter Kulchyski in the Faculty of Arts or the extensive medical services, education and research conducted by the J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit, you will note the dedication and excitement that these individuals bring to the work they are doing.

Our new and renewed Canada Research Chairs, now totalling 49 at the University of Manitoba, also reflect this diversity and commitment. Verena Menec’s research on age-friendly communities and the addition of Debbie Kelly as the new CRC in Comparative Cognition add to the research milieu and strengthen the future possibilities for collaborations across disciplines.

I invite you to read on and become acquainted with the many exciting endeavours faculty, staff and students are undertaking in the area of northern research.

—Digvir S. Jayas, PhD, PEng, PAg

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SUMMER 2010 VOLUME 2

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Delving Deep into Arctic Ice The new Canada Excellence Research Chair will build on the 20-year excellence of the University of Manitoba Arctic system scientists and begin a new era: the exploration of sea-ice at the micro scale and the huge implications of climate change.

BY KATIE CHALMERS-BROOKS

Inside 18

25

29

9 ONE MIND. MANY INSIGHTS. Dr. Søren Rysgaard, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Arctic Geomicrobiology and Climate Change

18 On the Flow Edge The 40-year history of the J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit in the Faculty of Medicine—their history of service, education and research and the impact they have had and continue to have on the health and lives of northern peoples. BY JANINE HARASYMCHUK

25 Strengthening the North Researchers Peter Kulchyski, Chris Trott and Ian Mauro document Indigenous perspectives on what’s happening to the Arctic ecosystem.

BY KATIE CHALMERS-BROOKS Happenings..................... 3

Viewpoint...................... 22

Kudos............................. 6

Spotlight on Students.... 23

Centres & Institutes........ 8

Creative Works............. 29

Hot off the Presses........ 15

On the Horizon.............. 33

Ideas to Innovation......... 17

Just the Facts............... 34

ResearchLIFE RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA Research Communications & Marketing 540 Machray Hall Winnipeg, MB Canada R3T 2N2 Tel 204-474-7300 • Fax 204-261-0325 ResearchLIFE@umanitoba.ca Vice-President (Research) Digvir S. Jayas Editor Janine Harasymchuk Design Relish Design Studio Ltd.

Contributors Katie Chalmers-Brooks Janine Harasymchuk Matthew Asplin C. Emdad Haque Dan Leitch Miguel Marchildon Photography Cover: Ian McCausland Doug Barber Rob Blaich Katie Chalmers-Brooks Megan Harasymchuk J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit Bob Talbot Member of the University Research Magazine Association: www.urma.org umanitoba.ca/research ISSN# 1918-144

Happenings

Biopharmaceuticals

Fighting Disease When disease strikes, our body’s first line of defence is typically the bloodstream, where antibodies are created to counter-attack any uninvited guests. But sometimes these invaders go undetected and disease takes hold; in the case of cancer, tumors develop.

A growing area of treatment for cancer and other potentially deadly disorders is biopharmaceuticals, which provide patients with the disease-killing antibodies they aren’t producing but require to fight back. Generally, conventional pharmaceuticals are chemical-based which can more easily be manufactured than biopharmaceuticals. The latter involves growing cells in cultures, a process that makes it more challenging to maintain consistency.

These drugs, made of therapeutic human

monoclonal antibodies (known as Mabs), are so in demand their global sales jumped from $300 million in 1997 to $25 billion in 2007.

Microbiology professor Michael Butler is launching an extensive research network, dubbed MabNet, to establish the technology for the large-scale manufacture of Mabs. With $5 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the network will initially involve 20 professors based in nine Canadian universities in collaboration with 12 Canadian biotechnology/ pharmaceutical companies and three government institutions. The MabNet plan is to integrate efforts from key players in Canadian biotechnology from industry, government and academia.

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Securing adequate food is something most of us take for granted. We may be more familiar with the struggle to keep from overindulging than the struggle for access. But the reality is more than 100,000 Manitobans are considered “food insecure.” Rural families with low farm incomes are going without; northern communities face high food prices; and Indigenous and northern communities are often unable to obtain traditional food. To some, these challenges may seem insurmountable.

Stéphane McLachlan, environmental science and studies professor in the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of the Environment, Earth, and Resources, received funding ($1 million) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council—Community-University Research Alliance. McLachlan and his Manitoba Alternative Food Research Alliance (MAFRA) partners will spend the next five years facilitating innovative, grassroots research to investigate issues associated with just and sustainable food systems in the province. MAFRA involves researchers from the University of Manitoba, University College of the North, and the Rural Development Institute of Brandon University as well as the Universities of Saskatchewan, Calgary, and Victoria. In addition, 52 community organizations and NGOs are participating from urban, rural, and northern regions of Manitoba and from elsewhere in Canada.

Food Justice

Human Wrongs: Making Things Right

—Excerpt from “Thinking a Difference: The Impact of Human Rights Research” by Warren Cariou, a synopsis of the Human Wrongs: Making Things Right public forum. Full synopsis available online at < umanitoba.ca/research/ human_wrongs.html >

Bob Talbot

“How should we respond when individuals or entire groups of people suffer torture, imprisonment or degradation? What are the most appropriate and effective ways of stopping the human rights abuses and crimes against humanity that have occurred so frequently in recent history? A large group of students, professors and interested members of the public gathered at the University of Manitoba on March 31 to hear keynote speaker David Matas, Winnipeg human rights lawyer and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and three of the university’s leading researchers discuss their perspectives on these crucial questions of human rights in a symposium entitled ‘Human Wrongs: Making Things Right.’ This event, jointly sponsored by Royal Society of Canada (RSC): The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada, and the University of Manitoba, introduced the audience to the complexities and the crucial importance of human rights research in the contemporary world, where individual and collective rights all too often bump up against entrenched power structures and forces of dehumanization. Audience members were moved and challenged by these presentations, and they left with a new appreciation of the ways in which human rights scholarship can have a vital impact on people’s lives, their freedom and their visibility.”

Speakers at the Human Wrongs forum (top) David Matas (bottom l-r) Jessica Senehi, Karen Busby

Prairie Perspective on Indian Residential Schools, Truth and Reconciliation An academic conference organized by the University of Manitoba Centre for Human Rights Research Planning Initiative took place during the First National Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) event held in Winnipeg from June 16 to 18. Entitled Prairie Perspective on Indian Residential Schools, Truth and Reconciliation, the conference included

panels and presentations on such topics as Truth, Memory and Perception; Cree Collective Memory; Pathways to Healing; Lessons Learned from Past Truth Commissions; and Colonialism and Reconciliation.

The TRC event also included the tri-provincial research network Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse (RESOLVE) who were on hand to

collect statements directly from former residential school students and others as part of the larger TRC process.

Over the three days and throughout the summer, up to 20,000 participants will be interviewed.

This is part of a pilot project and may lead to a national project after this initial phase is completed and assessed.

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Happenings

Megan Harasymchuk

CIHR Café Scientifique (l-r) Maureen Heaman, Margaret Haworth-Brockman, Randy Fransoo

Mind the Gap Women in Manitoba go to the doctor more often than men, but does that mean they’re healthier? Research tells us men have higher rates of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes,

(l-r) Gary Wensel (Cosmopolitan Foundation), Jonathan McGavock, Gary Glavin [associate vice-president (research), University of Manitoba]

Cutting Teen Diabetes Risk Jonathan McGavock, assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba and research scientist at the Manitoba Institute of Child Health, is the recipient of the Cosmopolitan Foundation of Canada Inc.’s annual award for diabetes research. McGavock will be studying the impact of rigorous physical activity on risk factors for Type 2 diabetes in overweight adolescents. The study aims to find the optimal amount

of time and intensity of physical activity required to improve insulin sensitivity and ultimately allow overweight Canadian youth to modify their lifestyles to avoid development of Type 2 diabetes. Every year, the Cosmopolitan Foundation Canada Inc. member clubs undertake fundraising activities to support research projects in search for a cure for diabetes. The foundation has granted approximately $1 million to foster diabetes research.

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while women are more likely to develop hypertension, arthritis, and hip fracture. Why do these differences exist? How do gender (society’s ideas about men and women) and sex (the biology of our bodies) affect our health? And how can we better design health care and health policy to meet the unique needs of Manitoba’s women and men?

These were some of the questions discussed at the Café Scientifique held on June 2 at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)—Institute of Gender and Health (IGH) jointly hosted the event with the Office of the Vice-President (Research). The evening’s moderator was IGH scientific director Joy Johnston; the panel of experts included Maureen Heaman (Faculty of Nursing), Randy Fransoo (Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, Faculty of Medicine), and Margaret Haworth-Brockman, executive director of the Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence.

The U of M hosts a series of CIHR Café Scientifiques at McNally Robinson Booksellers each year since 2008. These provide an opportunity for members of the community to interact directly with scientists and discuss their research.

Best Evidence Network

Journalists communicate to the public about a wide range of health policy issues, yet it can be challenging for them to find reliable, evidence-based information. A new project led by Noralou Roos, professor in the Faculty of Medicine’s Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, will link journalists with the academics who research and publish reports on these issues.

The network will create an accessible, credible, evidence-based resource for members of the media covering topics in health policy, including those that are the most controversial. The three-year project is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Partnerships for Health System Improvement ($370,800) and the Manitoba Health Research Council ($97,000). It involves working with journalists to determine the type and format of information that would be useful to them when reporting on health policy issues; and building a research database and a network of researchers prepared to work with the media.

KUDOS

Rising Stars

Seven rising stars in research at the University of Manitoba recently received the 2009 Rh Awards. The awards were established in 1973 by the Winnipeg Rh Institute, now the Winnipeg Rh Institute Foundation and each consists of a $10,000 award to conduct further research. These honours are given to academic staff members who are in the early stages of their careers and who display exceptional innovation, leadership and promise in the fields of applied sciences, creative works, health sciences, humanities, interdisciplinary studies, natural sciences and the social sciences.

Applied Sciences Mark Tachie, mechanical and manufacturing engineering, studies the turbulent flows and fluid flow in porous media. He is among an elite group of international researchers working at the forefront of rough-wall turbulence research and has collected bench-mark data in this field. He also tackles applied engineering research and analyzed the effects of recirculation of flow on the performance of some of Manitoba Hydro’s hydraulic turbines.

Creative Works Laura Loewen, music, works in the area of collaborative piano and vocal coaching. A versatile pianist, she is a sought-after partner and has worked with many of Canada’s finest international performers. As a vocal coach, Loewen has developed a unique approach that has endeared her to students and colleagues at training programs across the country.

She guides her singers to use languages in a way that fully conveys the dramatic and musical intent of the poet and composer.

Health Sciences Davinder Jassal, internal medicine, the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences a joint institute of the University of Manitoba and St. Boniface Hospital Research, does research in cardiovascular medicine. His

laboratory’s focus is on evaluating the role of cardiovascular imaging when examining the effects of marathon running on cardiac remodeling (which is a physical or functional change to the heart).

Humanities Esyllt Jones, history, addresses issues related to public health, social inequality and epidemics.

She is a specialist in the social history of twentieth-century Canada, and has made significant and original contributions to our understanding of Canadian history. She was the first author to fully explore how the flu epidemic of 1918 was strongly related to the Winnipeg General Strike, in her award-winning book Influenza 1918: Disease, Death and Struggle in Winnipeg.

Interdisciplinary Javier Mignone, family social sciences, does research in the area of social development and Indigenous health. He is recognized nationally and internationally for his work on social capital (connections within and between social networks) as a determinant of health and well-being—in particular, as it relates to First Nations communities. He developed a related

framework that has been adopted by the Assembly of First Nations and a measurement technique now used by researchers in the United States and Australia.

Natural Sciences Johan van Lierop, physics and astronomy, is a pioneering materials scientist in the field of nanomagnetism (the magnetism of nanoparticles and thin films). His expertise in understanding how magnetism is altered through dimensional confinement applies directly to a wide range of technologies that are based on nanoscale magnetic materials. He studies exchange bias, a technologically important phenomena that is a fundamental to all modern magnetic sensors, including those found in computer hard drives.

Social Sciences Andrew Woolford, sociology, explores conflict resolution and restorative justice. Colleagues have praised him for his inventive approach and say his work brings a new dimension and direction to the field.

He has achieved national and international recognition not only as an expert on colonial genocide and Indigenous peoples in Canada but also as a scholar of the criminology of genocide, restorative justice, and reparations politics. n

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Kudos Debbie Kelly, CRC in Comparative Cognition

Aging from a Bird’s Eye View

ResearchLIFE takes home the GOLD

Rob Blaich

ResearchLIFE magazine won the Prix D’Excellence Gold Medal for “Best Magazine under $100,000: ResearchIntensive Institutions” from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE). The CCAE is the national organization for university advancement profes-

sionals in Canada. The award is based on the two issues published in 2009. Reviewers commented on the superior photography, design and layout, and “writing that draws the reader in.” Recognition for the award goes to editor Janine Harasymchuk; writers Sean Moore and Lindsay Fagundes; photography contributions by Tamara Nathaniel, Doug Barber and Bill Peters; and graphic design by Suzanne Braun at Relish Design Studios Ltd.

As we get older, our ability to process spatial information declines. Debbie Kelly, the university’s newest Canada Research Chair (CRC) in the Faculty of Arts, will explore comparative cognition: investigating what aging does to our brains, specifically how it affects the way we navigate our way around—and she’ll use pigeons to do so.

With the addition of Kelly, the U of M now holds 49 CRCs. A handful of those were recently renewed, including CRC in Healthy Aging held by Verena Menec, who looks at aging from a different perspective, that of the relationship between the physical and social environment that people live in and their health. Also renewed were: James Blanchard (CRC in Epidemiology and Global Public Health), Harvey Max Chochinov (CRC in Palliative Care), and Peter Loewen (CRC in Protein Chemistry).

For more information on the CRCs, go to this issue’s Just the Facts page (inside back cover).

Prestigious Appointment Lorrie Kirshenbaum, Canada Research Chair in Molecular Cardiology and principal investigator at the Institute of Cardiovascular Science a joint Institute of the University of Manitoba and St. Boniface Hospital Research, has been chosen as chairperson of the Myocardial Ischemia and Metabolism Study Section at the Center for Scientific Review, at the National Institutes of Health based in Bethesda, Maryland. Candidates are selected based on their competence and achievement in their scientific disciplines.

The appointment will have him contributing to biomedical research efforts in North America in an even greater way. Kirshenbaum is internationally recognized for developing ways to manipulate cell growth at the genetic level, which will impact the way we fight heart disease and cancer. n

CRC in Molecular Cardiology, Lorrie Kirshenbaum

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Centres & institutes

More than 40 years of research contributions to

SUSTAINABILITY

of our natural resources and the environment SUSTAINABILITY OF OUR ECOSPHERE AND NATURAL RESOURCES IS VITAL TO THE LONGEVITY OF HUMAN SPECIES as well as to the socioeconomic and cultural well-being of all societies. Providing stewardship to the natural systems needs human understanding and decisions including natural resources and environmental policies and actions regarding resource development, use and conservation. Since 1968, the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) has played a distinctive role at the University of Manitoba through its interdisciplinary activities and its participation in networks dealing with natural resources and environmental issues in Manitoba, Canada, and the world.

The Institute is one of the pioneering research and academic units in Canada, and has contributed to the training of over 800 graduates who are now active in the natural resources and environmental fields in Manitoba and throughout the world, in both the public and private sectors.

The instituteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission is to create, preserve, communicate and apply interdisciplinary knowledge in areas of resource and environmental management, and thereby contribute to the well-being of the people of Manitoba, Canada and the world. Its fundamental characteristics include a broad and distinctive view of management that encompasses planning, policy making, decision making, implementation and evaluation; a focus on sustainable resource and environmental management, the integrity of social-ecological systems; community-focused and participatory approaches to resource and environmental management; holistic, interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches, including an examination of ethics, equity and social justice; integration of theory and practice; and, linking knowledge with real-world problems to respond to emerging societal needs. NRIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research

programs cut across conventional disciplinary lines to emphasize linkages between social and natural systems, environmental policy, and decision-making. They are focused on integrating the environment with the economy, livelihoods, and the well-being of people.

Over the past four decades, the institute has earned an international credibility and reputation for its high standards of excellence in interdisciplinary research on natural resources and environmental management. The instituteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research has had long-lasting impacts on how natural resources and environment are used, managed and conserved in Manitoba, and beyond.

Some examples of how the research activities of the NRI has contributed to the policy and decision-making processes of the City of Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba include: establishment of Manitoba Product Stewardship Corporation, provisions for recycling of municipal waste in Winnipeg, implementation of sustainable Red River Basin management policy, enhancement of adaptation options to climate change for the Prairie farmers, and the collaboration between First Nation communities and public institutions to ensure incorporation on Indigenous knowledge in land and water resource management. Researchers of the NRI are now working in many places around the world including Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States to find answers to the questions of how to make our social-ecological systems more sustainable and what kind of knowledge and practice are required to ensure a sustainable future for the forthcoming generations.

To learn more about the Natural Resources Institute, visit < umanitoba.ca/institutes/natural_resources >. n summer 2010 | ResearchLIFE 8

Katie Chalmers-Brooks

Mind One MANY insights On May 17, 2010 the Canada Excellence Research Chair program announced Dr. Søren Rysgaard as the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Arctic Geomicrobiology and Climate Change. Greenland’s distinguished geomicrobiologist Dr. Søren Rysgaard will lead the 100-plus team from the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Earth Observation Science in the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources. This world-renowned group will be the first to explore the Arctic on a micro scale.

9 Research ResearchLIFE LIFE| Summer | SUMMER2009 2010

Rysgaard was associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark and head of Greenland’s Climate Research Center, which he established. He also served as professor at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. Rysgaard holds a PhD in biology from Aarhus University in Denmark. His research interests include marine microbiology and biogeochemistry, benthic-pelagic coupling (the cycling of nutrients between the bottom sediments and the overlying water column), and the structure and function of Arctic marine ecosystems in global change.

What follows is an excerpt from

a conversation with Søren Rysgaard:

I think the strength of the CERC is the movement of scientists back and forth between Canada and Greenland and the Arctic and Greenland Ice Sheet, and also the cooperation between the two groups will ultimately open doors to unexpected possibilities.

The exciting thing about the CERC from my point of view, besides the funding, is the team—I am very happy about the team. The 100 plus persons at the University of Manitoba added with 50 persons in Greenland makes for endless possibilities in the research. With all these minds coupled with the large network in Greenland, Denmark and Europe, the opportunity to have the big team feeding good ideas to students is enormous.

Canadian researchers will be going to Greenland and have access to the Greenland Climate Research Centre in Nuuk.

The centre has a lot of advantages, the primary one being able to do research year-round in modern facilities and have logistical support. Besides the sea ice and marine research, there is the added advantage for the many geological scientists at the University of Manitoba—as Greenland is something of a geologists’ paradise.

I also think that in the future we should do more research in the waters between Greenland and Canada. There are a lot of things that we don’t know. The increasing commercial interest in the region (gas and oil) and the rapidly changing climate makes scientific cooperation and baseline studies in this region very important.

With the merging of the group in CERC we can look at things in different scales. By adding the knowledge we already have we can come up with new things not done before.

When it comes to sea ice there is a lot to learn. It will take a university to have the variety of minds [knowledge] to look at it from different angles and understand what is happening with the sea ice and how it affects the planet.

IPY [International Polar Year] has opened up the hopes of putting long-term observatories around the Arctic in strategic places. This would allow for routine measurements year round. We still lack knowledge about the seasonal and interannual variability of many parameters in the Arctic. All the data should be freely accessible and you could have multidisciplinary teams working on it. It is a direction that I’d like to see movement towards. n

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FEATURE

by Katie Chalmers-Brooks

Delving Deep into Arctic Ice As University of Manitoba recruit Søren Rysgaard’s plane touched down in Winnipeg this spring, he felt a comfort settle in. A couple of young people sitting nearby declared how happy they were to be home. Rysgaard, one of the top geomicrobiologists on the planet, took their enthusiasm as a sign of good things to come.

But even before the tires met the tarmac, the Denmark-born scientist was off to a promising start. The 45-year-old, who specializes in sea ice and is head of the Greenland Climate Research Center, was chosen as one of only 19 Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERCs). This new federal government grant program recognizes stand-out research groups at Canadian universities—in this case, the team at the U of M’s Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS)—and provides them with the money to recruit the world’s leading scientific minds and take their investigations to the next level. The nominating university receives $10 million

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in research funding over the next seven years. The province of Manitoba, donor Clayton Riddell, and the U of M itself chipped in too, bringing the total funding amount for the project to $35 million.

“The University of Manitoba was so attractive to me because they’re good at thinking big,” said two-metre-tall Rysgaard, who in May was appointed the CERC in Arctic Geomicrobiology and Climate Change.

With this new cash, the CEOS team is set to roughly triple in size to 100-plus people. “We are now considered the world authority on sea ice research,” says U of M’s David Barber, CEOS director

and Canada Research Chair in Arctic System Science.

Rysgaard admits he knew little about his new prairie home beforehand—besides that it’s flat and has “lots of lakes and trees”—but was very familiar with the cutting-edge Arctic climate change research done by Barber and his colleagues. Earlier this year Barber revealed the groundbreaking finding that sea ice is disappearing at a much faster rate than anyone previously thought. He discovered that satellites were getting fooled by new “rotten” ice, and were mistakenly identifying this surface as established, multi-year ice. Based on the satellite information, scientists believed sea

Ian McCausland

summer 2010 | ResearchLIFE 12

ice was recovering, but in fact the opposite is true.

In 2007, Barber launched the four-year Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study, one of the world’s largest ever climate change research expeditions. More than 350 scientists from over two dozen countries boarded the research icebreaker (NGCC) Amundsen in the Beaufort Sea to figure out why the ice is melting and what that means for the planet. They looked at the Arctic on a large scale, from an environmental science approach, uncovering clues about sea ice’s role in global warming.

Now, armed with Rysgaard’s expertise, for the first time the CEOS team will examine sea ice at a microscopic level.

This area of research is relatively new, Rysgaard explains. Having grown up a curious kid and the son of book publish-

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ers, Rysgaard visited the Arctic for the first time in the early 1990s and realized a lot goes on between the tiny organisms inside its sea ice and in the seafloor. He was the first to discover that even organisms living without oxygen—anaerobic bacteria— are active in sea ice.

“I was astonished that all the life in the Arctic on a microscale, the processes, the bacteria—everything—was not as I had read in the textbooks. There was a lot of activity. It’s not the case that when it is cold, nothing happens, which is what people were saying 20 years ago.

We discovered this was not at all the case,” says Rysgaard.

This chemical and microbial activity in the ice is so important because it affects the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. An excess of this greenhouse gas is contributing to global warming—and the rate of climate change is on the rise. Rysgaard’s recent research suggests sea ice is key to removing CO2 from the air so the fact the ice is disappearing is particularly problematic.

However, more CO2 in the ocean is not without its repercussions since this sequestration changes the water’s pH value, which has a snowball effect on the organisms that live in the sea and ultimately the entire foundation of the food chain. “You never know what you’ve started,” Rysgaard says.

Katie Chalmers-Brooks

Doug Barber

feature To complicate matters, the chemical reactions within the ice might also be the source of some CO2 production. “But we don’t know to what extent, and where it goes,” says Rysgaard, who will be studying the brine channels of the ice, which are comparable to its veins. In particular, he’s interested in the salt concentration and the resulting chemical reactions that happen in these channels. The micro-organisms that live here also play a role.

These tiny interactions have “huge implications” when you look at the larger climate change picture, Rysgaard says, noting they’ll analyze different types of Arctic ice, originating from various bodies of water in the world. At the university’s Sea-Ice Environmental Research Facility, now being built in Smart Park, researchers will be able to grow ice under controlled conditions, in an outdoor pool. It’s the only facility of its kind in the country and will allow scientists to identify the origins of Arctic waters.

Rysgaard will bridge CEOS and researchers from the Geological Sciences Department within the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources. These geoscientists investigate materials, minerals, crystals and chemicals on the earth’s surfaces. Faculty dean Norm Halden considers sea ice “one of the most important minerals in Canada today” and says it serves a major role in protecting our planet. “If the ice disappears, where does the CO2 go?” he asks.

It’s vital that researchers study the North “in a range of scales,” adds Barber, who has witnessed a dramatic decline in sea ice since his career began in 1981.

Roughly two million square kilometres of ice has vanished – and its disappearance is accelerating. “In the last 12 years, things are really starting to speed up and this is a byproduct of what’s going on with global warming.” Barber likens the ice in the Arctic to trees in the rainforest. “If you go and cut down trees in the rainforest, the ecosystem is affected. Exactly the same thing is happening here. If you remove the ice, change its characteristics, change its timing, it’s just like cutting the trees down.”

Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews, congratulates Søren Rysgaard as vice-president (research) Digvir Jayas looks on.

BOOKS

Tamara Nathanie

David Barber

Quote here

country, located east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Some predict this melting ice, due to global warming, could in the next few centuries raise sea level around the world by as much as six metres, wiping out coastal cities and islands.

The CERC will allow professors and students from the U of M to go back and forth to the Greenland Climate Change Center, where Rysgaard will remain director. He says he has always encouraged his Greenland research team to work hard together but also go sailing or have a barbecue, together. Barber says Rysgaard is a “team builder.”

A father of six (age two to 22), Rysgaard describes himself as “quite uncomplicated.”

He also says he’s not the type to waste any time. “I get very easily enthusiastic about things and I act very quickly. I don’t wait until tomorrow. I do it immediately. I can work very hard for a very long time without much sleep. People can sometimes think that it’s a little fanatical,” he jokes.

Rysgaard appears passionate about doing something to help the Earth, having grown up in a country, Denmark, with lots of snow that over the years transformed into rain. “We have to understand

the climate system. We simply can’t afford not to.”

He anticipates finding answers— and more questions—the deeper they delve during the next seven years of the CERC. “I’m quite sure we’ll run into lot of things we didn’t know about,” Rysgaard says. “The CERC gives enough means and enough time to do it properly and to do it big and integrated and that’s important.” n CCGS Amundsen in the Arctic during International Polar Year-Circumpolar Flaw Lead studies.

David Barber

Once the ocean absorbs the CO2, this greenhouse gas sinks to the bottom and circulates around the globe. “So what we’re studying here in the Arctic is not just connected to the Arctic but it is also connected to the rest of the planet,” says Barber. Conveniently, the ocean floor and its organisms—also known as the benthic zone— is a specialty of Rysgaard’s.

Barber says expanding their Arctic studies into geomicrobiology makes perfect sense since “the really big questions concerning the future of our planet” involve the interface between the geosciences (the Earth) and microbiology (the organisms that run elemental cycling).

“The building blocks of our planet come from how organisms interact with materials to create nutrients. Those nutrients are then used by the ecosystem. That’s the building blocks of all life on our planet.

That’s how it works,” he says. “And in the Arctic, we don’t understand that very well yet. It is now in a state of change because the sea ice is changing so that whole system is in change.”

Another important piece of the climate change puzzle is the Greenland ice sheet, which covers about 80 per cent of the

summer 2010 | ResearchLIFE 14

Hot off the presses

Two Ways of Knowing (University of Manitoba) David Barber • environment and geography and Doug Barber

The photo book Two Ways of Knowing was released at the Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) System Gala at the opening of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra New Music Festival on February 6, 2010 (see page 32). It gives the perspective of the merging of science and traditional knowledge during the International Polar Year. It takes readers through the astonishing images of the Arctic photographed

by Doug Barber, and complemented by essays on the future of the region by both the people who live there and the scientists conducting their research on board the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Amundsen.

The book is a stylized 288-page easyto-read publication that is a chronicle of a changing Arctic. It contains personal perspectives of Northerners, scientists, politicians, media, youth and educators,

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Recent books by UofM faculty members

in regard to how they perceived their experiences in the IPY-CFL project and about climate change.

The proceeds from the sale of the Two Ways of Knowing photo book will be placed in an endowment fund at the University of Manitoba. This fund is being set-up to support graduate students who are working on Arctic research in the area of climate change.

To preview the book go to < ipy-cfl.ca >

Doug and Dave Barber are brothers from Dauphin, Man. They grew up in a family of four boys and spent their early years hunting and fishing and spending as much time as possible outdoors. Upon graduation from high school they went on different life paths, but stayed close.

An interesting note to the above.... both men are donating their time, skill and expertise to the Two Ways of Knowing book project.

About the authors:

Violence Against Women: Vulnerable Populations

Dave Barber has spent the better part of 20 plus years in the Arctic honing his skills as a scientist and naturalist. He brings to this project the ability to articulate the effects of our changing climate in an easy-to-understand manner.

Doug Barber is an award-winning photographer who has spent the last 20 plus years living and working in Northern Canada. His images have sold worldwide and he is considered to be a student of light and composition.

(Routledge) Douglas A. Brownridge • family social sciences

this book investigates under-researched and underserved groups of women who are particularly vulnerable to violent victimization from an intimate male partner.

In the past, there has been an understandable reluctance to address this issue to avoid stereotyping vulnerable groups of women. However, developments in the field, particularly intersectionality theory, which recognizes women’s diversity in experiences of violence, suggest that the time has come to make the study of violence in vulnerable populations a new sub-field in the area. As the first book of its kind, Violence Against Women: Vulnerable Populations identifies where violence on vulnerable populations fits within the field, develops a method for study-

ing vulnerable populations, and brings vital new knowledge to the field through the analysis of original data (from three large-scale representative surveys) on eight populations of women who are particularly vulnerable to violence.

When the Other is Me: Native Resistance Discourse, 1850-1990 (University of Manitoba Press) Emma LaRocque • native studies Native Studies

“i know of no other study in canada which approaches native ‘resistance literature’ in such a comprehensive sweep, based on theories of (de)colonization as well as a broad and encompassing knowledge of primary texts by native authors and critics in canada.... emma larocque addresses issues that put her once again at the cutting edge.” —hartmut lutz, university of greifswald, germany

Other

Other s me

is me

emma larocque is a scholar, author, poet, social and literary critic, and professor in the department of native studies, university of manitoba. she is the author of the groundbreaking book, Defeathering the Indian, and has also written extensively on contemporary aboriginal literatures, canadian historiography, and images of aboriginal people in the media and marketplace. she is a plains cree metis from northeastern alberta.

When the

in this long-awaited book from one of the most recognized and respected scholars in native studies today, emma larocque presents a powerful interdisciplinary study of the native literary response to racist writing in the canadian historical and literary record from 1850 to 1990. in When the Other is Me, larocque brings a metacritical approach to native writing, situating it as resistance literature within and outside the postcolonial intellectual context. she outlines the overwhelming evidence of dehumanization in canadian historical and literary writing, its effects on both popular culture and canadian intellectual development, and native and non-native intellectual responses to it in light of the interlayered mix of romanticism, exaggeration of native “difference,” and the continuing problem of internalization that challenges our understanding of the colonizer/colonized relationship.

LaRocque

One of the most recWhen the ognized and respected scholars in i Native Studies today, Native Resistance Discourse 1850 – 1990 Emma LaRocque presents a powerful interdisciplinary study of the Native literary response to racist writing in the Canadian historical and literary record from 1850 to 1990. In When the Other Is Me, LaRocque brings a metacritical approach to Native writing, situating it as resistance literature within and outside the post-colonial intellectual context. She outlines the overwhelming evidence of dehumanization in Canadian historical and literary writing, its effects on both popular culture and Canadian intellectual development, and Native and non-Native intellectual responses to it in light of the interlayered mix of romanticism, exaggeration of Native “difference,” and the continuing problem of internalization that challenges our understanding of the colonizer/colonized relationship. $27.95

university of manitoba press www.umanitoba.ca/uofmpress

Manitoba

Derrida on Religion: Thinker of Differance (Paperback) (Equinox Publishing) Dawne McCance • religion

An exile to France from Algeria, where he was born in 1930, Jacques Derrida studied at the Aecole Normale Superieure in Paris, then went on to teach philosophy there before becoming Director of the Aecole des Hautes Aetudes en Science Sociales. Over the years, he held teaching posts in both France and the United States, lectured in universities

around the world, authored and co-authored some seventy books, and published innumerable essays and interviews. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth-century, and not the least for the ways in which his work shaped and continues to challenge the academic study of religion.This book introduces the undergraduate student to Derrida’s life and work. The volume offers an overview of Derrida’s writing from the 1960s to his death in 2004, considering prominent terms, and some of the central issues, and philosophical and religious figures, his writing engages. Included in the volume is a discussion of Derrida’s significance for contemporary academic work and for the study of religion in particular. A reading list and review of the secondary literature on Derrida is also provided.

Evaristus Oshionebo argues that the current power imbalance between TNCs and African host governments makes them impossible to enforce effectively.

Rather than simply critiquing the existing systems, Oshionebo proposes that a pluralistic approach, involving government agencies, corporations, non-governmental organizations, and local community associations in the regulatory process, might provide better results in Africa.

Innovative and daring, Regulating Transnational Corporations in Domestic and International Regimes offers new and practical solutions to old, entrenched problems.

Immigrants in Prairie Cities: Ethnic Diversity in Twentieth-Century Canada (University of Toronto Press) Royden Loewen (University of Winnipeg) and Gerald Friesen • history

Over the course Immigrants in of the twentieth cenPrairie Cities tury, sequential waves of immigrants from Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa settled in the cities of the Canadian Prairies. In Immigrants in Prairie Cities, Royden Loewen and Gerald Friesen analyze the processes of cultural interaction and adaptation that unfolded in these urban centres and describe how this model of diversity has changed over time. The authors argue that intimate Prairie cities fostered a form of social diversity characterized by vibrant ethnic networks, continuously evolving ethnic identities, and boundary zones that facilitated intercultural contact and hybridity.

Impressive in scope, Immigrants in Prairie Cities spans the entire twentieth century, and encompasses personal testimonies, government perspectives, and even fictional narratives. This engaging work will appeal to both historians of the Canadian Prairies and those with a general interest in migration, cross-cultural exchange, and urban history. n Ethnic Diversity in Twentieth-Century Canada

Regulating Transnational Corporations in Domestic and International Regimes: An African Case Study (University of Toronto Press) Evaristus Oshionebo • law

Africa’s natural resources have been of interest to other areas of the world for centuries. During the nineteenth-century European colonization of Africa, raw materials such as rubber and diamonds were often extracted and exported by foreign businessmen and colonial governments.

Today’s transnational corporations (TNCs) continue the practice.

This study explores the range of strategies for regulating the social and environmental practices of TNCs in Africa’s extractive industries. While acknowledging the partial success of conventional regulatory strategies, Evaristus Oshionebo

REGULATING TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL REGIMES An African Case Study

Roy d e n Lo e w e n a n d G e Ra L d F RI e s e n

summer 2010 | ResearchLIFE 16

ideas to innovation Scientists data gathering during IPY-CFL.

By Janine Harasymchuk

The world’s fourth International Polar Year 2007 – 2008 (IPY), the largest polar research and education venture ever undertaken, formally came to an end at a ceremony in Oslo on Saturday 12 June 2010 – the final day of the IPY Oslo Science Conference. Canada’s $150 million IPY program included more than 40 Canadian projects studying the environmental, climatic and social changes taking place in Polar regions, with a focus on the Canadian Arctic.

The IPY Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) System Study was one of the Canadian projects, led by the University of Manitoba’s David Barber, Canada Research Chair in Arctic System Science and director of the Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS).

The project involved 370 studies and scientists from 27 nations who came together aboard the then-new Canadian Research Icebreaker, the Amundsen to study the “flaw lead” system, a circumpolar phenomenon created when the central Arctic ice pack moves away from coastal ice, leaving areas of open water. The scientists aboard the Amundsen overwintered in the flaw lead—something never done before—for 10 months in 2007/2008.

The project broke new ground by bringing together traditional Inuit knowledge with scientific knowledge, something explained by Barber as “two ways of knowing,” which is the title of a photo book he had published earlier this year, detailing this knowledge (see page 15).

“The IPY-CFL project had an extensive outreach agenda based around five elements: Schools on Board, Artists on Board, World Federation of Science Journalists competition, National and International media, and climate change workshops,” says Barber. “There were 43 different media people from 14 countries on board at various times, resulting in 595 media days on board.

They represented magazines, newspapers, documentaries, radio, television news, movie producers, photographers and artists.”

17 ResearchLIFE | summer 2010

David Barber

POLAR DATA LEGACY According to IPY’s website Canada’s 52 IPY science and research projects collected and produced vast quantities of data and information on the Arctic, all of which is to be made fully, freely and openly available to interested users within the shortest possible timescale.

The CFL project was one of the largest IPY projects, organized around 10 teams (20-40 Canadian and international members each), each led by a senior scientist. Details of the science team approach, hypotheses, and results can be found at the CFL website (www.ipy-cfl.ca).

The data generated from the CFL project are significant, with a partial list of 95 datasets, including precipitation; Arctic cod populations; sea ice texture, gas content, temperature profiles, salinity profiles, and gas composition in the Beaufort Sea; ocean nutrients; and cloud base, type, measurements, to name only a few. At present, the meta-data is available from the Polar Data Catalogue at www.polardata.ca.

The CFL study will be producing a publicly accessible book summarizing the study findings. This fall, 15 to 20 key CFL researchers will gather to begin the book process.

The IPY story will be captured in a summary report that is now being prepared. The title will be “Understanding Earth’s Polar Challenges: International Polar Year 2007-2008,” and it will be published in September 2010.

At the IPY 2007-2008 closing ceremonies in Oslo, Deliang Chen, executive director of ICSU, said, “IPY has paved the way for a sound understanding of the polar regions at a critical time for society’s relationship with Earth. The collaboration among many nations and among many scientific disciplines has been critical to the success of IPY, and it is crucial that the energy and partnerships that converged in IPY are sustained in the long-term.” n

feature

by Janine Harasymchuk

On the Flow Edge “There is an Arctic expression called the ‘flow edge.’ It’s where you stand at the edge of the sea ice. Now, many would consider that to be a cold and barren place, but it’s where all the action is. And one might say that’s kind of where we [the Northern Medical Unit at the University of Manitoba] stand.

That we stand where others choose not to stand.

From where we stand we can see things that others could only imagine or not even imagine at all.”

—Bruce Martin, director of the J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit (NMU)

summer 2010 | ResearchLIFE 18

Feature John A. Hildes

The woman’s labour was taking longer than expected. She and her physician, Bruce Martin, were sitting on the bed in the birthing centre at the Churchill Health Centre looking out the window.

To pass the time, the two were counting polar bears as they wandered by. A somewhat surreal experience for those of us from the ‘south.’ But a far more normal birthing experience for this woman from a remote northern community.

The birthing centre is an adaptation from the medically modeled delivery room. The location is key: in the northern community she is familiar with, in surroundings that are tuned to her own interests, says Martin.

He began his career as a primary care physician serving northern and remote communities. He is now director of the J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit (NMU) in the newly created Section of First Nations, Metis and Inuit Health (part of the Department of Community Health Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine). The NMU is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

The unit’s history of providing much needed medical services to remote northern communities in Manitoba and

the former Northwest Territories (now Nunavut) with predominantly Aboriginal populations is significant. It was formed as a result of a series of serendipitous events beginning with the enquiring mind of John A. Hildes, an associate professor and physician, and his quest for understanding of how cold affected human physiology and ending with his concern over deplorable medical conditions in the North. This led to the University of Manitoba joining forces with the local, provincial and federal governing agencies of the time to form the Northern Medical Unit in 1970. The unit was to be “responsible for health care, medical and paramedical research and education for northern regions.”

Initially, services were to be for the residents of the town of Churchill, communities along the northern rail line, and the Keewatin District of the Northwest Territories. The NMU’s mission was founded on the principles of providing community-based medical services, education and research. This principle remains their raison d’être today.

As homage to Hildes, the unit was renamed in his honour after his death in 1984.

J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit 40th Anniversary - Timeline

1970

1970, 1 July

1980

The Northern Medical Unit takes over health care in Churchill The University of Manitoba’s newly formed Northern Medical Unit officially undertakes commitments for health care in the Churchill and the Keewatin District of the Northwest Territories.

19 ResearchLIFE | summer 2010

1983

1985

Obstetrical Outreach Ultrasound Programme in Island Lake A separate contract provided for a portable ultrasound machine and a nurse technician to accompany the obstetrician-gynaecologist in his community visits to examine high-risk pregnancies.

1984, 14 Dec

Northern Medical Unit Renamed The Board of Governors of the University of Manitoba heartily endorses the renaming of the Northern Medical Unit to the J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit.

199

90

“In the founding years a lot of creative strategies were the deployment of appropriate physicians and appropriate supports for good practice, and research that identified concerns, and people working together to address the concerns,” says Martin.

The communities served grew as did their needs and as a result, innovative ways were developed to deliver medical services and programs. The NMU now provides a myriad of resources to serve hospitals in Churchill, Norway House, and Hodgson; offers fly-in services to communities on the east side of Lake Winnipeg like Berens River, Poplar River, as well as the Island Lake area and Mathias Colomb (Pukatawagan); and goes to areas that can only be reached by road (and winter roads) like Chemawawin (Easterville) and Grand Rapids, as well, the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut which includes Arviat, Baker Lake, Chesterfield, Coral Harbour, Rankin Inlet, Repulse Bay, Sanikiluaq, and Whale Cove.

The teams and individuals that provide these community-based services expanded as the needs of the communities.

This growth has been enhanced by technology and nudged along by continued or emerging issues, like new disease or medical advancements to address disease.

However, “the more changes that occur over time, the more it stays the same, because in essence, we don’t lose perspective on why we are doing it,” says Martin.

The connection and commitment to the people in the communities served

1995

1995

Vitamin D Deficient Rickets Therapeutic Intervention Program A programme was initiated for the prevention of Vitamin D deficient rickets through prenatal and infant Vitamin D supplementation.

by the unit remains strong. The ‘degrees of separation’ are similar to that which are legendary in Winnipeg, one or two at most. “You don’t have to go far in the North before someone taps me on the shoulder and says ‘My daughter is doing really well’ or ‘Do you remember my son – you delivered him 23 years ago?’ These things inspire you to go back and inspire you to have students to do the same thing because of the richness and continuity.”

So, how has the NMU evolved and how has it changed?

Martin says, “Interestingly, the things that we consider to be significantly innovative even for this province or this nation or for circumpolar peoples that we work with, are nothing more than the extrapolation of the original foundation: which is to identify issues or concerns in access or health care outcomes and use creative strategies to address them.”

One such strategy was the development of the Mobile Colposcopy Program (in 1993) in response to a higher incidence of cervical cancer among northern populations. The program allows women to be diagnosed and treated in one visit, avoiding the need to travel to Winnipeg for care. The NMU’s collaboration on many population health research studies of northern residents has ensured they can be responsive to patterns of health care use. Things like knowing that patients are less likely to access care in the city for minor investigative procedures (like endoscopy) and responding with transportable equipment that is

1996/1997

used in or near their home communities has direct impact on the health of the populations.

The NMU provides a myriad of community-based services. The Diabetic Foot Program addresses the ever growing need of First Nations communities for treatment and prevention of complications of the diabetic patient population in the North. They provide care to highrisk patients to avoid complications that result in amputation. And it’s working.

Amputation rates in northern communities are less than those of some southern and urban patients. Martin feels this may be due to the model of care provided and the “person-based” connections caregivers make with patients in the community.

In addition to the foot program, the unit coordinates diabetes screening in First Nations communities. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research provided funding in the late 1990s to establish a Diabetes Registry. This assists the NMU in monitoring trends of diabetes in these communities with a goal of prevention or intervention to reduce complications.

Renal health goes hand in hand with diabetes. A six-station, state-of-the-art Dialysis Unit was launched in 2005 with the Island Lake Regional Renal Health Program. This is a collaborative program with Four Arrows Regional Health Authority, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s Manitoba Renal Program, Manitoba Health and Health Canada.

The program focuses not only on prevention and education in the community,

2000

The seed is planted for the future Diabetic Foot and Retinal Screening Programmes Visiting Physician, Dr. Isabel Barnard and a Nurse from Medical Services perform retinal screening and diabetic foot checks in the Fly-In Programme Area (east side of the lake communities) and the Island Lake Communities.

The clinics were well supported and several cases of diabetic retinopathy were identified

2000, 22 Nov

Diabetic Foot Nurse Clinician Outreach Programme Begins This programme is designed to provide foot assessment, routine diabetic foot care for high risk patients, and diabetic wound care improving patient outcomes. In addition to assessment and treatment the Clinician is to provide education within the communities, liaise with community and tertiary care centres in Winnipeg, and clinical research.

summer winter 2010 | ResearchLIFE 20

Katie Chalmers-Brooks

Feature but also facilitates the repatriation of patients living with dialysis to their home community.

This list of services and supports to the communities goes on and on. From providing rural health care facilities with physicians for specific time periods (locum tenens), to having some 70 medical specialists from Winnipeg travel to all the hospital-based communities to see patients and meet with physicians at those hospitals, to providing ‘fly-in’ physicians to consult with nurse practitioners servicing 13 Manitoba communities.

There is also the Inuit Health Program that coordinates service provision to the seven communities in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut and the Hamlet of Sanikiluaq. Family and general practitioners, medical specialists, audiologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech language therapists serve the region’s population of 9,000.

When asked where the NMU may be headed in the future, Martin says: “I’d have to say on most days I can be optimistic about where we’ve been and where we may be headed. But in truth, we are challenged to be as effective as we once were and I think part of that is based on the epidemiology of disease and illness that face northern populations.”

He refers to former Community Health Sciences department head Kue Young, an epidemiologist and physician

recently recognized with an Order of Canada for his contributions and commitment to advancing the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples, notably as a leading scholar in the field of Aboriginal health research. Young’s research describes the evolving patterns of illness from a period of time where infectious disease was one of the major burdens that created disparities between northern populations and those in the south.

“I think a hallmark of our programs is to be working across the continuum of individual disease entities and I think that was true 40 years ago and continues to be true now. I think clearly that looking at and working with the broader university and those who are involved in northern environments and with those involved nationally and internationally, helps us understand some of the phenomena we see. This, personally, is one of the joys of this program versus others. It is truly supported by the broad knowledge of university researchers, clinicians, and social scientists.”

Martin goes on to say that the ability to bump into colleagues in the coffee line up and have an informal exchange about what work they are doing that might be of interest to the NMU or vice versa, is something that doesn’t occur to the same degree in a non-university affiliated practice, when you just have fewer people contributing to the greater good.

“When I was first a clinician in a remote Canadian community, I was naïve enough to think that concerted hard work would eliminate the need for my commitment and my clinical ability. I see now an ever increasing need for collaboration between all sorts of individuals to provide support to an organization that has one dedicated commitment and that is to narrow the disparity between populations.”

Martin sees the complexity of infectious diseases and the burden of chronic diseases, as described by Kue Young, having increased and will continue to present significant challenges to already strained health care resources. “We aren’t keeping pace and, tragically, that isn’t because we don’t know how to do it. We know what needs to be done. It’s a matter of being nimble enough as a health care system and adequate enough in the training and number of health care professionals to keep up with what we know the answers could be.”

“I would hope that we as an organization continue to be inspired by research and by the young learners and clinicians who point us in distant directions.

And that we continue to work meaningfully with communities to address their needs and provide critique for our programs.” n

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2005, 9 Jan

Dialysis Unit in Garden Hill Opens The first five patients of the unit received dialysis on this date.

In the photo are the ILRRHP’s original staff: Mary Joseph, Wendy Whally, Mirasol Salacup, Delia Salcedo, Reena Matthew, and Annabelle Cabural. All are Renal Health Nurses except for Wendy Whalley who was the Unit’s first Program Director. Missing are Gladys Wood, Housekeeper and Richard Birch, Maintenance.

21 ResearchLIFE | summer 2010

2005, 30 June

Diabetic Retinal Screening Programme Begins.

The Diabetic Retinal Screening Programme expands to 2 nurse clinicians. With this addition programme is abledo more screenings in more communities. Pictured in the photograph are Retinal Screening Nurse Clinicians, Eileen Bouw and Ava Halpin.

2010

40th Anniversary Year The J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit will celebrate its 40 years of history with a Gala Dinner at the Millennium Centre in Winnipeg on Dec. 4, 2010. To learn more about this and the NMU visit < umanitoba.ca/faculties/ medicine/units/northern_medical_unit >

Viewpoint

Chris Stammers

The impacts of climate shift

By Matthew Asplin

When people hear the word “climate,” they usually think of the weather, and therefore “climate change” is commonly perceived as simply the “weather changing.” While partially accurate, this view does not fully acknowledge how climate change will impact ecosystems and economic activities around the globe. Evidence of climate change is being observed first and foremost in the Arctic, most notably as declining summer sea ice extent and the loss of old, thick multi-year sea ice.

The former represents a key shift to a climatic regime where the Arctic basin loses all of its sea ice cover by the end of the summer.

This climatic shift will undoubtedly influence weather patterns throughout the region, and open the Arctic basin to increased resource development and new transportation routes that could offer a significantly shorter shipping route alternative to the Panama Canal. Sea ice and economic activities alike are strongly affected by the weather, and therefore we require a better understanding of the nature of Arctic storms, their role in climatic change, and to predict the storm climatology of a seasonally ice-free Arctic ocean.

My research directly investigates how changing weather patterns are influencing the loss of sea ice, and how the loss of sea ice and increasing areas of open water in the Arctic Ocean will feed back upon weather patterns throughout the Arctic. A seasonally ice-free Arctic ocean could significantly increase the strength of Arctic storms, particularly in the autumn. The reason for this is simple: a seasonally ice-free Arctic ocean is likely to be characterized by a delayed freeze-up during winter, thus maintaining a relatively warm and moist air mass over a region that

was previously covered by sea ice. As the influence of the sun decreases with the onset of winter, bitterly cold Arctic air masses will develop over Siberia, Greenland, and the Canadian Archipelago, and collide with the relatively warm and moist air over the Arctic Ocean, creating storms with high winds, and increased snowfall.

Freshly fallen snow is considered to be a very good insulator as the space between the snow grains hinders the transfer of heat.

Increased autumn snowfalls may therefore hinder the growth of winter sea ice. The opposite effect is observed during the spring and summer where a layer of fresh snow can reflect more energy from the sun back to space, thus slowing the rate of melt.

I have been conducting my work for the past three years as a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Earth Observation Science, within the Department of Environment and Geography under Dr. David Barber. I have had the opportunity to participate in three separate field seasons, working aboard the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Amundsen, a specially outfitted scientific research icebreaker. Most notably, I participated as a researcher during the University of Manitoba-led International Polar Year Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study where I spent twelve weeks in the Arctic during winter 2007–2008.

Mathew was recently awarded the W. Garfield Weston Award for Northern Research (Doctoral Studies); an award administered by the Association for Canadian Universities for Northern Research (www.acuns.ca). The $40,000 scholarship is awarded to doctoral students enrolled in the natural sciences who are pursuing northern research and who demonstrate excellence in their field of study. n

summer 2010 | ResearchLIFE 22

Spotlight on Students

Showcasing Student Research (l-r) Vanier Scholarship awardees Renée El-Gabalawy, Julia Gamble and Oleksandr Maizlish.

A trio of PhD students—Renée El-Gabalawy, Julia Gamble, and Oleksandr Maizlish—who are tackling research dealing with some of today’s pressing questions will receive $50,000 annually for up to three years from the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program. The award is the Canadian equivalent to the United Kingdom’s Rhode’s Scholarship.

Renée will analyze volumes of data to find out if there is a link between physical health problems and mental disorders, and whether this has negative implications in men and women age 55-plus. She wants to know if physical health conditions such as arthritis and cardiovascular disease trigger anxiety disorders in seniors. She is among few researchers in the world to have access to a comprehensive American database and will also use health data gathered in Canada. If she discovers a strong link, these findings could help health professionals better recognize and treat their patients’ psychiatric needs.

Julia wants to better understand if and how our health in childhood affects our health as adults. She’ll analyze the enamel on the teeth of the remains of a large Danish medieval population

23 ResearchLIFE | summer 2010

Katie Chalmers-Brooks

Scholarship Jackpot

who experienced significant socioeconomic change. Growth lines in the enamel reveal if and when our bodies were under stress. Enamel formation is disrupted when our bodies are fighting disease, a parasitic infection or even nutritional deficiency. She is the first to look at both the surface and the internal microstructure of tooth enamel in a single study. She will compare her findings with health information about the given population recorded in historical literature.

Oleksandr will be working on several approximation theory applications which can be applied to image processing. He aims to find methods that will allow for the efficient mathematical processing of images (either the fastest or with the best compression ratios). Recently, new methods, so-called adaptive approximation methods, began to be used in

image processing and data compression. The spike in the development of these methods is due to the discovery of wavelet transform (incorporated in the image compression standard JPEG2000). However, there are some examples that show deficiencies of these algorithms. He plans to work on the development of new algorithms that will be competitive with the wavelet approach while lacking those deficiencies.

The scholarship program is a tool to recruit and retain top doctoral students from across Canada and around the world. Canada’s three federal granting agencies—the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council—administer the scholarships. n

Katie Chalmers-Brooks

A Fresh Perspective on World Issues

By Miguel Marchildon Science, Engineering & Technology (SET) Day 2010 was a day of futuristic presentations by researchers at the University of Manitoba that gives Manitoba high school students a glimpse at what the fields of science, engineering and technology may be doing—25 years into the future.

Student attendees were challenged to enter the SET Day Essay Competition, and tell us what excited them about the day and their experiences. What follows is this year’s essay winner’s perspective: Mr. Miguel Marchildon is a Grade 12 home-schooled student from Lorette, Man. Miguel has been accepted into the Fall 2010 term in University 1 at the University of Manitoba.

My SET Day experience was exciting and inspiring. Since my career choice is going to be in the field of politics and public service, SET Day gave me a new perspective on important issues such as water, transportation infrastructure and the physical health of Canadians through science and technology.

In Trish Stadnyk’s presentation, Water Everywhere but Not a Drop to Drink, I learned that water issues could become a major factor in world politics in the coming years. There could be a world water shortage as early as 2025. This will affect Canada. As an upcoming politician, I must help preserve our water or water wars may be the outcome. We are using our underground aquifers for production and farming faster than they can be replenished by rain water. Manitoban water could be polluted beyond repair by Alberta’s oil industry. These are serious issues that will need creative solutions from our scientific community that are supported by our political leaders.

Another topic that will affect me as a politician is Jeannette Montufar’s presentation Highway to the Future: Transportation Engineering and Technology. Dr. Montufar talked about the importance of maintaining effective transportation infrastructure as a key factor to economic stability and growth. This is very important for a politician in times of economic recession and growth. Dr. Montufar explained that even bigger transportation engineering projects involving smart technology will be needed to continue to support our globalization.

Another important issue is our society’s physical health. This was the focus of Dean Kriellaars’s presentation Lifestyles of the Facebook Generation. Kriellaar talked about how we need to stress the importance of physical activity and a healthy diet as a key way to prevent disease. An example to healthy eating is following the sign language “diet”. Eat a full plate the size of both your hands open together, with half of your plate being vegetables, one fist size portion of carbohydrates and a palm size portion of protein. Being physically active positively affects the bone density in humans and, as we age, this is important. The prevention of disease is an effective way of using tax payers dollars to lighten the burden on our health care system.

In Judy Anderson’s biological sciences presentation Launching Muscle Research for Space Travel, and in Martin Scanlon and Michael Stringer’s food science presentation Bubbles, Zubbles, Surface Tension and Soufflés, I saw the importance of a politician to be a forward thinker. A politician needs a broad perspective and knowledge of different innovations in the field of science and technology. This is important because politicians need to fund future research so that our country remains a world leader in discovering new possibilities on Earth and in space.

SET Day was an enriching experience. It was an eye opener for me as a future politician because it gave me a fresh perspective on world issues. This will help me serve my constituents and make me a fiscally responsible and forward thinking politician. n SUMMER 2010 | ResearchLIFE 24

feature

Strengthening the North University of Manitoba researchers document Indigenous perspective on whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happening to the Arctic ecosystem 25 ResearchLIFE | SUMMER 2010

Katie Chalmers-Brooks

By Katie Chalmers-Brooks

(opposite page, l-r) Peter Kulchyski and Chris Trott

Peter Kulchyski is nowhere near Pangnirtung, a village of about 1,300 people tucked away on Baffin Island in Canada’s Arctic. Yet within moments, the U of M native studies professor—on the phone from Germany, where he’s lecturing and touring—feels as close as ever, visualizing himself perched on “the hill” in the picturesque northern community, watching the boats in the summer time, and the snowmobiles in the winter time, coming and going on the fiord.

He sees the local families heading out to hunt or fish, securing their next meals without ever stepping foot in some suburban strip mall.

“Just being there, sitting there, watching that kind of thing is so inspiring,” says Kulchyski.

The 50-year-old has made it his mission to help Aboriginal communities in northern Manitoba, and the western and eastern Arctic, hold on to their traditions.

Manitoba-born Kulchyski has quietly been working with elders for three decades, recording their insight, and—not so quietly —helping northern communities protect their land. (He has been arrested on a number of occasions at rallies protesting the unjust treatment of Aboriginal people and routinely speaks out against Manitoba Hydro.)

The latest curve ball thrown in the direction of the inhabitants of the North—a warming planet—is changing their landscape, their animals, their prey. Kulchyski and his colleagues have developed a multi-media research project called Inuit Knowledge of Climate Change. They’re sitting down with elders and, using video technology, documenting their observations about how their environment has transformed over a lifetime of living on the land. It’s a unique perspective, given that Indigenous people for centuries have been so in tune with their surroundings, and one that is not easily or often attainable by “hard scientists,” says Kulchyski.

“Even though I think good-willed efforts are made, I don’t think (scientists) have produced substantially the kind of results we’ve been able to produce,” he says. “I think there is a degree of communication here that is pretty rare, if not unique.”

Each researcher brings to the table a shared sensitivity to working with elders but different expertise. Kulchyski is intrigued by “the political side of things,” explains long-time colleague and U of M native studies professor Chris Trott. Whereas, Trott focuses moreso on how the Inuit are “understanding and interpreting these processes.” Ian Mauro, a U of M alumnus who is now completing his postdoctorate in environmental studies at the University of Victoria, offers a scientific perspective, coupled with a filmmaking background.

And the fourth member, Zacharias Kunuk, renowned Inuit filmmaker of Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, brings the project’s creativity to the next level.

Mauro believes strongly that research findings should be shared not just with the academic world through articles in prestigious journals but with the public at large, and has been making research films to do so. Kunuk and Mauro are co-directing the 90-minute documentary Qapirangajuk: To Spear Strangely which presents the team’s

findings and will premiere at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto this October.

“We live in the YouTube generation and video is definitely the medium of the 21st century for communication,” says Mauro. “Importantly, it allows elders and other participants to tell their story, which inverts how academics generally do research.”

Out of their conversations with Inuit rose reports about notable changes in species; for example, for the first time in their waters they’re seeing capelin, a smeltfamily fish. They’re also seeing and having more contact with polar bears than ever before, which contradicts scientific reports that the species is under threat.

“Elders said over and over again, that when they were young, you hardly ever saw polar bears and to actually hunt and capture one was a rare event,” Trott says.

Seals have undergone changes too.

Their fur is looser and tends to be patchy and poorer quality, Inuit report. They’ve also noticed the ice is breaking up earlier and much more easily, making it increasingly dangerous to travel on with snowmobiles. Winter feels warmer and they’ve made note of new types of cloud formations they’ve seen in the skies above open water, which is more abundant these days.

SUMMER 2010 | ResearchLIFE 26

feature

Pangnirtung Summer Program DVD 2009

(left) Pangnirtung, Nunavut (opposite page, l-r) Ian Mauro and Zacharias Kunuk.

But perhaps most significant—and controversial—are the unanimous reports

by Inuit in various communities that the sun has moved positions in the sky and now rises in a different location. Indeed, Inuit believe the Earth has tilted on its axis and is a cause of climate change. This finding came under fire when initially reported; most scientists were critical of Inuit knowledge. But the team trusted the elders’ observations, dug deeper, and was able to link what Mauro calls “these different ways of knowing” to make a novel discovery about climate change. “In some cases, Inuit were reporting that the sun had moved 20 kilometres across the sky in a human lifetime,” he says.

After studying this further, consulting with other scientists and reviewing the literature, Mauro determined that what elders are likely seeing is low altitude refraction. “Climate change is warming the Arctic environment, creating the ideal conditions for refraction, and elders’ observations of the sun changing positions is really a metric of a warming world,”

27 ResearchLIFE | summer 2010

Mauro says. “In many ways, Inuit are at the forefront of climate science.” Adds Trott, “The Inuit make very profound empirical observations. They can provide scientists with enormous amounts of input. The explanations are different and that’s fine, but the observations are still valid, particularly valid because they’re often incredibly detailed observations.”

University students from across Canada have been privy to these sorts of observations by elders at climate change workshops at a summer school Kulchyski started in Pangnirtung 14 years ago. At the time, Kulchyski noticed a lot of the students coming into the North were science students who had no interaction with the community. Now students across many disciplines (from commerce to fine arts) can spend five weeks on Baffin Island learning about native studies and environmental science. They immerse themselves in the community, living in tents, spending time with elders, going out with the hunters. Trott helps run the program; Mauro is a former student and now an instructor.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind program in the world actually. I don’t know of anyone else who is doing this,” Kulchyski says. “The community loves it and for the students, it’s kind of a backyard camping experience. Occasionally you accidentally do something that’s truly wonderful. This program is truly wonderful. And it was just something I stumbled across.”

The school was a way for Kulchyski to teach the students, the scholars of tomorrow, how important it is they “get out of the ivory tower and work directly with communities, to see the problems from the ground up.”

It was also a way to give back to Pangnirtung, a village he’s been travelling to nearly every year for a couple of decades. It’s home to three economies: ecotourism, arts and crafts, and commercial fishing. “There are problems in the community. There are suicides,” he says.

“These are all issues that face northern communities.”

“I’ve seen the worst,” he goes on to say. “People’s pictures of these communities are so bad, I try to emphasize the positive things, and these are beautiful communities.”

These are places where you can still drink from the rivers, he notes. Not only is the land scenic in these remote regions, but often valuable for its underground oil or mineral resources, and therefore sought after by the government. Kulchyski believes this is the greatest challenge northern communities face today. “Southern Canada wants to sell energy resources to the rest of the world, rather than care about small Aboriginal communities that are living on those resources.”

One such place is Colville Lake in the western Arctic. It’s a tiny community of fewer than 120 people north of the Arctic Circle. There, they build their own homes and only recently got electricity. There is no wage work; residents have a traditional

Ian Mauro

way of life, surviving by fishing lake trout and hunting caribou.

“If you drilled in the centre of town, you’d come across part of one of the largest gas fields in Canada,” says Kulchyski, noting it’s hard to know what will become of the community in the next couple of decades. “Will that community be a spider web of pipe lines? And half the people in the community working for the pipeline company and the other half unemployed, depressed and suicidal, with social problems? Or will the community retain its present character?”

He says one of the best ways for these communities to help themselves is for the

young people to see the older generation stand up for their families and insist on holding on to their land so they can pass it on to their kids. A strong role model in a young person’s life can do far more good for a community than a stack of cash from the government, he notes.

Kulchyski knows first-hand what it’s like to grow up with little guidance. Born in Bissett, Man., he was one of four boys raised by a single dad, a mostly unemployed miner who drank a lot. Money was scarce; Kulchyski recalls going days without food. The local school shut down once the mine closed so even the non-Aboriginal kids were shipped off

to a government-run residential school.

Kulchyski recalls thinking the conditions there, where kids got to sleep between two sheets, was “unparalleled luxury.”

Few of his classmates graduated.

Kulchyski, a white kid, was the only one to immediately go on to university.

“I had a feeling there was something wrong,” he says. This feeling continues to fuel his efforts to help Aboriginal people today.

Trott is similarly driven, by the deep connections he’s made with the people of the North throughout his career. “It’s not just a matter of research,” he says. “These are friends we’re talking about.” n

summer 2010 | ResearchLIFE 28

Creative Works

By Katie Chalmers-Brooks

Disposable Cameras, Enduring Images

Research project provides rare, intimate look into the lives of people living with HIV

29 ResearchLIFE | SUMMER 2010

Photos from the Caregiving Networks and HIV: A Photographic Look at Networks of Care in Winnipeg and Regina project.

The photo is of a kitchen table covered in garbage and drug paraphernalia—an empty cigarette pack, a crumpled beer can, a bag of white powder, and needles. The photographer is one of 31 study participants, all of them HIV-positive, who were given a disposable camera and asked to document the sources of support in their lives.

The goal? Researchers wanted to get inside the “care experience” of these individuals, predominantly low-income and stigmatized, to figure out if more needs to be done to support them and how they go about doing so. It’s a pressing concern given people with HIV are living longer than ever before thanks to medical advancements.

The study, called Caregiving Networks and HIV: A Photographic Look at Networks of Care in Winnipeg and Regina, spanned three years, two provinces and was a joint project by the U of M and the Nine Circles Community Health Centre.

The participants recorded everyone and everything that buoys them through their storms of sickness, resulting in a data-rich collection of 804 photographs.

Those behind the lens were a mix of men and women age 29 to 53, the majority of them aboriginal. Their education ranged from Grade 4 to postsecondary. For some, their diagnosis was

fresh, for others it had been more than two decades since they learned of their chronic condition.

They returned to the researchers—which include the U of M’s Javier Mignone and Carol Harvey, family social sciences professors, and Lawrence Elliott, community health sciences professor – with photos of their caregivers, a combination of formal, informal and not-necessarily-human support mechanisms.

The images were diverse, depicting partners, friends, family, roommates, pets, plants, TV, movies, the internet, and nature. Participants also identified formal organizations as a major source of support and said they felt close to the employees, so much so some viewed them as a second family, says project coordinator Jennifer Davis, from Nine Circles. The finding prompted researchers

to interview the formal caregivers about their role.

“The photos are to help us paint a deeper picture of the lives of folks who are either slipping through the cracks of the systems, or who are getting what they need out of the systems whether the systems are prepared for that or not,” says Davis, whose research colleagues at the centre include Carla Pindera and Paula Migliardi. “Many of our participants are finding caregivers within the organized systems of care; many because they do not have people in their lives who can offer this care. The staff and volunteers of these systems are taking on the role of informal caregivers despite the formal rules that suggest they should not be. This research should help to demonstrate

SUMMER 2010 | ResearchLIFE 30

Creative Works More photos from the project depicting things that are part of participants daily lives.

in their lives, holding onto their dreams and walking through their lives the best way they know how,” says Davis. “It was often inspiring and humbling to listen to their stories and meet the people who honoured us with their stories.” both the need for more informal care in the lives of the highly stigmatized in our society, and the need for organizations to be examining their systems and policies to allow for the care to happen. And to either hire or prepare staff specifically for these roles.”

Several “themes” emerged while discussing the photos, Davis noted.

Participants revealed they had difficult and often violent childhoods. They spoke about witnessing abuse by family members, being abused themselves, and growing up in group homes.

Addiction also reared its head. Personal stories surfaced about, for example, taking up heroine as a child, and losing a

dad when he choked on vomit after a drinking binge.

Some stated their diagnosis left them feeling stigmatized. One participant said: “My family…they kind of just threw me aside.”

The opposite was true for one mother, who explained she was too frightened to show her kids physical affection, fearing she would spread the deadly virus. “(My son) was always asking me, ‘Why don’t you want to hold me mom?’”

Photography also became a vehicle to share their connection to their culture and spirituality, reveal their resiliency, and share their dreams: of becoming an HIV researcher or addictions counselor, buying a cottage by the water, or having a partner.

“They shared experiences of stigmatism, racism, poverty, and often incredible violence and yet were persevering

31 ResearchLIFE | winter SUMMER2010 2010

Postcards from the Arctic

By Janine Harasymchuk

The results of a unique partnership between science and music were debuted at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s (WSO) New Music Festival on February 6, 2010.

In July of 2007 David Barber, Canada Research Chair in Arctic System Science and Director of the Centre for Earth Observation Science began the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System (CFL) study as part of International Polar Year (IPY). Involving more than 350 researchers from around the world it is one of the largest Arctic climate change studies ever undertaken.

Following the tradition of taking musicians, artists and writers on board lengthy expeditions, organizers of the CFL project approached Vincent Ho, composer-inresidence at the WSO, and asked if he’d like to experience life aboard the CCGS Amundsen while it was stationed in the high Arctic. Other composers and visual artists were also invited aboard the ship.

“We took this concept and reenacted it during our International Polar Year (IPY) expedition,” David Barber, Environment and Geography, said. “Our purpose was similar to those adventurers of many centuries ago—we wanted to use art as a way of communicating our scientific findings to the public.”

Doug Barber

(l) Vincent Ho aboard the Amundsen, (below) Inuit youth from Nunavut Sivuniksavut College in Ottawa.

Barber set the mood for the debut of Arctic Symphony by presenting the sobering findings of the CFL project, coupled with stunning photos taken by his photographer brother Doug Barber. These photos have been published in a photo book titled Two Ways of Knowing (see page 15 in this magazine for more on this).

Throughout the evening, a group of Inuit youth from Nunavut Sivuniksavut College in Ottawa performed traditional music. Artwork created by Artists on Board participants George Gartrell and James Rubin were also displayed, along with photos by Doug Barber.

Ho spent a number of days aboard the ship taking in the sights, sounds and ambiance of life in one of the most remote and inhospitable corners of the earth.

There, he found inspiration for his “Arctic Symphony.”

“The once-in-a-lifetime trip was a wonderful opportunity for me to develop my own personal relationship with the Arctic environment and the culture that exists there. As an artist, it was an extraordinary journey to take those experiences and externalize them in musical form,” Ho said.

Ho is currently working on another musical presentation for the 2011 New Music Festival that ties to research being done at the University of Manitoba: Symphony No. 1 by John Corigliano. The WSO Distinguished Visiting Composer Corigliano will be on hand for the performance.

Corigliano’s symphony was inspired in the 1990s by “The Quilt,” a weaving together of thousands of fabric panels, each panel in memory of a person who had died of AIDS and designed and made by one of their loved ones. The Centre for Global Public Health and the Resistance and Susceptibility to Infection Research Group is working on putting together a world HIV/AIDS symposium in the days leading up to the symphony performance. HIV/ AIDS breakthroughs at the University of Manitoba have advanced HIV prevention and care around the world and are working towards an HIV vaccine. n

summer 2010 | ResearchLIFE 32

on the horizon

2010-11

Bringing Research to Life Speaker Series The Office of the Vice-President (Research) sponsors and presents a free public speaker series titled Bringing Research to Life. This series is designed to introduce the general public to the talented people who make up the research community at the University of Manitoba.

This year the series takes place in the Robert B. Schultz Lecture Theatre, located in St. John’s College, 92 Dysart Road, University of Manitoba.

Evening parking is available in Q and E lots or the campus parkade. The first four speaker series topics are:

Biofuels of Today and Tomorrow David Levin and Richard Sparling September 29, 2010 • 7:00 p.m.

Age-Friendly Communities Verena Menec

Interested in hearing about what’s going on in various areas of research at the University of Manitoba? Listen to CJOB 680’s Weekend Wakeup Show on Sunday mornings to hear the Research Report. CJOB is a local Winnipeg AM radio station that ranks #1 in listenership.

Research Report airs at 6:45 a.m. with a new interview every week with a faculty member or graduate student about the interesting research projects they are undertaking. You can listen live on the internet at CJOB.com or if 6:45 a.m. is a little early for you on a Sunday morning go to CJOB.com and click on the Audio Vault and find the show you’ve missed. Topics include: women in film, fish ears, and the effects of marathon running on heart health.

33 ResearchLIFE | SUMMER 2010

Tricia Stadnyk November 17, 2010 • 7:00 p.m.

Chemical Contamination & Climate Change: Two Battles at One Front Feiyue Wang January 20, 2011 • 7:00 p.m.

October 27, 2010 • 7:00 p.m.

RESEARCH REPORT

umanitoba.ca/research

SACRED WATERS: THE STATE OF CANADA’S WATER SUPPLY

RESEARCH EVENTS To subscribe to notifications of upcoming public research events like our Speaker Series (above), Café Scientifiques or public forums. email research_communications@umanitoba.ca

Canada Research Chairs Program

Just the Facts

The Canada Research Chairs Program was established by the Government of Canada to attract and retain some of the world’s most accomplished and promising minds. The University of Manitoba currently holds 49 Canada Research Chairs.

Chair holders are research leaders or rising stars in natural sciences and engineering, health sciences, or social sciences and humanities.

Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences

Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management

Trust Beta (Tier 2) – Food Processing for Grain-Based Functional Foods Peter Jones (Tier 1) – Nutrition and Functional Foods Ermias Kebreab (Tier 1) – Modeling Sustainable Agriculture Systems Mario Tenuta (Tier 2) – Applied Soil Ecology

Phillip Gardiner (Tier 2) – Physical Activity and Health Studies

Faculty of Arts Diana Brydon (Tier 1) – Globalization and Cultural Studies Warren Cariou (Tier 2) – Narrative, Community and Indigenous Cultures Robert Hoppa (Tier 2) – Skeletal Biology Debbie Kelly (Tier 2) – Comparative Cognition Kiera Ladner (Tier 2) – Indigenous Politics and Governance Adele Perry (Tier 2) – Western Canadian Social History Lea Stirling (Tier 2) – Roman Archaeology

Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources David Barber (Tier 1) – Arctic System Science Fikret Berkes (Tier 1) – Community-Based Resource Management Mostafa Fayek (Tier 2) – Isotope and Environmental Geochemistry Frank Hawthorne (Tier 1) – Crystallography and Mineralogy

Faculty of Engineering Douglas Buchanan (Tier 2) – Microelectronic Materials Ehab El-Salakawy (Tier 2) – Advanced Composite Materials and Monitoring of Civil Infrastructure Dean McNeill (Tier 2) – Information Processsing for Intelligent Infrastructure Zahra Moussavi (Tier 2) – Biomedical Engineering Lotfollah Shafai (Tier 1) – Applied Electromagnetics Quan (Abraham) Wang (Tier 2) – Solid Mechanics

Faculty of Human Ecology Peter Eck (Tier 2) – Nutrigenomics

Debbie Kelly (Tier 2) Comparative Cognition

Faculty of Medicine James Blanchard (Tier 2) – Epidemiology and Global Public Health Harvey Chochinov (Tier 1) – Palliative Care Brian Cox (Tier 2) – Mood and Anxiety Disorders James Davie (Tier 1) – Chromatin Dynamics Marc Del Bigio (Tier 1) – Developmental Neuropathology Hao Ding (Tier 2) – Genetic Modelling Michelle Driedger (Tier 2) – Environment and Health Risk Communication Andrew Halayko (Tier 2) – Airway Cell and Molecular Biology Grant Hatch (Tier 1) – Molecular Cardiolipin Metabolism Kent Hayglass (Tier 1) – Immune Regulation Geoffrey Hicks (Tier 2) – Functional Genomics Larry Hryshko (Tier 2) – Cardiac Electrophysiology Lorrie Kirshenbaum (Tier 2) – Molecular Cardiology Aaron Marshall (Tier 2) – Molecular Immunology Verena Menec (Tier 2) – Healthy Aging Frank Plummer (Tier 1) – Resistance and Susceptibility to Infections Xi Yang (Tier 2) – Infection and Immunity

Faculty of Pharmacy Brian Hasinoff (Tier 1) – Drug Development

Faculty of Science Sean Cadogan (Tier 1) – Advanced Materials Tapash Chakraborty (Tier 1) – Nanoscale Physics Michael Freund (Tier 2) – Conducting Polymers and Electronic Materials Peter Loewen (Tier 1) – Protein Chemistry Jeffrey Marcus (Tier 2) – Phylogenomics Hélène Perreault (Tier 2) – Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Samar Safi-Harb (Tier 2) – Supernova Astrophysics Joerg Stetefeld (Tier 2) – Structural Biology

James Blanchard (Tier 2) Epidemiology and Global Public Health

Harvey Chochinov (Tier 1) Palliative Care

Verena Menec (Tier 2) Healthy Aging

Peter Loewen (Tier 1) Protein Chemistry

summer 2010 | ResearchLIFE 34

Grace Nickel

Bloodvein First Nation, one of the many northern communities served by the J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit (see story on page 18).