Welcome to the Spring 2017 edition of the Department of Biological Sciences newsletter.  Welcome to any new students and also to returning undergraduates.  This semester we have a few upcoming events which may be of interest to you all. 

We would be happy to see you attend our Luke Stebbins Symposium, scheduled for April 7, 2017.  If you go on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BiologyUleth/, we'll have more details available, closer to the date.  This is an opportunity for our undergraduate students who are taking an independent study course or completing an honours thesis to review their work in front of a panel of judges, and their peers.  As well as cash prizes for first and second place in the event,  Pearson Publishing provides a book prize to the third place winner.

Good luck to our undergraduates, and graduate students this term.

Sincerely,

Joe Rasmussen, PhD, Chair  

Go To Top

In the picture, as part of the first course, Biology 2001 (Scientific Discovery),the  research internship cohort explore an area of interest, developing a hypothesis, proposing experiments to test their hypotheses, and carrying out the experiments.  Here, two teams of students are testing whether pretreatment with drought, or pretreatment with a plant immune response chemical reduces infection of tobacco plants by a pathogen.  

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences provides excellent opportunities for undergraduate involvement in research.  Senior students routinely conduct independent research.  However, involvement of first and second year students in research is typically low.  To address this shortfall, the Department of Biological Sciences established the Research Internship Concentration to provide an explicit entry point for first year students into a research intensive stream and to use our strength in undergraduate research as a recruitment tool.  With proper resourcing, the concentration can make the University a destination for the best students in Biological Sciences.

Students are recruited to the Research Internship Concentration from high school, and together with their Biological Sciences program, take 5 courses (Biology 2001, 2002, 3001 and Undergraduate thesis) focused on research.  Through these courses, they are encouraged to experience research in diverse areas of Biological Sciences (Ecology, Genetics, Evolution, Biotechnology, Agricultural Sciences, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Environmental Sciences) with faculty at the UofL and with Adjunct faculty at LRC and ADRI, resulting in a rich and diverse understanding of this transdisciplinary field.

The Department of Biological Sciences launched the first small but successful cohort of Research Interns in Fall 2016, and is already recruiting for Fall 2017.

Go To Top

Poster Competition: First Prize Winner, Marshall Smith, 2nd Prize Jan Tuescher
 

The Annual Graduate Student Symposium was held February 10, 2017, with a total of 17 students participating.  There was a poster competition in the morning, judged by Dr. Igor Kovalchuk and Prof. Joanne Golden, and a series of presentations by 10 graduate students in the afternoon, judged by Dr. Steve Wiseman, Dr. Rob Laird and Prof. Laurie Pacarynuk.  Two moderators handled the afternoon sessions, David McWatters (PhD candidate), and Marie Prill (MSc candidate).

Prizes were awarded to:

Posters: 1st prize $200 Marshall Smith, 2nd prize $100 Jan Tuescher

Presentations: lst prize $200 Sarah-Jo Paquette, 2nd prize $100 David McWatters

Udaya Subedi and Dilumi Kekulandala, graduate students, assisted with coordination of the Symposium.  Our congratulations and thanks go to everyone involved in the event.

Conference news – Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) World Congress meeting - November 6-10, 2016

Five members of the Pyle lab gave platform and poster talks at the SETAC World Congress meeting in Orlando, Florida.  During the conference, the weather was warm and the venue was gorgeous.  The pictures above are of two of our presenters, Sylvia Chow (left) and Jody Heerema (right).

Pyle lab members presented their work on almost every day of the conference.  On Tuesday, Sarah Bogart gave an invited talk about how “Calcite production is lethal to a model freshwater invertebrate”.  On Wednesday, Sylvia Chow (MSc student) presented a poster (photo 116 below) about “Impairment vs local adaptation:  Physiological scope of forage fish affected by natural and anthropogenic bitumen sources in Alberta oil sands region”, and Dr. Pyle gave an invited talk about the “Interaction and toxicity of cadmium, copper, and nickel on the olfactory system of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum, 1792”.  On Thursday, two more Pyle members presented their work.  Ebrahim Lari (PhD student) gave a talk on the “Long term effects of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) on growth, reproduction, and energy reserves of Daphnia magna”, and Jody Heerema (MSc student) presented a poster (photo 152 below) on the “Effects of thyroid hormones, thyroid hormone disruptors, and treated wastewater effluent on chemosensation in Lithobates catesbeianus tadpoles”.  Everyone’s research generated a lot of interest with professionals from academia, government, and industry.   Well done everyone!

Go To Top

Congratulations to our Graduate Students, Sarah Unrau, Layla Molina, Laurens Philipsen and Saabi Dhakal, who were prize winners. Sarah won first prize with her entry of Zombie Brain, Layla second prize with Stopping Cancer Cells with Canadian Prairie Plants and Laurens' 3rd prize with Forest of '85.  Saabi won the People's Choice award with her entry entitled Apertures to Plant Productivity.  See their images here.

Go To Top