Department of Biology
ESC 350
200 University Ave. W
Waterloo, Ontario,
Canada N2L 3G1
Phone: (519) 888-4567 ext. 32569
Fax: (519) 746-0614
Hadeel Abed
Saeer Adeel
Jennifer Aguiar

Supervisor: A. Doxey & J. Hirota
Dissertation/Research Area:
A transcriptomic analysis of the effects of tobacco and cannabis smoke extracts on lung epithelial cells in vitro and the efficacy of standard combination inhaled therapies at attenuating smoke-induced changes in the lung epithelium.
Atiyeh Ahmadi
Sarah Al-Ajeel

Supervisor: J. Neufeld
Dissertation/ Research Area:
I study novel bacteria that can efficiently break down toxic nitrogenous waste (ammonia and urea) in engineered wastewater treatment system.
Sarah Alderman
Sura Ali
Ghadeer Aljoudi
Susan Andrews
Lina Aragon-Baquero
Marc G. Aucoin
Chris Backhouse
Leanne Baker
Emily Baker
Evan Balzer

Supervisor: H. Broders
Dissertation/Research Area:
I study the behavioural ecology and landscape use of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) on Prince Edward Island. My research is a collaboration with Parks Canada and I work primarily in Prince Edward Island National Park.
Lauren Banks
Sarah Barwell
Erin Bayne
Rachel Beaver
Michael A. Beazely
Leslie Bragg

Brian Branfireun
Patrick Breadner
Hugh Broders

Madison Brook

Supervisor: Kim Cuddington
Dissertation/Research Area:
I’m researching how to incorporate temperature into population models of invasive Asian carp to better predict the severity of their invasion in the Great Lakes.
Daniel G. Brown
Kathleen Brown
Jacob Burbank

Supervisor: M. Power
Dissertation/Research Area:
Jacob is using stable isotopes to examine the feeding ecology and thermal niche of an imperiled freshwater fish; Silver Shiner.
Erika Burton
Supervisor: Mark Servos
Co-Supervisor: Barbara Katzenback
Barbara J. Butler

Ivan Cadonic

Ellen Cameron
Sue Ann Campbell
Trevor C. Charles

Jiujun Cheng
Vivian Choh
Simon D.X. Chuong

Danielle Cobbaert
Cody Collis
Steven Cooke
Pete Cott
Simon Courtenay
Paul Craig

Kim M.D. Cuddington

Xiaoqing Dang
Rachel Dawe
Vivian R. Dayeh

Stephanie DeWitte-Orr
Hadi Dhiyebi
Brian Dixon

Contact for: Dixon Research Group
D. George Dixon

Richard Do
Gwynne Domashinski
Alexander Douglas

Supervisor: Barb Katzenback
Dissertation/Research Area:
Investigating elements of innate immunity in the skin of the North American wood frog.
Andrew C. Doxey

Andrew Drake
Bradley D'Souza
Robin Duncan
Bernard P. Duncker

Christine Dupont

Cheryl Duxbury

Ashley Ehrman
Isaac Ellmen
Monica B. Emelko
Katja Engel
Heidi E. Engelhardt

Mark Fast
Katelyn Fehrenbach
Brock Fenton
Carina Filice

Supervisor: Z. Leonenko
Dissertation/Research Areas:
My research focuses on the effects of neuroprotective molecules and antimicrobial peptides on Alzheimer's disease pathology.
Britney Firth

Supervisor: M. Power
Dissertation/Research Area:
Britney is determining the thermal and oxygen physiological tolerances of the imperilled Eastern Sand Darter to help recovery biologists define the critical habitat of the species to make accurate conservation management decisions.
Nicole Fraser
Sarah French
Aaron Frenette
Nicole Gauvreau
Nikhil George

Supervisor: L. Hug
Dissertation/Research Area:
Nikhil is examining viral diversity and virus-host interactions in municipal landfills. He is also aiming to identify new CRISPR-Cas systems from microbes in these sites.
Anita Ghosh
Janice Gilbert
Caleb Girard
D. Moira Glerum

Bernard R. Glick
Kira Goff
Bruce M. Greenberg

Mishi Groh

Huming Guo
Matthew Hale
Roland Hall

Mark Hanson
Nathanael Harper
Khawlah Hawsawi
George Heath
Daniel D. Heath
John Heikkila

John Heil
Maria Hernandez
Mark L. Hewitt
Keegan Hicks
Isabel Hilgendag

Supervisor: H. Swanson & M. Power
Dissertation/ Research Area:
Using stable isotopes to determine the rates of mercury accumulation in Nunavut's inner Frobisher Bay Arctic marine food web. This information will be used to compare future changes to mercury dynamics induced by climate change in order to better understand the fate of Arctic char as a reliable diet source for Inuit.
Jeremy Hirota
Harold Hodgins
Todd Holyoak

Lily Hou
Laura Hug

Contact for: Hug Research Group
Manjot Hunjan
Okechukwu (Okey) Igboeli
Heather Ikert

Supervisor: P. Craig and B. Katzenback
Dissertation/Research Area:
Heather is studying the effects of multiple stressors on fish populations and stress levels by measuring environmental DNA (to identify organisms present) and RNA (to measure stress levels). This will extend from the use of microRNA as a sub-lethal biomarker within tissue, to a biomarker within the water column, as well as understanding the dynamics of DNA secretion and degradation in different environmental conditions.
Brian Ingalls
Izabela Jasiak

Supervisor: R. Hall
Dissertation/Research Area:
Studies the impacts of legacy mining projects in the Northwest Territories on lakes in the Yellowknife area using paleolimnology and particularly looks at how mining-associated metals like arsenic vary over space and time.
Benjamin Jenkins
Grant Jensen

Supervisor: L. Hug
Dissertation/Research Area:
Grant's research focuses on the changes to the soil microbiome through the winter transition. Microbes are still active even under the ice and have implications for climate change, agriculture, and biogeochemical cycling.
Anna Jewczynko
Runqing Jiang
Lisa Johnson

Supervisor: L. Hug
Dissertation/Research Area:
Lisa is studying microbial diversity and function at waste management sites, and investigate biofouling that occurs in a landfill gas capture system. Her research will determine means of disrupting or preventing biofilm formation, and therefore increase the efficiency of gas capture.
Lyndon Jones
Megan Jordan
Jamie W. Joseph
Barb Katzenback

Mitchell Kay

Supervisor: R. Hall
Dissertation/Research Area:
Mitchell's research centers around using long-term records of past environmental change obtained from lake sediment cores to improve our understanding of the roles of natural processes and human activities on hydroecological condition in the Peace-Athabasca Delta.
Teshager Kefale
Sarah Kim
Andrea Kirkwood
Arnold Kwok
Christina Lashbrook
Maureen Latimer

Supervisor: Brian Dixon
Dissertation/Research Area:
My research is focused on investigating differences in immune performance between diploid and triploid Chinook salmon through MHC genotyping and T cell counts.
Brittney Lato
Dail Laughinghouse
Anita Layton
Nicole LeBlanc
Jennifer Lehman

Laura J. Lemieux

Zoya Leonenko

Ryan Leys
Yong Li
Lucia Liao
Scott Liddycoat
Susan Lolle

Janet Lorv
Qing-Bin Lu
Jessica Luc
John S. Lumsden
Michael Lynch
Kesen Ma

Lauren MacDonald
Deborah L. MacLatchy
Sarah Makepeace
Mungo Marsden

Dale Martin

Keith McAllister
Brendan J. McConkey

Liam McGuire

Daniel McIsaac
Michelle McKnight
Sean McLay
Mark McMaster
Bronte McPhedran
Jorren Meeussen
Julie Messier

Research areas: plant functional ecology; phenotypic variation and integration.
John Mielke
Karen Miinch
Jessica Miller
Gyana Mishra
Dragana Miskovic

Barbara A. Moffatt

Dejana Mitrovic
Jack Moffat
Wathiq Mohammed
Emma Monod
Brandon Morningstar
Mehdi Moslemi-Aqdam
Andrew Muir
Kelly Munkittrick
Gracia Murase
Kirsten M. Müller

Laura Neary

Supervisor: Dr. Roland Hall
Dissertation/Research Area:
Laura is working towards identifying major drivers of seasonal and spatial variation in lake carbon balance across a northern floodplain landscape.
Josh D. Neufeld

Sean Newbury
Alex Ng
Lisa Nielsen

Supervisor: Marc Aucoin
Dissertation/ Research Area:
Exploiting the immunogenic aspects of baculovirus for a multipronged vaccination strategy involving in vivo production of virus-like particles.
Jozef Nissimov

Elaine Novik
Jennifer Nowack
Larry Petrov

Louis Pfeifer
Marcel Pinheiro

Lauryn Pinks
Vanessa Poletto-Borges

Michael Power
Rohini Prakash
Madeleine Prater
Joe Quadrilatero
Roberto Quezada-Calvillo
Praveen Nekkar Rao
Jeannie Redpath-Erb

Bruce H. Reed

Robert Reid-Taylor
Casey Remmer
Michael Rennie
Karsten Rinas
Courtney Robichaud

Supervisor: R. Rooney
Dissertation/Research Area:
Courtney is studying the effects of an invasive grass, Phragmites australis (European Common Reed), and large-scale herbicide-based restoration efforts on wetland communities and processes. Her work has a specific focus on plant community assembly, efficacy of restoration approaches, and secondary productivity (invertebrates) and at-risk bird species' (e.g. Barn Swallow) response to invaded, restored, and uninvaded habitat in Long Point, a World Biosphere Reserve.
Karyn Robichaud
Terin Robinson
Tania Rodriguez-Cornejo
Rebecca C. Rooney

Danielle Rose
David R. Rose

Heather Roshon
Sarah Ruffell
Caleb Ryan
Martin Ryan
Lucy Satora

Alexandra Sauk

Supervisor: Hugh Broders
Dissertation/ Research Area:
I study the diversity and population genetics of bat ectoparasites, including bat fleas and mites.
Cory Savage
Supervisor: Roland Hall
Co-Supervisor: Brent Wolfe
Sherry Schiff
Matthew Scott
Garry J. Scrimgeour
John C. Semple
Mark R. Servos

Timothy Shardlow

Supervisor: K. Müller
Dissertation/ Research Area:
The presence of cyanobacteria within water samples taken from lakes within different ecozones in Canada that are used as drinking water sources. Using the cyanobacterial communities present, I help to determine the quality of water by detecting potential toxin producers as well as factors that could be influencing cyanobacteria growth and bloom formation.
Kartar Singh
Roderick Slavcev
Matthew Smith
Ralph E.H. Smith

Rosie Smith

Manu Soto-Davila

Supervisor: Brian Dixon
Dissertation/ Research Area:
To determine how probiotics can be used to enhance the immune response of triploid Chinook salmon used in aquaculture against bacterial pathogens.
Cheryl Soullière
J. David Spafford

Paul Spagnuolo
Mia Stratton

Supervisor: Roland Hall
Co-Supervisor: Brent Wolfe
Dissertation/ Research Area:
Studying the role of an upstream tributary involved with ice-jam flooding and it’s potential influence on hydrological changes in a northern Canadian delta. She analyzes lake sediment cores to help characterize the influence of upstream climate on the hydrology of the delta.
Heidi Swanson

Terence Tang
William D. Taylor
Gerald Tetreault
Aranksha Thakor
Christian Therrien
Hannah Thibault
Douglas Tozer
Norman Tran
Bryan Tripp
Alex Umbach
Philippe VanCappellen
Adrian VanDyk
Joseph Varga

Supervisor: Brian Dixon
Dissertation/Research Area:
Joseph is studying the small but mighty, antimicrobial peptides and how they modulate frog skin innate immunity.
Susanne Vesely
Veronica Viljakainen

Supervisor: L. Hug
Dissertation/Research Area:
Characterizing the distribution of putative bioplastic degrading organisms across pristine and contaminated environments using metagenomics.
Lucy Wang
Valerie Ward
Xin Wei

Supervisor: Andrew Doxey
Dissertation/ Research Area:
Regulatory motif identification in promoters that are associated with different functions or expression patterns.
Spencer Weinstein

Supervisor: H. Swanson
Dissertation/ Research Area:
The composition of chars in the Coronation Gulf near Kugluktuk, Nunavut, in partnership with the Kugluktuk Hunters and Trappers Organization, to evaluate the causes for a decline in the number of Arctic char present in the critical local subsistence fishery. I am combining western science, in the form of novel molecular tools and morphological analyses, with traditional knowledge to assess whether climate change has altered the species composition of the fishery.
April Wettig

Amy White
Susan Whyte

Johan Wiklund
Michael Wilkie
Jonathan D.S. Witt

Brent B. Wolfe
Bruce R. Wolff
