Current graduate students
SERS master's student Rosalind Synder has been collecting positive stories related to land in Ontario's Greenbelt. A favorite is the Alderville Black Oak Savannah project initiated by Mississauga Anishinaabeg biologist and artist Rick Beaver and managed by the Alderville First Nation. The project centres on restoration of a rare Tallgrass Prairie and Savannah ecosystem. Since its start over 20 years ago, the Alderville Black Oak Savannah has been almost fully restored. In addition to ecological restoration, the project ensures community access to traditional foods and medicinal plants.
The School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability congratulates our newest cohort of doctoral graduands.
The Fedy research group tries to understand the distribution and abundance of wildlife populations. Most of our research focuses on applied questions relevant to the management of wildlife populations. Collecting data for this research requires field work in remote locations making the planning and execution challenging at times. Is it worth it?
We are pleased to announce that four new faculty have taken up positions in SERS in the past year. We welcomed Dr. Felicitas Egunyu (August 2022), Dr. Helena Shilomboleni (September 2022), Dr. Chantel Markle (January 2023) and Dr. Leah Jones-Crank (July 2023).
Augustine Osei discusses his selection of the PhD program in Social and Ecological Sustainability and his research which he is conducting under the supervision of Dr. Maren Oelbermann. He is currently studying greenhouse gas emissions during growing and non-growing seasons and using spectroscopy techniques to measure carbon sequestration.
Dr. Kelsey Leonard's WAMPUM Lab partnered with the Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance to co-develop a report to the UN to prioritize Indigenous Peoples in the digital ecosystem. Their submission indicates principles and actions that can be taken to achieve the goal of an open, free and secure digital future for all. It employs the CARE principles, which are well-established in the open data movement.
With the end of the winter term and school year, recipients of special awards were announced. Sharah Gallego Meneses was awarded the academic excellence award among graduating undergraduate SERS students. Ishani Dasgupta and Kyle Schang were awarded the SERS Good Citizen Awards at the undergraduate and graduate levels respectively.
A special offering ERS graduate field school course is taking place August 12-19, 2023 in Chilika, India. ERS 675/ INDEV 617 is the code for the Field School course Blue Justice and Coastal Livelihoods to Transition from Vulnerability to Viability. University of Waterloo students receive course credits for their successful completion of the Field School course. All on-site Field School costs for registered UWaterloo students are covered.
Jennifer Clapp, University Professor in SERS and Canada Research Chair, was inducted into the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry as a new international fellow on January 28, 2023.
A new study led by University of Waterloo researchers discovered greenhouse gas production during spring freeze-thaw events in cold temperate regions is significantly less when biobased residues like compost replace nitrogen fertilizer.
