Science Matters Fall 2021
Dean's Message
In 2016 we implemented our Destination Science campaign to highlight how Science at the University of Windsor is on the leading edge of science in the province. Making this bold statement allowed us to achieve things that we never thought possible. Our undergraduate and graduate enrolment continues to grow at a provincially leading rate and the Class of 2025 is the largest ever. Students continue to be attracted to the opportunity to study abroad, support the community through service learning, internships and co-ops and undergraduate research. Your continued support for these high-impact learning experiences is greatly appreciated and an important reason for our success.
 
We have also experienced significant growth in donor, industry, provincial and federal support for research. From developing new uses for petroleum by-products, unlocking the impacts of climate change in the arctic, developing new imaging techniques for prostate cancer or protecting personal data from cyber threats, our award-winning faculty and students are making a difference through their research. To recognize the impact of our faculty we introduced a new Research Chair program – please join me in congratulating Dr. Christina Semeniuk and Dr. Drew Marquardt for being awarded as our inaugural chairs.
 
Your continued support of the Faculty of Science will ensure that we remain the Destination Science program in the Province of Ontario.

A sad farewell
It is with heavy hearts we say goodbye to the talented Dr. Jill Crossman. The Faculty of Science lost a friend, colleague and researcher with the passing of Dr. Crossman, Assistant Professor in the School of the Environment, and member of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER), on September 11, 2021. 
COVID-19 Research
Federal COVID research funding responds to Windsor-Essex's unique location, population
A team of UWindsor professors developing novel ways to detect COVID and limit the spread of its variants has been awarded $500,000 from a federal agency that funds health research. 



Biochemistry professor Yufeng Tong and team have received CIHR funding to tackle new ways of fighting COVID and variants

TWITTER: Follow @tongalumina
Image: Freepik.com
Researchers teaming up to build COVID-19 vaccine confidence among students and young adults
A group of experts with WE-Spark Health Institute received a $50,000 grant to support the project “Students Igniting Vaccine Confidence Program in Windsor-Essex.”

Twitter: Follow @wesparkhealth
Testing tool provides early detection of COVID-19 cases
A new tool from the WE-Spark Health Institute combines local wastewater surveillance testing with University of Windsor saliva-based screening to monitor the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The interactive dashboard compares the levels of the virus in wastewater to active or new COVID-19 cases in Windsor-Essex to detect outbreaks in real time.
Mike McKay and his team at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research are part of province-wide effort to analyze wastewater for COVID.

TWITTER: Follow @McKayGLIER
Researcher Mike McKay of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research and his team will be part of a first-of-its-kind province-wide SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance project supported by Ontario Genomics, Genome Canada, and the biotech company Illumina.
New initiatives in Science
Appointments to increase research capacity in Faculty of Science
Christina Semeniuk and Drew Marquardt are the inaugural Faculty of Science Research Chairs.


Twitter: Follow @PredictEcoLab
Twitter: Follow @UWinBiophysics
Christina Semeniuk and Drew Marquardt are the inaugural Faculty of Science Research Chairs.
Faculty attracting attention
Professor wins recognition for cybersecurity expertise
Computer science assistant professor Dima Alhadidi has won recognition as one of Canada’s 2021 Top Women in Cybersecurity.

The title was awarded by IT World Canada, Women in Security & Resilience Alliance, and the Canadian Women in Security Forum as part of the second annual Top Women in Cybersecurity Celebration, honouring 20 women working in cybersecurity across private, public, not-for-profit, and academic sectors.
Computer science assistant professor Dima Alhadidi has won recognition as one of Canada’s Top Women in Cybersecurity.

Chemist Marcus Drover will research the creation of new and useful molecules from petroleum industry by-products.

Twitter: Follow @marcuswdrover
Award to support chemist's research into petroleum by-products
Winning an award from the American Chemistry Society Petroleum Research Fund will allow UWindsor researcher Marcus Drover and his team to head in a new direction: exploring the creation of new and useful molecules out of petroleum industry by-products.

Ontario researcher wins PETA Science Group and MedTec award to replace animal tests
PETA Science Consortium International e.V. and MedTec Biolab Inc. gave a free air-liquid interface in vitro device that can help replace the use of animals in inhalation toxicity testing to Charu Chandrasekera, the executive director of the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods.

Dr. Charu Chandrasekera

Twitter: Follow @CCAAM_CaCVAM
Successful Students
Award to fund doctoral research into e-cigarettes
Mitchell DiPasquale (BSc 2017) is taking the health debate surrounding vaping and e-cigarettes down to the molecular level.

For this research he was awarded the Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The award provides special recognition and support to students who are pursuing a doctoral degree in a health-related field in Canada.
PhD student Mitchell DiPasquale is using synthetic membranes to study the physical effects of vaping and e-cigarettes.


Research presentation wins national notice for stats student
Doctoral student Mai Ghannam won the Probability Section Presentation Award at the Statistical Society of Canada’s 2021 meeting.
Doctoral student Mai Ghannam (BSc 2014, MSc 2016) won the Probability Section Presentation Award at the 2021 Statistical Society of Canada meeting with her research in high and ultra-high dimensional data, which have applications into how regions of the brain are connected to disease.


Altruistic undergrads donate carloads of toiletries to women in need
Two benevolent biomedical science majors turned their pandemic boredom into a successful fundraising campaign called “She Support Drive.” The first-year students, Renee Wulterkens and Isabella Arthur, collected menstrual products, toiletries, and money to donate to three Windsor charities that support women.

Instagram: Follow She Support Drive
Science students Renee Wulterkens and Isabella Arthur collected menstrual products, toiletries, and money for local charities that support women.
Students get creative with microbes
Undergraduates were encouraged to let their artistic-sides flow for a class project that turned microbiology knowledge into works of art.
In the second-year course “Introductory Microbiology,” students created posters or infographics featuring micro-organisms in real-world situations.

Student Shannon Smith designed a poster highlighting the genetics, habitats, and health impacts of yeast, along with — in the section shown — its culinary uses.
Students shine at spring conferences
Layale Bazzi’s paper took first place in the medicine and biology division at the Canadian Association of Physicists annual congress.
Caleb Vegh won the Contributed Speaker Presentation award at the annual conference of the Natural Health Product and Research Society.
Jessica Szawara and Lucas Vajko Siddall were the first UWindsor students to present at the Ontario Quebec Undergraduate Immunology Conference.
Impressive Research
Professor Trevor Pitcher readies a water-monitoring buoy for deployment in July 2019.

Researchers from the University of Windsor are partnering with the tech firm BlackBerry on a system that will monitor water levels and quality — and can alert officials to risks as they arise.
Headed by Trevor Pitcher, director of the of the Freshwater Restoration Ecology Centre and a professor at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research and in the Department of Integrative Biology, the project provides of a first-of-its-kind flood risk and clean water monitoring solution.
Project providing automatic alerts on water quality and quantity
Application of AI to revolutionize automotive production
UWindsor researchers are designing a high-tech ‘smart’ spot welder combining ultrasound and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to dramatically improve the quality of welds in automotive body mass manufacturing.

Technology to improve welds will revolutionize automotive assembly, says Distinguished physics professor Roman Maev.

UWindsor associate nprofessor Oliver Love and Grant Gilchrist of Environment and Climate Change Canada are part of a team studying Arctic species of concern.
Arctic researchers helping to unlock the impacts of climate change
The way forward in tackling the diversity of issues facing wildlife in the Canadian Arctic, say University of Windsor researchers Christina Semeniuk and Oliver Love, is in strong collaboration, integration of both scientific and Indigenous approaches, and seeking community-based solutions.
Twitter: Follow @oliverlovelab
Twitter: Follow @PredictEcoLab
Researcher receives federal funding for new investigations of invasive species

Dr. MacIsaac is researching why quagga mussel populations are exploding in the Great Lakes while zebra mussels are waning. He will collaborate with colleagues at UWindsor’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER) to study the species at the level of their molecular DNA.

Website: MacIsaac Lab
Hugh MacIsaac will receive $200,000 annually for seven years under the Canada Research Chair program to study invasive species in the Great Lakes.

A team of UWindsor researchers say their study can inform policy-makers in Canada and the United States whether it makes economic sense to hire more lifeguards or invest in beach safety education.

Twitter: Follow @houserchrisa1
Study shows economic cost of drownings off Great Lakes beaches
Drownings off beaches along the Great Lakes cost the economies of Canada and the United States more than $130 million each year, a team of UWindsor researchers has found.


Ecological studies of Walpole Island receive funding support
With the help of UWindsor researcher Catherine Febria, the Walpole Island Land Trust has been awarded money to train students to conduct ecological studies during the ongoing pandemic.

The $95,300 grant comes from the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Resilient Communities Fund. The fund is designed to help the non-profit sector cope with the effects of COVID-19.

In this 2019 photo, UWindsor researcher Catherine Febria trains Bkejwanong youth Kaitlyn Issac and Taylor Myers to conduct ecological studies on Walpole Island.

Twitter: Follow @ecofebria
Instagram: Follow @healthy headwaterslab
Lisa Porter and John Trant, shown in this 2019 photo, have received funding through the Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation’s Seeds4Hope program to devise new imaging agents for the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Twitter: Follow @LisaPorter2
Twtter: Follow @TrantTeam
Researchers devising new imaging agents to diagnose prostate cancer
A pair of UWindsor scientists are researching ways to better diagnose prostate cancer.

Lisa Porter and John Trant are developing imaging agents to help oncologists distinguish between different types of prostate cancer. The new agents would fluoresce under near-infrared light that could be used in conjunction with colonoscopies. Diagnoses would be more precise and wait times shorter than with current imaging using positron emission tomography, commonly referred to as PET scans.
Other impressive highlights across science
Celebrating Science
Michael Godfrey has received a postdoctoral fellowship to explore improving equity, diversity, and inclusion within science.
Researcher to explore issues of LGBTQ+ students in science and tech
Michael Godfrey (BHK 2014) has secured the first-ever Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellowship in the UWindsor Faculty of Science with his application: “Campus climate and persistence of LGBTQ+ students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.”

Biology professor wins recognition for teaching excellence
Integrative biology’s Oliver Love has won the 2021 Faculty of Science Roger Thibert Teaching Excellence Award in recognition of his exceptional contributions towards engaging students and educational development.


Twitter: Follow @oliverlovelab
Integrative biology professor Oliver Love is the 2021 recipient of the Roger Thibert Teaching Excellence Award.
Changes in Faculty and Staff
New Faculty
John Albanese – Integrative Biology
Abedalrhman Alkhateeb – School of Computer Science
Mahdi Firoozjaei – School of Computer Science
Usama Mir – School of Computer Science
Prashanth Ranga – School of Computer Science
Ikjot Saini – School of Computer Science
Faculty Retirements
Barbara Zielinksi – Integrative Biology (31 years)

Faculty Departures
Eugene Kim – Physics (18 years)

Faculty Changes
Dan Mennill – Renewed as Associate Dean, Graduate Studies & Research
Chitra Rangan – Acting Associate Dean in Graduate Studies
Steve Rehse – Renewed as Head of Physics
Sang-Chul Suh – Head of Economics

New Staff
Kate Hargreaves – Mathematics & Statistics Graduate Program Secretary
Martha Huiser – Integrative Biology Departmental Secretary
Lorilyn Lanno – Mathematics & Statistics Departmental Secretary
Roxana Moreira-Diaz – Graduate Program Secretary for Integrative Biology & Biomedical Science
Paula Tetreault – Biomedical Sciences Departmental Secretary

Staff Changes
Gemma Grey-Hall – returns to her role as Major Gifts Officer
Laura Laurie – returns from leave to her position as Undergraduate Affairs Secretary/Coordinator
Danielle Lenarduzzi – Graduate Program Secretary for School of Environment, GLIER and Physics
Dina Teja-Labelle – Mathematics & Statistics, transfers to a new position on campus
In Memoriam
Dr. Crossman commenced her employment with the University of Windsor on July 1st, 2017. 
  
Director of the School of the Environment Joel Gagnon remembers Crossman as a force to be reckoned with.
 
“When Jill took anything on, she went all in. In research, despite being a junior faculty member in the School of the Environment, Jill’s productivity and impact were already exceptional and far reaching,” says Dr. Gagnon. 

Crossman’s research into nutrient cycling in Great Lakes watersheds and microplastics contamination in freshwater systems was ground-breaking. 
In teaching, Crossman re-envisioned her undergraduate courses into a coherent package addressing highly relevant issues, such as climate change and impacts on the Great Lakes. In service, Crossman’s voice on the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee was invaluable and her impact on students in outreach activities was amazing. 

“Jill took us all in new and exciting directions,” says Gagnon.

“In the relatively short time that Jill was with us, she made a remarkable and lasting impact on the School of the Environment and the University of Windsor. Jill’s passing is an immense and unrecoverable loss to us all.”

As a trusted colleague, researcher and educator, Dr. Crossman positively impacted many of us at the University of Windsor and beyond. Our deepest condolences are extended to her family, friends, colleagues, and students. 

Redefining Research: A Science Narrative

Our YouTube channel brings to life the stories from #WindsorScience - from student student opportunities to innovative research.
The Faculty of Science has helped students achieve their promise since the founding of the University in 1963. Our campaign will help us attract and empower the finest faculty, staff, and, students through new capital projects, multidisciplinary research and the student experience.

Investments in our strategic funding priorities will help us achieve our goals to advance the Faculty of Science to a new unprecedented level.

For more information, contact Gemma Grey-Hall at: gemmagh@uwindsor.ca
Faculty of Science
University of Windsor
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519-253-3000 Extension: 3009