Science Borealis is pleased to announce the New Science Communicator series! In collaboration with Science Atlantic and Canadian Science Publishing, we will be publishing five posts over the coming months written by undergraduate and graduate students from across the Maritimes. All five authors won the Science Communication award for their original research presented at one of the 2015-2016 Science Atlantic conferences. Their research covers a huge range of subjects, and we anticipate this being a great series of posts! We’re very happy to welcome them all as guest contributors, and so to introduce the series, here are their bios.
Deanna Kerry
I am a fourth-year Physics student at the University of Prince Edward Island. I am currently involved in computational polymer physics, which is a much more exciting field than it sounds. I spend half my time dealing with segmentation faults and the other half modelling bacterial chromosomes. I hope to study climate physics in graduate school next year so I can save the world.
Sara Klapstein
I am a PhD candidate at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Environmental Science. I am studying the effects of dissolved organic matter on methylmercury in freshwater lakes of Nova Scotia and ultimately interested in the bioavailability of methylmercury to (aquatic) food webs. Cheese and mechanistic questions are my forte!
Katie McCulloch
I am a recent graduate of Acadia University’s Geology program, with a minor in Chemistry. I am currently finishing an honours project on the characteristics of the Jeffers Brook pluton in the Cobequid Highlands, which, quite honestly, should have been completed last year. The presentation of this thesis at the Atlantic Universities Geoscience Conference 2015 won me the Science Atlantic Best Paper award. I love the outdoors, hiking, reading, and talking to anyone who will patiently remain in my vicinity about geology, earth history, Space X, and food.
Jennifer Poirier
Hello everyone! My name is Jen Poirier and I am a recent graduate of St. Francis Xavier University. I am just starting a second Bachelor of Science, this time in Pharmacy at Dalhousie University (so you could call me a professional student)! I am originally from the Annapolis Valley, I am a severe caffeine addict, and I really look forward to sharing the research I conducted over the past few summers with you all!
Christopher Small
My name is Christopher Small and I am a PhD Candidate working in the labs of Dr. Tillmann Benfey and Dr. Bryan Crawford at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. I grew up in Moncton, NB and spent most of my summers alternating between playing on my computer and fishing the waters of southern New Brunswick. I am very lucky to have the opportunity to pursue both of these interests in my PhD thesis as I rely heavily on fluorescence microscopy and image processing to answer questions pertaining to fish physiology and development. I am an avid zebrafish enthusiast who will happily and endlessly ramble on about the merits and potential of the zebrafish model to the incessant frustration of anyone listening.
