In conversation with Alex Kuijper Dickson, AES valedictorian A ceremony
º«¹úÂãÎè’s valedictorians are outstanding students whose strong academic performance, leadership and community involvement has earned the respect of their peers. This year’s cohort is remarkable for its diversity, each having vastly different backgrounds, experiences, passions and goals.
What they do share is ambition, curiosity, and a desire to have a positive impact on the world.
Newly discovered chemical is a highly targeted killer of parasitic worms
The most abundant animals on farms—and everywhere on land, in fact—are microscopic worms called nematodes. Some kinds benefit the soil, but others parasitize crops, inflicting more than $100 billion in losses worldwide each year. Although pesticides can get rid of harmful nematodes, they inflict collateral damage on other life.
º«¹úÂãÎè team advances in Deep Space Food Challenge
A team led by two recent º«¹úÂãÎè bioengineering graduates, Alexander Becker and Cynthia Hitti, has made it through to the final phase of the Deep Space Food Challenge (DSFC) with their system for rearing crickets as a food source for long-haul space voyages.
$3.2 million for º«¹úÂãÎè Research from the New Frontiers in Research Fund
Congratulations to two Macdonald Profs who have received funding through the New Frontiers in Research Fund Exploration stream, which supports high-risk, high-reward and interdisciplinary research: Hamid Akbarzadeh (BRE) for Origami-inspired deployable sensoriactuator soft robots and Mehran Dastmalchi (PltSci) for
Are candy-striped spiders a threat to North American ecosystems?
Research published in Ecology took a closer look into the candy-striped spider’s diet and behaviour and found that these spiders use a variety of tactics to take down prey much larger than themselves, including sleeping bees and wasps.
Joint Chair aims to leverage AI and IoT to improve animal welfare in Canadian dairy farms
º«¹úÂãÎè and the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) announced today the creation of the Research and Innovation Chair in Animal Welfare and Artificial Intelligence (WELL-E). The five-year, $5 million Chair will carry out a major research project funded by a grant from NSERC Alliance and PROMPT, fiduciary of the Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy.
Analyzing the fat of killer whales reveals what they eat
Scientists are studying the diets of the oceans’ top predators as they change in response to their environments. This is because how much and what they eat can affect how ecosystems function.
And while researchers know that killer whales, also known as orcas, are the oceans’ apex predators, our understanding of their diet — particularly the quantity of each species they consume — remains incomplete. This is especially true for remote populations that cannot be observed year-round.
Take virtual trip to the arctic with Dorothy Newton Swales, º«¹úÂãÎè’s “mother of botanyâ€
Heather Rogers, a Digital Humanities student at MA, has taken her research on Dorothy Newton Swales (BSc Plant Pathology, 1921; MSc Bacteriology 1922; Ph.D. University of Manitoba, Mycology 1931) and transformed it into an interactive website so that others can follow the six decades of botanical collections made by the herbarium's first woman curator (1964-1971) and longest serving mentor to young botanists.
L’agriculture en manque de relève
Un récent rapport indique que 40 % des travailleurs agricoles partiront à la retraite d'ici 2033 et que le pays manquera de 24 000 employés d'ici là . Pascal Thériault, économiste et directeur du programme de gestion et technologies d’entreprise agricole à l’Université º«¹úÂãÎè, analyse la situation.
Food safety during a power outage: what to keep, what to throw away
Preventing illness from spoiled groceries needs to be top of mind, says a food safety expert at º«¹úÂãÎè.
"There can be a range of symptoms, most often diarrhea and vomiting, the ones we're all familiar with but foodborne infections can also be quite serious," said Jennifer Ronholm [Food/Animal Science], a professor of food microbiology.
AES research garners support from the 2023 MSSI Ideas Fund
The º«¹úÂãÎè Sustainability Systems Initiative (MSSI) has announced the results of its latest Ideas Fund competition. The Ideas Fund awards seed funding to projects led by º«¹úÂãÎè researchers, enabling them to pursue high-risk, high-reward projects in sustainability research. Congrats to AES Researchers who have received funding for the following projects:
Quand l’université s’adapte à la ferme
Les enjeux dans le domaine agroalimentaire se multiplient et se complexifient. Les programmes de formation doivent évoluer en conséquence. Coup d’œil sur ce qu’il se passe du côté des deux universités qui offrent des programmes en agronomie : l’Université Laval et l’Université º«¹úÂãÎè.
º«¹úÂãÎè Pulse Breeding Program 2022
The º«¹úÂãÎè Pulse Breeding Program and the non-profit organization SeedChange have partnered to bring the ImPulse Project to fruition, an initiative to promote knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and agricultural resilience in the pulse sector.
Rabais pour l’épicerie : 467 $ par année pour une famille, c’est 9 $ par semaine, nuance un économiste
Le budget fédéral dévoilé mardi prévoit un « rabais pour l'épicerie » sous forme d'aide ponctuelle pour aider les citoyens à composer avec l'inflation. Cette mesure de 2,5 milliards de dollars, qui profitera à 11 millions de personnes, pourra atteindre 467 $ par an pour un couple avec deux enfants.
2023 Gold Key Awardees Named
Congratulations to students Arthur Bégin, Defne Helvacioglu, Estee Ngew and Meryem Talbo, recipients of the 2023 Macdonald Campus Gold Key Award for service to the Macdonald community.
These students have contributed immensely to the enrichment of the Macdonald community, as evidenced by the heartfelt testimony provided by many members of the Macdonald community during the recent nomination period.