Bios of Invited Speakers

Plenary Speakers: 

1. Mr. David Phillips

David has been employed with Environment Canada's weather service for over 40 years.  His work activities relate to the study of the climate of Canada and to promote awareness and understanding of weather and climate in Canada. He has published several books, papers and reports on the climate of Canada, including several essays in The Canadian Encyclopedia, a book on The Climates of Canada, and two bestsellers: The Day Niagara Falls Ran Dry and Blame It On The Weather.  He is the originator and author of the Canadian Weather Trivia Calendar, the most popular calendar sold in Canada, and now in its 24th year. For nearly ten years he wrote the Weather-wise column in the Canadian Geographic magazine.  David frequently appears on national radio and television as a commentator on weather and climate matters.  David is a fellow of both the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. He has been awarded the Patterson Medal for Distinguished Service to Meteorology in Canada, and has twice received the Public Service Merit Award.  David is the recipient of two honorary doctorates from the University of Waterloo and Nipissing University.  In 2001, David was named to the Order of Canada.

 

2. Dr. Paul Bullock

Paul Bullock is an associate professor of Agrometeorology in the Department of Soil Science at the University of Manitoba. He teaches classes in Agrometeorology, Micrometeorology and Soil and Water Management. He has a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and a M.Sc. in Soil Science, both from the University of Saskatchewan. He obtained a Ph.D. from the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. Dr. Bullock is interested in quantifying impacts of weather on crop performance as well as the development and validation of models for the prediction of these impacts.  He has also assessed agrometeorological risk for crop production on the Canadian prairies, the northern Great Plains and the agricultural regions of Canada. He has several years’ experience in operational crop yield forecasting at the Weather and Crop Surveillance department of the Canadian Wheat Board and has explored agricultural applications of remote sensing with Noetix Research Inc.

  

Society Invited Speakers:

Canadian Society of Agronomy (CSA)

1. Dr. Chandra A. Madramootoo, P.Eng.

 

Dr. Chandra Madramootoo is Dean of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at McGill University, Montreal. He is a James McGill Professor in the Department of Bioresource Engineering at McGill, specializing in irrigation and drainage.  He obtained his BSc (Agr Eng), MSc and PhD degrees in agricultural engineering from McGill. He was the Founding Director of the Brace Centre for Water Resources Management. Chandra Madramootoo is currently President of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), and he also Chairs the Research Program Committee of the Board of Governors of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), located in Hyderabad, India. Chandra Madramootoo has authored or co-authored over 200 refereed book chapters and journal articles. He has supervised the research work of over 70 graduate students, and he has been invited to deliver over 100 keynote addresses around the world. He has received several awards including being elected a Fellow of the Canadian Society of BioEngineering, a Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and a member of the International Water Academy.

 

2. Dr. Chantal Hamel

Chantal Hamel holds a PhD in crop physiology from, the Macdonald Campus of McGill University (1991), Québec. She conducted two years of postdoctoral research on mycorrhizal interaction at Université de Montréal and two years of applied research at Québec Agriculture Ministry before teaching soil science at the Macdonald Campus of McGill for eight years. In 2003 she joined the Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Saskatchewan where her aim is to improve the nutrient use efficiency of crops through management of soil microbial resources.

 

3. Dr. Rong Tsao

Dr. Rong Tsao (Rong Cao) is a Research Scientist at the Guelph Food Research Centre of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Guelph, Ontario.  He received his Ph.D. in Japan, and was a PDF at Iowa State University before he joined AAFC in 1996.  Dr. Tsao is a well established Research Scientist in the area of bioactive phytochemicals and their roles in human health and wellness, with a focus on the chemistry and biochemistry of phytochemicals with antioxidant activities.  He is an editorial board member of Food Chemistry, and holds several adjunct positions at different universities.  He has been organizer and chair of several international symposiums on antioxidants and health.

 

4. Dr. Jonathan Lynch

Jonathan Lynch has been a Professor of Plant Nutrition at the Pennsylvania State University since 1991. From 1988-1991 he led a research program at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia. He holds a B.Sc. degree in soils and plant nutrition from the University of California at Berkeley, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in plant physiology from the University of California at Davis. His research program centres on understanding the genetic, physiological and ecological basis of plant adaption to infertile soils.

 

5. Dr. Niels Halberg

Niels Halberg is the director of ICROFS with the main responsibilities of coordinating research programs and initiating research in Denmark, Europe, and wider international collaboration. He is coordinator of the EraNet "CORE Organic" with 26 European partners and theme coordinator for "Eco-functional Intensification" in the European Technology Platform "TPorganics". He is vice president of ISOFAR (International Society of Organic Agriculture Research). Niels is an agronomist and has a PhD in Ecological Economics from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen (1997). Niels Halberg has more than 15 years of experience in research and modeling of organic and conventional farming systems including agronomy, economics, and resource use and environmental impact. He has conducted on-farm research in Europe since 1992 and in Africa, Asia and Latin America since 1999, and has published several papers comparing organic and conventional farming from environmental and food security perspectives. In 2006 he edited the ternational book "Global Development of Organic Agriculture. Challenges and Prospects" (CABI).

 

6. Dr. Robert J. Hijmans

Robert Hijmans joined the University of California - Davis, in 2009. Previously he had worked at the International Potato Center, UC Berkeley, and the International Rice Research Institute. He holds a M.Sc. degree in tropical crop science and Ph.D. degrees in production ecology and resource conservation from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. His research focuses on the effect of climate change on natural and agricultural biodiversity.

 

7. Mr. Igor Falak

Igor Falak has been a research scientist with Pioneer Hi-Bred Production LP since 1994. He holds a B.Sc. degree in plant protection from University of Novi Sad, Serbia, where he also did graduate studies in Phytopathology, and M.Sc. in plant breeding from University of Guelph.

His primary areas of research are breeding for disease resistance and agronomic/stress-related traits in canola.

8. Rosalind (Ball) Bueckert

Rosalind (Ball) Bueckert has been a faculty member at University of Saskatchewan’s Department of Plant Sciences since 2000.  She gained a BSc in Agricultural Botany from Reading (UK), and MSc and PhD degrees in Agronomy from the University of Arkansas (USA).  Although trained on drought and nutrition (N, P, K) aspects of warm-season crops, with post-doctoral research on soybean, she now works with cool-season crops and pulses.  Her current program is field based crop physiology and examines nitrogen fixation in lentil and faba bean, and improving pea yields in warmer temperatures by crop phenology (flowering) mechanisms. 

9. Todd Hyra

Raised on a mixed grain and beef farm in Grandview Manitoba, Todd Hyra is a University of Manitoba grad. Since beginning his career in 1990, he has worked in the seed industry in a range of roles with Proven Seed, and now, SeCan. Over his career Todd has held a variety of positions including Research Agronomist, R & D Manager, Product Manager, and Seed Business Manager.  During the past 21 years, Todd has worked with western Canada’s major crops including canola, wheat, barley, oats, soybeans and all forage species.  Todd joined SeCan in September 2007 as Business Manager, Western Canada.  With SeCan, Todd focuses on developing business opportunities for SeCan’s members and industry partners. He also supports SeCan’s sales and marketing initiatives across the Prairie provinces. Todd, his wife Sheri and three children, live in Winnipeg.

10. Yousef Papadopoulos

Dr. Yousef Papadopoulos is a Research Scientist with Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada and a Professor at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC) in Truro, Nova Scotia. Dr. Papadopoulos has conducted extensive research on forage breeding & pasture management for over 30 years, focusing most of his attention on improving the role of forage species & their varieties in modern cropping systems.  Dr. Papadopoulos’ current research emphasis includes the following study areas: breeding strategies to expand the adaptation of forage species, improvement of long-term persistence, reducing  nitrogen fertilizer requirement, reducing nutrient leaching and emission over the growing and extended grazing season; pasture biodiversity; and development of forage cultivars for novelapplications.

10. Dr. J. Kevin Vessey

Kevin Vessey is the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, and a Professor of Biology at Saint Mary’s University. Aside from his 16 years as a Professor of Plant Science at the University of Manitoba, he has also been a Researcher Associate at North Carolina State University, and a Visiting Scientist at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, France. Dr. Vessey’s teaching and research area is plant physiology, particularly the functional interactions between crop plants and beneficial micro-organisms, and the optimizing of crops as biodiesel and bioethanol feedstocks. He has published over 65 peer-reviewed scholarly articles and book chapters and has co-edited one book.

Canadian Society for Horticultural Science (CSHS)

 

1. Dr. Davide Neri

Dr. Neri obtained his PhD in tree physiology from the University of Bologna, has been a guest at Michigan State University and The University of Tokyo, and is currently a professor in the Department of Environmental and Crop Sciences at the Polytechnic University of Marche. His research interests include i) strawberry plant architecture and flower differentiation, ii) plant propagation, pruning and training, iii) agroecology and sustainable fruit production, and iv) pomology, fruit quality and germplasm. A member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Japanese Society of Horticultural Sciences, and the Journal of Fruit and Ornamental Plant Research, Dr. Neri has also been a member of the international advisory board of “Research Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Pomology”, chair of the strawberry physiology working group “COST 836 Integrated Berry Production”, and chair of a bilateral project between Italy and Japan “Strawberry Fruit Quality: Genetic and Physiological Background”. He currently serves as a member of WG2 (plant quality) for “Euroberry COST 863”.

 

2. Dr. Jean-Pierre Privé

Dr. Privé attended Lakehead University, University of Winnipeg and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Guelph in 1991. He is recognized nationally and internationally as an expert in environmental stress physiology, notably abiotic impacts on the biotic constituents of horticultural crops including organic physiology. He has coauthored a book chapter on freezing injury in apples and has over 75 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He has been an invited guest speaker at EU conferences on small fruit, served as a scientific authority and invited speaker on Canadian missions to Estonia, Lithuania and Bulgaria, and routinely receives requests to review international grant proposals. He serves as a Canadian collaborator for a New Zealand company and was awarded a visiting scientist competitive grant from INRA-France. Nationally, Dr. Privé serves as adjunct professor at two universities,  has supervised/co-supervised 15 graduate students and continues to teach a plant physiology course at the Université de Moncton. He serves as associate editor for the US-based Journal of Small Fruit and Viticulture and has served as associate editor for the Canadian Journal of Plant Science (2000-2007).  He currently serves as a Planning Committee member of Plant Canada 2011, has served as organizing committee member for the 2002 International Horticultural Congress, past publication policy member to the Agricultural Institute of Canada and has also served in management for AAFC as acting national Science Director and Research Manager. He delivers invited presentations in both official languages to scientific communities, universities, producer groups, and for newspaper, radio and television stations. He has worked in BC, MB, ON, QC and NB, was a member of the 1976 and 1980 Canadian Olympic wrestling team, and enjoys challenging situations, spending time with his family, travelling and the outdoors.

 

3. Dr. Ralph C. Martin

Ralph Martin learned what is essential and important about agriculture from his grandfather, before he died, when Ralph was seven. In his Mennonite community and in 4-H clubs he acquired many farm skills. His formal education includes a B.A. with philosophy and liberal arts courses. During his M.Sc. in Biology, he developed a keen interest in intercropping, and his Ph.D. in Plant Science solidified his fascination with research. His love of teaching grew unexpectedly when he began teaching at NSAC, in 1990. Since 2001, he has been the founding director of the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada (OACC), based at NSAC. The Organic Science Cluster is a major part of their current work.  

Canadian Botanical Association (CBA)

 

1. Dr. Lyn Baldwin

Lyn Baldwin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Thompson Rivers University.  Her disciplinary-specific research investigates the effects of large-scale forest fragmentation on the ecology of bryophytes.  For the last 5 years, she has been using a SOTL approach to investigate diverse topics such as the effectiveness of specific teaching strategies, the importance of place-based education and the impact of university culture on the acceptance of SOTL.  Lyn was awarded a Thompson Rivers University Teaching Excellence Award in 2010.

2. Dr. John Markham

John Markham is an associate professor in the department of Biological Sciences at the University of Manitoba. His research interests include symbiotic nitrogen fixation, tallgrass prairie ecology and mine site restoration.  He holds a PhD in forestry from the University of British Columbia, a Bachelors degree in Science Education from Dalhousie University and a B.Sc. from Guelph. He has taught 12 different courses at the university level using tradition lecture, discussion group, and field course formats.

3. Dr. Stephen R. Clayden

 Dr. Stephen Clayden is currently the Curator of Botany, at the New Brunswick Museum. He received his PhD from the University of London, U. K. on the diversity and life history studies of Rhizocarpon. His current research interests include lichen taxonomy, conservation biology, ecology, and the biology of chemical variants in lichen-forming fungi.

4. Dr. Melissa Day

Dr. Melissa Day, is currently doing postdoctoral research at the University of Alberta. She received her Ph.D. from University of Alberta, M.Sc. from University of Manitoba, and a B.Sc. from the University of Alberta. Her current research area is fungal decomposition of moss in arctic/alpine areas. The photo was taken on the forefield of Saskatchewan Glacier, forming part of the Columbia Icefields in Jasper National Park.

5. Dr. Georg Hausner

Dr. Georg Hausner has been an Associate Professor at the University of Manitoba in the Department of Microbiology since 2000. He received his Ph.D. from University of Manitoba in 1993 and has done post-docs at Michigan State University (1993-1996), Agri-Food and Agriculture Canada (1996-1999), and the University of Calgary (1999-2000). His current research focuses on molecular evolution of rDNA and group-I and group-II mitochondrial introns within the lower eukaryotes; and the diversity and evolution of blue stain fungi and their mitochondrial genomes. 

6. R. Troy McMullin

Troy McMullin is a PhD Candidate at the University of Guelph in the Department of Integrative Biology and the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario Herbarium. Troy is a lichenologist and forest ecologist with interests in taxonomy, systematics, ecology, human uses, and species at risk. His current PhD research focuses on the effects of common silvicultural practices on colonization of lichens in boreal Ontario to determine the best forest management strategies for maintaining woodland caribou habitat. In his Masters research from Dalhousie University in 2007, he examined the importance of old-growth forests in maintaining lichen diversity in Nova Scotia. Troy also graduated from the Ecosystem Management program at Sir Sandford Fleming College, and earned bachelor degrees from Trent and Queen’s Universities in biology and education, respectively.

7. Brinda Timsina

Brinda Timsina is a Ph. D. candidate at the University of Manitoba in the Department of Biological Sciences. She received her M.Sc. in Microbiology from the University of North Bengal, India (2001), and taught botany until 2007 when she began her doctoral studies. Her doctoral research is focused on the effects of environmental changes on the production of polyketides in the lichen-forming fungal genera Ramalina and Cladonia. She is also studying the evolution and expression of polyketide synthase genes in these genera.

8. Dr. Liette Vasseur

Dr. Vasseur is a Full Professor at Brock University where she was first Vice-president, Research and previously Associate Vice-President, Research at Laurentian University, and the K.C. Irving Research Chair in Sustainable Development at the University of Moncton. Her research program focuses on plant and conservation ecology, climate change, sustainable development, community-based management, and gender issues in various countries such as Canada, China, and Burkina Faso. Among other things, she is a member of the Commission for Ecosystem Management of IUCN, and honorary member of the Nickel District Conservation Authority. She is an Associate Editor of the journal Botany, and associate editor-in-chief of Journal of Biosafety.

9. Dr. Christopher Lortie

Christopher Lortie is an Associate Professor in Biology and Geography at York University in Toronto, Canada. He has been teaching and doing research in Canada for six years now in this capacity and has explored publication bias in ecology, invasion, seedbanks, urban ecology, and more recently climate change and cushion plants.  He has published over 50 peer-reviewed publications on these topics, given 50 invited seminars, and has been an Associate Editor for the Journal of Ecology and Oikos for numerous years. In 2010, Christopher will be one of the three Editor-in-Chiefs for Oikos.  He is primarily a community ecologist and loves being in the mountains.

10. Dr. Frédérique Guinel

Frédérique Guinel was partly educated in France (Maîtrise en Oceanography) and partly in Canada where she did her Ph.D. thesis under the supervision of Margaret McCully at Carleton University. After numerous post-docs, in 1995, she obtained a tenure-track position at Wilfrid Laurier University where she taught first-year Biology, Plant Physiology, and Botany courses. She is now a full Professor and teaches, among other things, a course entitled “Contemporary Issues in Biology” intended mainly to improve students’ communication skills.

11. Dr. Felix Baerlocher

Dr. Baerlocher obtained his PhD under the supervision of Bryce Kendrick at the University of Waterloo, in 1973. Returning to his native Switzerland, he spent seven years lecturing at the University of Basel. He has been on faculty at Mount Allison University since 1983 and a Professor since 1989. In addition he has  managed to visit the Universities of Exeter (UK), Georgia (US), Halle (Germany), Coimbra (Portugal), New England and Australia as a visiting professor.

His research focuses on the ecology, taxonomy and evolution of aquatic hyphomycetes and decomposition and stream ecology. He has published about 200 peer-reviewed papers, translated, edited or written several books, and sits on the editorial boards of Fungal Ecology, Fungal Diversity and Freshwater Biology.

12. Andrew Trant

Born and raised near Guelph, Ontario, Andrew did his BSc(Hons) at the University of Guelph before heading east for his MSc at Acadia University where he worked on the conservation and ecology of endangered lakeshore plants in southwest Nova Scotia. Feeling the pull of the Arctic, he headed to Newfoundland for his PhD at Memorial University. Using tree rings, soil pits, and good old-fashioned field experiments, Andrew has been looking at how tree line is responding to climate change. Working with Labrador Innu and Inuit, Andrew has been teaching and learning about where ecological and traditional knowledge systems overlap.

Canadian Society of Plant Physiologists (CSPP)

1. Dr. Jonathan Newman

Dr. Jonathan Newman is a Professor and the Director of the School of Environmental Sciences at University of Guelph. He received his PhD in ecology, evolution & behavior from the University at Albany, State University of New York in 1990. Before joining the University of Guelph in 2004, Dr. Newman was affiliated with Oxford University and Southern Illinois University. Jonathan has varied interests in ecology that includes research on fungi, arachnids, birds and mammals. His current research focuses on predicting the biological impacts of climate change and the ecological effects of endophytic fungi.

2. Dr. Sally N. Aitken

Dr. Sally Aitken is a Professor of Forest Genetics in the Department of Forest Sciences at UBC, and Director of the Centre for Forest Conservation Genetics.  Her research interests include adaptation of forest tree populations to climate change, genetic diversity and conservation of native tree species, and population genomics. Her research team has investigated the population, quantitative or ecological genetics of ten tree species native to British Columbia, and predicted the effects of climate change on tree distribution and productivity.  In 2009, she was awarded the Canadian Institute of Forestry Scientific Achievement Award, and in 2010 received the Killam Teaching Prize at UBC. 

3. Dr. Wayne Snedden

Dr. Snedden is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology, Queen’s University, in Kingston, Ontario. His research program examines the roles that calcium ions play in plant cells during response to environmental stimuli. Dr. Snedden received his B.Sc. from Brock University (1989) followed by a Ph.D. with Dr. B.J. Shelp at the University of Guelph (1995). Dr. Snedden went on to do postdoctoral work as a Feinberg Fellow with Dr. H. Fromm at the Weizmann Institute in Israel (1995-1997) and then studied with Dr. E. Blumwald as an NSERC Fellow at the University of Toronto (1997-2000) before joining Queen’s Biology.

4. Dr. Armand Seguin

Armand Séguin has been a research scientist at the Canadian Forest Service’s Laurentian Forestry Centre since 1995. He holds a B.Sc. degree in microbiology from Univerity of Sherbrooke, an M.Sc. in molecular biology from University of Montreal (Montreal Cancer Institute), and a Ph.D. in forest sciences from Laval University. He received a postdoctoral fellowship from NSERC and went to San Diego, CA for training in plant molecular biology at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies. His research program centres on increasing current understanding of the molecular mechanisms of stress responses in trees, forest genomics, and the potential impacts of transgenic trees on the environment.

Canadian Weed Science Society (CWSS)

 

1. Marian Munro

Marian Munro is the Curator of Botany at the Nova Scotia Museum. While a student at Acadia University with S. VanderKloet, she completed a revision of Roland’s Flora of Nova Scotia in addition to her thesis on Geum peckii, an endangered species. She is presently working on Nova Scotian Plants, an eflora with Ruth Newell, Acadia University.

2. Dr. Mirwais Mauj Qaderi

Dr. Mirwais Mauj Qaderi received his B.Sc. and first M.Sc. degrees from Kabul University, Afghanistan. He had a faculty position at KU before coming to Canada. Dr. Qaderi received his second M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Western Ontario. He did his postdoctoral work at the University of Calgary. Now, he is a faculty member in the Department of Biology at Mount Saint Vincent University. Dr. Qaderi studied the effects of global climate change components, such as carbon dioxide, temperature, ultraviolet-B radiation, and drought on weeds and crops. He published his findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

3. Dr. David Clements

Dr. David Clements is Professor of Biology and co-director Environmental Studies at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC.  Clements completed his Ph.D. at Queen’s University did a post-doc at University of Guelph. His current research is focused on invasive species in the Garry oak ecosystem, and invasive plant evolution. He has published over 45 scientific articles and has served as an editor with the Canadian Journal of Plant Science, Weed Research and Pacific Science. Clements was a founding board member with A Rocha Canada – Christians in Conservation and is currently on the executive of the Canadian Weed Science Society.

4. Dr. Linda Hall

Dr. Linda Hall is an associate professor in the Faculty of Agriculture Life and Environmental Science at the University of Alberta. She conducts research on the environmental impacts of transgenic crops, gene flow via pollen and seeds, and weed science. She is very interested in quantifying the invasive potential of weeds and crops. In addition to research, she teaches weed science and cropping systems. Dr. Hall is an editor of GM Crops and has recently received awards for excellence in Weed Science and graduate student supervision.

5. Dr. Rene Van Acker

Dr. Rene Van Acker is Professor and Associate Dean of the Ontario Agricultural College at the University of Guelph and was previously a professor of weed science at the University of Manitoba. His research interests include weed biology and ecology, multifunctional agriculture, and the coexistence of GM and non-GM crops. His research work on the coexistence of GM and non-GM crops has lead to international collaborations, presentations, and consulting work with governments and organizations in Denmark, Australia, Switzerland, Australia, the US and Canada. Rene grew up on a farm in southwest Ontario. He holds degrees from the University of Guelph and the University of Reading.

6. Dr. Marie-Josée Simard

Marie-Josée Simard has a Ph D. in Environmental Science from the Université du Québec à Montréal. She has a background in plant ecology and has been doing research in weed ecology at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Québec City since 2000. She is also adjunct professor at Laval University and author or co-author of 20 scientific papers in Weed Science and other related journals. She now serves as Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Plant Science. Her research interests range from gene flow between transgenic crops and weeds to the agro-ecological impact of invasive weed species.

7. Claire Wilson O’Driscoll

Claire Wilson O’Driscoll has a B.Sc. (Hon) and M.Sc. in Biology and Environmental Science from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. She has ten years’ experience working in pest risk assessment for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), first in Ottawa and now based in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Her responsibilities include writing risk assessments for weeds and/or invasive plants, researching methods for predicting plant invasiveness, and providing technical information on weed species in Canada or abroad in support of the CFIA’s invasive plant program, and other import and export programs for plants and plant products.

Canadian Phytopathological Society (CPS)

 

1. Geoffrey R. Dixon

Professor Geoffrey Richard Dixon is the owner GreenGene International, a knowledge and information provider, and is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Reading. His research interests  include soil-borne microbe biology particularly of Plasmodiophora brassicae, the causal agent of clubroot in brassicas, evolution and variation in Brassica spp. and the effects of environmental stresses in woody perennials. He has had substantial involvement with the UK and international horticultural and biotechnical industries, with a career culmination as Head of Horticulture, Scotland (research, education and advisory services – a “land-grant college” system) and Professor of Horticulture in the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. His most recent book:is Soil Microbiology and Sustainable Crop Production (pub. Springer).      

2. Dr. Stella Melugin Coakley

Dr. Stella Melugin Coakley, Professor of Botany and Plant Pathology and  associate dean in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University, received a B.S. (Plant Sciences), M.S. and Ph.D. (Plant Pathology) at the University of California, Davis. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of  Science and of the American Phytopathological Society. Dr. Coakley is internationally known for research on the relationships among climate variation, global climate change, and plant disease epidemics. She served on the scientific steering committee of the Global Change Terrestrial Ecosystem Program, a project of the International Geosphere Biosphere Program.

3. Dr. Barbara Blackwell

Dr. Blackwell has been a researcher for Agriculture and Agrifood Canada since 1986 and is currently responsible for mycotoxin chemistry and analysis in Ottawa, Ontario. She is a graduate of Trent University, University of Toronto and University of Ottawa. Her primary interest is structure determination, stereochemistry, biosynthesis and analysis of natural products of agricultural interest using the techniques of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Mass Spectrometry. Her research has focused on novel secondary metabolites, including mycotoxins, from Fusarium and Penicillium fungi in order to define the relationship between structure and mode of action, and to understand the mechanism of toxicity and physiology of fungal contamination of grain crops. She is responsible for AAFC’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Electron Microscopy centres, and recently the DON-ELISA laboratory, and as a result has wide collaborations within AAFC centres in a variety of topics. Her current interest is in the development of hyphenated techniques (LC/NMR and LC/MS) to characterize fungal secondary metabolite profiles (Fungal Metabolomics).

4. Dr. Sheryl Tittlemier 

Dr. Sheryl Tittlemier is the Program Manager and Research Scientist responsible for Trace Organic Analysis at the Canadian Grain Commission. She received her BSc in Chemistry from the University of Manitoba and her PhD from Carleton University, in Canada. Dr. Tittlemier has worked in the area of food safety since 2002. From 2002 through 2009, Dr. Tittlemier was a research scientist with the Food Research Division of Health Canada. She is now a part of the Grain Research Laboratory at the Canadian Grain Commission and specializes in the analysis of pesticides and mycotoxins. Dr. Tittlemier is currently involved in national and international collaborative projects that cover research in areas such as:

-the development and evaluation of both comprehensive instrumental and rapid analytical methods,

-monitoring the occurrence of mycotoxins and pesticides in grains, and investigating factors that affect the presence of these contaminants in grain,

-optimizing sampling protocols for the analysis of "difficult" analytes.

Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST) Atlantic Section/CSHS Joint Session

1. Dr. Wilhelmina Kalt

Dr. Kalt obtained her Ph.D. degree from North Carolina State University and is currently employed with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Nova Scotia. Dr. Kalt's research on the health benefits of berries has focused on the phenolic components of blueberry species and other berry crops. Through several studies she has characterized the effects of production and processing factors on the level of antioxidant phenolics in blueberries and other fruit crops. She has also worked extensively on the separation of berry flavonoid mixtures for use in both in vitro and in vivo studies. Dr. Kalt has conducted animal studies to assess the bioavailability and functional bioactivity of blueberry flavonoids. Willy has also conducted two human clinical trials to examine possible blueberry effects on parameters related to night vision. Dr. Kalt collaborates extensively with scientists in various fields of biomedicine and, as a federally-supported researcher, also works closely with industry groups and in particular the blueberry industries, to support the development of their health sector.


2. Dr. Amy B. Howell

Dr. Amy B. Howell is an associate research scientist at the Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she works on isolating natural products from cranberries that benefit health. Since 1993, Dr. Howell has been engaged in research aimed at identifying the active compounds in cranberries that prevent urinary tract infections and determining their role in maintenance of urinary tract health. Currently, she is engaged in NIH projects to identify biomarkers in urine that have bacterial anti-adhesion activity, and is determining if cranberry consumption can impact the efficacy of antibiotics. She has presented her research findings at numerous professional meetings in the U.S. and internationally.

CIFST Atlantic Section/CSA Joint Session

1. Dr. Brian Rossnagel

Dr. Brian Rossnagel has been a Plant Sciences Professor and the barley and oat breeder for the Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan since 1977. Raised on a small mixed farm in central Manitoba, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (1973) and then a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Agronomy (1978) at the University of Manitoba. Over his career, he has released more than 80 barley and oat varieties with a wide range of specific uses from low-lignin, high-fat feed oats to two-row malting barley. Some additional keystones of his breeding and research career are the development of hulless barley for feed, food and malting and consistent collaboration with other researchers including cereal chemists, animal nutritionists, agronomists, plant biotechnologists and plant pathologists. Having been conferred numerous honors and awards over the last few decades, his three most recent commendations (all in 2010) are having received the American Oat Workers Conference Distinguished Service to Oat Improvement Award, being recognized as a University of Saskatchewan Distinguished Chair and induction into the Saskatchewan Agriculture Hall of Fame.


2. Dr. Aaron Beattie

Aaron Beattie has been involved in agricultural research for over 15 years. He received his MSc in Plant Breeding from the University of Guelph and his PhD in Plant Pathology from the University of Saskatchewan (U of S). He has worked with the barley and oat breeding program at the U of S since 2006, over which time he co-developed four oat varieties and four barley varieties. His barley research is directed at studying the genetic basis of malting quality, specifically allelic variability of starch degrading enzymes and genes influencing malt fermentability, while his oat research investigates Fusarium head blight and crown rust resistance. Beattie is currently the barley and oat breeder at the U of S and is a member of the barley quality evaluation team for the Prairie Recommending Committee for Oat and Barley and the barley technical advisory committee for the Western Grains Research Foundation.

3. Dr. Michael J. Edney

Dr. Michael Edney has researched the quality of malting and feed barley for over 25 years. He has a PhD in malting and brewing sciences from the Technical University of Munich and an MSc in poultry nutrition from the University of Saskatchewan. In 1988 he joined the Grain Research Laboratory in Winnipeg where his research activities have included alternate methods for measuring quality, such as measurements for barley homogeneity, limit dextrinase and free amino acids. He has played a major role in the development and quality evaluation of new barley varieties for western Canada. Edney has been a member of the American Society of Brewing Chemists and the Master Brewers Association of the Americas for over 15 years and he holds positions in Canada on the quality evaluation team of the Prairie Recommending Committee for Oat and Barley, the Western Grains Research Foundation’s barley advisory committee, the technical committee of the Brewing and Malting Barley Research Institute and the executive of the Barley Development Council. Michael Edney is the author of over 65 research papers in scientific journals and articles.


4. Dr. Alex Speers

Alex Speers is a professor in the Food Science at Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada. Born in Creston he gained a B.Sc. (Agr.), M.Sc. and Ph.D. in food science at UBC. At Dalhousie he instructs students in brewing science, quality assurance, and product development. In the past, Alex has been employed in the Quality Assurance Departments of both Labatt and Molson Breweries. His current research interests include various aspects of the brewing process, including fermentability, yeast flocculation, fermentation modelling, extract calculations, and the properties of (and problems created by) β-glucan and arabinoxylan polymers. He has organized and/or presented brewing workshops in Australia, China, America and Canada. In 2009, Alex also organized the International Brewers Symposium: Yeast Flocculation, Vitality, & Viability in Boston, MA, sponsored by the Master Brewers Association of the Americas (MBAA). Dr. Speers has spent sabbaticals at CUB/Fosters in Melbourne, and the Columbia Brewing Company in Creston. He was a past Chair of Editorial Board of the MBAA Technical Quarterly. Alex belongs to several professional societies and is a member of the editorial boards of Food Research International, the Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists, Journal of the Institute of Brewing. and the MBAA Technical. Quarterly. He has published or presented more than 150 papers and was recently named a Fellow of the Institute of Brewing and Distilling.

CSA/Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada (OACC) Joint Session

1. Dr. Derek Lynch

 Derek Lynch PhD., M.Sc. PAg., is an Associate Professor and, since 2005, has held the position of Canada Research Chair in Organic Agriculture at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College.  Derek completed his BSc in Agronomy (1987), followed by an MSc on soybean physiology (1993) at McGill University. Over the following eight years, Derek co-managed a consulting partnership providing research and advisory services to the agricultural sector in Atlantic Canada. His subsequent PhD (2002) through the University of Guelph, focused on soil fertility and organic matter dynamics under compost amended soils. In addition to organic production systems, Derek’s research interests include legume physiology, nutrient cycling and soil organic matter dynamics in agro-ecosystems, soil microbiology, and sustainable utilization of organic wastes.  His has recently participated in projects related to these topic areas in Gambia, Ethiopia and Nepal.