Provincial Chairs
Casey Hubert
Associate Professor
Campus Alberta Innovation Program Chair in Geomicrobiology
Biological Sciences
Dr. Hubert’s research interests include extremophiles (anaerobic thermophiles) such as dormant thermophilic bacteria in permanently cold Arctic marine sediments that appear to derive from deep hot petroleum deposits. Understanding microbial communities in subsurface petroleum reservoir habitats will lead to a better understanding of the distribution of these organisms and will underpin geo-biotechnologies for the geoenergy industry, e.g., in areas such as reservoir souring control via nitrate injection, enhanced and greener recovery of energy assets aided by in situ microbial conversions, and using microbes as bioindicators in oil and gas exploration. The role of seabed hydrocarbon seeps in determining marine microbial diversity is also of interest with respect to understanding biogeography and microbial dispersal vectors (e.g. do seeping fluids facilitate deep-to-shallow transport of cells?), and also with respect to the presence of a microbial seed bank in the ocean capable of hydrocarbon biodegradation, e.g., in the event of an oil spill. View contact information.
Ian Lewis
Associate Professor
Alberta Innovates Health Solutions Translational Health Chair in Metabolomics
Biological Sciences
The Lewis laboratory specializes in harnessing metabolomics technology to understand the role metabolism plays in infectious diseases. The goal of this research is to develop new diagnostic methods to identify high risk patients and novel antimicrobial therapies to control infections. One of the key challenges Lewis's laboratory faces is unraveling the complex host-pathogen metabolic dynamics that occur during infections. To address this challenge, they use state-of-the-art mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology to comprehensively quantify the flow of molecules between pathogens and their hosts. Recently, Dr. Lewis launched the Calgary Metabolomics Research Facility (CMRF)–a mass spectrometry facility that was designed specifically to meet the unique challenges faced in metabolomics. This metabolomics facility is a powerful new resource for connecting metabolic phenomena with specific genes and is essential for understanding the metabolic determinants of virulence. View contact information.
Kelly Munkittrick
Professor
Campus Alberta Innovation Program Chair in Aquatic Ecosystem Health
Biological Sciences
Dr. Munkittrick’s research is primarily field-based and focused on measuring the responses of wild fishes to natural and anthropogenic stressors including pulp mills, oil refineries, oil sands operations, agriculture), and municipalities, on examining the suitability of laboratory studies for predicting field effects, and on the use of alternate approaches for detecting impacts. Most recently his focus has been on developing adaptive, tiered and triggered monitoring frameworks, and in linking the various monitoring programs exist to a common philosophical foundation and integrated management framework. Long term data sets are used to define “normal ranges” for monitoring parameters ranging from water quality measurements and benthic invertebrate community information, to fish population metrics. His academic studies are focused on testing hypotheses about the role that variation in fish reproductive life histories plays in species differences in sensitivity to environmental contamination. He developed an effects-based ecosystem health assessment approach focused on fish life history information on growth rates, reproductive rates, survival, and indicators of condition which is used to generate and test site-specific hypotheses related to identifying stressors responsible for changes in fish populations. View contact information.
Marc Strous
Professor
Campus Alberta Innovation Program Chair in Energy Bio-Engineering
Geoscience
Dr. Strous’ research group is focused on the development of new bioprocesses for renewable energy and environmental mitigation in the energy and agricultural industry. Their goal is to pioneer unexplored microbiology processes and techniques to help advance Canada's transition to cleaner energy systems. View contact information.
Frederick Wrona
Professor
Svare Research Chair in Integrated Watershed Processes
Biological Sciences
Dr. Fred Wrona has >30 years of experience leading or contributing to numerous environmental research and monitoring programs addressing regional, national and international environmental issues related to: climate impacts on freshwater ecosystems; cold regions hydro-ecology; multiple stressor and cumulative effects assessments; ecotoxicology; and environmental monitoring program design. Most recently, he was the inaugural Chief Scientist and Assistant Deputy Minister (Environmental Monitoring and Science Division) for the Department of Alberta Environment and Parks and was previously the Vice-President and Chief Scientist at the Alberta Environmental Monitoring and Evaluation Agency. He also served as the government co-chair for the joint Canada-Alberta Oil Sands Monitoring Program. View contact information.
Sam Yeaman
Assistant Professor
Alberta Innovates Health Solutions Translational Health Chair in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Biological Sciences
Natural environments are highly variable and biological constraints often prevent a single individual from performing best in all conditions. Specialization through genetic adaptation to the local environment provides one way to cope with a heterogeneous environment, and has been observed in a wide range of species, from lodgepole pine to threespine stickleback. Dr. Yeaman’s research aims to understand how organisms adapt to both spatially and temporally heterogeneous environments and how this process shapes the genetic and genomic architecture of complex traits. He uses a combination of population genetic theory and individual-based simulations to formulate hypotheses and seek to test these hypotheses using comparative genomics and studies of genomic variation in natural populations. Understanding how evolution shapes the genomic basis of complex traits has important implications for medicine, personalized genomics, and predicting the response of natural populations to climate change. View contact information.