2020 News
12/23/2020: Co-op student Carly Gair is joining us for a 2nd term work term in Winter 2021. She will continue working on the molecular identification of parasites and snails as part of our surveys for helminth parasites of moose in western Manitoba. Funding for her position stems from a grant from the Moose Stewardship Conservation Program from Manitoba Hydro. Looking forward to working with her again!
12/22/2020: Demi Gagnon (MSc 2017-2019) accepted a position as a Wildlife Health Technician with Sustainable Manitoba. Congratulations!
12/18/2020: Ashley virtually presented her MSc research to a 5/6 grade classroom at Rockwood School. She reports they had lots of good questions for her.
11/24/2020: A paper that I collaborated on has been published in PLoS ONE. The first author Dr. Sally Zemmer was determining the factors that influenced the spatial structure of trematode communities in streams. This project was fun for me because Sally (at the time, PhD student in Lisa Belden's lab at Virginia Tech), visited the lab to learn how to extract DNA and PCR from trematode larvae.
11/9/2020: Lauren's (MSc, 2016-2018) first author paper on the population genetics of Inconnu was published by Fisheries Research. Although this work didn't involve parasites, it was fun to work on the population genetics analysis and interpretation with Lauren and the rest of our collaborators from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
9/12/2020: The lab (Olwyn, Scott, Ashley, Emma, and Ali) delivered oral presentations at the Rocky Mountain Conference of Parasitologists annual meeting, which was held virtually. Ali and Scott each tied for the best undergraduate and graduate presentation awards, respectively. Congratulations!
7/09/2020: Ashley received the Master's Award for Indigenous Students. Congratulations! Well deserved.
7/7/2020: Jillian, Olwyn and Scott present a talk in the HPI Seminar Series hosted by the HPI group that includes University of Calgary, Lethbridge, Alberta, and Victoria.
5/24/2020: Jillian was invited to become a faculty member in the Host-Parasite Interactions (HPI) program. This summer we are 'zooming into' their seminars, which promotes networking and collaboration, and gives my trainees a better sense of the parasitology research going on in Alberta and elsewhere in Canada.
5/4/2020: 4 undergraduates (Ali, Carly, Charith, and Josh) will work with us on various research projects. Initially, they'll be working remotely, but we hope that we can get them out into the field and into the molecular lab for some advanced training.
4/1/2020: Jillian is tenured and promoted to Associate Professor.
3/03/2020: Former honours student Laura Eliuk's first author paper on parasite-modified behaviour was accepted to the Canadian Journal of Zoology. The pre-proof version is available online http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2019-0251
2/24/2020: Ashley receives the Nature Manitoba award from the Biological Sciences dept. Congratulations!
2/12/2020: Olwyn, Scott, and Emma present research talks at Darwin Day (a symposium organized by the graduate students in the Biology department).
2/8/2020: Olwyn and Ashley attend the Wildlife Society-Manitoba's weekend getaway. Complete with research talks, brainworm workshop, and ice fishing!
2/1/2020: Jillian, Ashley, and Emma pass the Canadian Firearms Safety course - we are on our way to getting PAL certified so we can bear guard when doing work in the North.
12/22/2020: Demi Gagnon (MSc 2017-2019) accepted a position as a Wildlife Health Technician with Sustainable Manitoba. Congratulations!
12/18/2020: Ashley virtually presented her MSc research to a 5/6 grade classroom at Rockwood School. She reports they had lots of good questions for her.
11/24/2020: A paper that I collaborated on has been published in PLoS ONE. The first author Dr. Sally Zemmer was determining the factors that influenced the spatial structure of trematode communities in streams. This project was fun for me because Sally (at the time, PhD student in Lisa Belden's lab at Virginia Tech), visited the lab to learn how to extract DNA and PCR from trematode larvae.
11/9/2020: Lauren's (MSc, 2016-2018) first author paper on the population genetics of Inconnu was published by Fisheries Research. Although this work didn't involve parasites, it was fun to work on the population genetics analysis and interpretation with Lauren and the rest of our collaborators from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
9/12/2020: The lab (Olwyn, Scott, Ashley, Emma, and Ali) delivered oral presentations at the Rocky Mountain Conference of Parasitologists annual meeting, which was held virtually. Ali and Scott each tied for the best undergraduate and graduate presentation awards, respectively. Congratulations!
7/09/2020: Ashley received the Master's Award for Indigenous Students. Congratulations! Well deserved.
7/7/2020: Jillian, Olwyn and Scott present a talk in the HPI Seminar Series hosted by the HPI group that includes University of Calgary, Lethbridge, Alberta, and Victoria.
5/24/2020: Jillian was invited to become a faculty member in the Host-Parasite Interactions (HPI) program. This summer we are 'zooming into' their seminars, which promotes networking and collaboration, and gives my trainees a better sense of the parasitology research going on in Alberta and elsewhere in Canada.
5/4/2020: 4 undergraduates (Ali, Carly, Charith, and Josh) will work with us on various research projects. Initially, they'll be working remotely, but we hope that we can get them out into the field and into the molecular lab for some advanced training.
4/1/2020: Jillian is tenured and promoted to Associate Professor.
3/03/2020: Former honours student Laura Eliuk's first author paper on parasite-modified behaviour was accepted to the Canadian Journal of Zoology. The pre-proof version is available online http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2019-0251
2/24/2020: Ashley receives the Nature Manitoba award from the Biological Sciences dept. Congratulations!
2/12/2020: Olwyn, Scott, and Emma present research talks at Darwin Day (a symposium organized by the graduate students in the Biology department).
2/8/2020: Olwyn and Ashley attend the Wildlife Society-Manitoba's weekend getaway. Complete with research talks, brainworm workshop, and ice fishing!
2/1/2020: Jillian, Ashley, and Emma pass the Canadian Firearms Safety course - we are on our way to getting PAL certified so we can bear guard when doing work in the North.