With the excitement of a new academic year, Saint Mary’s is pleased to welcome new professors to the Faculty of Science who bring research expertise in psychology, biology, earth science, environmental science, mathematics, and computing science. Read below to meet our new faculty members!
Dr. Mark Bowler
Department: Psychology
Specialty: Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Classes: Graduate Statistics
Hometown: Detroit, Michigan, USA
PhD: University of Tennessee
Research focus: My primary area of investigation is in Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) as an indicator of employees’ willingness to advocate for their organization by examining its relationships with employee attitudes, individual differences, job demands and resources, well-being, leadership, and workplace behaviors. My secondary area of research examines how health-oriented and health-promoting leadership shape employee health, well-being, recovery behaviors, and work engagement, with particular attention to the individual and contextual factors that determine when these leadership approaches are most effective.
Awards/funding: My notable awards and funding include the ECU Distinguished Doctoral Faculty Mentor Award (2021), ECU Honored Instructor Awards (2022, 2023), and the BB&T Faculty Leadership Scholar Fellowship, co-PI on a $1.999 million NSF-funded project, along with publishing 26 peer-reviewed articles including work in the Journal of Applied Psychology and Organizational Research Methods, and chairing 11 doctoral dissertations and 35 master’s theses.
Dr. Thamali Kariyawasam
Department: Biology
Specialty: Synthetic biology, microalgal biotechnology, living biomaterials, regenerative medicine, and sustainable biomedical applications.
Classes I’m teaching/planning to teach: Biology 2321 (Cell Biology)
Hometown: Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
PhD: University of British Columbia
Research focus: My research focuses on engineering photosynthetic microalgae as programmable cell factories for the production and delivery of therapeutic biomolecules. I develop living biomaterial systems that combine genetically engineered microalgae with advanced biomaterials to provide localized oxygen and sustained delivery of bioactive molecules for tissue regeneration and wound healing, while advancing sustainable healthcare solutions.
Dr. James Steenberg
Department: Environmental Science / Geography and Environmental Studies
Specialty: Trees and forest ecosystems
Classes: GEOG 3386, ENVS 3410
Hometown: Halifax
PhD: Toronto Metropolitan University
Research website: https://sites.google.com/site/jamessteenberg
Research focus: My research is focused on the ecology and sustainable management of both urban and commercially managed forests. This research leverages geomatics, statistics and spatial statistics, ecosystem modelling, and empirical field research to characterize, analyze, and monitor forests to inform sustainable management.
Awards/funding: NSERC Alliance (current), Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship, Fulbright Award
Dr. Carson Kinney
Department: Earth Science
Specialty: Metamorphic Petrology and Geologic Mapping
Classes I’m teaching/plan to teach: ERTH 1204, ERTH 2400, ERTH 3305, ERTH 4301; Generally how to make geologic maps
Hometown: Petawawa, ON
PhD: University of Waterloo
Research focus: I love to study how the Earth’s crust is formed, the rocks which comprise it, and how it records the cooling of our planet using numerical models to pair with field observations.
Notable awards: Dr. Kinney has recently received the Jack Henderson Best PhD Award from the Canadian Tectonics Group as well as the W.B Pearson Medal for the most creative earth science PhD thesis from the University of Waterloo. He is excited to share his love of making maps and recording which rocks make constitute the continental crust on which we live.
Dr. Jillian Kendrick
Department: Earth Science
Specialty: Metamorphic and Igneous Petrology
Classes: Understanding the Earth (ERTH1200), Mineralogy (ERTH2301), Igneous Petrology (ERTH3312), Metamorphic Petrology (ERTH3313)
Hometown: Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia
PhD: University of Waterloo ‘22
Research website: www.jilliankendrick.ca/
“I have a particular interest in early Earth, and have been working to understand how continental crust was formed and how it has evolved through geologic time.”
Notable awards: Dr. Kendrick has recently received an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship and a W.B. Pearson Medal, and was a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship winner as a graduate student. She is an enthusiastic contributor to science outreach initiatives including science fairs and workshops.
Dr. Jake Chinis
Department: Mathematics and Computing Science
Specialty: Analytic Number Theory
Classes: Introduction to Analytic Number Theory
Hometown: Montreal, QC
PhD: From McGill University
Research website: https://sites.google.com/view/jakechinis/home
Research focus: Means values and correlations of multiplicative functions.
Notable awards: Cat Dad of the Year (*in perpetuity, self-nominated)
Dr. Nikita Neveditsin
Department: Mathematics and Computing Science
Specialty: Natural language processing, health informatics, artificial intelligence
Classes: Advanced Computer Programming and Problem Solving, Exploring Generative AI, Natural Language Processing and Large Language Models, Artificial Intelligence
PhD: Saint Mary’s University
Research focus: Small language models, neuro-symbolic AI, low-resource AI, text representations.
Awards: AARMS junior researcher travel award, NAACL SRW grant.
About the Faculty of Science at Saint Mary’s:
Home to nine academic units that offer a range of undergraduate and graduate programs, the Faculty of Science at Saint Mary's University prepares students for a future in science. Our students have found success in careers across Canada and around the world in professional fields such as health care, engineering, teaching, research and more.
Saint Mary's science and engineering students have access to a range of academic student supports to help them succeed, including the SNAP Centre which offers free academic tutoring by Dean’s List students, and Science Advisors who guide students on their academic journey.
Thanks to our small, community atmosphere, many of our undergraduates participate in their professors’ research projects—a valuable experience that can be hard to come by at larger institutions.