PhD candidate wins prestigious Vanier Scholarship
Amy Heim
Saint Mary’s University is proud to announce that Amy Heim, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Science, is the recipient of a three-year Vanier scholarship worth $50,000 per year.
Heim’s work is in the area of Evolution and Ecology, and she was honoured for her research proposal titled “Using traits to enhance plant co-existence and maximize ecosystem services in the green roof environment.”
“I am very excited that Amy won this scholarship. It’s a great endorsement of her innovative research,” said supervisor Jeremy Lundholm.
A plant community ecologist who specializes in understanding the co-existence mechanisms between plant species in harsh environments, she is currently working in two distinct environments: the coastal barrens of Nova Scotia and on extensive green roofs.
Heim explains that both habitats are exposed to drought, high wind, and extreme temperatures, making them useful habitats to compare co-existence patterns in a natural and artificial environment.
“For my green roof research I am looking at how specific combinations of species with specific plant traits can improve the ecosystem services provided by green roofs,” says Heim.
Her work also focuses on better understanding how urbanism impacts humans and the environment as more people move to cities. “Our research will develop a practical approach for selecting high-performance plant combinations that will make green roofs more efficient, reducing several issues related to urbanism,” she explained.
When asked what this scholarship means to her, Heim said that it will let her fully concentrate on her research, and also make it easier for her to create collaborations with researchers across the globe. She has plans to complete an internship with a green roof researcher in Japan during the fall of 2018.
“As an international student, Amy is not eligible for regular NSERC scholarships, so we are grateful for this level of support for her PhD studies. This frees up grant funding and as a consequence I can now fund Amy’s travel to a conference in Italy in the fall,” said Lundholm.
“Research is a collaborative effort so I believe these opportunities will enhance my own studies,” says Heim.
About Vanier Scholarships
Vanier Scholarships are awarded to students in the areas of health research, natural sciences and/or engineering, and social sciences and/or humanities research.
The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program aims to attract and retain world-class doctoral students by supporting students who demonstrate both leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and health sciences.
Three equally weighted evaluation criteria are considered: academic excellence, research potential, and leadership.
Canadian and international students are eligible to be nominated for a Vanier CGS. Vanier CGSs are valued at $50,000 per year, for up to three years. For more info, visit the Government of Canada site.
Saint Mary’s students embark on extraordinary archaeological expedition to Cuba
At Wednesday's media event, Dr. Jonathan Fowler showed students some of the equipment they'll be using in Cuba
Twelve Atlantic Canadian university students are about to embark on an extraordinary archaeological expedition to Cuba, spearheaded by Saint Mary’s University’s Department of Anthropology.
Aaron Taylor
From June 1 to 17, students from Saint Mary’s University, the University of New Brunswick, Memorial University, and Dalhousie University will be excavating artifacts at Cuba’s historic Angerona Coffee Plantation. The excavation is in partnership with Havana’s Cabinet of Archeology and the College of San Geronimo. The dig is the first collaboration of its kind between Cuban and North American students and archaeologists.
“I don’t believe anyone in the world is doing anything like this right now,” said Aaron Taylor, an alumnus of Saint Mary’s Anthropology and Atlantic Canada Studies programs who will serve as the program’s instructor.
“One reason we’re being permitted to dig is because we’re from Canada, and Cuba and Canada have a good relationship,” said Taylor. “But the other reason is that Saint Mary’s wants to collaborate and make it a true joint Cuban-Canadian project.”
Angerona is a Cuban national historic site and former slave plantation, 80 kilometres east of Havana. During the 19th century it was one of the largest slave plantations in the Americas—yet little is known about the day-to-day lives of the people who lived there. The Canadian students, as well as a student from Cuba, will work to uncover artifacts and other evidence to create a more complete picture of those lives and how they fit into our knowledge of the Atlantic slave trade.
The trip is the first of what will be at least a five-year partnership between Saint Mary’s, Havana’s Cabinet of Archeology and the College of San Geronimo.
“As the world seems to be dividing into us-vs-them, it’s essential that young people get to experience another culture, one very different from theirs,” said Taylor. “Many Canadians know Cuba by its beaches, but not as much the people and the history. Cuba has been isolated for a long time in so many ways, so this is an exciting time, and an exciting project to be a part of.”
Advanced Placement students get a taste of university life at SMU conference
Saint Mary's President Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray addresses AP students
Hundreds of top high school students descended on the Saint Mary's campus to get a taste of life at university.
The one-day Provincial Advanced Placement Conference was for students enrolled in AP courses in Nova Scotia high schools.
Students were introduced to the three faculties at Saint Mary's: Arts, Commerce (Sobey School of Business) and Science. Afterwards, students attended workshops focused on learning, curiosity and student leadership. Other sessions included introductions to university-level courses such as Astronomy, Biology, Criminology, Religious Studies, Sociology, Geology and Computer Programming.
Students reactions
Audio clips
Saint Mary’s University Recognized Nationally for Increasing Food Security in Canada
Enactus Saint Mary’s has been awarded the 2017 Hellmann’s Food Security Challenge Best Project by Enactus Canada and Unilever Canada’s Hellmann’s brand. The award presentation took place on Tuesday, May 9th at the 2017 Enactus Canada National Exposition in Vancouver.
The award comes as a result of the work of Enactus Saint Mary’s students to address food insecurity in Nova Scotia through the creation of the Square Roots program. Square Roots is a community-supported agriculture program that encourages individuals to subscribe to healthy and affordable produce bundles. The program also provides employment opportunities to at-risk youth in Halifax.
“We need locally-inspired and innovative thinking to address the issue of food insecurity in Canada and we appreciate the passion and creativity of the Enactus teams that participated in this challenge” said Matt Price, Director, Unilever Canada. “The idea put forward by the Enactus Saint Mary’s team demonstrates that ingenuity and dedication to this issue and will help increase Nova Scotian residents’ access to healthier and more affordable food.”
The Hellmann’s Food Security Challenge, new this year, was designed to recognize and reward Enactus teams that address food insecurity, while creating social and economic opportunities that will strengthen the well-being of communities. Four teams have been selected to receive $15,000 in total funding.
“We are proud to recognize Enactus Saint Mary’s for using business innovation to tackle food insecurity in Nova Scotia, a province that maintains one of the highest rates of food insecurity in Canada. We thank Unilever and Hellmann’s for supporting young people in their mission to improve people’s lives,” said Nicole Almond, President of Enactus Canada.
Related
Saint Mary’s University Team Takes Home 3M Canada Award at 2017 Enactus Canada National Exposition
Saint Mary’s University Team Takes Home 3M Canada Award at 2017 Enactus Canada National Exposition
Enactus Saint Mary’s innovative work to address food insecurity through aquaponics was rewarded on Tuesday, May 9th at the 2017 Enactus Canada National Exposition.
At the national exposition, Enactus Saint Mary’s team took home the award for 3M Canada Problem Solving Project Partnership Best Project for Aquality Solutions. They received the award for their work helping to address food insecurity in Canadian Indigenous communities through an aquaponics system that enables isolated communities to grow their own fruits, vegetables and fish year-round.
“Enactus students are innovative problem solvers and, thanks to partners like 3M, are ready to challenge the status quo for the benefit of social good,” said Nicole Almond, president of Enactus Canada. “Enactus Saint Mary’s has a lot to be proud of today and we are excited to share the progressive changes they have made within their community.”
Enactus Saint Mary’s has completed construction of its first solar greenhouse and is currently working toward building a 100 litre aquaponics system. The modular design can be easily scaled and implemented across other communities.
“At 3M, we are committed to improving our business, our planet and our everyday lives through science and collaboration,” says Liisa Sheldrick, communications and 3Mgives leader, 3M Canada. “We believe that improving every life is a worthwhile pursuit, and projects like this reflect our belief in applying science to improve lives – with our customers, partners and communities.”
The 3M Canada Problem Solving Project Partnership is designed to empower Enactus teams with the resources needed to identify, create and deliver truly innovative projects that address the specific and unique needs and opportunities within Canada.
SMU students bring home six awards from ChemCon event
Ifenna Mbaezue, Taylor Link, Julia Killorn, Melanie Davidson, Kaitlyn Blatt-Janmatt, Kyle Awalt
Saint Mary’s Department of Chemistry took home six awards at the Science Atlantic/CIC Chemistry Conference, better known as ChemCon, held May 4-6 at Memorial University. Thirteen Saint Mary’s students took part in the annual conference, which acknowledges the research excellence of students across the Maritimes.
Saint Mary’s undergraduates won awards for both oral and poster presentations related to computational modelling and material; physical, theoretical, and computational chemistry; medicinal chemistry; and analytical chemistry. All of the students’ presentations were based on research they conducted under the supervision of researchers at Saint Mary’s University.
Winners
- Ifenna Mbaezue
ACEnet Award in Computational Modelling and Material
A Spectroscopic and Computational Investigation of the Rh-catalyzed [5+1+2+1] Cycloaddition Reaction - Taylor Lynk
Best Undergraduate Oral Presentation in Analytical Chemistry
Green Synthetic Approaches for the Production of High Performance Plasmonic Sensors - Melanie Davidson
Best Overall Oral Presentation in Physical, Theoretical & Computational Chemistry
Exploration of Surface Plasmon-Assisted Catalysis (SPAC) as a New Route for Heterogeneous Catalysis - Kyle Awalt
Best Overall Poster Presentation
Utility of Iron Nanoparticles and a Solution-Phase Iron Species for the N-demethylation of Alkaloids - Julia Killorn
Best Overall Oral Presentation in Biological/Medicinal
Modified Polonovski Reactions in Ionic Liquid Solvents - Kaitlyn Blatt-Janmaat
Science Atlantic Award for Best Undergraduate Student Presentation
Adventures in Ionic Thiourea Organocatalysis in Ionic Liquid Solvents
Saint Mary’s University student awarded the 2017 3M National Student Fellowship
Naina Garg
This week, Saint Mary’s University Economics and Finance student Naina Garg was one of ten students from across the country to be awarded the 2017 3M National Student Fellowship.
“This fellowship provides me with an opportunity that I have been seeking since childhood,” said Garg. “I plan to use this national platform and the associated fellowship money to start my social enterprise project that addresses child labour and illiteracy in my home city, New Delhi. I have invested months of research and resources in developing my plan, and now I finally have the ability to address an issue that is quite close to my heart.”
Presented by 3M Canada and the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), Garg was one of over 90 highly accomplished contenders from various universities and colleges across Canada to apply for this prestigious fellowship.
“This award highlights the leadership role that Saint Mary’s students demonstrate throughout the world,” said Saint Mary’s University President Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray. “Naina has worked for years with underprivileged children and children with disabilities in her home city of New Delhi. She has also been involved in research publications, coaching, tutoring and peer mentoring work through Saint Mary’s LEAP program, as well as a lead role with Enactus Saint Mary’s first women empowerment project based in South America called Options International.”
“Naina is an important part of our community at Saint Mary’s and I know I speak for all of us when I say it is incredibly fitting that her dedication to helping others is being recognized on a national stage.”
The 3M National Student Fellowship Award was introduced in 2012 to honour undergraduate students in Canada who have demonstrated qualities of outstanding leadership and who embrace a vision where the quality of their educational experience can be enhanced in academia and beyond.
“Upon meeting Naina, you are immediately impressed by her intense desire to immerse herself in activities that help those in need regardless of if there are fiscal or academic benefits to her,” said Tom Brophy, Senior Director, Student Services at Saint Mary’s. “By focusing on others, she was instrumental in building one of the core Enactus projects to empower women in Peru. It now serves as an impactful platform for future generations of students.”
Each of the ten winners receives a $5,000 award as well as registration at this summer’s STLHE conference, which will be hosted in Halifax by five post-secondary institutions including Saint Mary’s University.
Garg is quick to acknowledge the many team members involved in the award nomination process including Dr. Eric Lee, Dr. Mohammad Rahaman, Dr. Shayama Chona, Mr. Thomas Storring, Dr. Colin Dodds, Dr. Patricia Bradshaw, Mr. Tom Brophy and Mr. Alex Krimer.
“It is my honour to represent my alma mater on a national scale,” said Garg. “This award is a powerful recognition of the support and encouragement that Saint Mary’s University unconditionally offers to all its students, domestic or international. The incredible faculty and staff recognize potential in ordinary students and work with us to bring out our very best.”
Big win for Saint Mary’s students at international stock picking competition
Far left: George Athanassakos, Professor of Finance & Director of Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing @ Ivey Business School, Western University
Middle: The Winners Bill MacGregor, Dev Jyoty Nath, Morris MacLeod
Far right: Doug Winslow of Burgundy Asset Management one of the judges for the event. Burgundy is one of the sponsors for the event.
A team of MBA students from the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax has won an international stock picking competition, beating teams from prestigious universities around the world such as Columbia Business School, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern and the Ivey Business School. Bill MacGregor, Morris MacLeod and Dev Jyoty Nath competed last week in the Ben Graham Centre For Value Investing Competition at the Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario.
This stock picking competition is different from others in that it focuses on the value investing approach to stock analysis. Value investing is the strategy used by high profile investor Warren Buffett, among others. The investor chooses stocks they believe to be undervalued, and buy for the long term. The team will split the $10,000 prize money – decent earnings for a few weeks of intense research.
From a field of 27 top-ranked business schools (see below), the Sobey team advanced to the final round in Toronto along with Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University), Columbia Business School, and Ivey Business School. After presenting to a distinguished panel of value investors, the team was awarded 1st place and received a prize of $10,000!
The team greatly appreciated the opportunity to represent the school and would like to thank Ross Hallett, Thomas Storring, Mohammed Rahaman, Jeff Young, James O’Brien, Chantal Hervieux, Wendy Carroll, Colin Dodds, and the research resource team at the Patrick Power library for their invaluable support. The team advisor was Saint Mary’s marketing professor, Dr. Ethan Pancer.
Participating teams included:
- Carnegie Mellon (Tepper School of Business)
- CEIBS
- Columbia Business School
- Cornell University
- Fordham University (The Gabelli School of Business)
- IESE Business School
- Indiana University (Kelley School of Business)
- INSEAD
- London Business School
- McGill (Desautels Faculty of Management)
- Nanyang Business School
- Northwestern University (Kellogg School of Management)
- NYU (Stern School of Business)
- Queen's University (Smith School of Business)
- Saint Mary's University (Sobey School of Business)
- SDA Bocconi School of Management
- The University of Manchester (Alliance Manchester Business School)
- UCLA (Anderson School of Management)
- University of California Berkeley (Haas School of Business)
- University of Cambridge (Judge Business School)
- University of Chicago (Booth School of Business)
- University of Notre Dame (Mendoza College of Business)
- University of Stirling
- University of Toronto (Rotman School of Management)
- University of Waterloo
- USC (Marshall School of Business)
- Western University (Ivey Business School)
Computing and Data Analytics students win prizes, internships at Hackathon
Students in the M.Sc. in Computing and Data Analytics program at Saint Mary’s University won top prizes and internships at last weekend's Hackathon.
The top two teams comprised students from the M.Sc. program at Saint Mary’s, while a group from Acadia University won third place. The cash prizes totalled $5000, with $10,000 also available in potential internship opportunities.
The event, hosted by SMU and sponsored by the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, IBM, and the David Sobey Centre for Innovation in Retailing and Services, was open to current students and new professionals who graduated after January 2015. It took place over three days.
From Atlantic Lottery: “We believe that delving into data can unleash many new opportunities for our customers and our retailers. The goal of this hackathon is to help us identify areas where we can improve, innovate, and implement the latest technologies and service design to make positive impacts in the retail experience.”
The winning team of Reshma Gopinathan, Shahriar Mullick Swapnil, Akhilesh Kotiya, and Ross MacDonald won prizes totaling $2400.
Judges were from T4G, IBM, CGI, Government of Canada, SimplyCast, Affinio, Venor, Living Loyalty, Gartner, and Leadsift.
Saint Mary’s student takes home honours at National Japanese Language Speech Contest
Kensey Phillips (left) receives congratulations from Asako Okai, Consul General of Japan in Vancouver
Last weekend, Saint Mary’s Asian Studies major Kensey Phillips made the strongest showing ever by an Atlantic Canadian student at Canada’s National Japanese Language Speech Contest.
Competing among 25 students from 13 institutions from coast to coast, Phillips took home the second-place prize in the “open category”—an exceptionally impressive feat, according to Dr. Alexandre Avdulov, a Professor of Japanese and a key supporter for students entering the contest from Saint Mary’s University.
“This is the most difficult category,” says Dr. Avdulov, “because there are no restrictions on the number of years that participants have spent in Japan, or whether their parents or other family are Japanese. So it’s really an extraordinary accomplishment for a born-and-raised Nova Scotian who’s only been studying Japanese for a few years.”
The national contest follows closely after seven regional competitions held throughout Canada. Phillips and international student Lee Jeongseob, of South Korea, earned top honours in the Atlantic Canadian competition held earlier in March.
“But going to the national competition is a different situation,” says Phillips. “You’re facing top students from all over the country. It’s much more intimidating initially, but when you get there it really is all about learning and sharing.”
Speech contests are heavily promoted by Japanese embassies and consulates worldwide as a means of cultural outreach—bringing Japanese culture to the world. As the only university offering advanced Japanese studies in Atlantic Canada, Saint Mary’s has long been a strong performer regionally and nationally, says Dr. Avdulov, who also credits the university’s strong commitment to intercultural education.
“The reason I chose Saint Mary’s was because of the Asian Studies program,” says Phillips, who has long been interested in Japanese language and culture. “I think it’s just an amazing thing for the university, and to have opportunities like this to interact with peers from across the country is just so, so valuable.”
At the regional and national level, the contests feature four categories—beginner, intermediate, advanced, and open—in which students deliver three to five-minute speeches on a topic of their choosing. Phillips chose a reflection on Minamata Disease, a form of extreme mercury poisoning affecting residents of Minamata City, near the city of Kumamoto, where Phillips spent a study-abroad year.
“We did a field trip to there,” says Phillips, “and went to a place called Hot House, a vocational centre for survivors.” Kensey’s speech focused on the social stigma faced by the survivors, and their efforts to find work and be seen as contributing members of society.
Phillips’ placement is an impressive feat for herself and Saint Mary’s, and Dr. Avdulov believes it’s no fluke. “Kensey really earned this,” he says, “and Saint Mary’s has become a regional leader. e are striving to create a comprehensive lingua-cultural environment which urtures th individuality and creativity of each student hile enriching them with a multicultural international experience. The speech contest s an excellent teaching and learning tool, which inspires students to make real stetowards global citizenship.”
Two Sobey students chosen for prestigious $25,000 Frank H. Sobey Awards
For the second year in a row, the Sobey School of Business is delighted to announce that not one but two of our students have been recognized with the prestigious and high-value Frank H. Sobey Award for Excellence in Business Studies.