Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences news

29-year-old the lead agronomist for a Whistler marijuana company As a 14-year-old loading soil at a Quebec poinsettia greenhouse, David Bernard-Perron [BSc (AES)'12, MSc'15] never would have expected he'd grow up to be the lead agronomist for a marijuana company in Whistler.  But at 29, that's exactly what he's doing, and the company he works for is at the forefront of quickly growing industry.

[Former Macdonald student] Prosanta Chakrabarty travels the world searching for fish that few humans have ever seen. The LSU researcher wants to learn what these underwater unknowns can teach about evolution and the history of the earth. He's a modern-day explorer, swimming through murky waters and diving into caves in search of seldom-seen species.

How do you measure hunger? If anyone can tell you, it’s Hugo Melgar-Quiñonez, Margaret Gilliam Faculty Scholar in Food Security and Director of the McGill Institute for Global Food Security. “Hunger and food insecurity are very complex phenomena affecting people and countries in different ways,” says Melgar-Quiñonez. “In order to estimate how many people are undernourished or food insecure, we needed diverse methods of quantifying hunger.”

Margaret A. Gilliam Fellowship recipient June Po is a PhD candidate in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences; June works on food security, focusing on the relationships between food security and women’s access to land resources in dryland Kenya. In early 2015, she returned to the rural communities in Kenya to report her research findings to smallholder farmers. This effort has so far been extremely valuable, as she learned multiple ways of translating research into practice.

  Fifteen of the Faculty's brightest students, all holding either NSERC or CIHR Summer Scholarships, or Alumni Donor-supported awards, competed in the 10th Annual USRA poster presentation which featuring projects they undertook over the summer.  Says Philippe Seguin, Acting Associate Dean (Research), "It is incredible to see the research skills that these students have developed and the progress they have made in such a short time."

Congratulations to Hoshahalli S. Ramaswamy of the Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry who will be inducted into the Royal Society of Canada on November 18, in Kingston, Ontario.  The Royal Society of Canada announced the 2016 Fellows on September 7; Professor Ramaswamy is one of ten McGill researchers this year to receive this honour.

Please join the Mac Community in congratulating Professor Jim Fyles on his new appointment as Macdonald's Associate Dean ( Students Affairs).

Canadian discovery may soon lead to the prevention of cardiac fibrosis Groundbreaking research from the University of Alberta and McGill University has opened the door towards the future prevention of cardiac fibrosis—a condition leading to heart failure for which there is currently no treatment.

For the second consecutive year, Macdonald Food Science teams have won big, Two teams — Rephyll and Fitamin Multimeal — took first place in their categories at the annual New Product Development Competitions, held as part of the 2016 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Conference.

  Congratulations to James McGill Professor Xin Zhao who received the 2016 West Agro Inc. Award from the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA). The award is given to one individual each year "to recognize outstanding research of milk quality as affected by control of mastitis, management of milking, and practices in production of milk." The award was presented at a ceremony during the annual meeting of the ADSA in Salt Lake City,  Utah.    

  Please join the Mac Community in congratulating Professor Chris Buddle on his new appointment as Dean of Students, McGill University. Since 2014, Professor Buddle has served the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences as Associate Dean of Student Affairs. In this role, he oversaw recruitment activities for the Faculty, promoted academic integrity, was a champion of student rights, and worked extensively on supporting the overall wellbeing of the Macdonald Campus community.

  Shorebirds breeding in Alaska are being exposed to mercury at levels that could put their populations at risk, according to new research from The Condor: Ornithological Applications.

  Ayant grandi sur une ferme, Stéphanie Bélanger-Naud a tailladé ses premières pièces de bois après son arrivée au campus Macdonald de l'Université McGill, à Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. «C'est un sport qui m'était inconnu avant d'arriver à McGill, raconte-t-elle. Ça m'a beaucoup intriguée et j'ai rapidement eu la piqûre.» Read more in L’Avenir et des rivières