Robin Canuel, University Librarian at Lakehead University, has been selected as the ACRL Member of the Week for July 19, 2021.

Representing approximately 10,000 individuals and libraries, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is the largest division of the American Library Association. ACRL develops programs, products, and services for those working in academic and research libraries so they can learn, be innovative, and lead within the academic community.

Click here for the announcement and an interview with Robin Canuel.

Robin Canuel is co-editor of, "Approaches to Liaison Librarianship: Innovations in Organization and Engagement" (ACRL, 2021) which showcases a number of different implementations of the liaison model, across a range of institutions, and describes in detail many of the tailored programs and services that liaison librarians are so well-positioned to provide. 

Dr. Tarlok Sahota, speaking at an international conference in 2017, has
received the Distinguished Agronomist Award.

July 9, 2021 – Thunder Bay, Ont.

Dr. Tarlok Sahota, Director of Lakehead University’s Agricultural Research Station, has won the Distinguished Agronomist Award given out annually by the Canadian Society of Agronomy (CSA).

The Distinguished Agronomist Award is presented to members of the CSA in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the science and technology of growing and using plants in agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, recreation, and land restoration.

This year it was handed out virtually due to COVID-19, during the CSA’s annual conference being held this week.

“Thank you to the Canadian Society of Agronomy for this recognition and to all of my colleagues who nominated me and wrote letters of support for me for this award,” Dr. Sahota said.

“I am honoured to accept this award, which is a recognition of my work for the betterment of the farming community, and pleased to have spent many years working on soils and crops with excellent co-workers.”

In her letter bestowing the award upon Dr. Sahota, Dr. Sheri Strydhorst, Chair Advisory Committee CSA, said the Award Committee was highly impressed with his distinguished career and countless contributions to the field of agronomy through research, teaching, training and outreach activities.

“Your deep commitment to the CSA including serving as President Elect, President, and Past President, organizing annual technical conferences, serving on award committees, and receiving the 2018 CSA Fellow award, were specifically noted and are highly commendable,” Dr. Strydhorst said.

“You are an incredibly passionate scientist, who has made a substantial and wide-ranging contribution to the field through your leadership, collaborations, and deep involvement in Canadian agronomy.”

Dr. Yousef A. Papadopoulos, Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Faculty at Dalhousie University, nominated Dr. Sahota for the award because Dr. Sahota was able to obtain his research funding on his own and lead a very productive agronomy research/technology transfer program.

He was able to lead and sustain a private research station (2004-‘18) with no guaranteed funding and was instrumental in its transition to Lakehead University in 2018, lending stability to it. 

His marvelous ability to relate his research to producers’ current and future needs has been acknowledged by many organizations across the region and the country.

Dr. Sahota was able to increase farm productivity and incomes through diversification of cropping systems by introducing several new crops and crop varieties; identification and rectification of sulphur, zinc and boron deficiencies; initiating long-term experiments on tillage, crop rotations, lime and wood ash, manure and macro/micro nutrients and maximum yield and persistence in alfalfa; communicating results from these experiments to the farmers; and working on and introducing best nutrient management practices such as applying nitrogen from multiple nitrogen sources, seed row placement of part nitrogen as Environmentally Smart Nitrogen (ESN), etc.

Dr. Sahota was the first in Ontario to initiate research on ESN in field crops in 2006 and due to his research and extension efforts, Ontario farmers started applying ESN in 2009. Prosperity on farms is quite obvious in his area of operation in Northwestern Ontario.

Dr. Tom Bruulsema, Chief Scientist at Plant Nutrition Canada, sent a letter of support for Dr. Sahota’s nomination.

“Dr. Sahota has provided strong leadership to the Thunder Bay Agricultural Research Station and has earned the respect and trust of local farmers through the dissemination of relevant agronomic information from the research trials he has managed,” Dr. Bruulsema said.

“In addition, he was responsible for seeking the funding support for this research. Without his dedicated efforts, this research would not have happened, as the research station was on the verge of closing several times.

“The fact that he managed to keep it viable, during a period when many other research stations and colleges of agricultural technology actually did close across the province of Ontario, is a testament to his commitment to the scientific discipline of agronomy. The transition to its affiliation with Lakehead University brings a welcome scientific recognition to this agronomic research work, and bodes well for the stability of the institution into the future. The farmers of Northern Ontario stand to benefit greatly,” Dr. Bruulsema said.

“The crop nutrition industry has particularly appreciated the extensive research and extension conducted on the topic of secondary and micronutrient fertilizers, along with enhanced efficiency nitrogen fertilizers.

“This work has resulted in the identification of deficiencies that limit nitrogen and phosphorus use efficiency, and has identified viable strategies to improve those efficiencies along with the productivity of the agricultural system. Dr. Sahota has provided valuable data for development of recommendations by the Ontario Soil Management Research and Services Committee,” he said.

“Northern Ontario representatives of the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association have spoken to me commending the value and relevance of his research. Dr. Sahota’s research, and his numerous extension articles, have been highly valued by the Certified Crop Advisers of Ontario. In addition, his work is often featured in the Ontario Farmer newsweekly, one of the most influential farm publications in the province of Ontario,” Dr. Bruulsema said.

“Congratulations to Dr. Sahota for receiving this very distinguished award,” said Dr. Andrew P. Dean, Lakehead’s Vice-President, Research and Innovation.

“The research being done at LUARS under the scientific oversight of Tarlok is an important component for fostering development of the Agricultural sector for Northwestern Ontario,” Dr. Dean added. 

This is Dr. Sahota’s second award in the past three years; the first one was the CSA Fellow Award in 2018.

The award includes a suitably engraved plaque, free conference registration, a speaking slot of at least 30 minutes at the CSA Annual General Meeting (AGM)/Conference and up to $2,500 for travel expenses to present at the AGM. This year’s conference is virtual because of COVID-19.

Dr. Sahota’s brief biography can be found here :

http://agronomycanada.com/download/newsletter/CSA-Newsletter-July-2021.pdf on page 6.

He can be reached for interviews at tssahota@lakeheadu.ca or (807) 707-1987.

– 30 –

 Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at (807) 343-8177 or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.

Lakehead University is a fully comprehensive university with approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and over 2,000 faculty and staff at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead has 10 faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Science & Environmental Studies, and Social Sciences & Humanities. Lakehead University’s achievements have been recognized nationally and internationally, including being ranked, once again, among Canada’s Top 10 primarily undergraduate universities in Maclean’s 2021 University Rankings; as well as included in the top half of Times Higher Education's 2020 World Universities Rankings for the second consecutive year, and 99th among 1,115 universities from around the world in THE's 2021 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca. 

Lakehead University’s Faculty of Business Administration has had its AACSB accreditation extended for five years and it now includes both the Orillia and Thunder Bay campuses.

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business peer review team met with faculty, staff, students, and alumni in mid-March to conduct this intense peer-review process. Several aspects of the Faculty of Business of Administration’s degree programs were assessed, including pedagogic strategies, program quality, learning outcomes, and student success.

“I would like to thank all faculty members, staff, students and others who supported these efforts,” said Dr. David Richards, Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration.

Accreditation with AACSB International (AACSB) indicates that students receive a high-quality business education from an institution that values excellence, innovation and continuous improvement.

“AACSB accreditation is an incredible achievement by our Faculty and a recognition of the exceptional experience that students can expect when pursuing a business degree at Lakehead University,” said Dr. David Barnett, Provost and Vice-President (Academic).

For more than a century, AACSB accreditation has been synonymous with the highest standards in business education. Today, a total of 901 institutions across 58 countries and territories have earned AACSB accreditation in business.

“AACSB congratulates each institution on their achievement,” said Stephanie M. Bryant, executive vice-president and chief accreditation officer of AACSB.

“Every AACSB-accredited school has demonstrated a focus on excellence in all areas, including teaching, research, curricula development, and student learning. The intense peer-review process exemplifies their commitment to quality business education.”

For more information on Lakehead University’s accreditation extension, read the AACSB June 28, 2021 Schools Renewing AACSB Accreditation press release here.

– 30 –

Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at (807) 343-8177 or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.

Lakehead University is a fully comprehensive university with approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and over 2,000 faculty and staff at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead has 10 faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Science & Environmental Studies, and Social Sciences & Humanities. Lakehead University’s achievements have been recognized nationally and internationally, including being ranked, once again, among Canada’s Top 10 primarily undergraduate universities in Maclean’s 2021 University Rankings; as well as included in the top half of Times Higher Education's 2020 World Universities Rankings for the second consecutive year, and 99th among 1,115 universities from around the world in THE's 2021 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

Dr. Sonja Grover, Professor in the Faculty of Education, released her latest book - the most recent addition to her work on children’s human rights in the context of international criminal law.

The book examines through various legal cases from international criminal courts/tribunals examples of the failure to charge persecution of children in connection with genocide, crimes against humanity and certain selected war crimes where the facts and the law would have supported the charge.

It introduces a new concept in international criminal law; namely the ‘age-based persecution of children’ as a crime against humanity and discusses the need for justice and accountability in regards to that distinct international crime.

The topic of the persecution of children as a crime against humanity has in recent months come to the fore in the Canadian public consciousness as likely having occurred in the Canadian context. This with the discovery of mass unmarked graves holding the remains of missing Indigenous children who did not survive attendance at Canada’s colonial residential ‘school’ system.

Lakehead University’s Office of Indigenous Initiatives is hosting the Legacy of Hope Waniskahtan Exhibit, designed to create greater awareness about the high rates of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community.

The goal of the exhibit, which will be at the Thunder Bay Intercity Shopping Centre from Wednesday, Aug. 4 to Wednesday, Aug. 18, is to commemorate Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), and hopefully prevent future violence.

For more about the exhibit, visit this page.

RiVAL, the lab of Dr. Max Haiven, Lakehead University's Canada Research Chair in Culture, Media and Social Justice, has just hosted the inaugural meeting of its annual Summer Institute.

This year the institute is online and dedicated to the topic of "Conspiracies and Countergames." The institute brings together artists, scholars and social movement organizers from around the world along with Lakehead students to explore common themes. This year's institute focuses on the relationship between conspiracy fantasies, games, gamification and the problems of capitalism.

The first meeting of the Institute featured a conversation with Haiven's research partners: Dr. Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, a sociologist at University College London (where Haiven completed a visiting fellowship in the fall of 2020) and A.T. Kingsmith, a PhD candidate at York University and a co-founder of a biometrics startup. That discussion is archived on RiVAL's YouTube channel where the public is invited to tune in every Monday and Thursday, from July 19 - Thursday, Aug. 5, at 1 pm (EST) for future discussions with scholars, authors, games designers and artists from around the world.

Future guests include a member of Chicago's TESA Collective of social justice-oriented game designers (July 22), Halifax-based anti-racist poet, activist and scholar El Jones (July 26), Rutgers university professor and conspiracism expert Jack Bratich (July 29), award-winning and bestselling novelist and podcaster Hari Kunzru (August 2) and artist and activist Cassie Thornton (August 5). The public is welcome to watch all these conversations live or archived on YouTube.

The Summer Institute is entangled with a condensed graduate/undergraduate seven-week course Dr. Haiven is teaching cross-listed between the English, Media Studies and Social Justice programs. For the three weeks of the Institute students are joined by preregistered members of the public.

The topic of the summer institute develops themes Dr. Haiven is working on with his colleagues and seeks to understand how conspiracy fantasies form and take hold of the imagination in a gamified capitalist world. It also explores how critical "countergames" might be used to answer these dangerous tendencies. The broader project has launched a podcast of interviews with artists, scholars and activists at http://conspiracy.games.

More information about the speakers, schedule and project can be found on RiVAL's website: http://reimaginingvalue.ca.

January 19, 2021 – Thunder Bay, Ont.

Dr. Aislin Mushquash, a Clinical Psychologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Lakehead University, and her research team have published exciting results from a 28-day study of the JoyPop^TM app developed by a team at McMaster University, which promotes resilience among youth.

The JoyPop^TM app was created based on research suggesting that mental health and resilience can be fostered by helping youth gain coping skills, especially those related to managing difficult emotions and increasing engagement in positive activities.

“There are so many mental health apps that are available – yet very few have been evaluated. Our team recognized the importance of studying the impact of the JoyPop^TM app before broader implementation occurs,” said Dr. Mushquash, the principal investigator.

The app’s creator, Dr. Christine Wekerle, an Associate Professor in Pediatrics at McMaster University and an Associate Member of McMaster’s Offord Centre for Child Studies, explained that her mother, who was a much-loved teacher, always said, “Young people just need a chance, a bit of help.”

“I designed JoyPop^TM to be that help with the science of psychology,” Dr. Wekerle said.

Angela MacIsaac, a PhD student in Lakehead’s Clinical Psychology program who is a member of Dr. Mushquash’s research team, said the study looked at young people who were starting post-secondary school.

“Our research evaluating the JoyPop^TM app among older youth transitioning to university showed that using the app more over the 28-day study period was associated with greater improvements in emotion regulation skills and symptoms of depression,” MacIsaac said.

Dr. Mushquash said that the improvements in emotion regulation are especially prominent among individuals who have experienced adversity or trauma during childhood.

“The results are encouraging and support the JoyPop^TM app as a tool that could be used by youth and young adults to improve their resilience and overall well-being,” Dr. Mushquash said.

Given the promise of JoyPop^TM, Dr. Mushquash is collaborating with Children’s Centre Thunder Bay and Dilico Anishinabek Family Care to develop and pilot a new service that will feature the app.

The new service will immediately increase access to mental health supports for youth and is made possible thanks to $14,436 in funding from the Thunder Bay Community Foundation and support through the Children’s Centre Foundation.

The JoyPop^TM app includes a host of features designed to foster resilience. Youth are encouraged to rate their moods and prompted to engage in helpful activities depending on their ratings.

Activities focus on relaxing the body, helping to organize the thoughts, and providing a fun or distracting outlet. The JoyPop^TM app can also link youth directly to their support system or established telephone help lines when further assistance is required.

To read the study, visit this page. To learn more about JoyPop^TM, press play.

Download JoyPop^TM now for only $6.99.

Learn more about the app at these links:

• https://mhealth.jmir.org/2021/7/e28677
• https://mhealth.jmir.org/2021/1/e25087/
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVwsdRWNPMQ
• https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=b43e8d51-b6f4-48ca-9e31-d7936ed7a950

– 30 –

Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at (807) 343-8177 or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.

Lakehead University is a fully comprehensive university with approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and over 2,000 faculty and staff at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead has 10 faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Science & Environmental Studies, and Social Sciences & Humanities. Lakehead University’s achievements have been recognized nationally and internationally, including being ranked, once again, among Canada’s Top 10 primarily undergraduate universities in Maclean’s 2021 University Rankings; as well as included in the top half of Times Higher Education's 2020 World Universities Rankings for the second consecutive year, and 98th among 766 universities from around the world in THE's 2020 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

Dr. Dariush Ebrahimi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science, has been selected to be the guest editor of a special issue of Sensors, an open access journal with an impact factor of 3.576 by MDPI, called “Intelligent Vehicular Networks and Communication Systems”.

Click on the following link for more information about the special issue:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors/special_issues/Vehicular_Systems

Dr. Andrew P. Dean, Vice-President, Research and Innovation, is pleased to announce the recent appointment of Dr. Kathy Kortes-Miller as the new Director of the Centre for Education and Research on Aging & Health (CERAH) effective July 1.

Dr. Kortes-Miller took over from Dr. Elaine Wiersma, who expertly served as Director of CERAH since 2016. Dr. Wiersma thanks the Centre's staff, community partners, research affiliates, students, and University administrative support that allowed CERAH to thrive. She will be staying on a leadership role as Associate Director.

Dr. Kortes-Miller, Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work, has a passion for palliative care and improving the end of life care for all. She has served as CERAH's Associate Director since 2020. Her research is interdisciplinary and collaborative, contributing to a broad range of fields of study including: social work, palliative care, end-of-life, interprofessional education, LGBTQ+, caregiving and gerontology.

She was a long-standing member of the board of directors for Hospice Northwest, and in 2020 joined the board for Roots to Harvest. She is the author of Talking About Death Won't Kill You, published by ECW Press in 2018.

Dr. Kortes-Miller brings much to the role of Director with her administrative experience, excellent scholarship, and commitment to improving the care provided at the bedside and in the community. She looks forward to continuing to build on CERAH's reputation for excellence in research and education to enhance health and well-being for an aging population.