Lakehead University's 20th Annual Research & Innovation Week will be celebrated in Thunder Bay from February 24 – 28, 2025.

You are cordially invited to attend:

Opening Ceremonies/Keynote Luncheon

Join us in launching the 20th Annual Research & Innovation Week with greetings from dignitaries and a proclamation from the City of Thunder Bay.  The opening ceremonies will be followed by our keynote speaker, Jill Heinerth, Explorer-in-Residence, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society. 

Keynote Speaker: Jill Heinerth

More people have walked on the moon than have visited many of the places that Jill Heinerth has seen on Earth. From the most dangerous technical dives deep inside underwater caves, to searching for never-before-seen ecosystems inside giant Antarctic icebergs, Heinerth’s curiosity and passion about our watery planet is the driving force in her life. In her visually stunning presentations, she encourages audiences to reach beyond their limitations, challenge the unknown, and overcome their fears, while sharing practical lessons on risk management and safety, discovery learning, failure, and collaboration.
From desert oases of the Sahara to Baffin Bay's cold waters, Heinerth has been the hands and eyes for climatologists, archaeologists, and engineers worldwide. She led the first dives into underwater caves inside Antarctica's massive B-15 iceberg and was a lead diver on a ground-breaking US Deep Caving Team project, piloting the first accurate 3D cave mapping device using tech that’s now bound for space.

Heinerth became the first Explorer-in-Residence of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society in 2016. She is also a fellow of the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame, Underwater Academy of Arts and Sciences, Women Divers Hall of Fame, and the Explorers Club, which awarded her with the William Beebe Award. In addition, Heinerth has been honoured with the Explorer’s Club Stefansson Medal and the Wyland ICON Award, and she is the inaugural recipient of the Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration. In 2023, she received her first honorary doctorate from Victoria University of the University of Toronto.

A bestselling author, Heinerth’s first book Into the Planet, was lauded by the Wall Street Journal, Oprah Magazine, and the New York Times. Her children’s book, The Aquanut, is a Blue Ribbon Selection for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Heinerth is also the subject of a new documentary Diving into the Darkness, which won Best Documentary Feature at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where it premiered.

Registration is Required for this Event

To register for this event by Sunday, February 23, 2025, please click here.

Join Webinar Link

The Transformation stream is designed to support large-scale, Canadian-led interdisciplinary research projects that address a major challenge with the potential to realize real and lasting change (high-reward). Deadline for NOIs is April 15, 2025.

For more information about this opportunity, please click here.

About the Event

Lakehead University's Office of Indigenous Initiatives invites you to visit us for our 2nd Annual Indigenous Craft Market on Tuesday, March 4th, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during Research and Innovation Week on the Orillia campus. We hope you can join us for this great opportunity in supporting Indigenous craft vendors and artists, with an opportunity to purchase Indigenous-made crafts, art, and products. 

Here is a link to directions and parking information.

About the Event / Speaker

Dr. Michael Rennie is an Associate Professor at Lakehead University and was the Canada Research Chair in Freshwater Ecology and Fisheries from 2015-2024. As lead researcher of the CEE Lab, Dr. Rennie oversees his team’s use of whole-lake experiments, lab studies and archival data sets to investigate how lakes and fish populations respond to ecosystem changes such as climate warming, invasive species and contaminants. He is also the acting director of Lakehead’s Aquatic Toxicology Research Centre. 

Dr. Rennie is also a Research Fellow with the International Institute for Sustainable Development-Experimental Lakes Area (IISD-ELA), where he oversees the fish population monitoring program and the site of many of CEE Lab members’ field studies and whole-lake experiments. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the biological sciences department at the University of Manitoba.

Dr. Rennie’s research is focused on understanding the fundamental linkages between metabolic performance of individuals and ecosystem-level processes, the means by which these relationships are modulated in altered environments, and how these changes affect the pathway and efficiency of energy flow through food webs.

About the Event

Join us in this hands-on workshop to practice, wonder, sense, play, and connect with plants, trees, peers, and art materials. Come to expand and un/learn your research skills.

Based on the work done with five communities using a research-creation approach –N(ArT)URE– the researchers and two artists (Drs. Spadoni and Schoales) will guide you to explore how to use creativity and our relations with nature as a methodology, beyond data gathering and analysis.

Do you wonder how can we do research differently to keep up with our changing world?

Do you want to do research in a way that fosters new solutions and strengthens our relations with nature and community?

Do you want to explore how to integrate more-than-human theory into your research study and methodology?

All art materials will be provided – bring only your smile and mug

Registration

Please register at cjuando@lakeheadu.ca or click here.

Join us as we celebrate Lakehead's 20th Annual Research & Innovation Week with greetings from local dignitaries. Registration is required. 

Registration

To register for this event, please click here.

About the Event

This event will include performing experimental new music for live conventional instruments, presenting works composed using a computer programming language (Max MSP) and a participatory music-making experience that weaves Western approaches and Indigenous ways of knowing and learning.

About the Event

Panel Presenters: Kassandra Fernandes, Stephanie Hendrickson, Jiaqi (Jessica) Li, & Jessica Wyatt
Moderator: Maydena Remenda

Join us for a thought-provoking panel discussion featuring staff from the Centre for Education and Research on Aging & Health (CERAH) at Lakehead University! CERAH is recognized for its innovative approach to research and education. This panel discussion will explore how CERAH’s four divisions—Palliative Care, Dementia & Seniors’ Mental Health, Indigenous Peoples’ Health & Aging, and Aging in Place—contribute to knowledge translation and community impact. Panelists will highlight key projects, including community-based research, student engagement, and partnerships that support local and national initiatives. Topics include the evolution of Indigenous palliative care education, the role of students in advancing research, and the Centre’s regional and national reach. Attendees will gain insight into how CERAH continues to evolve, fostering collaboration, supporting health care providers, and expanding research to address aging and health needs in Northwestern Ontario and beyond.

About the Talk

In mathematics, when a class of objects proves to be of interest, the question arises of classifying them somehow. This can mean different things in different cases. The simplest sort of classification is just a complete list of all the objects in the class. This sort of classification may be useful in establishing results on a case by case basis, but it may not provide much information about how the objects are related to each other. A more useful form of classification is to associate to each object a label that captures essential features, while ignoring different guises the same object may appear under. This approach has been extremely successful in the Elliott program to classify certain C*-algebras, and this talk will elaborate on and illustrate it.

About the Speaker

Dr. Andrew J. Dean is a professor of Mathematical Sciences at Lakehead University. He is a Lakehead graduate, having completed an HBSc. here before going to the University of Toronto, where he completed a Ph.D. under the supervision of G. A. Elliott. His research deals with C*-algebras and related structures, such as dynamical systems, K-theory, and real structures on C*-algebras. His most recent projects include his collaboration with Dr. Luis Santiago, Classification of real approximate interval C*-algebras, and his work with Lakehead students B. Choi and S.K. Lucky on a range of invariant problems.

The Exhibit

The Northwest Climate Gathering brings community together in solution focused solidarity. On October 16 of 2024, over a hundred people Gathered around the theme You Are Not Alone. In partnership with LAIR Galleries, ten Artists in Residence took part. This exhibit is their response to that experience.

The Speaker

Juan G. Sánchez Martínez was born in Bakatá/Bogotá, in the Colombian Andes. He coordinates the online multilingual anthology and exhibition  Siwar Mayu, A River of Hummingbirds.  He has published several books of poetry, including Uranium/Uranio (Japan 2023). He works on the crossroads between Indigenous art, literature, and science. He recently co-edited the open-access volume  Abiayalan Pluriverses. Bridging Indigenous Studies and Hispanic Studies  with Gloria E. Chacón and Lauren Beck (Amherst College, 2024.) He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Indigenous Learning at Lakehead University (Thunder Bay, Canada).

Forest Bathing by Nicole Sutherland