To kick off the first day of classes, we're serving up a FREE brunch for all new and returning students, staff, and faculty! Bring your appetite and let us officially welcome you to Lakehead University's Barrie STEM HUB
No registration required - just show up!
We invite ALL new students to our First ever Wolfie's Warmup (Including Barrie STEM Students). This will be a fun-filled day where you can show your Thunderwolf spirit, get to know other new students, play some interactive games, enjoy some snacks, and make signs before heading over to the soccer fields to support our athletes at our second annual home opener! This is a day you are not going to want to miss!
We welcome ALL new students to drop by 5 Ross to pickup swag, register for upcoming orientation events, get a few important tasks checked off your to-do list and enter into a draw for some cool prizes!
We invite ALL new students to join us for The First Howl: Orientation Day! This fun-filled day is all about showing your Thunderwolf spirit, connecting with fellow new students, meeting your future professors, getting a few important tasks checked off your to-do list, and having fun. You won’t want to miss it! Participating in Orientation Day also gives you the chance to earn ballots toward our grand prize draws, and yes—lunch is FREE for all students!
Get excited for the Toronto Blue Jays University & College Night at the Rogers Centre! This event is open to students who are new to Lakehead Orillia & Barrie STEMHub, including both first-year and transfer students. The event includes free transportation and a game ticket — you’ll just need to cover your own dinner!
IMPORTANT NOTES:
The University’s year end is April 30, 2026. All transactions occurring before year end must be dated April 30, 2026, or earlier to be included in the 2025-2026 budget year. It is the responsibility of each department to submit its accounting documents before the deadlines listed below. The transactions received before these deadlines will be included in the 2025-2026 budget year.
Please note: We ask that you please maintain any original receipts or forms.
All April-dated invoices for external customers must be received by Friday, May 8, 2026. Please e-mail all requests to invoicing@lakeheadu.ca.
All requests for transfers (either budget or actuals) in operating or ancillary accounts must be received by Financial Services prior to Friday, May 8, 2026, to be processed in the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Please email the approved forms with supporting documentation to Amanda Johnson (agjohnso@lakeheadu.ca). If you are transferring to a research (fund 50) or trust (fund 40) budget code, please send the form and documentation to Margot Ross (mross@lakeheadu.ca).
All cheques and cash dated prior to April 30, 2025, must be deposited on or before Friday, May 8, 2026, to be processed with an April date. All such deposits made on/after May 8 will be May-dated. Please contact Chris Gallinger (clgallin@lakeheadu.ca) to arrange for your deposit.
All US Bank Visa purchasing card statements for the 2025-2026 fiscal year (inclusive of all supporting documentation and approvals) must be submitted by Thursday, May 7, 2026, per the usual electronic process of emailing the documentation to the pcard.statements@lakeheadu.ca. A reminder that all goods paid for on or before April 30, 2026, must be received on campus on or before April 30, 2026. Please contact Dianne (creditcard@lakeheadu.ca) with any questions.
N.B.: purchases with a transaction date in April 2026 that appear on the May 2026 p-card statement will still be posted to the 2025-2026 fiscal year but to the pcard’s default budget code. You are not required to do anything additional. These receipts should be submitted with the May 2026 statement, when the statement comes due.
The last day to submit physical retail inventory sheets is Thursday, May 1, 2026. Please send to Sylvia Griffiths (sgriffit@lakeheadu.ca).
The final date to submit purchase order requisitions in Ellucian Colleague is Friday, April 10, 2026, since all goods must be received on campus by April 30, 2026, if they’re to be expensed against the current budget year.
For supplier shipments/invoices, received directly by departments which are required to be included in fiscal year 2026 (rendered prior to April 30, 2026), invoices or cheque requisitions must be submitted to Accounts Payable no later than Friday, May 8, 2026. As a reminder, all goods ordered by invoice or through requisitions and purchase orders in Colleague must be received on campus on or before April 30, 2026. Please email invoices to acctspayable@lakeheadu.ca.
Please see the Vacation and Sick Leave Information page on the Human Resources website. If you have any questions, please contact Tiffany Moore trmoore@lakeheadu.ca
"The summer has been a whirlwind," says Dr. Mathew Leitch, a professor of wood sciences at the Faculty of Natural Resources Management.
Throughout June, he hosted and trained forestry professionals from Ghana committed to making their forest industry more sustainable and profitable. 
"We get thousands of products from trees including mass timber products, phenols, formaldehyde, flocculants, and cellulose fibres that are so strong they're used to create bullet-proof flak jackets," Dr. Leitch says. Above, participants visit the Hurkett Biohub facility with Scott Rubin and his team at Lake Nipigon Forest Management to look at the facility's biochar location, merchandising yard, and other wood value-adding initiatives.
It took over a year to organize the month-long "Workshop in Wood Science and Forest Products," which was hosted on Lakehead University and Confederation College's Thunder Bay campuses.
The session was the first of three customized training workshops that are part of Lakehead's five-year "Best Practices in Sustainable Natural Resources Management" project.
Dr. Leitch received a Global Affairs Canada grant worth nearly $570,000—through the Canadian International Development Scholarships 2030 (BCDI 2030) program—to run the project.
It includes funding for the workshops and visiting researchers as well as scholarships for master's degree students.
BCDI scholarships—which are open to small island developing states and 26 Francophonie and Commonwealth countries—harness the power of education to strengthen economic and social development.
Dr. Leitch's BCDI 2030 grant will enable him to continue training Ghanaian forestry professionals at Lakehead. In 2027, he will host a remote sensing and geomatic workshop and, in 2028, he will host an ecological studies workshop. The workshops are part of a customized training approach to address skill development needs identified by the Government of Ghana. Above, the BCDI participants celebrate completing the workshops.
"Many women in Ghana live in extreme poverty, so one of the goals of my program is to bring more women into the workforce so that they're economically independent," Dr. Leitch explains.
Over the course of Lakehead's project, an estimated 35 professionals and students will receive advanced training in natural resources management.
The resulting network of professionals within Ghana will share their knowledge and skills with their students and colleagues.
Ghana is a West African country known for its diverse ecosystems.
The southern region—where Dr. Leitch has forged many longstanding partnerships—has tropical rainforests with more than 200 species of hardwood trees.
"The main trees harvested for commercial purposes are African mahogany, iroko, sapele, utile, and teak," he says. "Ghana's trees grow impressively fast," he adds. "In 40 years, African mahogany grows to 4-8 feet in diameter."
Above, a participant practices using a portable mill at Dr. Leitch's campus facility. "Everyone learned how to run the mill and cut wood because these types of mills are readily available in Ghana," Dr. Leitch says. The BCDI grant funded the participants' costs of attending the workshops.
Ghanaians use their forests primarily as sources of lumber, plywood, and charcoal.
"Ghana is the second biggest charcoal producer in the world," says Dr. Leitch, who shared strategies for more efficiently producing charcoal with the visiting professionals and students.
The workshop participants arrived at Lakehead for training in remote sensing, geomatics, wood science, property mapping, and ecological monitoring.
Wood science is a multifaceted discipline that studies the properties of wood species and how they can be used. Above, one of the participants prepares a sample in Dr. Leitch's Wood Science Testing Laboratory.
Dr. Leitch welcomed faculty, staff, and PhD students from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University for Development Studies, the University of Energy and Natural Resources, and CSIR-College of Science and Technology.
There were also scientists and staff from the CSIR-Forestry Research Institute of Ghana and Lakehead University Master of Science in Forestry students.
"We looked at everything from high-value forest products like engineered wood used in housing construction to low-value products like wood pellets used for heating and barbecues," Dr. Leitch says.
All the workshop participants found their time at Lakehead to be worth the long journey.
"They wanted to learn everything they could about our approaches to forest management," Dr. Leitch says.
The participants enjoyed field visits to tree farms, biomass facilities, sawmills, and pulp and paper mills. Another highlight was seeing Lakehead's state-of-the-art research facilities and testing equipment in action.
A tour of Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper, led by Fibre and Logistics Manager Mike Furniss, provided insight into how wood is processed into pulp, energy production from boilers, waste use, and the production of value-added chemicals. Dr. Mat Leitch is pictured on the far right.
"We showed them how we use silviculture to grow, manage, and manipulate the properties of trees and bring products to market," he says.
"I could see their wheels spinning. Even before the workshops were over, they were writing up draft plans to implement when they got back home."
Dr. Leitch greatly enjoyed his time at the workshops, too.
"Ghanaians are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. The participants were so gracious and appreciative that they were selected for this prestigious program.
They are eager for anything that will help them move forward as a country."
Lakehead gratefully acknowledges the nearly $570,000 Global Affairs Canada grant that made The Best Practices in Sustainable Natural Resources Management (BPSNRM) project possible.
Thank you to Confederation College and the following government and industry partners in Ghana, including: the Forestry Commission of Ghana, The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research — Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (CSIR-FORIG), Samartex Timber and Plywood Company, and the Charcoal Chamber of Commerce.
Lakehead would also like to thank the following partner higher education institutions: CSIR College of Science and Technology (CCST), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the University of Development Studies (UDS), the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), and the University of Ghana-Legon.
Dr. Sam Salem from the Department of Civil Engineering and Dr. Seung-Il Lee from the Faculty of Natural Resources Management have received Discovery Grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to develop innovative solutions to critical engineering and environmental issues. Theirs are among 15 Lakehead University projects receiving a total of over $2.7 million in funding from NSERC.
“Lakehead researchers are at the forefront of tackling the urgent challenges facing our region, from escalating wildfires to the broader impacts of climate change,” Vice-President, Research and Innovation Dr. Langis Roy says. “This vital NSERC funding will lead to practical solutions that will protect both our environment and our communities while training the next generation of scientists and engineers.”
Building on over a decade of cutting-edge research at the Lakehead University Fire Testing and Research Laboratory (LUFTRL), which he founded, Dr. Salem and his research team are improving the safe and widespread use of engineered wood products— called mass timber— in construction.
Despite mass timber’s growing popularity as a sustainable alternative to steel and concrete, the construction industry lacks proven standards for inspecting, assessing, and repairing these buildings after a fire.
Various full-size mass timber building elements, such as beams, columns, and slabs, will be put through intense fire testing. The burned materials will then be analyzed and assessed to determine exactly how fire affects them using rigorous char-layer analysis before applying innovative repair and retrofitting techniques. The outcomes of this research program will help the construction industry accurately assess structural safety after a fire and choose the most reliable, cost-effective ways to repair or rebuild.
“This research will improve public safety, influence building codes, and support the sustainable use of mass timber in high-rise constructions,” says Dr. Salem, the 2026 recipient of the Distinguished Researcher Award for his contributions to structural fire engineering.
This practical research program positions LUFTRL as a global leader in structural fire engineering, shaping best practices and standards for the mass timber industry in Canada and beyond.
Land-dwelling arthropods (insects, spiders, and other “creepy-crawlers”) make up nearly 70% of all forest species. Highly sensitive to their environment, they serve as an early-warning system for forests facing climate change and industrial logging.
Three student-led projects under the supervision of Dr. Lee will foster sustainable ecosystem management and the conservation of arthropods in northwestern Ontario’s forests.
The first student-led project investigates how jack pine logging affects forest biodiversity. Researchers will determine how much wood debris loggers need to leave behind on the forest floor to allow ground-dwelling and wood-dependent insects to recover from the impacts of logging.
Study two will provide northwestern Ontario with its first in-depth assessment of regional insect biodiversity. The project examines how different levels of commercial thinning in black spruce forests affect local spider and insect populations.
Using mesh screens to block insects from specific wood samples, the third research team will determine whether insects or microbes— like fungi and bacteria— do the heavy lifting of breaking down dead wood in managed versus wild forests.
“Together, these projects will provide valuable insights to enhance the management and conservation of Canada’s forest ecosystems and biodiversity,” Dr. Lee says.
In 2025-26, Lakehead University received $2.8 million in assistance from the Research Support Fund to support the indirect costs of research, which include costs for supporting the management of intellectual property, research and administration, ethics and regulatory compliance, research resources, research facilities, and research security.
Lakehead University received a total of $2,702,000 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The following Lakehead researchers have received grants:
Discovery Grants (five-year grants)
Dr. Abedalrhman Alkhateeb, Department of Computer Science, "Self-aligned, Causal, and Actionable Multimodal AI Framework for Complex Biomedical Data", $192,500.
Dr. Liang Cui, Department of Civil Engineering, "Multiaxial Mechanical Behavior of Exposed Cemented Paste Backfill under Multiphysics Curing Conditions", $215,000.
Dr. Gautam Das, Department of Physics, "Investigation into photonic devices and their applications in sensing trace chemicals and gases", $180,000.
Dr. Peter Hollings, Department of Geology, "Magmatic evolution and mineralization of the Midcontinent Rift, Ontario", $200,000.
Dr. Seung-Il Lee, Faculty of Natural Resources Management, "Linking forest management intensity to arthropod biodiversity recovery and ecosystem function", $222,500.
Dr. Osama (Sam) Salem, Department of Civil Engineering, "Innovative Techniques for Post-Fire Assessment and Structural Rehabilitation of Mass Timber Buildings", $215,000.
Dr. Tobias Stephan, Department of Geology, "Kinematics and Strain Geometry of Archean Tectonics – A New Tool for Predicting Gold Mineralization in the Canadian Shield", $187,500.
Dr. Abdelhamid Tayebi, Department of Electrical Engineering, "Towards Fully Autonomous Navigation: Robust Estimation and Control Strategies", $260,000.
Dr. Wilson Quansheng Wang, Department of Mechanical Engineering, "Intelligent Diagnostics and Prognostics of EV Drive Systems", $235,000.
Dr. Qiang Wei, Department of Electrical Engineering, "Power Converter Topologies and Controls for High-Power Medium-Voltage Battery Energy Storage Systems", $235,000.
Dr. Kaiyu Wu, Department of Computer Science, "Space Efficient Graph Data Structures", $192,500.
Dr. Yushi Zhou, Department of Electrical Engineering, "Scalable On-Chip Low-Dropout Regulators Architectures for Edge Artificial Intelligence System on Chips", $235,000.
Discovery Development Grants (two-year grant)
Dr. Jinqiang Hou, Department of Chemistry, "Integrated Chemical-Digital Technologies for Targeted Molecular Probes in Biological Regulation and Imaging", $44,000.
Dr. Eltayeb Mohamedelhassan, Department of Civil Engineering, "Solar-electrokinetic in-situ leaching for sustainable critical minerals extraction", $44,000.
Dr. Douglas Morris, Department of Biology, "Evolutionary ecology of habitat selection", $44,000.
Revised July 2026
Jane Antoniak joins Lakehead University as Associate Vice-President, Communications and Marketing and takes on leadership of the Communications and Media Relations, Marketing Support, and Web Development portfolios. A proud Northener, Jane is excited to return to her hometown of Thunder Bay.
A respected communications leader and educator, Jane’s career is marked by a deep commitment to advancing the field of public relations and communications management. She is the owner of a private communications consultancy and currently serves as the President of the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) Board of Directors. Jane brings significant experience in institutional communications, notably her tenure as Director of Communications and Media Relations at King’s University College at Western University. She began her career as a national journalist working across television, print, and digital media.
Jane’s commitment to professional development and education is reflected in her work as an instructor at Fanshawe College and McMaster University, where she taught strategic public relations within their post-graduate programs and helped prepare the next generation of communications professionals. In addition, she has a Master of Communications Management degree from McMaster University/Syracuse University, and is Accredited in Public Relations (APR).
Her genuine enthusiasm for engaging with community makes her exceptionally well-suited to the role, positioning her to build strong relationships that will advance Lakehead's reputation and deepen its impact across our regions. An active volunteer, Jane has served as a board member at London’s Boler Mountain, a past board member with CPRS Hamilton (Accreditation Chair), and a life-member of the Optimist Club. In 2025, she volunteered in Thunder Bay at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts curling championships in the youth engagement program.
Jane believes strongly in the mission, vision and values of Lakehead University and looks forward to being part of Lakehead’s continued growth and success.
Her first day at Lakehead will be Monday, August 24.
