In June 2022, LUSU officially launched the rebranded Food Resource Centre. It's a safe space where any Lakehead student can come to access food in an emergency situation. In addition to emergency food support, the LUSU Food Resource Centre also provides students with educational workshops (such as cooking classes), programming (such as the People's Potato and the Good Food Box), and volunteer opportunities.

We are hoping to bring back the annual Departmental Food Drive Challenge with some new changes! We greatly appreciate all of the work, passion, and dedication each department had for this challenge.

How it works:

• Donations are welcome all year-round.
• Donation boxes will be delivered to offices during the last week of September. Once your department's box is full, bring it to the centre or give us a call. We will keep track of the items donated by each department.
• A first semester preliminary count will take place in December. Final totals will be calculated at the end of the second semester (April) and the winner will be announced.

What items are needed?

• Non-perishables (e.g., canned beans, canned tuna, dried lentils, rice, canned vegetables, etc.)
• Fresh fruits, vegetables, bread, eggs, and other produce
• Frozen vegetables, fruits, and meats

Donations can be dropped off to the LUSU Food Resource Centre (Room UC 2014 B), Monday to Friday between 9 am and 4 pm.

You can reach out to Sierra Garofalo, LUSU Food Resource Centre Coordinator, with any questions at FRC@lusu.ca.

In a multi-site study funded by the Ontario COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund, scientists discovered a clue into the cause of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS), also known as long-COVID.

Led by Grace Parraga, Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair at Western University, researchers used novel lung imaging techniques to investigate gas exchange in the lungs of people suffering from long-COVID. This exploratory study used hyperpolarized xenon-129 magnetic resonance imaging (HP 129Xe MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scans to visualize the flow of oxygen through the lungs and where it is blocked.

The use of the HP 129Xe MRI technology is based on the technique co-invented by Mitchell Albert, Lakehead University—Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute Research Chair in Molecular Imaging and Advanced Diagnostics. As a graduate student at The State University of New York at Stony Brook, Albert co-invented this powerful diagnostic technology that allows you to see how the lungs are functioning in real time. Since then it has been applied to several important biomedical areas, including this study.

“It’s really gratifying to see that after 25 years, our invention now is turning out to be important in the use of discovering what is happening in patients with post-acute COVID-19,” says Albert. “Not a lot is known about long-COVID yet. People have these lingering symptoms lasting months and months, and no one really understands why this is. This study starts to shed light on what is happening in the lungs, what the problem is, and the fact that there is indeed a physical problem.”

Albert is referring to the fact that for people with long-COVID can suffer from symptoms including shortness of breath, brain fog and fatigue, where traditional methods of assessing the lungs (i.e. pulmonary function tests, CT scans, chest x-rays) may not indicate there is an issue in the lungs. Using HP 129Xe MRI changes that.

“You can think about hyperpolarized xenon like a tracer that allows you to see how the gas behaves within the lungs. So by using the HP 129Xe, we are able to trace the pulmonary gas exchange and literally see how oxygen is transferred into the bloodstream,” explains Yurii Shepelytskyi, post-doctoral researcher in Albert’s lab. “In this study, we looked at post-acute COVID-19 syndrome to see how the gas transfer changes in subjects who had COVID-19 and who were previously hospitalized over those people not hospitalized. We found that the amount of gas transferred into the blood is significantly smaller in subjects who had COVID-19, indicating a gas transfer impairment.”

Albert’s team at Lakehead University / Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute is one of five sites conducting research for this study. In this collaborative study, the impaired pulmonary transfer has been correlated to pulmonary vascular changes detected by CT scanning. This initial discovery is important as in order to develop treatment options for patients with long-COVID, the source of the issue must be identified.

“Next steps are to continue the research and follow up with the patients to determine if they have fully recovered, or if their symptoms persist. This information will be useful to health care providers to provide guidelines for treating patients with long-COVID,” says Albert. “We are very excited to be a part of this groundbreaking study that will help people all across the province and beyond. Thank you to TBRHRI for allowing us use of the 3T MRI, and to Lakehead University for providing seed funding that allows us to do this incredible work right here in Northwestern Ontario. Finally, I am grateful to the Ministry of Health for making this research possible and to Grace Parraga, the study leader, for inviting us to participate.”

Reprinted with permission from the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. This article was originally published in the Chronicle-Journal.

July 04, 2022 – Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ont.

The Faculty of Business Administration at Lakehead University in Canada has partnered with the Rennes School of Business in France to offer a unique international learning opportunity for students at both institutions.

Participating students from Lakehead who complete the International Dual Degree Program will earn two degrees in four years (one from Lakehead and one from Rennes).

Lakehead students will go on a year-long exchange in third year before returning to Lakehead to complete their studies. Upon graduation, they will receive both an Honours Bachelor of Commerce from Lakehead and a Bachelor in Management from Rennes School of Business.

Students who come from Rennes to Lakehead in their third year will earn a Bachelor of Administration from Lakehead before returning to France to earn the Bachelor in Management from Rennes.

This program will provide an opportunity for students to develop international connections and global skills while earning two degrees.

“Our collaboration with Rennes will allow us to strengthen our international partnerships and support our goal of developing cultural competencies and global skills necessary for the future,” said James Aldridge, Lakehead’s Vice-Provost, International.

“I am delighted with this collaboration which allows us to propose an alliance between Canada and Ontario on the one hand, and France and the region of Brittany on the other,” said Thomas Froehlicher, Director General and Dean of Rennes School of Business. “It is also a great achievement to structure an excellent academic relationship at an undergraduate level with Lakehead University.”

Students participating in the program from Lakehead University can apply directly from high school and be admitted to their first year of the International Dual Degree program, or transfer into the program prior to third year from another Lakehead’s business degree program (subject to available spaces).

“We are very excited to offer this new opportunity to all current and future Lakehead students, and to welcome students from Rennes to Lakehead University,” said Dr. David Richards, Dean of Lakehead’s Faculty of Business Administration.

“This first-of-its-kind program at Lakehead will provide a rich learning experience for our students,” Dr. Richards added.

Lakehead University’s Faculty of Business Administration is AACSB and CPA accredited, while the Rennes School of Business is accredited by AACSB, EQUIS, and AMBA.

For more information about the program: www.lakeheadu.ca/internationaldualdegree.

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Jaclyn Bucik, Media Communications and Marketing Associate, at 705-330-4010 ext. 2014 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 nine faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, 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 2022 World Universities Rankings for the third consecutive year, and the number one university in the world with fewer than 10,000 students in THE’s 2022 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

Check out the latest Lake Superior Living Labs Network (LSLLN) newsletter for updates on our recent activity. The LSLLN serves as a platform to connect academics and community groups to develop new partnerships and collaborative initiatives across the Lake Superior watershed. For more information visit www.livinglabsnetwork.org.

For Immediate Release - Tuesday, May 31, 2022

A $1 million grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) aims to improve local health outcomes for residents of Thunder Bay and Ottawa through partnership between academic researchers, universities, and municipalities.

NOSM University, City of Thunder Bay, and Lakehead University are collaborating with the University of Ottawa and the City of Ottawa, to address locally identified health and safety priorities. Recognized globally, the CityStudio framework of city-campus collaboration encourages post-secondary students to be agents of change for social accountability in their communities.

“CityStudio is internationally recognized for helping municipalities and academic institutions collaborate to create bridges across municipal government, academic institutions and the community in a concerted effort to address the unique challenges they face,” says Dr. Erin Cameron, Director of the Centre for Social Accountability at NOSM University and a Principal Investigator on the grant.

In collaboration with a team out of the University of Ottawa, led by Dr. Claire Kendall, Associate Dean of Social Accountability in the Faculty of Medicine and senior investigator at the Bruyère Research Institute, the project engages two municipalities, Ottawa and Thunder Bay, and a team of researchers who will use the CIHR funding to evaluate the impact of city-campus engagement on population health.

“One of the challenges in researching community engagement is that it’s a very complex phenomenon,” says Dr. Kendall. “Not only does it involve many different stakeholders, it also has components that interact and create feedback loops. Untangling all of these different aspects to see what’s actually going on is a lengthy, and frankly, quite difficult process, which is why it hasn’t been done before.”

Thunder Bay will receive $370K over four years to implement the project, which includes the hiring of a research coordinator. The funding will also evaluate the reciprocal relationship between cities and academic institutions and their ability to improve population health outcomes.

“We are thrilled that CIHR recognises this as an opportunity to connect communities with the academic research of universities. It aligns with NOSM University’s social accountability mandate to address the priority health concerns of communities and advocate for community engagement that is grounded in co-creation,” says Dr. Cameron.

“The Thunder Bay community, through the Community Safety & Well-Being Plan, has identified priorities related to safety and well-being. This project will help harness university resources to implement projects aimed at addressing these priorities, and deepen understanding at the municipal level , to make Thunder Bay a safer, healthier and more equitable community,” says Lee-Ann Chevrette, Community Safety and Well-Being Specialist at the City of Thunder Bay.

“This project brings together education, research, and community,” says Dr. Cameron, “and brings together an amazing team of researchers from Thunder Bay, including Dr. Helle Moeller and Dr. Rebecca Schiff from Lakehead University.” The CityStudio framework will be implemented and studied for three years while Thunder Bay and Ottawa identify their respective successes, challenges, and unique differences.

Thunder Bay and Ottawa share many challenges and factors closely linked to the social determinants of health in the areas of poverty, education, housing, racism, childhood experiences, and access to health services.

“Throughout the development of the Community Safety and Well-Being Plan for Thunder Bay, we engaged with community partners and citizens to identify local priorities that, if addressed, would have the greatest impacts on improving safety and well-being for those living in Thunder Bay,” says Chevrette. “This grant will help determine how to most effectively engage our community and implement our plan.”

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NOSM University is Canada’s first independent medical university and one of the greatest education and physician workforce strategy success stories of Northern Ontario. More than just a medical university, it was purpose built to address the health needs of the region. While advocating for equitable access to care, the university contributes to the economic development of Northern Ontario. NOSM University relies on the commitment and expertise of the peoples of Northern Ontario to educate health-care professionals to practise in Indigenous, Francophone, rural, remote and underserved communities. With a focus on diversity, inclusion and advocacy, NOSM University is an award-winning, socially accountable organization renowned for its innovative model of distributed, community-engaged education and research.

The City of Thunder Bay is the largest community in northwestern Ontario, located on the shore of Lake Superior. The city is situated on the traditional territory of Fort William First Nation, a signatory to the Robinson Superior Treaty of 1850. With a population of approximately 110,000 people, the city acts as a hub for northwestern Ontario.

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 nine faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, 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 2022 World Universities Rankings for the third consecutive year, and the number one university in the world with fewer than 10,000 students in THE’s 2022 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

CityStudio is a proven model of experiential learning and civic engagement that works by harnessing university resources, such as faculty expertise and student hours, to work on community-oriented projects identified by the municipality. CityStudio has been implemented successfully in 15 cities worldwide to date.

For media requests please contact:

Kim Latimer
Communications and External Relations
NOSM University
Phone: 807-621-4303
Email: klatimer@nosm.ca

Brandon Walker
Media, Communications and Marketing Associate
Lakehead University
(807) 343-8110 ext. 8372 or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca

For further information about the City Studio Model, please contact:

Dr. Erin Cameron, PhD.
Director, Centre for Social Accountability
NOSM University
Office: 807-766-7451

Cell: 807-631-1682
Email: ercameron@nosm.ca

Lee-Ann Chevrette
Community Safety & Well-Being Specialist
City of Thunder Bay
Phone: 807-631-4422
Email: lee-ann.chevrette@thunderbay.ca

Lakehead University researchers are receiving more than $2.4 million in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Dr. Adam Algar, Associate Professor in Biology, is receiving a Discovery Grant for $235,000 to understand how species’ ecological limits are responding to rapid climate and land use change.

Dr. Algar will use lab experiments, field studies, remote sensing, and big data modelling to spend five years exploring what stops species from spreading outwards, to all environments.

Understanding what limits, or promotes, species’ geographical spread can have considerable conservation, economic, and health implications through effects on at-risk species, the spread of invasives, and even zoonotic disease risk.

“This research will shed new light on the mechanisms underlying species’ range limits and improve our ability to predict species’ geographical fates as rapid environmental change reshuffles global biodiversity,” Dr. Algar said.

Dr. Noah Phillips, Assistant Professor in Geology, is receiving a $142,500 Discovery Grant to study the strength of Earth’s plate-boundary-fault systems, where tectonic plates slide past one another. Fault systems host the world’s largest earthquakes and are zones of enhanced permeability and fluid flow through the Earth’s crust.

His group will spend the next five years trying to determine the strengths of strike slip fault systems in the middle to lower crust.

“This study will constrain the strengths of rocks deforming under elevated pressures and temperatures in the crust at 10 - 30 km depth,” Dr. Phillips said.

“These rocks slowly creep past one another at a relatively consistent rate to accommodate the motion of tectonic plates. Understanding their strengths is important as this slow creep loads the locked portion of tectonic plates at shallower depths which deform suddenly to produce earthquakes.”

Understanding how rocks and minerals deform is critical because it directly controls the evolution of planet Earth; and impacts society by producing earthquakes, modifying landscapes, and forming/trapping mineral and water resources.

Dr. Leila Pakzad, Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering, is receiving a $140,000 Discovery Grant to help address fundamental challenges related to medical inhaler device design.

Effective treatment of respiratory diseases depends on the properties of the aerosol/particles/droplets produced by the inhaler and the drug deposition efficiency in the lungs, which requires understanding drug particle aerodynamic behavior.

Despite advances in inhaler device technology, the efficiency of drugs using inhalers, known as drug deposition efficiency, is only 10 to 50 per cent.

Dr. Pakzad’s research in multiphase (solid/liquid/gas) flow focuses on interactions between solid particles, liquid droplets, and gas bubbles in drug inhalation systems.

“The short term objectives are to understand the mechanisms of multiphase flow during drug aerosol delivery by pressurized meterdose, dry powder, and soft mist inhalers; and to develop computational fluid dynamics models to simulate inhaler mouth throat pathways,” she said.

“The long term objective is to link drug deposition to inhaler design and operation and ultimately to drug deposition efficiency.”

Over the next five years, Dr. Pakzad’s research team will use experimental, numerical, and theoretical methods to address fundamental challenges related to inhaler device design. The team will assess the performance of inhalers, provide guidance to upgrade current designs, and facilitate the design of new devices.

This research will train highly qualified personnel in multiphase flow, drug delivery systems, and advanced computational techniques, supporting future economic development in Canada.

Dr. Andrew P. Dean, Lakehead’s Vice-President, Research and Innovation, congratulated each researcher receiving funding from NSERC and he thanked the agency for its continued support of STEM-based research at Lakehead University.

“Funding from the NSERC Discovery program is so important for our researchers and in particular our Early Career researchers,” Dr. Dean said.

“The list of successful researchers shows once again the incredible diversity of research in Science and Engineering at Lakehead University.” 

In 2020/21, Lakehead University received nearly $2 million in assistance from the Research Support Fund to support the indirect costs of research, which includes costs for supporting the management of intellectual property, research and administration, ethics and regulatory compliance, research resources, and research facilities.

New NSERC Discovery Grant and Research Tools and Instruments Funding 2022

Total funding:  $2,433,766

Discovery Grants (Five-year grants)

• Dr. Thangarajah Akilan, Department of Software Engineering, Towards More Efficient and Accurate Deep Learning Models for Segmentation, Classification, and Tracking, $137,500.*
• Dr. Adam Algar, Department of Biology, Scaling from Organismal Traits to Populations and Species Range Limits, $235,000.
• Dr. Muhammad Asaduzzaman, Department of Computer Science, Supporting Reusability of Online Code Examples, $137,500.*
• Dr. Amir Hossein Azimi, Department of Civil Engineering, Dynamics of Particles and Bubbles in Water and Viscoplastic Flow Mixtures, $130,000.
• Dr. Amanda Diochon, Department of Geology, The Effect of Disturbance on the Biogeochemical Cycling of Carbon in Northern Forest Soils, $125,000.
• Dr. Elshaer Ahmed, Department of Civil Engineering, Climate-resilient Modular Design for Indigenous Housing, $132,500.*
• Dr. Anas Issa, Department of Civil Engineering, Innovative Hybrid Bracing Systems for Enhancing Infrastructure Resilience, $132,500.*
• Dr. Robert Mawhinney, Department of Chemistry, Towards a Universal Molecular Moiety Feature Set from the Topology of the Electron Density, $120,000.
• Dr. Leila Pakzad, Department of Chemical Engineering, Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Multiphase (Solid-Liquid-Gas) Flow: Application to Respiratory Drug Delivery, $140,000.
• Dr. Noah Phillips, Department of Geology, The Strength of Strike-Slip Fault Systems: Constraints from the Rock Record, $142,500.*
• Dr. Amine Trabelsi, Department of Computer Science, Unsupervised Representation Learning and Abstractive Summarization of Stances in Social Media: Towards Explainable Detection Systems for Emerging Rumours, $137,500.*
• Dr. Nicholas Ravanelli, School of Kinesiology, Examining Biophysical and Physiological Factors Modulating Human Temperature Regulation, $157,500.*
• Dr. Francisco Ramos-Pallares, Department of Chemical Engineering, Investigating the Phase Equilibria of Branched Alcohol/Water/Salt Mixtures, $177,500.*
• Dr.  Michael D. Rennie, Department of Biology, Connecting Individual Level Processes to Ecosystem Management and Restoration Efforts, $200,000.

*Including Discovery Launch Supplement.

Discovery Development Grants (Two-year grants)

• Dr. Ehsan Atoofian, Department of Electrical Engineering, Approximate Computing, $30,000.

Research Tools and Instruments (One-year grants)

• Dr. Pedram Fatehi, Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) and Industrial Research Chair in Green Chemicals and Processes, Department of Chemical Engineering, Director, Lakehead University’s Biorefining Research Institute (BRI), , A Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer for Assessing Thermomechanical Characteristics of Advanced Functional Materials, $148,766.
• Dr. Maryam Ebrahimi, Canada Research Chair in Low-Dimensional Nanomaterials (Tier 2), Department of Chemistry, Critical and urgent upgrade to ultrahigh vacuum chamber for growing 2D materials, $150,000.

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at (807) 343-8110 ext. 8372 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 nine faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, 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 2022 World Universities Rankings for the third consecutive year, and the number one university in the world with fewer than 10,000 students in THE’s 2022 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

The Carolina Spring Beauty was one of the flowers that researchers found
had the largest change in peak blooming time.

June 22, 2022 – Thunder Bay, Ont.

A Lakehead University research team has published a paper in the Canadian Field-Naturalist Journal that outlines climate-related changes in 11 early-flowering plants in Northwestern Ontario.

The work was led by Emma Lehmberg, a past Curator of the Claude Garton Herbarium (now a PhD Candidate at Texas A&M University), along with Dr. Michael Rennie, Associate Professor in Biology and Canada Research Chair in Freshwater and Fisheries, and Graydon McKee, a past student in Dr. Rennie’s lab.

The researchers studied field-naturalist observations and herbarium records to show changes in the average timing of flowering in spring plants in the region during a period of regional climate warming.

Using historical weather station data, the researchers found a mean annual air temperature increase from 1878 to 2017 by 1.04 degrees Celsius over the nearly 140-year period.

“Keep in mind that this is an average increase with a lot of variation around it.” Dr. Rennie said.

“For context, the global average over the same time period has increased by about two degrees Celsius. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but because year to year variation is so large, any detectable trend of even this small magnitude over this long of a time period should be of major concern.”

Dr. Rennie said the group’s research showed that climate change in the region is associated with changes in the timing of blooms for some early flowering species. This could interrupt the potential for pollination, which would have direct impacts on each plant’s reproductive success.

“The biggest surprise for me was that the trend in time for all plants was for later blooming – this is opposite what you’d expect under a warming climate,” Dr. Rennie said.

Dr. Rennie and his team then examined the timing of flowering against climate. They measured how much thermal energy accumulates during spring and saw the relationship they expected – more thermal energy accumulation resulted in earlier bloom times.

One thing Dr. Rennie learned was that researchers can’t rely solely on patterns over time to evaluate climate drivers on biological processes.

“There is a lot of variation in weather from year to year, and our data – like many datasets – doesn’t have information for every single year. As a result, how that annual variation from year-to-year lines up with the data that one actually has on biological processes – in our case, timing of spring blooms –  can sometimes lead to patterns over time that aren’t all that meaningful.

“Our paper highlights the importance of looking explicitly at climate variables in these analyses, versus just relying on patterns over time,” he said.  

Their focus was primarily on the peak blooming time – when either field naturalist observations or herbarium collections indicated the greatest number of flowers among several observed specimens in each year.

“Using that metric, the largest changes we saw in our study over time and with climate were in Wood Anemone and Carolina Spring Beauty,” Dr. Rennie said.

Researchers found that some plant species did not show significant changes. The earliest blooming plants, Pussy Willow and Trailing Arbutus, showed no relationships with climate or over time. However, Dr. Rennie said these were also the species with the smallest sample sizes, making formal evaluations more difficult.

Dr. Rennie also points out that this research would not have been possible without accessing Lakehead’s Claude Garton Herbarium and records provided by the Thunder Bay Field Naturalists.

“While the Field Naturalist records were the original inspiration for this work, it became apparent that there was not sufficient data in those records to provide a meaningful analysis,” Dr. Rennie said.

Field naturalist observations were collected from the Thunder Bay Field Naturalists past newsletters, which can be accessed on their website, providing data from 1947 to the 2000s. The collection dates for herbarium vouchers from Lakehead University’s Claude Garton Herbarium ranged from 1932 to the late 1990s.

“The records we secured through the Claude Garton Herbarium at Lakehead increased our number of observations in the study by nearly five times, providing critical additional information.

“This is a great example of being able to use both citizen-based observations from the Field Naturalists with scientific collections from the Claude Garton Herbarium to build the long-term datasets we need to evaluate the impacts of climate change on ecosystems,” Dr. Rennie said.

“I don’t think anyone reporting flowering time to the Field Naturalists in the 1950s or making collections for the herbarium in the 1960s was thinking their contributions might one day help provide insights into the regional effects of climate change.

“It’s often the case that you can’t really understand the value of these sorts of collections until decades after they have been initiated,” Dr. Rennie said.

Kristi Dysievick, Acting Curator of the Claude Garton Herbarium, said this paper addresses an important research question impacting Northwestern Ontario – how climate change is impacting plants.

“Plants, unlike animals, can't get up and search for more suitable conditions so understanding how they're being affected by a warming climate is critical.

“This research by Emma Lehmberg, Dr. Rennie, and Graydon McKee shines a light on what we do here in the herbarium and the importance of historical collections. We can only hope it'll inspire more research on the topic,” she said.

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at (807) 343-8110 ext. 8372 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 nine faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, 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 2022 World Universities Rankings for the third consecutive year, and the number one university in the world with fewer than 10,000 students in THE’s 2022 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

Lakehead Engineering professor Salama Ikki has been selected for the prestigious Nokia Visiting Professorship offered by the Nokia Foundation.

Professor Ikki, a faculty member in Lakehead’s Department of Electrical Engineering, will be a visiting research professor at Aalto University in Espoo, just west of Finland’s capital Helsinki. He will also visit other Finnish universities, as well as various branches of the global technology firm Nokia.

“I am truly honoured to have been chosen for this professorship that will provide an exceptional opportunity to work together with researchers from all over the world on the latest 5G technology,” said Professor Ikki.

Professor Ikki will give lectures to students, academics, and employees on signal processing 5G wireless networks, and take part in collaborative research projects in this field.

“Professor Ikki is a distinguished researcher and innovator. We are thrilled that he has been recognized by the Nokia Foundation, and I know he will make a significant contribution to this rapidly-evolving field of research during his time in Finland,” added Janusz Kozinski, Dean of Lakehead Engineering.

Professor Ikki is only the second Canadian to receive this highly-competitive professorship. He is currently Lakehead University Research Chair in Wireless Communications, where he undertakes research focused on creating a unified theoretical framework that will lead in the application of artificial intelligence to telecommunications systems.

To read department highlights, news about our programs, as well as student and faculty success stories, please visit: https://mailchi.mp/9ca3f3ccaf72/lu-health-sciences-springsummer-2022-new....

June 21, 2022 – Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ont.

Lakehead University has been awarded $205,000 by eCampusOntario as part of the second round of funding of the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities Virtual Learning Strategy (VLS).

Originally announced on December 11, 2020, the VLS is a historic $50 million investment by the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities (MCU) intended to drive growth and advancement in virtual learning across the province’s post-secondary institutions.

The VLS was introduced to expand the possibilities of traditional and life-long learning through the accelerated use of both online and hybrid learning.

To expand capacity of the Teaching Commons, Lakehead has received $150,000 to hire a full and part-time Instructional Designer and Education Media Specialist who will be utilized to support the training of faculty and instructors in online course development.

“These positions will allow the Teaching Commons to develop and deliver a series of focused workshop programs, develop a Faculty Development Passport to support instructors as they seek to improve their practice through formal and informal ways, and to support training on how to create professional development micro-credentials,” said Dr. Rhonda Koster, Deputy Provost and Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning).

Working in collaboration with colleagues at Nipissing, Algoma, and Laurentian Universities, $55,000 has also been awarded to research, build, and report on the impact of supporting faculty, through a reward and recognition process that issues micro-credentials.

“It’s fantastic to work on another project with the Lakehead University Teaching Commons,” said Dr. Patrick Maher, Dean of Teaching at Nipissing University and an alumnus of Lakehead.

“These funds will allow us to continue the ‘better together’ mentality we developed during the pandemic – whereby cooperation and collaboration worked so much better than competition,” Dr. Maher said.

“Through the two rounds of the Virtual Learning Strategy, Lakehead University has been awarded over $950,000 by eCampusOntario to expand its options for traditional and life-long learning through the accelerated use of both online and hybrid learning,” said Dr. Michel S. Beaulieu, Associate Vice-Provost (Academic).

“These new projects further Lakehead’s commitment to providing support for the delivery of high-quality programming that helps develop the leaders and changemakers of the future,” Dr. Beaulieu said.

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at (807) 343-8110 ext. 8372 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 nine faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, 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 2022 World Universities Rankings for the third consecutive year, and the number one university in the world with fewer than 10,000 students in THE's 2022 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.