While Dr. Michel Bédard acknowledges that driving is intimately linked to independence and quality of life, he believes car crashes to be largely preventable events.

A Canada Research Chair in Aging and Health, Dr. Bédard contributes significantly to street safety through his additional role as the director of the Center for Research on Safe Driving. His current research efforts examine the factors that enhance or impair safe driving, evaluate the approaches used to determine whether an individual is safe to drive, and support older adults who make the transition to non-driver status.

To prevent crashes, he also advocates for the adoption of population health practices over approaches which only focus on high-risk individuals. "I believe these practices hold more potential to prevent undesirable events... for example, if we could convince all drivers to drive slower, I think we would save more lives than we would by only focusing on extreme speeders."

Dr. Bédard has presented his findings around the globe, speaking to crowds in Japan, Australia, Israel, and Sweden. He also passes on his expertise in the field to his students in the Department of Health Sciences (and Psychology where he holds Internal Adjunct status), most of which are working on projects related to crash prevention. One student recently finished a dissertation on the association between personality attributes and driving performance across the lifespan.

Throughout their studies, after which several go on to work as clinicians or in research, Dr. Bédard makes an effort to serve as a mentor as well as a supervisor. "I like to help students navigate graduate studies and be prepared for the career they're aiming for."

He explains that many of the other faculty within the department are likewise committed and provide a dynamic graduate experience to students from an array of backgrounds. Students also have the opportunity to pursue a diverse line of projects which will be further enhanced in September of 2012 with the introduction of the new master's in health sciences.

Dr. Bédard adds that the students who complete their public health studies online also receive top-notch instruction and commends Lakehead for its excellence in online learning. "Typically, individuals cannot enhance their skills unless a brick and mortar university campus is nearby. We have successfully broken this barrier."

Jennifer Holm is on a mission to research and implement effective problem solving in the classroom.

Currently pursuing her doctorate with a focus on mathematical education, Holm is working with local teachers to develop techniques that will better enable students to learn math.

Holm is no stranger to the field; in fact, she herself was an elementary-level math teacher for six years. As such, she came into graduate studies with more than a few ideas of what did and did not work in mathematical instruction. However, she reflects that this higher education has opened her eyes to new possibilities and strategies that will certainly supplement her pedagogy. She found a mathematics research class at the masters' level to be particularly informative: "It really reinforced some of my own ideas and inspired me with new ones that made a lot of sense, but which I had never experienced."

Through her program, Holm has also been invited to collaborate on some fascinating research initiatives. She worked closely with her supervisor on a project for CRYSTAL (Centre for Research in Youth, Science, Teaching, and Learning) which examined the mathematical knowledge of voluntary teachers and tracked their progress in knowledge and teaching performance. Through her participation, she had ample opportunities to present, travel, and collaborate on publications. She also had the opportunity to participate in an AERA conference (American Educational Research Association) in San Diego and work with educators and mathematicians at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences.

Holm has found the opportunities in her program to be phenomenal. In particular, the generous funding allotted for conferences has allowed her to stay current in her field and enhance her presentation skills. However, Holm has found that the best resource Lakehead has to offer is the faculty and staff:

"Their knowledge and support has been immeasurable for allowing my growth in the field of teaching and research."

To Dr. Aicheng Chen, Canada Research Chair in Materials and Environmental Chemistry, the green applications of chemistry are truly endless.

From employing nanomaterials to clean up organic pollutants to producing green fuels through biorefinery to developing electrochemical tools for wastewater analysis and treatment, Dr. Chen has been a true catalyst for a series of incredible advances in his field, particularly with regards to innovative environmental applications.

To carry out this rash of research initiatives, Dr. Chen has established an active research team, which employs the diverse talents of promising students throughout the MSc in Chemistry, MSc in Environmental Engineering, PhD in Chemistry and Materials Science, and PhD in Biotechnology programs. These students have played a dynamic role in several of their supervisor's major undertakings including the development of various nanomaterials and their employment in a wide range of applications from fuel cell fabrication to wastewater remediation.

As well, students were highly involved in Dr. Chen's research on lignin development through which they endeavored to convert the by-products of pulp and paper industries into value-added projects. With a number of mills in Ontario facing closure, this research strategy has the potential to provide a significant boost to the industry, allowing mills to stay competitive.

Dr. Chen even collectively applied for patent protection with his students and postdoctoral fellows, after they successfully developed a unique electrochemical glucose sensor. They believe their innovation, which can be used to monitor and treat diabetes, will prove attractive to the multi-billion dollar glucose monitor industry and used to benefit health care on a large scale.

Besides participating in the lab work, students on the Chen Research Team are also actively involved in publishing journal articles, conference papers, and reports. Dr. Chen emphasizes the importance of graduates "getting their feet wet" in major projects so they may grow to be competitive and independent scientists. For graduates looking to plunge into green, groundbreaking research with electrifying results, Lakehead is the place to be.

From investigating controversies around sexual responsibility and the promotion of the HPV vaccination to examining women's wartime work experiences, Dr. Pamela Wakewich has pursued a wide range of projects related to gender, health, and the body.

"What links my work is an interest in the everyday experiences of health and embodiment and how they are socially shaped and located."

A professor in the sociology and women's studies departments, Dr. Wakewich is also the site director for the Ontario Health Services and Policy Research diploma program and a cross appointment in the Human Sciences Division of NOSM - the region's medical school.

Aside from these administrative responsibilities, she has many projects in progress. To name a few, she's currently exploring the potential of innovative methods like PhotoVoice to express perceptions and experiences of health and investigating how young people in particular are responding to the aggressive public health campaigns for the HPV vaccine.

She is also examining women's work, lived experiences, and identities throughout World War II and the contradictory images produced at this time, which communicated a need for women to be highly productive in the labour force while continuing to fulfill domestic responsibilities and maintain a traditional gender order for the postwar era.

Her students have likewise explored an array of gender and health topics including men's decision-making around vasectomies, young people's decision making about dual contraceptive use, the Millennium Development Goals, and immigrant women's experiences of menopause.

Most have gone on to occupy various niches in academia and community learning and health. A former student is teaching sociology in Ghana and has recently introduced her university's first gender studies course. Another landed work at a community family resource centre in southern Ontario working primarily with immigrant and refugee women and a third is a project officer at University of Toronto.

Recipient of the 2011 Lakehead University Distinguished Instructor Award, Dr. Wakewich is a highly dedicated professor even with her many research callings. She offers her students ongoing support and encourages them to always "think about things in a very innovative and interwoven way".

"In health, there are so many perspectives to consider before you can begin to understand the whole picture."

Already well-qualified for the nation's most in-demand job, Mike Rioux is pretty optimistic about the future. Completing his master's in computer science in a world where "everything is computers", he can see himself going on to a number of exciting, and very well-paid, careers.

"If you're a graduate in computer science, the world is truly your oyster. It's the most in-demand job right now and there are tons of entry level jobs with close to 6 figure salaries."

Now nearing the end of his first year in graduate studies, Rioux is grateful for the support of his professors, who have continued to provide considerable guidance and encouragement from his undergrad. He adds that rather than being pressured to take on a project, he was essentially asked what he wanted to learn.

"As a teaching assistant, I continue to sing the praises of Lakehead!" he exclaims.

In fact Rioux's had such a positive experience that he was inspired to develop a Lakehead app, which places "all the functionalities of the university in the palm of your hand". Rioux has incorporated several features to assist both new and current students, including a Google map which lists major points of interests and provides a 3D tour, a site where students can browse and buy textbooks at the Lakehead Book Store, and an information page about the Outpost pub. He hopes to further develop this innovation through his graduate project.

At present, Rioux is looking forward to his 16-month co-op for IBM in Markham, which means handsomely-paid employment at one of the companies he'd love to work for. He describes his "dream job" as a position with one of the computer giants like Google or designing video games within the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry.

"I remember from the point I started playing video games as a kid, I wanted to be the guy who make these and make people happy."

According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, approximately 3 million Canadians will experience depression at some point in their lifetime. Despite its frequency, this condition, and mental illness in general, continues to be regarded with fear and uncertainty. In the face of incredible stigma, persons with depression may be deterred from seeking the help they need, even as their symptoms exacerbate.

Clinical psychology student Greg Tippin is currently examining this stigmatization and the impact it has on those seeking and undergoing treatment for depression. As mental illness continues to be widely misunderstood, such research has great potential to inform and educate society and subsequently further the acceptance of persons with mental disorders.

Tippin has also opted to research interprofessional efforts in the treatment of psychopathology. At present, his team is in the process of collecting information from a local outpatient program that has used the interprofessional care model for several years.

"While there has been a strong push for the use of interprofessional care in the provision of health services, there is little research investigating its impact on client outcomes." As such, Tippin hopes to shed some light on the efficacy of this care model in mental health practice.

At Lakehead, Tippin has enjoyed the freedom of exploring the issues in psychology that pique his interest - and the many opportunities to share his findings. He was recently funded to travel to Toronto and present at the annual Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) Conference and is looking forward to attending the next in Halifax. Tippin adds that Lakehead's clinical psychology program is fully accredited by the CPA and provides an excellent balance of science and practice, an essential blend for aspiring psychologists.

Planning to vie for a PhD following graduation, Tippin eventually hopes to practice in a health care setting. He's found his field to be highly rewarding and looks forward to furthering the well-being of others as a professional.

"I've always wanted to be part of a profession that helps people."

Patrick Gauthier is putting one of Canada's most profitable industries under the microscope.

Using a freshwater invertebrate as a sentinel species, he's assessing the environmental risk associated with mixtures of metal and organic oil sands contaminants.

His task isn't an easy one. "Oil breaks into 1000s if not 100 000s of organic contaminants." He adds that these compounds are very susceptible to change and consequently, quite a struggle to identify. "There are lots of unknowns and the area is largely understudied. In fact, we really don't know what's out there."

Gauthier is starting small, currently looking at only two organic compounds-but his research is already starting to ask some pretty big questions. "Some of the properties have led myself and my supervisors to believe that the contaminants are interacting with the environment in a way that you wouldn't expect." As such, he's trying to determine whether they pose danger to the environment and to what degree.

Although Gauthier's project is strongly biologically-based, he is in fact a PhD candidate in forest sciences. He explains that while the fieldwork experiences in his undergrad prompted his continuation in forestry, he stayed for the extensive interdisciplinary opportunities.

While Gauthier admits that aquatic science was originally a little "outside his comfort zone", the support he's received from his dedicated supervisors has made the transition a smooth one. In addition, he believes that interdisciplinary research endeavours are critical to the advancement of science - and very attractive in the eyes of potential funders.

"It's no longer a successful strategy to be contained within your own bubble of focus. I think with budgets decreasing, agencies are inclined to support interdisciplinary research projects because it allows them to fund multiple groups and specializations for the price of one."

Gauthier adds that such an approach has allowed him to begin exploring research territory that's largely uncharted. "My research spans four different disciplines. Although, I wouldn't consider myself an expert in any one of them, this strategy has given me the opportunity to look at something that's very complicated, very important, and very mysterious in terms of what we know at present."

Dr. David Richards studies people at work. Drawing on theories from social psychology, the Lakehead business professor is able to analyze interpersonal work relationships and how they impact employees, management, and organizations at large.

His research interests fall under the umbrella of organizational behaviour and include topics such as attachment theory at work, leader-subordinate relationships, citizenship behaviours, self-determination, and ethics. Aside from this major focus, Dr. Richards is also working with a colleague to explore the meaning of work, as defined by employees, and collaborating on projects for the Lakehead University Centre for Health Care Ethics and the Centre for Education and Research on Aging & Health (CERAH).

Coincidentally, Dr. Richard's current studies have largely been informed and motivated by his own work experiences. After completing undergraduate degrees in psychology and gerontology and graduate degrees in social work and business administration, he gained extensive clinical and management knowledge through work terms in long-term care, mental health, and hospital management. "These experiences taught me that we have an opportunity to learn about interpersonal dynamics at work from understanding human behaviour in other social contexts."

While he pursues this opportunity with a passion, Dr. Richards acknowledges that a part of his job which he enjoys the most is supervising students. "I value the opportunity to have interesting and meaningful discussions with graduate students as they develop their research ideas."

He adds that following their studies, Lakehead business graduates find work all over the world. While a few of his students have found employment with the federal government and Lakehead University, several graduates have been accepted into PhD programs as well as law and medical school.

What's their key to success? Dr. Richards explains that business students flourish in the small classes with professors they have regular access to. "Lakehead grad students are provided not only with the opportunity to develop scholarly and research skills, but also practical management skills they can take into the real world."

Dr. Kam Yu is an expert on what is arguably the most complicated number in our economy.

Specializing in index number theory, Dr. Yu has spent a large chunk of his career analyzing the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the aggregate of all price changes and a general indicator of how expensive things are in Canada.

The derivation of CPI is understandably a very complicated procedure. But Dr. Yu has long been an expert on the subject and was even supervised by a global leader in index number theory as a PhD student. While pursuing his doctorate, he enjoyed employment as an economist for Statistics Canada where he was able to put his extensive knowledge into play. As there remain several practical and theoretical problems in the discipline, Dr. Yu hopes that his life's work will contribute towards their resolve.

Aside from index number theory, Dr. Yu has pursued many diverse projects. To name a few, he's analyzed the behaviours of blackjack players, examined prepackaged software prices, and explored a new approach to measure health output.

"There's a certain attraction to economics," reflects Dr. Yu. "It can be used quite effectively to explore and solve many human problems."

And this blend of mathematics and the humanities has proven to be quite employable as Lakehead graduates are scooped up by all levels of government and various industries including Statistics Canada, the Department of Finance, the Bank of Canada, the Ministry for Natural Resources, and human resource agencies.

Dr. Yu describes the economics graduate program as "high-quality and value-added", offering intensive training in a supportive community. In particular, the department plays a special role for many international students. "We train them well so they're able to familiarize themselves with Canada's system and go on to get good jobs."

He adds, "In the end, it's not about whether our department ranks first in Canada, it's the impact we have on our students."

Dr. Matthew Boyd studies 10,000-year old suppers.

An archaeologist who broadly researches human-environmental interactions, Dr. Boyd is particularly interested in the evolution of the traditional wild rice economy and food production systems in the ancient boreal subarctic.

By digesting the plant residues found on pottery shards in acid, he is able to piece together the diet of the first peoples to inhabit this region, the Paleoamericans. A particularly exciting find of his research was the discovery of maize and other cultivated foods 1000 years prior to European contact. Discovered on shards that had settled far up north, these results suggest that the growth of domesticated plants in the region was more extensive than previously believed.

Dr. Boyd is also actively involved in reconstructing the history of large Pleistocene (Ice Age) lakes and their impacts on vegetation, climate, and early Aboriginal societies. Having had an opportunity to work on archaeological sites from the North American Rockies to Anatolia, he reflects on the enticement of travelling to often remote and foreign locations and "immersing yourself" in the remains of ancient societies. "One of the reasons that I love archaeology is due to the tangible, experiential, nature of discovery in this discipline."

Dr. Boyd is proud of the accomplishments of his graduate students and their successes both during and after their studies. "I've had the good fortune to work with several excellent students, all of whom have made or are making significant contributions to Canadian archaeology." These achievements have introduced novel insight into several lines of research including the history of cultivated plants in ancient North America and the early and middle Holocene environmental history of the Lake Superior basin. Following graduation, his students have continued their archaeological careers in both the public and private sectors, finding employment with universities and Cultural Resource Management.

Dr. Boyd adds that Lakehead's MES program accommodates so many disciplines and research interests, students intent on exploring human-environmental interactions in the North are sure to find an area of study that piques their passion. "Our diverse faculty includes internationally-recognized experts in the archaeology, biogeography, climatology, cultural geography, and history of Northern Canada."