News

The Kathy Ellis Memorial Book Prize is awarded each year to the first-year oceanography student (Master's or PhD level) who acheives top marks in the core oceanography courses in Dalhousie's program (chemical, physical, biological, and geological). 

Sebastian Haas, a CERC.OCEAN PhD student was awarded this prize after acheiving the top marks amongst his colleagues over the 2015/2016 school year. In addition to his classes, Sebastian is also working on his thesis, focusing on the transformation of nitrogen species (e.g. ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, etc.) under vaiable oxygen conditions (e.g. low or no oxygen areas of the water column).

Here is a very brief synopsis of what Sebastian is studying here at Dalhousie University, and why it is so important:

Global climate change is expected to alter the way nutrients are cycled in the marine environment and increase the areas of the ocean in which oxygen is depleted in the water column. I study the transformation of nitrogen species under variable oxygen conditions occuring naturally in different coastal basins. In particular, I use two contrasting systems as natural laboratories: Powell Lake (British Columbia), a stratified lake with permanently oxygen-free deep water and the much more dynamic Bedford Basin (Nova Scotia), from which weekly samples are analysed in a time-series. Stable isotope analysis of dissolved inorganic nitrogen compounds can reveal the microbial processes responsible for these nitrogen transformations and how they are affected by environmental changes.                                     

To find out more about Sebastian's trip to Powell Lake, you can click HERE. 

To learn more about Kathy Ellis, and the past winners of this prize click HERE.