News

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Stefanie Columbo, Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair, Aquaculture Nutrition (Tier II).  Dr. Columbo received her BSc. at the University of Guelph; she completed her MSc. at Dalhousie University and her PhD at Memorial University in Newfoundland.  She did her Post Doc at Ryerson University in Toronto.  Dr. Colombo’s research interests are in the areas of Aquaculture nutrition and production; Lipids and fatty acids; Environmentally sustainable feeds; Fatty acid biosynthesis in fish; Nutrigenomic; Impact of climate change on nutrient availability and metabolism in aquaculture/ecosystems and Farmed seafood nutritional quality.  She notes that her overall goal in her research is to discover novel solutions in nutrition to improve aquaculture and contribute toward healthier, environmentally sustainable and economically viable farmed seafood. Her particular interest is in understanding the mechanisms of fatty acid biosynthesis in fish in order to increase tissue storage of essential fatty acids, for optimal fish health and for human consumption.

Dr. Colombo’s office is in the Haley Institute and she can be reached at scolombo@dal.ca.

We are also pleased to welcome Dr. Stephanie Collins, Assistant Professor, Monogastric Nutrition.  Dr. Collins received her BSA, Animal Science and MSc. Animal Science and her PhD, Animal Science from the University of Saskatchewan.  She completed her Post Doctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University, Faculty of Agriculture and Cape Breton University. 

Dr. Collins’ main research interests include animal nutrition, poultry nutrition, carnivore nutrition, domestic animal nutrition, insects as food and feed, waste reduction and redirection, anti-nutrients and Novel feed ingredients. Her interests lie in investigating animal feed and feed ingredients in order to reduce metabolic disturbances, thus achieving optimal health and performance. Ensuring a nutritious, sustainable source of food for present and future generations of humans and animals is important to her. To do this, readily available and affordable feed ingredients in conjunction with sound scientific information on how these feed ingredients affect animal health and performance are required. Dr. Collins’ research and teaching is conducted with an ultimate goal of Feeding the World, which, to her, includes: Feeding our People, Feeding our Resources, Feeding our Food, Feeding our Clothing, and Feeding those who Cannot Feed Themselves.

Dr. Collins’ office is in the Haley Institute and she can be reached at s.collins@dal.ca

The Department welcomes two new Post Doctorate Fellows:

Dr. Karim Karimi; Dr. Karimi is from a lovely city in Iran called Shiraz. He is working on a project titled “Application of genomics to improve performance traits in mink” in association with Dr. Younes Miar. The main objective of this project is to develop tools required to implement genomic selection in Nova Scotia mink. Dr. Karimi completed his Ph.D. in Animal Breeding and Genetics at Kerman University of Iran. Much of his work has been on the genetic diversity, population structure and CNV analysis in Iranian native cattle. His research interests lie on the area of Population Genomics, Genomic Selection and GWAS in domestic animals.

Dr. Mohammad Nasif Sarowar, ’Nasif’ began June 5, 2017 as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Animal Science and Aquaculture, working with Dr. Jim Duston. He is working on understanding the pathogen diversity of fungal diseases of salmonids in Aquaculture in Nova Scotia using molecular techniques. He is also exploring the host-pathogen interactions to unveil a sustainable prevention and control measures for saprolegniosis, a multi-million dollar problem in salmonid aquaculture. The three-year project is funded by the NS Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture. He has published a number of peer reviewed articles as well as a book chapter. Previously, Dr. Sarowar taught at the Bangladesh Agricultural University in Bangladesh having completing his PhD from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland in 2014. His hobbies include music, singing, cooking and photography. He loves meeting people and helping others. He has a lovely family, wife Shibly and an energetic three-year old son Awsaf. They are greatly enjoying Nova Scotia.