The Dean's Office Dispatch is the Faculty of Science's weekly e-newsletter sent out to students, faculty and staff. 

Dal Science Spotlight: Dr. Alison Thompson

This week’s Dal Science Spotlight subject is Dr. Alison Thompson, professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Pyrrole Chemistry for Chemical Biology and Energy. Dr. Thompson was nominated by a former student who is now a Dal alum. “Dr. Thompson is a dedicated professor,” the former student says. “She taught me CHEM 2401, Introductory Organic Chemistry, which is often one of the most difficult topics for students to be introduced to. Her lectures are thorough and easy to follow without providing extraneous information. As a supervisor, she was very dedicated in assisting me in my honours project. She helped guide me through a difficult project and provided ample feedback on my written work and oral presentations.”

It's great to hear from students about the impact of a course instructor - thank you for sharing!

The Dal Science Spotlight highlights the contributions of instructors and advisors in the Faculty of Science. Recognize an outstanding instructor or advisor by filling out our nomination form. A new submission will be featured weekly in the Dean’s Office Dispatch.

2023 Summer Research Contest winners

We are thrilled to announce the winning entries from the 2023 Summer Research Contest, which was open to students who received a summer research award. Participants submitted presentations summarizing their research in three minutes or less, demonstrating excellence in creativity, science communication, and knowledge translation.

First place: "The impact of other oriented perfectionism on intimate partner violence" - Trillium Whitewolf, supervised by Dr. Sherry Stewart (Faye Sobey Award).

Second place: "Finding genes to improve crop resilience and mitigate the impact of climate change" - Dona Nelson, supervised by Dr. Sophia Stone (NSERC Award).

Third place (tie): "Detecting vitamin D with nanoparticles" - Ispeeta Ahmed, supervised by Dr. Kevin Hewitt (NSERC Award).

"Characterization of night blindness mutations in mGluR6" - Mustansir Pindwarawala, supervised by Dr. Melina Agosto (NSERC Award).

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who participated. Visit our YouTube channel to view the winning presentations.

Listen to Dr. Erin Bertrand on Sciographies

The fifth episode of the fifth season of the Sciographies podcast features Dr. Erin Bertrand, marine biogeochemist and associate professor in the Department of Biology. Listen to the episode on SoundCloud, YouTube or find it on most podcast apps.

New episodes are released on Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. AST on CKDU 88.1 FM in Halifax as well as on SoundCloud, most podcast apps, and on YouTube. Visit our website to learn more about Sciographies and listen to previous episodes.

Nocturne festival: Deep Ocean Listening

Tune into CKDU 88.1 FM on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 6 p.m. for a sunset to sunrise presentation of the Deep Ocean Listening project from Oceanography associate professor and acoustic oceanographer Dr. David Barclay and sound artist Lindsay Dawn Dobbin. The project documents the Deep Acoustic Lander's descent to and ascent from the deepest part of the world's oceans. Learn more on the Nocturne website and read about the four Dal-linked projects at this year's Nocturne festival.

2023 John Dingle Science Communication Internship

This summer, four undergraduate Science students learned new skills and gained valuable experience through the John Dingle Science Communication Internship program, which was offered for a third year thanks to the generous support of the Dingle family. Read our Dal News story to meet the four interns and find out about what they got up to this summer.

Canadian Career Symposium for grad students and postdocs

Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are invited to take part in the 2023 Canadian Career Symposium from the Graduate and Postdoctoral Development Network, which is being held online from Tuesday, Oct. 24 through Thursday, Oct. 26. Prepare for your future career with presentations on marketing yourself, interview tips, networking strategies and more. Participation is free for Dalhousie University grad students and postdocs. Learn more and register via Eventbrite.

Halifax Universities Career Fair

Students and alumni are invited to attend the Halifax Universities Career Fair on October 24 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Halifax Convention Centre. Learn more and register on the career fair's website.

Fall 2023 seminars: Department of Economics

The Department of Economics holds departmental seminars on Friday afternoons from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. in room 2198 of the Marion McCain Arts and Social Sciences Building. Seminars are open to all interested students, faculty and staff. The next scheduled seminar takes place on Friday, October 13 and features a presentation from Edda Claus of Wilfried Laurier University titled "Purse Strings Versus Heart Strings: Transmission Channels in Economics and Psychology." Learn more and see the fall 2023 schedule on the Economics website.

Multiple choice questions wanted for junior high science contest

The Atlantic Science Links Association (ASLA) is holding its second annual science contest for junior high students in Nova Scotia on December 5. The contest consists of a multiple-choice test featuring questions covering topics in biology, chemistry, geology, and physics. 

A question bank is being created based on submissions from the Dal Science community, in particular instructors of those four subject areas. For more information, please see this post on the Faculty of Science myDal site (login required) or contact ASLA@Dal.ca. 

Would you like to make a submission to the Dean's Office Dispatch? Email communications.science@dal.ca with a brief summary of your notice, a supporting link or email address, and a photo/image if you have one.