Recognizing impactful research: Introducing Dal’s newest Doctoral Thesis Award winners

Dalhousie's Faculty of Graduate Studies has announced the winners of the 2022 Dalhousie Doctoral Thesis Awards. Doctoral graduates Susan Manning (Political Science) and J. Scott McCain (Biology) were this year’s recipients in their respective categories (Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for Dr. Manning and Engineering, Medical Sciences and Natural Sciences for Dr. McCain).

In her thesis, Dr. Manning explored how the concerns of members of marginalized communities are considered during the impact assessment process for mines and dams in Northern Canada. Her supervisors were David Black and Deborah Stienstra.

In his thesis, Dr. McCain studied microbes in the ocean and the role they play in how the earth works. His supervisor was Erin Bertrand.

For more than 25 years, Dalhousie Doctoral Thesis Awards have been given out to recognize the best theses submitted by PhD students in the calendar year. Drs. Manning and McCain will also be Dalhousie’s nominees in their respective categories for the CAGS-ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award, which will be given out later this year by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS).

We got in touch with both winners to learn more about their research and where it has taken them.

Susan Manning, Political Science PhD (’21)

How does it feel to win the doctoral thesis award?

I am very honoured to win the doctoral thesis award and have my work over the past five years recognized in this way. I’m very grateful for the support of my supervisors, committee members and friends within the Political Science PhD program during the dissertation writing and defence process.  

Can you briefly summarize your doctoral thesis?

My thesis explores the extent to which the concerns and experiences of marginalized members of communities (including women and girls, Indigenous people, people with disabilities and people living on low incomes) are taken into account in the impact assessment (IA) process for mines and dams in Northern Canada. I argue that structural and systemic inequities exist within IA processes and policy frameworks that often prevent both the participation of marginalized members of Northern communities and the recognition of their concerns within the IA process. These inequities emerge from unequal relationships of power between communities and the state, communities and the proponent, and within communities themselves, which shape community impacts from resource projects, but are also reproduced in the IA process.

What impact do you hope to make with your research?

I hope that my research contributes to positive changes with federal, provincial, and territorial impact assessment processes for resource development projects to allow community concerns to be better recognized and addressed during the assessment phase of resource projects.

What are you doing now?

I’m working for the Canadian Coast Guard Arctic Region as a Diversity Analyst. In this role, I lead all the diversity and inclusion initiatives for the region and provide training to Coast Guard personnel to ensure our delivery of programs and services to Arctic communities respects the diversity of communities and the unique cultures and context of the North.

J. Scott McCain, Biology PhD (’21)

How does it feel to win the doctoral thesis award?

I feel humbled to have been awarded this! I also feel very lucky -- I generally think most success is because of luck at some level. I know so many of the other doctoral theses in the Department of Biology were stellar, so I hope I can represent them!

Can you briefly summarize your doctoral thesis?

I studied microbes in the ocean: what they do, why, and how. Microbes play a huge role in how the earth works: they recycle nutrients, sequester carbon, and produce oxygen. My work had two prongs. The first was developing computational and mathematical methods to interpret data from complex microbial communities in the ocean. I was specifically interested in 'proteomic' data, which characterizes different molecular machines (proteins) across different microbial species. The second prong was using these data to study how protein production by microbes affects large scale oceanographic processes, like biogeochemical cycles.

What impact do you hope to make with your research?

I hope to make a small dent in our understanding of the complex ecosystems on earth. I believe basic research can have large, unexpected benefits for society, but that wasn't explicitly my goal. Another major goal of mine is making science accessible and getting people excited about science.

What are you doing now?

I just started a postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with Dr. Gene-Wei Li in the Department of Biology. I'm still studying microbes, but instead using a new set of tools!