PEOPLE Newsletter – September 29, 2021
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
September 30, 2021 marks the first National Truth and Reconciliation Day. The day honours the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families, and communities. We encourage you to listen, learn, and reflect.
A list of opportunities available to the general public: https://nctr.ca/education/trw/general-public-schedule/
The schedule for educators: https://nctr.ca/education/trw/educator-schedule/
PEOPLE & Partner Events
Multi-Partner Research Initiative (MPRI) Student Research Forum 2021 Successfully Held
The Multi-Partner Research Initiative (MPRI) Student Research Forum 2021 was held on September 23-24. In the collaboration with the MPRI program team, Concordia University hosted this virtual event. The forum aimed to provide an opportunity to spotlight student projects and achievements under the MPRI program. There were 39 presenters and over 130 attendees from more than 40 international organizations. The students and young professionals shared their research with other researchers and the wider oil spill response community.
For more details, please visit https://sites.events.concordia.ca/sites/mpri/en/mpri-student-research-forum-2021
First Virtual Atlantic and Eastern Canadian Symposium on Water Quality Research, November 1-3
The symposium is co-hosted by the Canadian Association on Water Quality (CAWQ), PEOPLE Network, and CREATE-TEDGIEER, receiving 61 abstract submissions from 22 institutions. We are delighted to introduce the symposium chairs, keynote speakers, and the organizing committee (alphabetical order):
Symposium Chairs:
Dr. Bing Chen
Professor, Memorial University; Director, Network on Persistent, Emerging, and Organic PoLlution in the Environment (PEOPLE Network)
Dr. Patrick Drogui
Professor, Institut national de recherche scientifique (INRS-ETE); Director, CREATE- TEDGIEER Program
Dr. Banu Örmeci
Professor, Carleton University; Director, Global Water Institute (GWI)
Keynote speakers:
Dr. Pascale Champagne
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering & Chemical Engineering, Queen’s University; Director, Research and Academic Affairs at INRS; Director, Beaty Water Research Centre; Director, Contaminants of Emerging Concern Research Excellence Network (CEC-REN)
Keynote speech: A 10,000-ton Algal Liver: Genetic Engineering for Improved Wastewater
Dr. Joan Rose
Professor & Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research; Departments of Fisheries & Wildlife and Plant, Soil and Microbiological Science; Michigan State University, USA; IWA Journal Editor, IWA Board Member
Organizing committee:
Dr. Stephanie Guilherme (University of Ottawa)
Dr. Tahir Husain (Memorial University)
Dr. Abid Hussain (Carleton University)
Dr. Yeowon Kim (Carleton University)
Dr. Chris Kinsley (University of Ottawa)
Dr. Lei Liu (Dalhousie University)
Dr. Shoeleh Shams (Carleton University)
Dr. Kripa Singh (University of New Brunswick)
Dr. Cole Van De Ven (Carleton University)
Dr. Thomas Walker (Carleton University)
Dr. Xander Wang (University of Prince Edward Island)
Dr. Helen Zhang (Memorial University)
More information at the symposium websites:
CAWQ: https://www.cawq.ca/en/1vae/ (English) https://www.cawq.ca/fr/1vae/ (French)
NORMAN WG-1 Meeting on “Prioritisation of emerging substances”
NORMAN Working Group 1 virtually met on September 27. An important part of the meeting was dedicated to the new prioritisation workflow on suspect screening data and the results of a test run conducted on wastewater monitoring data. The group also discussed the work plan of WG-1 for the Joint Programme of Activities for 2022.
PEOPLE HQP News
Dr. Weiyun Lin awarded CSCE 2021 National Young Professional Engineer Award
PEOPLE coordinator Dr. Weiyun Lin received the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) 2021 National Young Professional Engineer Award. The award is given annually to a recipient who has demonstrated outstanding accomplishments as a young professional engineer.
Xixi Li won Oral Presentation Award at IUPAC/CCCE Virtual Conference
NRPOP Ph.D. candidate Xixi Li (Memorial University) won second place in the oral presentation “General and Emerging Topics” theme at the IUPAC/CCCE 2021 Virtual Conference.
Open Application
OFI Sponsors Two Students to Spend a Semester at Sea
Ocean Frontier Institute will sponsor two students to spend a semester at sea in 2022. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is open to students from Dalhousie University & Memorial University.
Apply by September 30, 2021
More information:
https://oceanfrontierinstitute.com/expedition-2022%C2%A0
Assistant or Associate Professor, Environmental Geochemistry, Queen’s University
The successful candidate will be jointly appointed between the Department of Geological Science and Geological Engineering and the School of Environmental Studies with teaching and student supervision in both units. Their research program will address important questions related to the quantity, distribution and fate of organic and inorganic pollutants at the Earth’s surface and within the broader biosphere.
Apply by September 30, 2021
Full details of the position: https://www.queensu.ca/ensc/careers/job-opportunities
Featured Publications from PEOPLE Members
Xu, L., Han, L., Li, J., Zhang, H., Jones, K., & Xu, E. G. (2021). Missing relationship between meso-and microplastics in adjacent soils and sediments. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 127234.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127234
Highlights: Lands and oceans are both thought to be sinks of meso- and microplastics (MMPs) but little is known about the relationship of MMPs in between the naturally interlinked aquatic and terrestrial environments. It is the first large-scale field study to explore the potential association between aquatic sediment MMPs and soil MMPs in the surrounding terrestrial environments. Comprehensive results based on our adjacent sampling design show no clear relationship between the sediment and soil MMPs, suggesting low MMP transfer between the two environmental compartments and/or high heterogeneity of the contamination sources.
Kang, Q., Song, X., Xin, X., Chen, B., Chen, Y., Ye, X., & Zhang, B. (2021). Machine Learning-Aided Causal Inference Framework for Environmental Data Analysis: A COVID-19 Case Study. Environmental Science & Technology.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.1c02204
Highlights: Links between environmental conditions and COVID-19 severity have been reported worldwide. However, the existing frameworks of data analysis are insufficient to investigate the potential causality behind the associations. Thus, we proposed a causal inference framework equipped with the Structural Causal Model aided by machine learning methods to examine the potential causal relationships between COVID-19 severity and ten environmental factors in 166 Chinese cities. Most of the potential causal relationships were refuted. The results indicate that the environmental factors are unlikely to cause noticeable aggravation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hu, J., Luo, J., Zhu, Z., Chen, B., Ye, X., Zhu, P., & Zhang, B. (2021). Multi-Scale Biosurfactant Production by Bacillus subtilis Using Tuna Fish Waste as Substrate. Catalysts, 11(4), 456.
https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11040456
NRPOP Lab (Memorial University) Research article “Multi-scale Biosurfactant Production by Bacillus subtilis Using Tuna Fish Waste as Substrate” was selected as Editor’s Choice Articles in Catalysts (MDPI publication).
If you have news, events, publications, and grant opportunities that are aligned with PEOPLE, please feel free to share the information with peoplenetwork@mun.ca.
