Spotlight on Graduate Research

Dave YurkowskiPhD student Dave Yurkowski pulls a ringed seal into a boat in Resolute Bay, Nunavut.

Grad student travels to Arctic to study ringed seals

Mention seals to most Canadians and chances are their minds will immediately jump to the variety of harp seals that are controversially hunted on the east coast.

But the lesser known ringed seals are just as important to Canada’s Arctic, and a PhD student in the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research is devoting his research to studying their behaviour and how it may be changing as a result of climate change in the north.

Xiaomin LuXiaomin Lu works on one of her experiments on her recent trip to India.

Studying in Windsor pays off for PhD student

Coming to Windsor might have been the best move ever for a young Chinese engineering graduate student who’s trying to improve the performance of hybrid electric vehicles.

“It’s been really good for me,” said Xiaomin Lu, a PhD student who will soon return to Windsor after a productive six-week trip to India to conduct more research. “If I had stayed in China, I never would have had the opportunity to experience so much.”

New PhD students in HKHuman kinetics recently launched a new PhD program and the first cohort of students are beginning their research programs. From left are Kristy Smith, Matthieu Hoffman, Michelle Guerrero and Kelly Carr.

Community focused PhD program launched in HK

Human kinetics has a brand new community-based PhD program and the first cohort of students say they’re thrilled.
John Murray, Suzanne Ali and Michael HattenGrad students John Murray, left, Suzanne Ali and Michael Hatten conducted research to learn more about how varsity football players' knowledge and attitudes about concussions influenced their behaviour.

Football players may disregard concussion consequences, student researchers find

Despite being aware of the long-term consequences of concussions, some football players are willing to continue participating because they’re able to rationalize putting their sport ahead of themselves.

Those were among the findings of a trio of first-year masters students in kinesiology who presented their work yesterday, the final day for their research methods course.

Justin Mychek-LonderJustin Mychek-Londer is shown here on the banks of the Detroit River. He's one of nine graduate students who received scholarships from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Protecting water resources aim of Trillium scholarship winner

Armed with a new scholarship, a graduate student in the university’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research is trying to make the world a better place by protecting our water from invasive species.
Dusty JohnstoneDusty Johnstone's research involved interviewing 10 women who had been sexually assaulted but didn't label their experience as such.

Acknowledging sexual assault focus of PhD thesis

Even though by the letter of the law they may have been sexually assaulted, an alarming number of women don’t label what happened to them as sexual assault or rape, according to Dusty Johnstone.

A post-doctoral teaching fellow in Women’s Studies, Dr. Johnstone recently defended her 250-page PhD dissertation, a qualitative study based on interviews of 10 women who technically had been sexually assaulted, but didn’t label their experiences as such.