Windsor is a “really great” place to conduct environmental research, says the University’s first recipient of a national fellowship meant to support Canada’s top postdoctoral researchers.

Melissa McKinney works under the supervision of professor Aaron Fisk at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research. Her work involves the interrelationships of climate change and contaminants in the Canadian Arctic.

“With global warming, we are seeing a shift in prey fish populations from arctic- to subarctic-type species,” Dr. McKinney says. “Instead of Arctic cod, now there is more capelin.”

She is working with communities in the north to collect specimens, which are then tested for relative levels of nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids and contaminants, like mercury and organic pollutants. The species she is studying are food sources for predators, including larger fish, seabirds, seals and whales.

McKinney is focusing on the impact on two marine mammals with cultural and economic importance to northern communities: ringed seal and beluga whale. She hopes her project will assist Inuit in making informed choices with regard to local food consumption. 

“If we know what is going on, it helps people to adapt to the risks of climate change,” she says.

The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship provides an annual award of $70,000 for a two-year term. McKinney was one of 70 recipients for the 2014/15 period, announced Thursday by Ed Holder, minister of state for science and technology.

She says she welcomed the chance to return to Windsor to work with Dr. Fisk—having completed a Master’s degree at GLIER in 2004 before pursuing doctoral studies at Carleton University’s National Wildlife Research Centre.

“The University has been very supportive, and that synergy with my project helped me to win this fellowship,” McKinney says. “It presents a wonderful opportunity to work with high-calibre researchers.”

UWindsor vice-president research and innovation, K.W. Michael Siu, said he is delighted that McKinney has been honoured with this prestigious fellowship.

“Dr. McKinney is an outstanding emerging researcher whose innovative work is addressing the University of Windsor’s grand challenges to advance understanding of viable, healthy and safe communities and healthy Great Lakes,” he said.

The service desk in the Leddy Library provides a welcome to patrons as they enter the building, say students who like the new look.

“I like it,” said Jallandra Robinson-Warden, a second-year sociology and criminology major, as she took in the renovations. “It looks more sophisticated.”

Her friend Liz Hesley, a second-year psychology student, called the layout professional and approachable.

“It gives the library a whole new edge,” she said.

The new design is intended as a “one-stop” solution for library users. It combines reference, circulation and information technology assistance.

A UWindsor archivist had a “horrifying” revelation while researching internment camps Canada set up at the start of the First World War—a personal connection for him.

“I realized that a swimming pool I had swum in as a child at the Cave and Basin in Banff National Park was built by the slave labour of these Ukrainian Canadians,” says Brian Owens.

Dr. Owens was looking into Canada’s internment of people with Austro-Hungarian passports under the 1914 War Measures Act in preparation for commemorations of its 100th anniversary.

Windsor’s Serbian Heritage Museum is part of a national effort to bring attention to this almost-forgotten part of Canadian history. It will unveil a commemorative plaque on Friday, August 22: one of 100 to be displayed in locations across the country. The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation is coordinating their installation in public venues such including churches and cultural centres dedicated to Ukrainian, Serbian, Croatian, German and Hungarian communities.

Anne Dube, administrative assistant in the Centre for Smart Community Innovation, is of Serbian heritage and has been active in local organizations for more than 40 years. She serves on the museum’s board and invited Owen to help develop an exhibit on the WWI internments.

“About 8.600 men, women and children were designated enemy aliens and interned in camps in Canada’s hinterlands,” Dube says. “I knew absolutely nothing about it until it was brought to my attention.”

She says it is important for people to understand their human rights can disappear overnight with the stroke of a pen: “We have to remain vigilant in defense of our civil liberties.”

The exhibit, which will remain on display until December, will focus on the internment of Ukrainian- and Serbian-Canadians and the subsequent development of civil liberties in this country.

Friday’s event will include the screening of the film Freedom Had a Price as well as tours of the museum, located at 6770 Tecumseh Road East. It is open to the public and begins at 10:40 a.m.

Construction work on the Welcome Centre will shut down campus provision of hot water on Saturday and Sunday, reports Facility Services.

The shutdown will begin at 12:01 a.m. August 23 and end at 10 p.m. August 24. During this time, contractors will complete tie-ins to the centre on the north side of Wyandotte Street at Patricia Avenue, which is slated to open in fall 2015.

Please direct questions or concerns to manager of facility planning, renovations and construction Dan Castellan at 519-253-3000, ext. 2158.