Four graduate students from the Faculty of Science have won prizes in the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s Science Action video contest. After three rounds of competition, Erica Geldart, Sara Mechael, Katrina Switzer, and Ian Thomas were selected among the 15 national winners in an announcement by NSERC on Wednesday.

“I am honored that my video was chosen as one of the 15 finalists and I’m grateful to all of the people who watched the video,” said Switzer, a PhD student in the Department of Biological Sciences. “It’s exciting to see our research reaching so many people.”

The annual Science Action competition offers graduate students a chance to showcase their research through dynamic 60-second videos.

“These short videos help to make science more accessible to a broad audience,” said Switzer, whose video focused on her doctoral studies of tropical toads. “My friends and family now have better understanding of exactly what it is that I study during my graduate degree.”

University of Windsor graduate students performed very well in the national competition.

“We had more entries in the semifinals than any other institution in Canada,” explained Dan Mennill, associate dean of graduate studies and research for the Faculty of Science. “We were very proud of all of these finalists and their supporting research teams.”

Forty videos were selected for public viewing. The 25 most-viewed videos then moved onto a juried competition. Four UWindsor finalists were selected as runners-up in the juried competition, and each of them will take home a $2,500 prize:

• Geldart for “Eider Run or Duck and Cover”
• Mecheal for “We, Robot”
• Switzer for “Yellow Toad Chorus”
• Thomas for “Songbird Vocal Culture”

“Graduate students in the Faculty of Science are outstanding researchers and exceptional communicators,” said Chris Houser, dean of science. “Their strong showing in this national competition highlights the innovative research being conducted by our graduate students.”