Hugh MacIsaac

Invasive species greatest threat to lakes, researcher says

Aquatic invasive species are a problem worldwide and the single biggest threat facing the Great Lakes, according to ecologist Hugh MacIsaac.

“I believe that it’s the leading issue in the Great Lakes today,” said Dr. MacIsaac, a professor in the university’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research and director of the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network.

Campus mourns death of researcher

Researcher Martin Hulak died last week at the age of 33, but his pioneering work will live on, say professors who held him in high regard.

Dr. Hulak, a post-doctoral fellow working with Hugh MacIsaac and Melania Cristescu at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, was found dead outside his Windsor home on Wednesday, August 29. A native of Slovakia, he started working on campus in March 2012.

New findings about sea squirts reveal details about invasive abilities

For a tiny creature with such a cute and seemingly harmless name, the sea squirt has done a lot of damage in a relatively short time.

Now thanks to modern genetic analysis techniques, a trio of researchers from the university’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research have identified three previously unidentified sub-types of sea squirts, commonly known as the golden star ascidian, and discovered new clues about their capacity – and possibly the capacity of other organisms – for invading various ecosystems.