The objective of this research program is the development of new green synthetic methods with emphasis on metal-free procedures for the simple preparation of biologically and commercially important molecules. In particular, fluorinated sp3-enriched Nitrogen-containing compounds will be prepared by radical reactions of redox-active esters (i.e., N-hydroxyphthalimide, N-hydroxy-2-thiopyridone, etc.) derived from fluorinated alicyclic carboxylic acids with […]

The climate warming currently affecting the Arctic is two to three times faster than anywhere else, with profound consequences for natural ecosystems and communities. Notably, thawing permafrost remobilizes organic matter (previously trapped in the soil) that underlies the production of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which in turn helps amplify the ongoing […]

The special characteristics of plastics have led to them taking an essential role in society. Unfortunately, plastic consumption, production and disposal significantly impact the community. The failure of research labs to better understand the actual costs of lab plastic wastes has led to poor management of plastic materials and growing social, ecological and economic costs […]

In an effort to reach zero waste in Canada by 2030, this work is dedicated to the discovery of microbes with enzymatic capabilities to biodegrade plastic. A library of microbes (bacteria and fungi) isolated from a range of marine environments will be screened for unique and novel plastic biodegrading activities. Preferred microbes will be selected […]

The objective of the project is to analyse spatio-temporal trends in solar raditation at the ground surface in the last decades in the Arctic. It requires to compare local spatio-temporal trends of radiation data to global dataset (e.g. Tang 2019, 1983-2018). This project requires large data manipulation and visualisation as well as a technologic understanding […]

Carbon dioxide is produced from the combustion of fossil fuels and as a by-product of many chemical processes. The increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has now been decisively linked to global climate change. The use CO2 as a carbon-building block has attracted much attention due to its low cost, ease availability, and its […]

Uranium can generate energy efficiently and sustainably, resulting in its high demand due to increasing global energy demand. As a result, there has been significant interest in the search for materials to sequester uranium ions, U(VI), from seawater. Among the materials adopted, the amidoxime-based polymeric adsorbent has shown great promise, but not without challenges. During […]

Conifers retain their leaves in winter and downregulate photosynthesis. Remote sensing of coniferous forests based on measurements of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) seems a suitable tool to estimate forest photosynthesis, but little is known about the effects of downregulation of photosynthesis on the SIF signal. By installing a novel FloX field spectrometer at a coniferous […]

This project is a collaboration between Drs. Jennifer Provencher, Jesse Vermaire, and Christina Davy at Carleton University in which the two student interns will quantify microplastic contents in various environmental samples to improve our understanding of the fate of microplastics in the environment. The students will learn to assess microplastics in environmental samples (e.g. scat, […]

This internship is included in a bigger perspective that aims to characterize and organize the environmental management of fjords. Based on monitoring data from 2013 to 2022, the density of around twenty bird species has been determined. Therefore, from these data it will be possible to create a geographical model to determine the presence of […]

We have developed a natural product acaricide that is based on balsam fir (Abies balsamea) essential oil. The product kills overwintering ticks. It is designed to be applied to lawns, gardens and municipal parks in the late fall to kill ticks over the winter. The purpose of this project is to complete testing under semi-natural […]

The proposed project is an extension of a previous project “Multi-hazard Risk & Resilience Assessment for Real Asset Decision-Support” which aims to develop a methodology and software for performing rapid high-resolution multi-hazard risk assessment for asset portfolios by combining commercial/publicly available hazard models with high-resolution vulnerabilities derived from multi-physics simulations of different asset archetypes. The […]