Dr. Andrew Loudon is working to protect the Columbia spotted frog from a deadly disease and breed a more disease-resistant and resilient Pacific oyster.
What: Urchin Tank – Seaweed Challenge
When: Friday, November 24, 5 to 7:30 pm
Where: VIU’s Malaspina Theatre (Building 310), Nanaimo campus
Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) Urchin Tank is back this fall with five new student teams competing to see who has created the best fermented seaweed product.
Emma Peterson and Lizzy Schafers visited remote BC parks this summer to count and catalogue plants. Their work was part of a biodiversity survey research project overseen by Dr. Jasmine Janes, a VIU Biology Professor.
The summer research experience allowed both students to gain hands-on skills outside a classroom setting. For Lizzy, a Bachelor of Science student majoring in Biology, the experience reinforced her plans to go to grad school and study botany.
Networking is an integral skill for students who want to pursue research, says Krystyn Forbes.
Krystyn graduated in June with a Bachelor of Science degree, with a Biology honours. He worked as a research assistant for the past two summers with Dr. Jamie Gorrell, a VIU Biology Professor. He recommends that students talk to their professors about research opportunities.
As a SCUBA instructor at Sundown Diving, Brian Timmer swam amongst the kelp forests in the waters of Nanoose Bay. During heatwaves in 2014 and 2015, he witnessed those kelp forests disappear.
A few years later while attending Vancouver Island University, he worked for the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute on a kelp restoration project, studying kelp forests and nearshore ecosystems. Since that time kelp forests have been a cornerstone of his research.
One of Canada’s most threatened ecosystems – the Garry oak – is coming to life on VIU’s Nanaimo campus.
VIU employees, students and community volunteers have maintained a Garry oak ecosystem restoration plot since 2021. The 500-square-metre plot is located west of Building 470 near the top of campus. Dr. Caroline Josefsson, a VIU Biology Professor and botanist, oversees the project.
VIU alum Mac Barrera’s undergraduate research was not only published in an international journal, it has also led to new insights about the endangered Vancouver Island marmot.
“It’s exciting. I feel very proud,” says Mac, who now works as a lab technician in VIU’s Biology department. “Getting an undergrad research paper published in a legitimate, peer-reviewed journal is rare.”
Scientists are sharing their insights on everything from the endangered Vancouver Island marmot to investigating deep-sea organisms with computational chemistry during the Vancouver Island University (VIU) Science and Technology Community Lecture Series.
Receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship Award this past year was an honour that allowed me to live the experience of a lifetime and fulfill a dream that I otherwise would not have been able to.
The living world has fascinated Ally Badger ever since she was a child, and she always knew she wanted to pursue biology.
She graduated this June with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Biology. Navigating the challenges of the pandemic and the worsening climate crisis over the past few hasn’t been easy, but despite these obstacles Ally received a perfect grade point average.