 |
Dr. Richard Haedrich
Dr. Richard Haedrich wasn't around to celebrate receiving his University Research Professor designation with the other honoured faculty.
He was on sabbatical at Middlesbury College in Vermont. But when contacted by the Gazette, Dr. Haedrich was quick to credit his colleagues for the award.
“I was more pleased than I thought I would be,” he said. “While these things are directed towards me, it's a nice reflection on the whole university. You don't do the kind of research that you do in a complete vacuum.
“You need nice colleagues, good students and the time to perceive some of your ideas, and all those things are things that Memorial University has made available to me.”
Dr. Haedrich is a biological oceanographer and ichthyologist with broad research experience in the systematics and biology of fish and is well known for his work on the biogeography of deep-sea fishes and their relationships with their environment.
Dr. Haedrich came to Memorial 20 years ago and turned his attention to Newfoundland's ocean ecosystems, very large areas about which relatively little is known. His overall goal has been to understand how large marine ecosystems are constituted and how they function.
“The work I've been able to do with my students has shown the importance of taking a broad view and looking at Newfoundland's marine environment as a fishery ecosystem ... and trying to understand the dynamics of that whole system instead of just studying one or the other of the key fishery species.”
Dr. Haedrich is the leading researcher on a project on deep ocean biological oceanography in collaboration with Texas A & M University. The four-year study in the Gulf of Mexico is one of the biggest deep sea research projects of its kind ever launched.
The study will provide a framework to determine the ecological effects current and future oil and gas exploration could have on the deep continental slope at depths of 300 to 3,000 metres.
For other research award winners, see Outstanding Research and Research Professors.
|
|
Highlights
Dr. Douglas Dunsmore, Music, received a Canada Council artist in mid-career award in recognition of his contributions to the Canadian choral scene.
Dr. Andrew Luchak, Business Administration, received $117,000 in funding from Human Resources Development Canada for a project entitled Regional Aspects of Employment Relations Policy in Canada. The project will examine the Canadian labour market's impact on employment policies including minimum wages, mandatory retirement as a form of age discrimination, and occupational pension standards.
Dr. Gary Gorman, along with Drs. Michael Withey and John Usher, all of Business Administration, are part of a university-wide collaboration on a three-year SSHRC grant of $495,000 to examine challenges and opportunities of a knowledge-based economy in Newfoundland and Labrador. Dr. Usher has also been involved in two other major SSHRC-funded research projects: Niche Width Theory and Competitive Strategy: Exploring Polymorphism, ($63,000) and Dynamic and Evolutionary Models of Urban and Regional Systems, being conducted with Dr. Roger White, Geography ($128,000).
Researchers at Memorial University, University of Victoria, and the
University of Calgary are working to untangle and understand the complex
web of social, economic and environmental interrelations at the heart of
threatened coastal communities. The three universities are part of a $6.2
million research project — funded by the federal government — dedicated
to increasing knowledge about Canada's coastal communities and their
environments. Over the next five years, Memorial, University of Victoria,
and the University of Calgary along with several other universities, will
conduct the collaborative investigation titled Coasts Under Stress: The
Impact of Social and Environmental Restructuring on Environmental and Human
Health in Canada.
Sir Wilfred Grenfell College hosted the annual conference of the Canadian Nature Federation July 12-15, 2000. The conference was co-chaired by Prof. Lois Bateman, Environmental Science.
Grenfell College partnered with the College of the North Atlantic in a $67,000 CFI grant for a Geospatial Research Facility for Terrestrial Ecosystems. Dr. Pierre Rouleau, Environmental Science, was a principal researcher.
Louise McGillis, acting associate university librarian at Grenfell's Ferris Hodgett Library, co-ordinated a Memorial University Libraries Usability Study to determine if library users are able to perform general library tasks using the Web site.
Memorial established a Public Policy Research Centre under the Faculty of Arts to examine economic and social policy in Newfoundland and Labrador and other parts of Atlantic Canada. ACOA contributed more than $477,000 towards the initiative. The university has been going through a process of renewing its relationship with the wider community, and this new centre is part of that process.
|
|
