UNews - Jackson Knott

Calling all ghosts, goblins and ghouls

caroline.zentner — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 20:08:39 +0000

Get your spook on at the annual Spooky Science fair with the Let’s Talk Science folks at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

We are stirring the cauldron of creativity and designing some bone-tingling, creepy experiments in the crypt, er, laboratory. Gooey, green, gross stuff is bubbling in beakers and potion ingredients, like sparkle dust, eye of newt and fairy hair, are being gathered. All is being readied for two evenings of hands-on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities with a Halloween twist.

“We are conjuring up a playful evening filled with scientific surprises, quirky contraptions and eerie delights,” says Dr. Tegan Barry, an instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Spooky Science organizer. “Whether you’re a tiny trick-or-treater or a grown-up ghoul, there’s something magic waiting for you at Spooky Science.”

Our very own mad scientist, Jackson Knott (BSc ’16, MSc ’20), is busy preparing for the Spooktacular Science Show part of the event.

“I’m going to need help with the show, so I’ll be summoning up the spirit of another mad scientist,” says Knott gleefully. “I will also be magically transforming pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, and I would be lax if I didn’t mention the puking pumpkins.”

But before the Spooktacular Science Show, children have plenty of activities to spark their interest in science, including creepy chromatography, boo bubbles, the potion parlour, mystery ink, ghost cannons and stomp rockets.

Spooky Science is ideal for children up to age eight, but all ages are welcome. Costumes that are family-friendly and without any hand props are encouraged, and children have the option to enter the costume competition. Please note that children must always be supervised by a parent or guardian.

Spooky Science will be held in the Science Commons Atrium Saturday, Oct. 25, from 4 to 6 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 26, from 2 to 4 p.m. The Spooktacular Science Show will kick off in the last half-hour of each event.

Tickets are not required, but attendance is capped at 150. The first 30 families at each event will receive a Let’s Talk Science Goody Bag.

Startup Blue Sky Analytical Labs calls U of L home

caroline.zentner — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 20:26:16 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is a vital part of the southern Alberta economy and the success of its partnership with Blue Sky Analytical Labs, which recently captured the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce’s New Business of the Year award, is a perfect example of the synergy that results from such collaborations.

From right to left are Jackson Knott, Sara Dutton, Ross Tisdale and Luc Roberts.

Blue Sky, a unique startup venture providing specialized analytical testing, uses U of L space and scientific laboratory equipment, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and other spectroscopy instruments and an X-ray diffractometer, to analyze samples of everything from water to cannabis for its industry clients.

“Our partnership with Blue Sky demonstrates how the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ contributes to the economy and can serve the needs of industries here in southern Alberta, in the province and beyond,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, vice-president research. “We are pleased with Blue Sky’s early success and foresee a partnership that will thrive long into the future. Ventures like this one benefit everyone involved and the U of L is always open to establishing partnerships with local entrepreneurs.”

Blue Sky had its beginnings when Ross Tisdale, the company’s president, spotted a niche opportunity. In his conversations with other entrepreneurs on campus, he learned many local industries send their samples to larger cities for the analyses they require. They wondered if such testing couldn’t be done locally with all the scientific equipment at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and Tisdale, along with Luc Roberts (BSc ’12) and two others, began collaborating on the potential opportunity.

They developed a proposal and presented it to U of L senior administration, where it was given the green light. Blue Sky set up its offices in Science Commons in April and has been hard at work setting up protocols for its tests.

“We were initially focused on water, but understood there was also a large opportunity in the cannabis industry,” says Tisdale. “The majority of cannabis producers in Alberta, and there are quite a few of them, send their samples to Ontario to be analyzed because there are not many providers of services in Alberta and those who do provide the services can’t offer the whole package that Health Canada requires. As soon as we got our licence, we focused on cannabis and learned everything we could about it. We soon realized we have all the equipment to be the only place in Alberta that can do the entire Health Canada suite of tests. We want to service everyone from home growers looking for potency tests to commercial growers.”

Blue Sky is also collaborating with other local companies and clients, such as Down to Earth Labs, a Lethbridge company that specializes in soil testing.

“We believe that Lethbridge and the extended southern Alberta area has more than enough demand to house analytical laboratory work, but it’s all been going up to Calgary, aside from the soil work that Down to Earth does,” says Tisdale. “We’re trying to divert that revenue back into southern Alberta and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge because it just makes sense.”

Operating an analytical lab requires technical expertise in several areas. Blue Sky has brought on Jackson Knott (BSc ’16, MSc ’20) as their lab manager and master chemist and Roberts, a PhD candidate, serves as the company’s microbiologist and vice-president. Tisdale brings a background in business and is currently completing an MBA at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Edinburgh. They’ve also received grant funding to hire Sara Dutton, a biology student. Ag-tech student, Kurtis Cridland, has joined the group on a volunteer basis and they hope to obtain additional grant funding for him and a computer science student to do database programming.

For Tisdale and the other staff at Blue Sky, winning the New Business of the Year award was a chance to celebrate their hard work and how far they’ve come in a few, short months.

“It’s important for us, being a startup here on campus, to make sure we strategically align our goals with those of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ,” Tisdale says. “Of course, it will only work if everybody is benefiting from this arrangement. We are also highlighting the Science Commons building, the beautiful facility that it is and the amazing equipment and infrastructure we have on campus.”

U of L student honoured with national award for inorganic chemistry research

caroline.zentner — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 22:16:57 +0000

Chemistry research is play for Jackson Knott, and he talks about his work in the lab with as much excitement as someone who’s found buried treasure. His fire for chemistry research hasn’t gone unnoticed as he recently received a national honour from the Canadian Society for Chemistry (Division of Inorganic Chemistry) for his research work done at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Knott has been named the outstanding recipient of the 2015 Award for Undergraduate Research in Inorganic Chemistry (AURIC), signifying that his research work has been judged to be of exceptional quality.

“They only give out one of these a year so it’s an honour to get and be able to put that on your CV,” says Knott. “The first thing I did was call my mom. What that award actually fully entails was a lot to take in.”

Dr. Paul Hayes, a chemistry professor, and Dr. Matthew Zamora, a former post-doctoral fellow, nominated Knott because they considered his work of a sufficiently high calibre to compete for the award.

“As Jackson’s research supervisor since 2012, I am very proud of his growth as a scientist and the well-deserved recognition he has earned. The AURIC is a highly competitive national award and is a testament to both Jackson’s past research accomplishments, as well as his future potential,” says Hayes. “I am extremely excited he has elected to pursue graduate studies in my laboratory; I look forward to continuing to work with Jackson and the science we will do together.”

As part of the award, Knott will give an invited presentation on his research in June at the society’s annual conference, held this year in Halifax. A fifth-year student, Knott is in his final semester of a bachelor of science, after having taken a year off to work at a co-op placement at NOVA Chemicals in Calgary.

“I’ve gotten quite a bit of research experience in my five years of university and one-year of a co-op,” he says. “Now I’ve got an academic perspective and a little bit of the industrial perspective on the research.”

Inorganic chemistry is the study of metals and main group elements as found in the periodic table. Knott is also interested in organometallic chemistry, which is the study of compounds or complexes that have metal-carbon bonds.

“A lot of organometallic and inorganic complexes are used as catalysts for reactions,” says Knott. “Such catalysts can play a role in the formation of biodegradable plastics, for example. My far, hopeful dream is CO₂capture and conversion into commercially important small molecules, which has industrial and environmental applications. I really want to take a stab at that and see what I can do.”

Knott, from Coleman, graduated from high school in 2010 and started at the U of L that fall. He’d enjoyed all the sciences in high school and came to ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ prepared to take courses in physics, biology, chemistry and math to see what he liked best.

“I took organic chemistry with Dr. Greg Patenaude and that class just hooked me. It was the first time I saw an instructor get really passionate about what he or she was teaching and the line of thinking kind of clicked and made sense,” says Knott. “Of all the sciences, I would do homework for the other classes because I had to, but for chemistry, even once my homework was done, I would go back and do more just for fun.”

Knott got his first taste of research in Hayes’ lab in the fall of 2012 and he’s been doing it ever since.

“Research takes you down a lot of unexpected paths,” he says. “The science kind of unfolds, you have to be there and follow along with it and do some creative problem solving.”

Knott will start graduate school at the U of L in May. He has a few research projects in the works that he’d like to pursue as he completes a master’s degree. He will continue working in the lab under the supervision of Hayes.

“I’m not fully sure what I’ll do beyond school but I really would like to keep doing research, be it in an industrial or academic job,” he says. “Research is really a lot of fun. I like to say I’m good at it and I’ve developed a passion for it.”

UNews - Jackson Knott

Calling all ghosts, goblins and ghouls

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