Faculty expertise showcased in lineup of 2025-26 PUBlic Professor Series speakers

trevor.kenney — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 20:29:34 +0000

From legalized gambling to AI in the classroom, testing confidence in eye-witness testimony and more, the 2025-26 lineup of PUBlic Professor Series lecture topics have been finalized, with six intriguing and engaging talks planned for the season.

Initiated in 2014 by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Faculty of Arts & Science, the PUBlic Professor Series lectures have grown to include the breadth of research expertise on campus, including representation from all its Faculties and Schools.

“The PUBlic Professor Series is one of our key opportunities to showcase the excellent work being done by our faculty members to the external community. It’s really an important example of the research activities taking place throughout campus and how impactful that work is on everyone’s daily lives,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, ULethbridge’s vice-president (research).

The 2025-26 season kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, when Faculty of Fine Arts professor Dr. Anne Dymond presents, From a Communist Doctor to Madonna’s Cone Bra: Museums and Cultural Diplomacy in Troubled Times. Her presentation will take place in a community location to be finalized as the PUBlic Professor Series continues to visit new venues to connect with more community members.

“We started moving the talks around this past year, using venues that opened the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ up to new audiences, and found it to be very successful,” adds McMartin. “PUBlic Professor is for the public, we want to meet them where they frequent, especially when topics lend themselves to specific locations.”

Ensuing talks will take place in October and November, and then January, February and March 2026 and include speakers from the Faculty of Arts & Science, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Health Sciences and Dhillon School of Business. As has always been the case, all PUBlic Professor Series events are free and open to the public and available for viewing on the ULethbridge YouTube channel the following week.

Working with local venues and bringing research activities into the community also creates partnership opportunities. Corporate sponsors and community partners seeking to support creating connections and promoting activities that benefit and inform society are encouraged to connect with External Relations at external.relations@uleth.ca to learn more.

This season’s PUBlic Professor Series talks conclude with Dr. Robin Bright’s presentation, Does Reading even Matter Anymore?, 7 p.m. at the Sandman Signature Lodge.

The PUBlic Professor Series is an example of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Strategic Plan in action under the strategic direction to Challenge Boundaries and Inspire Curiosity. We value courageous conversation, learning from each other’s knowledge and experiences, and actively promote the safe, respectful, open and accessible exchange of ideas.

The series lineup is as follows:

2025-26 PUBlic Professor Series

From a Communist Doctor to Madonna’s Cone Bra: Museums and Cultural Diplomacy in Troubled Times — Dr. Anne Dymond, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025

Cockwombles, Cornucopias and the Curious Task of Economics — Dr. Danny Le Roy — Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025

Has AI Made Teachers Obsolete? — Dr. Richelle Marynowski (BEd ’94) — Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025

Playing Telephone with Eyewitness Evidence — Dr. Jamal Mansour — Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026

Indigenous Childhood Stories Transform Worlds – Want Some? — Dr. Don McIntyre — Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026

Legalized Gambling in Canada: Winners and Losers — Dr. Rob Williams — Thursday, March 26, 2026

Broad areas of research awarded federal funding

caroline.zentner — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 21:03:34 +0000

A spectrum of research projects at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge have been awarded nearly $2.6 million in federal funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

The funding is part of $693.8 million for several NSERC research competitions recently announced on behalf of the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

“This investment in ULethbridge research activities speaks to the excellence and nationally competitive research we do — everything from mapping fuels for wildland fires to bee behaviour and the dynamics of black holes,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, vice-president research. “Our researchers investigate topics that impact the ways we understand the world around us and the complex influences and interconnectedness of the natural environment, agriculture and food security, and deep space phenomena.”

In addition, Dr. Monique Giroux had her Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Métis Music renewed for $500,000 through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

In all, 14 ULethbridge projects are receiving funding support from NSERC through the Discovery Grant and Discovery Development Grant programs. Among them are the following projects:

Dr. Laura Chasmer, a professor in the Department of Geography & Environment, will use novel Earth observation and geospatial data to examine how variations in vegetation ecosystems, both in space and in time, may enhance and reduce wildfires in Western Canada. The research program, which will include Indigenous land managers and knowledge keepers, will develop new ways of understanding fire hazards and recommendations for ecosystem management to lessen the impact of fire and improve the resilience of ecosystems and communities.
Dr. Sergio Pellis, Department of Neuroscience, will investigate the role of rough-and-tumble play or play-fighting in the development of cognitive and social skills in non-human mammals. Based on preliminary findings, Pellis hypothesizes that species with more complex social systems that require them to negotiate more varied relationships will have patterns of play that train youngsters for the social skills they’ll need as adults.

Discovery Grants

The funding listed for the following projects is over five years:

Dr. Theresa Burg, Biological Sciences — Evolution of High Latitude Birds ($200,000)
Dr. Shelley Hoover, Biological Sciences — Interactions between social bee behaviour and health ($190,000)
Dr. Steve Wiseman, Biological Sciences — Toxicant Induced Dysregulation of Oocyte Maturation ($235,000)
Dr. Nehal Thakor, Chemistry & Biochemistry — Regulation of mRNA Translation During Cellular Stress and Apoptosis ($200,000)
Dr. Laura Chasmer, Geography & Environment — Spatio-temporal variations in wildland fire fuel connectivity and behaviour using multi-data analytics ($275,000)
Dr. Joy Morris, Mathematics & Computer Science — Unexpected Symmetries of Graphs ($135,000)
Dr. David Euston, Neuroscience — Risk, Reinforcement Schedules, and Dopamine ($165,000)
Dr. Sergio Pellis, Neuroscience — Social play, the prefrontal cortex and the development of socio-cognitive skills ($275,000)
Dr. Alexandra Tetarenko, Physics & Astronomy — Unravelling how black holes power explosive outflows ($145,000)
Dr. Stephanus Henzi, Psychology — Contingency and Specificity in the Structure and Dynamics of Social Behaviour in Baboons and Vervet Monkeys ($235,000)
Dr. Jean-Baptiste Leca, Psychology — Mechanisms and evolution of material culture in primates: Does object play facilitate tool use? ($268,690)
Dr. Jamal Mansour, Psychology — Measuring cognitive processes that predict eyewitness identification performance ($165,000)

Discovery Development Grants

The funding listed for the following projects is over two years:

Dr. Philip Bonaventure, Geography & Environment — Climatic, geomorphic and ecosystem-driven multi-scale permafrost modelling and testing ($40,0000)
Dr. David Morris, Mathematics & Computer Science — Arithmetic groups, orderability, bounded generation and automorphisms ($40,000)

The Research Support Fund supports a portion of the costs associated with managing the research funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, such as salaries for staff who provide administration support, training costs for workplace health and safety, maintenance of libraries and laboratories, and administrative costs associated with obtaining patents for inventions.

UNews - Jamal Mansour

Faculty expertise showcased in lineup of 2025-26 PUBlic Professor Series speakers

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Broad areas of research awarded federal funding

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