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5 Questions with Dr. Paul Vasey

trevor.kenney — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 22:22:42 +0000

Dr. Paul Vasey is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. He conducts cross-species and cross-cultural research to answer the question: If reproduction is the engine that drives evolution, why engage in non-conceptive sex? For the past decade he has done research on the development and evolution of female homosexual behavior in free-ranging Japanese monkeys at various sites in Japan. He also studies the development and evolution of male same-sex sexual attraction in humans at field sites in Samoa, Japan and Canada. Since 2003, he has worked in Samoa with members of the fa’afafine community – biological males who live “in the manner of a woman.”

Vasey currently holds both a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant in addition to various grants from private funding agencies.

Dr. Paul Vasey of the Department of Psychology.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

As a kid, I was always interested in nature documentaries. I remember when I was 13 or 14 watching one documentary on the evolution of iguanas and tortoises on the Galapagos Islands and it fascinated me. So, from a very early age, I was interested in understanding the world from an evolutionary perspective. I’m also gay, and same-sex sexuality doesn’t make a lot of sense, at least at first glance, from an evolutionary perspective. This led me to search for literature on the evolution of homosexuality. What I found was a lot of speculation but virtually no data. It seemed that everyone had an opinion on the topic, but no one wanted to do the work of hypothesis testing.

So, for my doctoral research I studied female homosexual behavior in Japanese monkeys and after graduating from the Université de Montréal, I expanded this line of research by conducting fieldwork in Japan, which continues to this day with my Post-Doctoral Fellows, Drs. Jean-Baptiste Leca and Nöelle Gunst.

How is your research applicable in “the real world?”

There is an enormous amount of public debate about the nature of sexual and gender diversity. Is it “natural”? Is it “normal”? Should it be socially tolerated? Should members of sexual and gender minorities have human rights that are equal to those of the heterosexual majority?

So often these discussions occur in an information vacuum that is driven by personal politics and morals but divorced from any actual evidence. I go out into the real world and collect data about many of the issues that are being debated publically. In doing so, my research generates information about phenomenon related to sexual and gender diversity and furnishes a basis upon which an evidence-based understanding of these topics can be situated.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

The greatest honour I have received in my career is having internationally renowned sex researchers, whose work I hold in the highest esteem, state that they consider my body of work to be of exceptional quality and importance. I’m talking about people like J. Michael Bailey, Anne Lawrence, Alice Dreger, and Alan Dixson, among others. I don’t think there is any greater honour than having the researchers you hold in such high esteem indicate that they consider your work a significant contribution to the field.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

I’d say most students in my lab have been foundational to my research efforts. The lab could never be as productive as it is were it not for the fact that I work with an extraordinary team of undergraduate students, graduate students and Post-Doctoral Fellows. Some of my former students have gone on to become medical doctors, take up post-doctoral fellowships at hospitals, pursue further graduate work in clinical psychology programs or undertake further research at places like Cambridge ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. It’s been a privilege to work with all of them.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

I would like to build a Kinsey-style Sexuality Research Institute in Canada – one that does not downplay the importance of biology in human sexuality, yet at the same time does not ignore the importance of culture. Part of my goal in building such a research institute would be to help create jobs for young sex researchers in Canada.

It has been said that Canada packs a punch far above its weight internationally in terms of the number of renowned sex researchers who make this country their home. Moreover, Canada has a political and social climate that is far more amenable to sex research than most other countries. Further, Canada has the funding systems in place to support such research and it has been demonstrated time and time again that sex research attracts large amounts of funding from multiple agencies when it is done properly.

For a look at the entire catalog of 5 Questions With . . . features, check out the Office of Research Services website at www.uleth.ca/research/research_profiles. If you’d like to be featured, contact Penny Pickles at pickpj@uleth.ca.

5 Questions with Dr. Olu Awosoga

trevor.kenney — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:49:29 +0000

Dr. Olu Awosoga completed his dissertation on Meta-Analysis of Multiple Baseline Time-Series Design Intervention Models for Dependent and Independent Series. This study developed a traditional meta-type analysis and corresponding robust methodology for multiple baseline series. This is a statistical approach used in applied statistical research to investigate the validity of procedures and power comparisons between parametric and robust methods.

Awosoga joined the Faculty of Health Sciences in July 2009, the same year he completed his doctoral program at Western Michigan ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Kalamazoo, MI. He teaches applied statistics courses to undergraduate and graduate students and works with various faculty members as a statistical consultant. He is a co-investigator in the following projects: Moral Distress in the Care of Persons with Alzheimer Disease in Residential Care Facilities; Slave Lake Fire project to investigate the response of families and children – community resiliency; CAETL (now known as the Teaching Centre) project to assess teaching effectiveness in undergraduate applied statistics course.

Awosoga is passionate about using his knowledge in applied statistics to provide simple interpretation of results obtained from data analysis to make sense to the average man – a fundamental basis for his research interests.

Most recently, as a principal investigator, he has applied for several grants through the Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research and Workers Compensation Board to investigate the health status of childcare workers in southern Alberta.

Dr. Olu Awosoga takes statistical analysis to another level through unique applications.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

My interest base was first stirred up by a combination of statistical courses I took during my graduate program, in particular, applied statistics in social sciences. I had questions about a data analysis approach used in a journal article where I first discovered the word 'meta analysis.' So, I decided to learn more about it and of course, the result was my dissertation topic.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

In the real world, meta analysis of multiple baseline time-series design intervention models is of great interest to researchers in the fields of behavioural sciences, environmental sciences, economics, education and medicine. They often employ interrupted time-series designs to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of several interventions in both clinical and natural settings. This model also provides a strong basis for causal conclusions.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

As a graduate student, I received the best graduate research poster during the third annual Western Michigan ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ research and creative activities poster day in 2009.

Personally, I feel honoured every time I meet with a former student who shares how their statistical learning is enhancing their work, and feel the same when I can offer a meaningful statistical analysis in collaborative projects. In my career, it warms my heart to have an article accepted for publication or to obtain approval for a research grant.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

I find that working with students is a two way learning dynamic. Data analysis is core in interpreting research findings; hence it is rewarding being able to engage students in quantitative research. Students who work with me are trained in data collection procedures, recruiting research participants, conducting and transcribing qualitative interviews, data coding and literature reviews. This process provides students with learning opportunities and prepares them for future research works.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

If money was not an object, I would invest in any research which requires application of statistical theory and concepts, and would also participate in continuous professional development across the globe. In particular, I would invest in research focusing on health related issues to provide reasonable explanations to understanding existing variable relationships, interactions, cause and effects, amongst other things. In addition, I desire to participate in innovative teaching research to build stronger teaching and learning strategies at all levels of education.

Each month, the Legend will present 5 Questions With . . . one of our researchers. For a look at the entire catalog of 5 Questions With . . . features, check out the Office of Research and Innovation Services website at www.uleth.ca/research/research_profiles.

If you'd like to be profiled, contact Penny Pickles at pickpj@uleth.ca.

5 Questions with Dr. Sergio Pellis

trevor.kenney — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:51:54 +0000

Dr. Sergio M. Pellis has been a professor at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge since 1990 with the main focus of his research being on the role peer-to-peer play has in the development of social competence. Using various species, ranging from laboratory rodents to primates, such as the great apes, Pellis has shown that rough-and-tumble play is composed of dissociable subcomponents (e.g., attack, defense) and that there are species differences in how such play can be modified at different ages and contexts.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

It came in several steps. The first, when I was five years old and realized that my ambition in life was to study animals; the second, midway through my undergraduate degree in zoology when I realized that the behaviour of animals was what turned me on the most; the third, by the end of my degree when I realized that the most intriguing aspect of animal behaviour was how it develops; and the fourth step was when I discovered that play, a feature of behaviour common to the childhood of many animals, posed an intriguing problem concerning development. The last step came when I was doing post-doctoral research in behavioural neuroscience and realized that looking at the brain was another important avenue by which to understand behaviour and how it changes over time. Altogether, this led to an interest in how the brain produces and regulates play behaviour and how play behaviour changes the functioning of the brain.

Dr. Sergio Pellis believes unstructured play has a major role in child development.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

Aside from providing a model for further research into understanding the mechanisms that underlie the feedback relationship between brain and behaviour, the "real world" applicability of my research concerns our societal practices in child rearing. The current trend for both parents and schools to curtail the opportunity for free play in general, and rough and tumble play in particular, may have important implications for the development of social skills in children. Indeed, there is data, albeit given the limits imposed on research on humans, that show that children with greater opportunity to engage in free play, especially rough housing play, are socially more proficient and score better in their academic work. Our laboratory-based experiments on rats provide evidence for the causal mechanisms by which play may have these beneficial effects.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

To have been able to work on the problem that has been of most interest to me, to have made some novel discoveries and to have peers use some of my work as a basis for developing and testing hypotheses. Even more exciting has been independent support for some of the ideas generated in my laboratory. That is about as good as it gets.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

Undergraduate and graduate students, as well as post-doctoral fellows, have been an instrumental part of my research program and the successes that I have had in that program. Students bring several assets to a research program. First, they are young and full of energy. Second, they are motivated to succeed. Third, they bring fresh eyes and insights to the problem under investigation. The best students that I have had are those who have challenged what I told them is important or noticed something new in the phenomenon that I had missed. I have found that directing a good student to a problem, giving them ownership of that problem, and letting them loose on it, has, many times, produced major breakthroughs in the research. I wouldn't have reached the level of understanding about play that I have without the valuable contributions of the students who have worked with me.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

As well as unlimited funds, this scenario would require multiple lifetimes, but if you are going to dream, dream big. I would still study play, but I would push the two lines of research that I study now to greater depth.

First, I would combine levels of analysis – behaviour, brain anatomy at the cellular and sub-cellular level, genetic and other molecular changes associated with play, and electrophysiology of specific brain areas known to be associated with play. Such an integrated approach would allow a full mapping of the brain changing effects of play experience in the juvenile period, and characterize how those changes transform the functional capabilities of the brain.

Second, one of the insights that has arisen from my work on the play of rats and other rodents is the finding that the ability to 'play with play' depends on specialized mechanisms in the cortex, particularly the prefrontal cortex. It is likely that changes in these mechanisms have led to the evolution of the human exaggeration of fantasy in their play.

I would like to finally answer the question of how humans have evolved their seemingly unique features of play, and so would be able to characterize the brain changes that are involved in producing those features.

This story first appeared in the February 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

5 Questions with Dr. Blythe Shepard

trevor.kenney — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 23:07:10 +0000

Blythe Shepard joined the Faculty of Education at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge in July 2008. She received her doctorate in educational psychology with a specialty in counselling psychology from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Victoria in 2002 where she was a faculty member (2002-2008) and graduate advisor (2005-2008) in the Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies. Shepard is completing the first Canadian textbook for Career Practitioners and recently co-authored a national handbook for the supervision of counsellors/psychotherapists. She is the 2011 recipient of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association's (CCPA) Professional Contribution Award in recognition of outstanding promotion of the counselling profession in Canada and is President-Elect of CCPA.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

In many rural areas in Canada, jobs in traditional employment sectors are disappearing while few new jobs in expanding, knowledge-based manufacturing and service industries are being developed. Rural Canadians have expressed concern about the loss of young people through urban migration. When rural communities lose their youth, they lose the creative and innovative ability of young people to find possible solutions to community problems. As a long-time rural resident, I was curious about how rural young women perceived themselves within the context of a rural community, now and in the future. I also wondered how active these young women were in the construction of future plans. A doctoral SSHRC fellowship allowed me to pursue this study. Four years later, I followed up the study with a Standard SSHRC grant that focused on rural youth in three communities in BC.

Dr. Blythe Shepard researches the factors that influence rural youth.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

Based on the themes that were identified in interviews with rural youth, a community workshop was designed in collaboration with rural youth. Future Bound: A Lifeworks Expedition Workshop for Rural Youth is an activity-based workshop designed to help youth examine their past, current and projected future life paths. The workshop activities are readily adapted for use by counsellors and teachers. The Possible Selves Mapping Interview is used by practitioners in Wellington, New Zealand (Geoff Plimmer, PhD of FutureSelves Ltd.) while Campus d'Alfred de l'Université de Guelph translated sections of the Future Bound Workshop for use with their rural students.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

From 2000 to 2005, I was involved in a unique experiment in genuinely interdisciplinary research funded by SSHRC and NSERC. A set of carefully constructed complementary case studies on the east and west coasts of Canada were developed to achieve an integrated analysis of the long- and short-term impacts of socio-environmental restructuring on the health of people, their small communities and the environment. A total of 70 natural and social scientists and 167 trainees worked together with local communities to produce leading-edge research. Upon completion of the project, the Coasts Under Stress Research Team was awarded the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Victoria Craigdarroch Team Award for Societal Contribution.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

I believe in maintaining an active role in supporting and collaborating with graduate students. A mentoring relationship that acknowledges our different worldviews, epistemological understandings, learning styles, etc. is a powerful form of social learning. I encourage and support students to take an active role in all parts of my research program in order for students to develop as researchers and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. My vision for our work together is that of a facilitator who guides students over their shoulders.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

My research interests would continue to focus on rural women across the lifespan but would expand to include various types of rural communities in several provinces (e.g., remote, near urban centres, resource based, etc). The following questions would guide my research: (1) How do rural women weave work into the tapestry of their lives in communities experiencing social and economic change? (2) What are the work-life issues, supports and challenges for rural women? (3) What are the differences in socio-economic structures in each rural community and how do they affect women?

Each month, the Legend will present 5 Questions With . . . one of our researchers. For a look at the entire catalog of 5 Questions With . . . features, check out the Office of Innovation and Research Services website at www.uleth.ca/research/research_profiles. If you'd like to be profiled, contact Penny Pickles at pickpj@uleth.ca

This story first appeared in the January 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

5 Questions with Dr. Arlan Schultz

trevor.kenney — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:26:25 +0000

Dr. Arlan Schultz is an assistant professor of music, composition and theory and the head of the composition area within the Department of Music in the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Schultz's music has been broadcast on Radio Canada, in France on CBC's sister network, and has been heard at performances in Canada, the United States, France, Germany, Austria and Hungary. He has also been commissioned by the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the McGill Concert Choir, the Stuttgart Wind Quintet with Canadian pianist Louise Besette, Hungarian violinist János Négyesy, Canadian pianist Sandra Brown, Ensemble Resonance, Calgary and New Works Calgary, among others.

In addition to his creative work, Schultz is active in several areas of research related to the field of composition. He is implementing software algorithms for real-time audio spatialization in live performance, and designing symbolic computational algorithms for computer-assisted composition and audio synthesis. As well, he is developing tools for electroacoustic composition in the form of audio-spatialization software and unique audio-sample databases.

Dr. Arlan Schultz uses technologies such as real-time spacialization techniques in his studies.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

At a young age, I was fascinated with the structure of music and the techniques involved in its composition. Although I was a pianist, the act of performance was somehow unsatisfying and I found myself increasingly involved in performative situations where improvisation and creativity were required. This engagement with creative music making is what directly led to my desire for more in-depth study of how music was put together.

Along this path, I discovered that, in addition to the traditional tools offered to a composer by historical (and newer) models for realizing a musical composition, there were significant technologies which could enhance the composer's expressive palette – such technologies include real-time spatialization techniques; interactive and computer mediated performance techniques; symbolic computational models; algorithmic composition; and new real-time techniques for audio synthesis.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

My current research is engaged with creating music and configuring it for transmission to an audience. When I consider the relevance of my research to the world at large (beyond the academic walls), I ask myself, "What role does music play in my daily life?"

Music is ubiquitous, but is it all meaningful? I view my research as a means for differentiating levels of meaning and for creating an aesthetic experience that goes beyond the background noise of daily living.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

I have been fortunate to receive many grants and awards for my creative work, among them our current ACDI Grant from the Canada Council. However, the most important honour I have received in my career has been the great privilege of working with world-class performers on the production and performance of my work.

My wife, soprano Martha Renner, is a frequent collaborator on my vocal music and my more recent work has involved the inclusion of ritual Tibetan music. The Monks of the Drepung Gomang Monastery in South West India have honoured me by allowing the recording of their ritual music for study and inclusion in my creative work.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

To be a concert-music composer is to be a teacher – students are central to the survival of concert-music and to the continued advancement of, and experimentation with, musical discourse. The art of composition has always been passed on through apprenticeship models of teaching and my students play a central role in my creative life. My students have been actively involved with my musical productions and have been able to benefit from utilizing new technologies and hearing new ways to organize sound.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

I would invest in those forms of endeavour that keep us more fully human. Many have said that art fulfills this criterion, but in my view artistic endeavor informed by and combined with scientific research is among the most exciting fields for future research.

This story first appeared in the December 2012 issue of the Legend. For a look at the entire issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

5 Questions with Dr. Claudia Gonzalez

trevor.kenney — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:36:24 +0000

Dr. Claudia Gonzalez (MSc '00, PhD '04) is a Canada Research Chair in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education. Born and raised in Mexico, she earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from the National Autonomous ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Mexico before continuing her education at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge where she earned both her master's and PhD degrees in neuroscience. She has taught and researched at the U of L since August 2009, and is funded by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

Ever since I can remember, I was interested in science. I was, and still am, fascinated by animal behaviour, particularly human. In middle school, I remember spending hours simply watching people. Later on it became a habit to observe people's actions and to wonder what led those people to act in a certain way. I decided to take psychology in university and it became clear that if I wanted to understand behaviour I had to first understand the brain. I pursued a career in neuroscience and I continue to be baffled by how the brain – a mere three pounds of mush – determines the complexity of our thoughts and actions. My research looks at multi-sensory integration like eye-hand coordination and sensory and cognitive interactions such as visuospatial abilities.

Dr. Claudia Gonzalez looks to unlock the mysteries of how the brain controls movement.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

I often tell my students that I do science for the love of science. My research is motivated by the big question of how the brain works to produce behaviour. In the lab we ask questions such as how does the brain compute the location, size and orientation of an object so that every morning you can pick up your cup of coffee with remarkable ease. We use cutting-edge technology that allows us to break down a hand or an eye movement into hundreds of components so that we can take a really good look at how it is executed. In addition, we look at how these visuomotor interactions are modulated or affected by cognitive functions such as attention and spatial abilities. We are starting to conduct research in neurological populations (i.e.: stroke patients) hoping to gain some further insight into the neural mechanisms underlying visuomotor and visuospatial functions. At the end of the day we hope to understand how the brain integrates sensory, motor and cognitive information. With this knowledge we can begin to develop strategies that translate into better outcomes for patients suffering from neurological conditions.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

I guess that was when I overheard one of my supervisors say: "she will do fine" when discussing my future in science. Really, as a scientist I am very proud when my work is published, cited or funded. Also, it is always a pleasure and an honour to receive inquires from students who want to know about the work that I do and whether they can volunteer or work in my lab.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

Students are the heart and soul of my research program. Students' curiosity and excitement about learning and discovery is the best motivating force in the lab. Students don't only carry out the experiments but they help in the design and interpretation of them. It is often in the latter that students' contributions are invaluable; they bring a fresh and unbiased perspective to science and research.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

Two: Early education and translation. "Scientia potentia est" which commonly translates from the Latin as "knowledge is power". So I would invest in teaching children from an early age about their brain and how to take care of it. I think that if children learned some general principles of brain function early in their life, they would be less likely to engage in activities that would endanger their brains such as drug use, or checking from behind in a hockey game.

With respect to translation, I recently spoke to a medical doctor from a different country who told me that she goes to international conferences and brings back with her what she has learned to apply it directly into her patient population. Her story got me thinking that perhaps we don't do enough of that. As a basic scientist I would like to see that more of our findings could be put into practice, which is ultimately where it matters most.

This story first appeared in the November 2012 issue of the Legend. To view the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

5 Questions With Dr. Henning Bjornlund

trevor.kenney — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:53:12 +0000

Dr. Henning Bjornlund is a Canada Research Chair in Water Policy and Management at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and a professor at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of South Australia. He has researched water policy and management issues in Australia since 1993 and in Canada since 2005. He recently served on the Ministers Advisory Group on Water Allocation and Management in Alberta, and has written widely about water policy and management issues with more than 275 publications and presentations.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

Prior to starting my first academic degree in 1990, I was the managing director for a company operating tropical plantations in South and Central America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific. As part of this work, I bought properties and negotiated access rights to water to grow bananas, citrus, rice and other tropical crops highly dependent on water.

While studying for my bachelor's degree I had to do a third-year research project and chose to concentrate on the impact of water policy on rural land values. This required a careful study of the literature on water markets and water rights. I continued this theme through both my master's and PhD studies.

Dr. Henning Bjornlund is one of the foremost experts in water policy and management issues.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

Water is probably the most important and valuable resource in the world. All human activity depends on it in one form or another. It is available in a finite quantity and has a finite ability to assimilate waste. Most human and economic activity in some way impacts on water quality and the availability of water. Human activities have had a serious impact on water bodies and the ecosystems dependent on them. Policy makers around the world are trying to come to terms with how to reverse this trend of environmental degradation, how to continue our human activities while minimizing our impact on the environment, how to use less water and be more efficient, how to produce more from less and how to share our limited resources. All of these issues are central to my research.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

The greatest honour and privilege that I can receive as an academic is an invitation to contribute to policy making, the development of professional standards or to public debate and awareness. Hence, invitations to serve on entities such as the Ministers Advisory Group on a new Water Management and Allocation framework for Alberta, to produce a policy commentary to contribute to the debate on water management and policy in Alberta, or help write a policy document for the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in London on the implications of changing water policies for property professionals are among the greatest honours I have received.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

Student participation is an integral part of my research program. I currently have seven PhD students and five master's students in Canada and Australia working on various issues related to water policy and management. Apart from answering pressing questions about how to resolve the world's growing water problems, a very important task is the building of human capacity to deal with these issues. Student training in this area is very important.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

How to share limited resources is one of the most challenging issues facing policy makers and water managers. This is a very complicated issue in that those who currently have the right to use water have invested a lot of time and money to be able to do so. Hence, any change in the way water is allocated can potentially have significant socio-economic impact on the current generation of water users, not the least of which are irrigators and the communities that currently depend on water use as the economic engine of their community. If I had unlimited funds I would like to conduct a Canada wide investigation of how people perceive a reallocation should take place, how such perception varies across Canada and what causes the variation. Such insight would assist the development of a national water plan or policy, as well as the development of provincial water policy plans.

Each month, the Legend will present 5 Questions With . . . one of our researchers. For a look at the entire catalog of 5 Questions With . . . features, check out the Office of Research and Innovation Services website at www.uleth.ca/research/research_profiles. If you'd like to be profiled, contact Penny Pickles at pickpj@uleth.ca

This story first appeared in the October 2012 issue of the Legend. To see the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

5 Questions With Dr. Martin Lalumiere

trevor.kenney — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 22:03:02 +0000

Dr. Martin Lalumiere is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology. He studies the etiology of sexual aggression, the development of atypical sexual preferences, the physiological assessment of sexual arousal, sex differences in genital arousal, the effect of birth order on development and the determinants of risk taking.

Prior to joining the U of L, he was a research psychologist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and associate professor of psychiatry and criminology at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto (1997-2004).

Lalumiere teaches courses on criminal behaviour, psychopathology and evolutionary psychology and is a past Chair of the Human Subject Research Committee.

Dr. Martin Lalumiere is a foremost expert on sexual aggression and the development of atypical sexual preferences.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

As an undergraduate student at the Université de Montréal, I signed up to be a research participant for a study on the Pavlovian conditioning of sexual arousal in humans (how can one not be curious about a study like that!). I had a long chat with the PhD student who was running the study, and soon thereafter I applied for a research assistant position in that laboratory. I immediately started running similar studies and discovered that the study of human sexuality was fascinating, complex and extremely rewarding.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

I will say that sex is pervasive, important to people and associated with important health and life satisfaction outcomes. Increasing knowledge about sex is bound to have important impacts on things like sex education, prevention of sexually transmitted infections and sexual and relationship satisfaction. In our lab we also study the link between sexual preferences and crimes, with the hope of better preventing sexual crimes.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

I would say the Governor General's Academic Gold Medal, for best graduating student at Queen's ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. As a graduate student I didn't even know that such a prize existed, and all I was trying to do was to learn English and become a good scientist.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

I spent the first nine years of my career working in research institutes, without much help from students. I was sufficiently productive but felt that something was missing. Since arriving at the U of L in 2004 and establishing the Human Sexual Arousal Laboratory, I discovered the joys and benefits of having undergraduate and graduate students involved in my research. They are very important to my research program. In fact, most of my recent successes are a direct result of having very qualified students in my lab. Their work has shaped the direction of my own research activities.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

Currently, my students and I are spending most of our energies attempting to discover why women's genital arousal is not quite consistent with their experience of sexual arousal. It is a great mystery that fascinates us. Is it the most important research question in the world? Probably not. Is it an important question that is likely to lead to concrete answers? Very likely. Will those answers allow us to better understand women's sexuality (a mostly neglected topic in human science)? Very likely.

Already we have received emails from women who have been the victim of rape, and who were tortured by the memory of experiencing genital arousal during the event. We are now able to provide them with a possible explanation, and they find it quite reassuring.

The most important areas of research are those where questions are answerable and can lead to improvement in human welfare.

Having said all this, I think the most important research question for human research has to do with the effects of economic and health inequalities, and the measures needed to diminish those inequalities. We have done some research on this topic and I hope that we will continue to do so.

This story first appeared in the October 2012 issue of the Legend. To see the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

5 Questions with . . .Dr. Nicole Rosen

trevor.kenney — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:19:04 +0000

Dr. Nicole Rosen teaches languages and linguistics in the Department of Modern Languages. Her research interests include phonetics and phonology, Michif language, Western Algonquian languages, language revitalization, English and French in the Canadian Prairies and lexicography of endangered languages.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

After high school, I spent a year in France as an exchange student, and that's when I started really listening to the way people talk, and observing differences from how they talked at home in Canada and in France. When I started my undergrad degree at Queen's, I knew I wanted to study languages, but normally studying a language meant studying its literature, and I wasn't sure about completely giving up math and science. I pored through the entire course calendar looking at all the program possibilities, and found something called 'linguistics' that purported to be the scientific study of language. I was hooked from the first linguistics class, and I knew I wanted to be a linguistics researcher, analyzing language in use. Linguistics allows me to combine my love of analysis and scientific method with my love of social observation and interaction. In essence, I didn't have to choose between math and literature after all: I get the best of both worlds in linguistics.

Dr. Nicole Rosen teaches languages and linguistics in the Department of Modern Languages.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

Different aspects of my research are applicable in different ways. My lexicographic work on the Michif language has an obvious direct application because it is a dictionary that may be used by learners and teachers of the language in a concrete way. This work in language revitalization is also important in validating and enlightening others about a language and culture that has been ignored for the better part of the last century. My research on English and French on the Prairies can be applicable when teaching informal English or French: as it is spoken, by real people, not formally, as it is written. Most people, when learning a language, want to know how to communicate, make friends, and enter into a society that is closed to them without that language. Learning how people speak is essential to accessing society, not how they write, which can be the more traditional basis of language teaching and learning.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

Academic grants are an obvious honour, and I'm very grateful for those, but my greatest honour, honestly, is the opportunity to do and study what I love. I get to work with fantastic students and speakers, and get to talk about what I'm interested in, and this is actually a job! I never forget how lucky I am that I actually love my work.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

The way I conceptualize research involves students in a very central role. My current project, in fact, is a result of wanting to involve undergraduate students. I've been interested in rural Canadian English since I was in graduate school, but now that I'm in an area where my students are part of the group I want to study, I can engage them in research and it can be relevant to them on a very personal level. I have undergraduate students interviewing family, friends and neighbours, transcribing, learning how to analyze language data, and learning audio editing, language archiving and acoustic analysis software. They are the local experts, I give them the tools, and we learn from each other. I see this blurring of research and teaching as my primary goal, in fact, where the goal is not so much "research" and "teaching", but rather learning.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

I would invest in an interdisciplinary centre to further the study and promotion of language on the Canadian Prairies, with labs and equipment for the experimentalists, databases for the corpus experts, and members from a host of related fields to discuss big questions: sociology, history, education, literature, psychology, neurology, speech pathology, computer science, etc., in addition to applied and theoretical linguists. Alberta in particular has a complex history and sociology of various linguistic groups emigrating over the last 100-plus years, seeking religious or economic freedom, and it has shaped the language(s) we speak in a particular way. These questions are as of yet largely untouched, especially in the Prairies, and in the rural context.

This story first appeared in the April 2012 issue of the Legend. To view the entire issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

5 questions with . . . Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk

trevor.kenney — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:12:03 +0000

Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk is an assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience. He is interested in understanding the neural and behavioural effects of chemical exposure by using multiple methods in both the laboratory and in the field.

This research includes: gaining a better understanding of the role of the brain and hormones in controlling natural behaviours, the effects of specific classes of chemicals on neural development and the neural and behavioural effects of newly emerging contaminants, such as perfluorinated and polybrominated compounds.

His current research addresses two main questions: 1) how have the brain and behaviour evolved in concert with one another; and 2) what are the neurobehavioural effects of exposure to persistent organic pollutants?

Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk investigates the role of the brain and hormones in controlling natural behaviours.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

As a graduate student, I was stunned by how little was known about why different species behave differently. I decided to then start filling in the gaps by examining how the anatomy of the brain varies from one species to the next and how this variation is related to its behaviour.

Currently, I am examining how male Ruffed Grouse produce their unique drumming display and how females might be detecting the extremely low frequencies that make up the drumming sound. I am also testing the effects of environmental contaminants on developing birds to better understand how environmental pollution disrupts the development of the brain and behaviour.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

My research addresses fundamental questions regarding how the brain modulates behaviour in different species, which is one means by which we better understand how the brain works.

In addition, Ruffed Grouse are in decline across much of eastern North America and by better understanding their courtship display (i.e., drumming) we can make more informed decisions about habitat management for them.

My contaminants research also has significant implications for deciding what chemicals we use, how much should be allowed in our food and in the environment and the extent to which some of these chemicals might be affecting wildlife.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

I do not consider any of my research awards to be honours, but if I had to choose something it is being asked to be on the committee of the J.B. Johnston Club, the only international organization focusing exclusively on how brains vary among different animals.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

Students are critically important to my research at a number of levels. First, they provide much needed technical assistance in my lab on several different projects. I can honestly say that I would not have been able to complete the bulk of my research without student help.

Second, when students are really interested in the topic they are researching, they often bring new perspectives and ideas to my research, which aid immensely in designing new experiments and writing papers.

Third, students that I train are often afforded the opportunity to travel to present their research at regional and international meetings. This greatly benefits the students because they can meet potential graduate or post-doctoral supervisors as well as present their work to the scientific community. It is also critical to my research because it fosters collaborations with other researchers, advertises the expertise of my lab and encourages other students to come and work with me.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

Application based research, such as prevention and treatment of various health problems, is entirely dependent on basic research. Most major discoveries in science occurred because of serendipitous findings in research labs addressing fundamental questions in science. I would therefore allocate far more funding and flexibility to productive scientists who are trying to gain a better understanding of how the world works.

For a look at the entire catalog of 5 Questions features, check out the Office of Research and Innovation Services website at www.uleth.ca/research/research_profiles.

This story first appeared in the March 2012 issue of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

UNews - www.uleth.ca/research/research_profiles

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