UNews - x-ray

C-CRAFT ushers in new era of fluorine research

trevor.kenney — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:25:24 +0000

Advanced research experiments, state-of-the-art laboratories, guidance from a top expert in the field - these are the exclusive benefits enjoyed by chemistry students studying fluorine at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, home of the new Canadian Centre for Research in Advanced Fluorine Technologies, or C-CRAFT.

Doug Turnbull, left, and Nathan Kostiuk have taken advantage of the practical learning opportunities provided them by Dr. Michael Gerken.

Over the last several years, the U of L has evolved into one of Canada’s premier institutions for studying the chemistry and physical properties of compounds containing fluorine, a versatile and highly reactive element used in a wide range of industrial and commercial processes and products. Playing a key role in that evolution has been Dr. Michael Gerken, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry with 12 years of experience, and an internationally distinguished fluorine chemist.

By launching C-CRAFT, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ will be able to serve as a hub for fluorine scientists and industry researchers worldwide to study and develop useful applications for this reactive element, which can be useful for everything from developing plastics, to performing medical imaging, to promoting cleaner oil production. It will also further enhance the department’s ability to provide high-quality, hands-on research opportunities to undergraduate and graduate chemistry students.

The new C-CRAFT institute, led by this stellar group of faculty members, creates a hub for fluorine research at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Among the students who have enjoyed those practical learning experiences is Nathan Kostiuk, a fourth-year chemistry student who has completed multiple for-credit independent study projects with Gerken, and who also worked for two summers as his research assistant. Helping facilitate Kostiuk’s investigations into fluorine has been his extensive access to the labs’ sophisticated research equipment, which include two nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, a Raman spectrometer and an x-ray diffractometer.

“Being able to use these machines to conduct hands-on research is a huge advantage,” Kostiuk says. “Some things you can learn in a textbook, but it’s different when you can apply what you learn in a lab. What I do in the lab enhances what I learn in the classroom, and vice versa.”

Recently, Kostiuk and a graduate student in the Gerken lab analyzed sulfur tetrafluoride, or SF₄, a chemical compound that can be useful to processes for the pharmaceutical and specialty chemical industries. Using the x-ray diffractometer, a machine for studying the structure of molecules in great detail, he was able to discern the molecule’s behaviour in solid form. It was the first time that this insight had ever been made in science, and his findings were published last June in the prestigious international scientific journal, Angewandte Chemie (German for: Applied Chemistry), published by the German Chemical Society. The accomplishment was rare, since at most universities, undergraduates have less access to leading-edge research equipment.

“I was really happy with that achievement, especially since I was just a third-year student at the time,” says Kostiuk, who is planning to pursue a master’s degree in chemistry after graduating. “Now, other researchers around the world can use it to help their own research.”

Another student who has been actively putting his classroom skills to use in the fluorine labs is Doug Turnbull, a third-year chemistry undergraduate. Turnbull came to the U of L with a budding interest in chemistry he had developed in high school, and was delighted to learn about the high-calibre expertise and facilities available in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

"I had been interested in fluorine at a superficial level, because it's the most reactive element, but at Lethbridge I was given the unique opportunity to gain a real-world idea of what fluorine chemistry is,” Turnbull says.

Turnbull has been conducting experiments involving fluorine and rhenium, another chemical element in the periodic table, to study how various reactions affect the geometry of rhenium compounds. He says Gerken’s insights and encouragement have made the lab learning exciting, and provided him with the confidence to continue exploring.

“This can be a challenging type of chemistry and the learning curve can be daunting. Michael makes it such a comfortable experience that you don’t have those worries anymore,” Turnbull says. “As far as his knowledge and communication style go, he is an outstanding supervisor.”

Mother's strength inspires legacy

trevor.kenney — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 17:57:23 +0000

Perhaps one of the most defining moments of the late Dorothy Lundstad’s life was one she was barely old enough to remember.

When Dorothy was only seven years old, her father died. This tragic event changed the trajectory of Dorothy’s life, and today is reflected in an award – the Andrea Block Memorial Scholarship – Dorothy established to honour her widowed mother.

The eldest daughter of Niels and Andrea Block, Dorothy moved with her family to the Millicent area from Washington in 1920. The family was together on their new homestead for only a few months when tragedy struck and Niels passed away at age 31 from pneumonia and complications of an infection.

Dorothy Lundstad spoke frequently and admiringly of her mother, eventually establishing a legacy gift from her inspiration.

While other family members came to help manage the farm, Dorothy’s mother and aunt purchased the Millicent Hotel as a means of supporting the young family. Andrea ran the hotel until 1939, when she fell ill. Andrea passed away in 1942, when Dorothy was 28.

Today, Dorothy’s family, including nieces Kristine Smith and Berna Moss, say Dorothy often shared many early memories of life at the hotel – stories of travellers, home-cooked meals and supportive locals.

Kristine says, however, Dorothy was most profoundly affected by her mother’s strength to rise up and overcome adversity – something that was well known throughout the family.

“Dorothy spoke frequently and admiringly of her mother, who was left as a young woman with two small children to raise and provide for when there were no social safety nets to help her,” says Berna.

Kristine agrees: “Dorothy learned a great deal about perseverance, tenacity and independence watching her mother run a hotel while ensuring her children were educated and well-cared for. She had a great deal of respect for her mother.”

Andrea’s influence in Dorothy’s life created an independent and adventurous woman who went on to engage life in a variety of ways: obtaining her teaching certificate, pursuing an accounting degree, serving in a factory in Eastern Canada during World War II, working as an X-ray technician and operating a dress shop.

Dorothy married in 1952 and farmed with her husband for years in the Claresholm area before moving to Lethbridge. They operated a hotel downtown for several years before selling it and purchasing one in Waterton. An avid gardener and pianist, Dorothy was active in her church and with her family, travelling with her nieces and cousins well into her 80s.

Throughout her life, Dorothy never forgot her roots, or the people of the Eastern Irrigation District. When Dorothy passed away in 2010, she honoured both her mother and those who rallied around her family in those early years with a bequest to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge in her will.

The Andrea Block Memorial Scholarship is given annually to a student from the Eastern Irrigation District, where Dorothy spent her formative years. The first recipient of the award, 19-year-old mathematics major Nolan McIntyre, couldn’t be more grateful.

Lundstad's mother kept the family together and thriving through difficult circumstance.

“When I first received the letter saying that I had received the award, I was extremely pleased,” he says. “Then, when I received notice that I was the first recipient of the award I felt – and still feel for that matter – very blessed and thankful.”

Originally from Rosemary, Alta., Nolan says gifts designated for students from rural Alberta are greatly needed.

“Gifts such as the Andrea Block Memorial Scholarship are a huge help,” says Nolan. “The award helped pay for my education and, as a result, my whole first semester was paid for and I could focus on my ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.”

With her gift, Dorothy is able to pay forward the help her family once received – for generations to come.

Iwaniuk and his unique bird brain collection is central to flight study

trevor.kenney — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:27:19 +0000

High-powered, three-dimensional X-ray scanning equipment at a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Scotland is being used with a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researcher's large collection of bird brain specimens to help chart the evolution of flight in birds.

U of L neuroscientist, Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk, who has amassed the world's largest collection of bird brain sections, is partnering with researchers at the National Museums Scotland and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Abertay Dundee to digitally reconstruct the size of bird brains using ancient fossils and modern bird skulls.

"The majority of my research addresses how the brain evolves, particularly with respect to behaviour," says Iwaniuk. "For example, my NSERC funded research aims to determine how the evolution of novel courtship behaviours in birds is associated with changes in the brain. This research is critical to understanding how the brain evolves in all animals, including humans."

Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk's unique collection will play a key role in helping to understand the evolution of flight in birds.

The opportunity to be part of both an evolutionary and behavioural program appeals to Iwaniuk.

"Dr. Stig Walsh (National Museums Scotland) contacted me about a potential collaboration on the evolution of avian brains," says Iwaniuk. "He was interested in reconstructing the brains of extinct birds and comparing the shape of their brains with that of modern birds. Similar comparisons have proven useful in understanding the behaviour of dinosaurs and various extinct mammals, including sabre-toothed cats and the ancestors of humans. However, there are few such comparisons involving birds. In this project, we aim to determine if there are changes occurring in the brain that coincide with the evolution of flightlessness."

Among other tools, researchers are using an incredibly sensitive CT (computerized tomography) scanner at Abertay ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Dundee, Scotland. They intend to analyze whole skulls and fossilized fragments to recreate accurate 3D models of extinct birds' brains. This is where Iwaniuk's collection comes into play.

He and Dr. Doug Wylie, a colleague at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, have hundreds of bird species catalogued, and have recorded and sectioned their brains to chart changes in development. The brain sections could be measured to micron accuracy to re-create the complete brain, and then be matched with a similar bird skull in modern and fossil form. Bird skulls grow to a fixed size before they leave the nest, with the brain then growing to almost completely fill the cavity space. This means that bird skulls can be used to accurately calculate the size and shape of the brain.

By working this out, the size of the flocculus, a small part of the cerebellum responsible for integrating visual and balance signals during flight, can be established. The flocculus allows birds to focus on objects moving in three dimensions while they are flying.

Walsh, project leader and senior curator of Vertebrate Palaeobiology at National Museums Scotland, says that by charting the relative size of parts of the avian brain, researchers believe they can discover how the flocculus has evolved to deal with different flying abilities.

"This gives us new information about when birds first evolved the power of flight," he says.

The central research question is whether a larger flocculus is directly linked to a greater ability to process the visual and balance signals during flight. If proven, this could mark a major step forward in understanding bird evolution, and may shed light on whether some remarkably bird-like dinosaurs were truly dinosaurs or actually secondary flightless birds.

"The inability to fly has evolved numerous times through the evolutionary history of birds," says Iwaniuk. "Examples include penguins, kiwis and ostriches, as well as the extinct Great Auk of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Dodo. In fact, many flightless species are highly endangered or extinct, which is why this study relies on museum specimens to chart the shape and size of the brain. By performing these comparisons, we hope to better understand the behaviour of several extinct species as well as the changes required in the brain to evolve flight."

The researchers believe that the brain power required for flight may have become reduced in such species.

The project is scheduled to run until early 2012.

Iwaniuk, collection, central to flight study

trevor.kenney — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:22:58 +0000

U of L neuroscientist, Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk, who has amassed the world's largest collection of bird brain sections, is partnering with researchers at the National Museums Scotland and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Abertay Dundee to digitally reconstruct the size of bird brains using ancient fossils and modern bird skulls.

Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk has amassed the world’s largest collection of bird brain sections.

"The majority of my research addresses how the brain evolves, particularly with respect to behaviour," says Iwaniuk. "For example, my NSERC funded research aims to determine how the evolution of novel courtship behaviours in birds is associated with changes in the brain. This research is critical to understanding how the brain evolves in all animals, including humans."

The opportunity to be part of both an evolutionary and behavioural program appeals to Iwaniuk.

"Dr. Stig Walsh (National Museums Scotland) contacted me about a potential collaboration on the evolution of avian brains," says Iwaniuk.
"He was interested in reconstructing the brains of extinct birds and comparing the shape of their brains with that of modern birds. Similar comparisons have proven useful in understanding the behaviour of dinosaurs and various extinct mammals, including sabre-toothed cats and the ancestors of humans. However, there are few such comparisons involving birds. In this project, we aim to determine if there are changes occurring in the brain that coincide with the evolution of flightlessness."

Among other tools, researchers are using an incredibly sensitive CT (computerized tomography) scanner at Abertay ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Dundee, Scotland. They intend to analyze whole skulls and fossilized fragments to recreate accurate 3D models of extinct birds' brains. This is where Iwaniuk's collection comes into play.

He and Dr. Doug Wylie, a colleague at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, have hundreds of bird species catalogued, and have recorded and sectioned their brains to chart changes in development. The brain sections could be measured to micron accuracy to re-create the complete brain, and then be matched with a similar bird skull in modern and fossil form. Bird skulls grow to a fixed size before they leave the nest, with the brain then growing to almost completely fill the cavity space. This means that bird skulls can be used to accurately calculate the size and shape of the brain.

By working this out, the size of the flocculus, a small part of the cerebellum responsible for integrating visual and balance signals during flight, can be established. The flocculus allows birds to focus on objects moving in three dimensions while they are flying.

Walsh, project leader and senior curator of Vertebrate Palaeobiology at National Museums Scotland, says that by charting the relative size of parts of the avian brain, researchers believe they can discover how the flocculus has evolved to deal with different flying abilities.

"This gives us new information about when birds first evolved the power of flight," he says.

The central research question is whether a larger flocculus is directly linked to a greater ability to process the visual and balance signals during flight. If proven, this could mark a major step forward in understanding bird evolution, and may shed light on whether some remarkably bird-like dinosaurs were truly dinosaurs or actually secondary flightless birds.

"The inability to fly has evolved numerous times through the evolutionary history of birds," says Iwaniuk. "Examples include penguins, kiwis and ostriches, as well as the extinct Great Auk of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Dodo. In fact, many flightless species are highly endangered or extinct, which is why this study relies on museum specimens to chart the shape and size of the brain. By performing these comparisons, we hope to better understand the behaviour of several extinct species as well as the changes required in the brain to evolve flight."

The researchers believe that the brain power required for flight may have become reduced in such species.

The project is scheduled to run until early 2012.

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

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