AG e-news April 9, 2019
News and events from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences
News and events from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences
UPCOMING EVENTS
Wednesday, April 10 – The UofM Food Systems Research Group is holding a special student seminar “Bridging the Gap: The Power of Collaborative Research” at 9:30 am in 320 Sinnott Building, by graduate students Hannah Bihun and Roxie Koohgoli, members of the Food Systems Student Symposium (F3S) planning committee.
Wednesday, April 10 – The Soil Science Seminar Series will feature Dr. Udaya Vitharana, Senior Lecturer, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Visiting Scholar, Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences, University of Winnipeg, at 12:30 pm in Room 346 Ellis Building on the topic “Global Spatial Estimates of Soil Organic Carbon Stocks: Present Status and Future Needs”.
Wednesday, April 10 – The final seminar in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Seminar Series will be held at 3:30 pm in the Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre, 130 Agriculture Building. Chengbo Yang, Department of Animal Science, and Francis Lin, Department of Astronomy and Physics, will present “Towards economical & faster methods for detecting mycotoxin”. Refreshments will be served at 3:00 pm in the Atrium. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Thursday, April 11 – The University of Manitoba speaker series Visionary Conversations hosted by President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. David Barnard will present “Healthcare as a human right; how do we break down barriers for queer Manitobans?” at the Frederic Gaspard Theatre (Theatre A) with overflow in Theatre B (livestream), Basic Medical Sciences Building, 727 McDermot Avenue. Doors open at 6:00 pm, panel discussion 7-8:30 pm and reception at 8:30 pm. Admission is free but seating is limited. This event is nearing capacity but will be live-Facebooked and livestreamed. Please register at www.umanitoba.ca/visionaryconversations or call 204-474-9071. More information at http://news.umanitoba.ca/visionary-conversations/.
Friday, April 12 – The Department of Biosystems Engineering invites you to public presentations for candidates for the Assistant Professor position in Smart Technologies in Agricultural and Food Systems. On April 12, “Technology and Weather Trends on Crop Yields” will be presented by C. Brock Porth, Ph.D., P.Eng., Assistant Professor (Contingent), Department of Biosystems Engineering, University of Manitoba at 10:30-11:30 am in E2-350 EITC (Engineering). All are welcome.
Wednesday, April 17 – The Department of Biosystems Engineering invites you to public presentations for candidates for the Assistant Professor position in Smart Technologies in Agricultural and Food Systems. On April 17, “Adaptive Decision-Making from Farm-to-Fork using Big Data” will be presented by Chyngyz Erkinbaev, Ph.D., CFI Research Technician/Post-Doc, Department of Biosystems Engineering, University of Manitoba at 10:30-11:30 am in E2-350 EITC (Engineering). All are welcome.
Thursday, April 18 – The Department of Biosystems Engineering invites you to public presentations for candidates for the Assistant Professor position in Smart Technologies in Agricultural and Food Systems. On April 18, “Emerging Technologies in Data Acquisition and Sensing for Agricultural and Food Production and Preservation” will be presented by Mohammad Asefi, Ph.D., Director of Research, 151 Research Inc., Winnipeg, MB at 10:30-11:30 am in E2-350 EITC (Engineering). All are welcome.
Tuesday, April 23 – The next RCFFN Coffee Talk will feature Karen Meekler, Access and Privacy Office, University of Manitoba, who will be conducting an access and privacy refresher 9:00 am to 10:30 am at the Lecture Theatre, Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, 196 Innovation Drive.
Tuesday, April 23 – The Department of Biosystems Engineering invites you to public presentations for candidates for the Assistant Professor position in Smart Technologies in Agricultural and Food Systems. On April 23, “Biosystems Automation & Robotics using ICT and Deep Learning for Digital Agriculture” will be presented by Young K. Chang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Engineering, Dalhousie University at 10:30-11:30 am in E2-350 EITC (Engineering). All are welcome.
Wednesday, April 24 – There will be a free American Oil Chemists Society webinar on “Defining the Quality of Plant-Based Proteins: Challenges and Opportunities for Pulses” presented by Jim House, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences. Register at https://www.aocs.org/store/shop-aocs/shop-aocs?productId=230548936.
Friday, April 26 – There will be a NCLE Special Seminar “Sustainability as (re)organizing principle and moving target: Considering the past, present, and future of industrial livestock systems” presented by Nathan Pelletier, NSERC/Egg Farmers of Canada Industrial Research Chair in Sustainability and Endowed Chair in Bio-economy Sustainability Management, University of British Columbia – Okanagan, at 10:00 am in 219 Animal Science/Entomology Building. Read more at https://eventscalendar.umanitoba.ca/site/fafs/event/ncle-special-seminar-sustainability-as-reorganizing-principle-and-moving-target-considering/.
Friday, May 3 – The 2019 Diploma Convocation will be held at 3:30 pm in the Investors Group Athletic Centre. All are welcome to attend!
Friday, May 10 – The Department of Statistics is offering the workshop “Introduction to R” 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm, Friday, May 10, 311 Machray Hall. $30 course fee. Space is limited to 35 seats. Registration deadline: May 6. To register for this workshop, please email consulting@stats.umanitoba.ca.
May 29-31 – Bridge2Food is hosting the 12th Plant Protein Ingredients Summit 2019 in Saskatoon, SK, and Jim House, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, will be one of the speakers on the topic “Protein Nutrition: What is a ‘good protein’? Challenges of Brands to use Proteins”. Learn more at https://bridge2food.com/summits/plant-protein-ingredients-summit/.
June 11-14 – The Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) 2019 Conference will be hosted by the University of Manitoba, Red River College and Universite de Saint-Boniface at the RBC Convention Centre with the theme “Guiding the Journey: Learner-Teacher-Learner.” Complete details and registration at https://stlhe2019sapes.ca/.
STAFF AND STUDENT NEWS
Two faculty members are recipients of the 2018 Terry G. Falconer Memorial Rh Institute Foundation Emerging Researcher Awards which will be presented on April 29 at the Rh Awards Ceremony Lecture and Reception. Congrats go to Emma McGeough, Animal Science, who is receiving the award for Applied Sciences and to Chengbo Yang, Animal Science, who is receiving the award for Natural Sciences. Read more at http://news.umanitoba.ca/clinician-scientists-critical-for-the-evolution-of-healthcare/.
From the Natural Systems lab, Keith Bamford, Plant Science technician, traveled to Saskatoon March 29 to present a talk titled “No-till organic seeding systems” at SaskOrganics – Advancing Organics conference. Katherine Stanley, Plant Science research associate, traveled to Bismarck, ND on March 26 to present at NDSU’s Organic Agronomy Training Series.
Brian Amiro, Soil Science, and Karin Wittenberg, Animal Science, were plenary speakers at the 15th Annual Banff Conference of the Alberta Institute of Agrologists March 27-29. Their presentation was titled “Still Moving Toward Prairie Agriculture 2050”. This was a sequel to their 2014 Green Paper, “Moving Toward Prairie Agriculture 2050”, which they co-authored with Christine Rawluk.
A number of awards were presented at Degree Grads Farewell on March 16. FASO major awards went to students Connor Shirtliff, Chris Manchur, Courtney Boyachek, Kristen Timmerman and Adelle Gervin. The John Roth Memorial Award, given to a student who has demonstrated leadership and community involvement, has promoted faculty spirit and encouraged student involvement in faculty events, and has demonstrated a commitment to Agriculture, was presented to Adelle Gervin. The graduating class selected Joyce Slater, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, as Professor of the Year. See photos from the evening at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2306428856261351.
It’s spring and that means a new FASO student council has been elected! Congratulations to new Senior Stick Emily Bouvier and her council mates – you can see the complete list on the FASO website here https://uofmaggies.ca/about-us/.
A special reception to honour scholarship recipients was held April 3 by the Department of Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics. Connor Shirtliff, Shania Miralda, Lauryn Keen, Brian Archibald, and Kiana Sajtos were awarded the 2018-2019 CIBC Agricultural Scholarship for Agribusiness undergraduates. Invited guests from CIBC included Quinn Friesen, agriculture banking specialist, and Lance Derksen, senior manager for Pembina Valley. Read more at http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/afs/dept/agribusiness/2446.html.
The Emerging Leader Awards were announced and six FAFS students were named recipients – diploma students Krystal Pelepiuk, Mathieu Simard, and Julia Strecker; degree students Michelle La and Bhanu Pilli; and graduate student Matthew Granger. This award recognizes students who contribute to the social, cultural or economic well-being of communities on and/or off campus, while encouraging cross cultural understanding and demonstrating sustained leadership and initiative.
IN THE NEWS
Rick Holley, distinguished professor emeritus in Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, was interviewed by several media outlets last week on recent salmonella outbreaks – https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/chicken-salmonella-bacteria-illness-1.5066249 CTV News (and many others that picked up this Canadian Press story) https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/public-health-agency-of-canada-says-salmonella-outbreak-in-6-provinces-63-sick-1.4367481
Acey Brinkman, Drew Gerbrandt, Jill Martens and Pete Giesbrecht are four of our Diploma in Agriculture students who had the opportunity to chat with the Manitoba Co-operator (April 5) during the FCC Ignite event recently – https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/news-opinion/news/video-igniting-young-minds-in-agriculture/.
Qiang Zhang, Biosystems Engineering, was featured in an article “A container for growing – rather than shipping – food for Canada’s North” in the Globe and Mail Innovation and Technology Report (April 3) – https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/adv/article-a-container-for-growing-rather-than-shipping-food-for-canadas/
Jonathan Rosset, M.Sc. student Plant Science, is the next graduate student to be profiled in the Faculty’s Q&A series on UM Today – http://news.umanitoba.ca/qa-with-jonathan-rosset/
Dean Martin Scanlon wrote an opinion piece entitled “Agricultural innovation key to sector growth” for The Hills Times (March 20) – http://news.umanitoba.ca/op-ed-agricultural-innovation-key-to-sector-growth/
GENERAL NEWS
Support Staff Recognition! Show your appreciation of a support staff member or team by nominating them for the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Support Staff Awards. Deadline is May 1 – details and nomination form is at http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/afs/staff/supportstaffawards.html.
Call for Abstracts – On June 26, graduate students across departments and faculties (arts, agricultural and food sciences, biological sciences, environment, engineering) – in conjunction with the Food Systems Research Group – are putting on the second annual Food Systems and Sustainability Symposium. Graduate students from ANY department at the University of Manitoba wanting to share their research towards understanding and improving our shared food system are invited to submit an abstract. Student Presentation Abstracts deadline has been extended to May 24.. More information at www.uomfssc.wordpress.com.
The University of Manitoba Employees Scholarship (UMES) is a scholarship that is available to the spouse or dependent children of University of Manitoba employees or retired former employees. The deadline to submit applications for the UMES scholarship is May 31, 2019. Applications can be found online at http://umanitoba.ca/student/fin_awards/scholarships/1720.html.