Queen’s University will be able to provide renewed support for its new STEM: Indigenous Academics (STEM:InA) program, thanks to a $1 million endowment established by alumnus Norman Loveland BSc’65 (Civil),  JD (University of Toronto) and his wife, Gay Loveland, MEd (University of Toronto).

The Lovelands decided to support STEM:InA, an academic support and community-building program for Indigenous students enrolled in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) -based undergraduate degree programs through the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Queen’s. The program will build on the success of the Aboriginal Access to Engineering program that their endowed gift continues to support.

“This endowment from the Lovelands will truly help us create a strong and successful community of Indigenous STEM students here at Queen’s,” says Karen Bertrand, Vice-Principal, Advancement. “This initiative provides Indigenous students with the social and academic foundation they need to thrive and make a positive impact on the world, and this endowment makes that possible.”

The Lovelands are long-time champions of Queen’s engineering programs and have previously funded endowments that continue to provide: awards for Civil Engineering students based on financial need and achievement;  support for the Aboriginal Access to Engineering (AAE) program, a faculty initiative designed to make engineering education accessible and inclusive to Indigenous youth;  and funding for the Norman and Gay Loveland Civil Engineering Fund, which supports the Department of Civil Engineering to further its relations with its varied stakeholders: staff, graduate and undergraduate students, alumni, government, industry partners and friends.

“We are very proud of our connection to Queen’s and its ongoing commitment to Indigenous students,” Norman Loveland says. “Gay and I hope that our support of the Engineering portion of the program might inspire further philanthropic support to it, and to the other faculties involved, notably Arts and Science and Health Sciences.”

STEM:InA aims to create a strong and successful community of Indigenous STEM students at Queen’s through services, programming, and events. STEM:InA also works to alleviate the isolation felt by many Indigenous STEM students by building a distinct Indigenous STEM community.

Kevin Deluzio’s term as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science will conclude June 30, 2022. Dr. Deluzio has indicated he would like to stand for a second term.

In accordance with the Appointment of Deans procedure established by Senate, Principal and Vice-Chancellor Patrick Deane is calling upon the Queen’s community for submissions of opinion on the direction and leadership of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science.  Submissions should be directed to the email: principal@queensu.ca

Those submitting their views in writing are to state whether they wish to have their letters shown, in confidence, to members of the Advisory Committee. Committee membership will be announced shortly. Principal Deane has asked Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Mark Green to chair the Advisory Committee that will make recommendations to the principal on the appointment of the next dean.

As stipulated by Senate policy, Principal Deane will also be writing directly to members of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science’s Faculty Board and invite them to submit their views on the question of potential candidates and matters pertaining to present administration and future development.

All community members are encouraged to fully engage in this process. Principal Deane thanks all for their time and consideration.

For the Record provides postings of appointment, committee, grant, award, and other notices set out by collective agreements and university policies and processes. It is the university’s primary vehicle for sharing this information with our community.

Submit For the Record information for posting to Gazette editor Andrew Carroll.

Selection Committee appointed for Head, Department of Gender Studies

Dr. Elaine Power’s term as Head of the Department of Gender Studies is scheduled to end on Dec. 30, 2021. Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) has appointed a Selection Committee to advise him on the appointment of the next department head. The Selection Committee has the following membership: 

Committee Members

• Grace Adeniyi-Ogunyankin, Assistant Professor, Gender Studies
• Melissa Houghtaling, Assistant Professor, Gender Studies
• Margaret Little, Professor, Gender Studies
• Katherine McKittrick, Professor, Gender Studies
• Trish Salah, Associate Professor, Gender Studies
• Marcus Taylor, Cognate Faculty, Associate Professor, Global Development Studies
• Denita Arthurs, Department Manager and Graduate Program Administrator, Gender Studies
• Sarah Smith, Graduate Student, Gender Studies
• Charlie Atkinson, Undergraduate Student, Gender Studies
• Chris DeLuca, Associate Dean (School of Graduate Studies)
• Barbara Crow (Chair), Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science
• Danielle Gugler (Secretary), Faculty of Arts and Science

Pursuant to Articles 41.3 and 41.3.6 of the Collective Agreement between Queen’s University Faculty Association and Queen’s University at Kingston, comments on the present state and future prospects of the Department of Gender Studies can be submitted by Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021. Names of possible candidates for the headship may also be submitted. Please send all comments, in confidence, to the attention of Danielle Gugler [danielle.gugler@queensu.ca]. All letters will be reviewed by the Selection Committee and will become part of the record of decision-making.

At the request of either the department members or the committee, a meeting can be arranged between the department and the committee to ascertain the department’s views on the qualities of a head. Once a short list has been established, it will be distributed to members of the department for further input on the merits of the respective candidate(s).

New Hires – Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science

The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science welcomes the following new faculty members to Queen’s University:

• Matthew Pan – Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sept. 1, 2021
• Ryan Grant – Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Oct. 1, 2021
• Alexander Tait – Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Jan. 1, 2022

What can genomics teach us about the breakdown of plastic? To answer this question, a multidisciplinary team of Queen’s researchers made up of Laurence Yang (Chemical Engineering), David Zechel (Chemistry), George diCenzo (Biology), and James McLellan (Chemical Engineering) have received a $7.9 million grant from Genome Canada for a new project exploring a microbial platform for breaking down and valorizing waste plastic, which can then be repurposed to produce recycled products.

Plastic is a widely used cheap and effective way to store and transport goods. However, its popularity, especially for single-use products, has made it a pervasive environmental contaminant. In Canada, 2.8 million tons of plastic wind up in landfills every year and an additional 29,000 tons leak into our environment and oceans. Waste plastic has devastating environmental impacts, one of which includes the death of 100,000 marine mammals annually, through ingestion or entanglement. Despite this, demand continues to grow and Canadian plastic production is increasing, with an additional 4.8 million tons being produced every year.

Traditional methods of curbing plastic pollution are underutilized and only nine per cent of plastic is currently recycled worldwide. Consequently, academics, manufacturers, and governments are working toward a new paradigm, where plastics will be made from recycled or biodegradable components, facilitating transition from a linear use to a circular use model and better enabling a zero-plastic waste future.

To help drive this paradigm shift, Dr. Yang, his colleagues, and their team consisting of multiple universities, industry and municipal partners are working on an economically-viable innovation that harnesses genomics technologies to recover value from waste plastic. Affiliated with the Contaminants of Emerging Concern - Research Excellence Network (CEC-REN) at Queen’s, this project will use metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, whole-genome sequencing, and functional genomics to identify and engineer bacteria and enzymes that can break down plastics into recyclable components or into valuable fine chemicals that can be used for other purposes. A secondary aim of this project involves investigating the impact of these newly-developed plastic biotechnologies on the environment, economy, and society as a whole.

“Our team of 21 investigators from six universities are developing a systems approach to tackling plastic waste: from genomes to new enzymatic processes, fully integrated with environmental, social, economic, and policy research to facilitate uptake,” says Dr. Yang, Principal Investigator on the project. “Our open science framework will allow us to rapidly share knowledge with diverse private and public sector partners, as we collectively innovate toward a zero-waste future where plastics benefit society without causing a negative impact on the environment.”

Plastic biotechnologies could help revolutionize Canadian plastic production and use. It has been estimated that diverting 90 per cent of our national waste plastic from landfills to recycling can reduce 1.8 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year in greenhouse gas emissions, save $500 million per year in costs, and create 42,000 jobs in new industries. Globally, a circular economy for plastics is projected to lead to billions of dollars in savings. An environmentally sustainable future may not be one that eliminates the use of plastics altogether, but rather one where plastics are deliberately chosen and circulated as resources, not discarded as waste.

The project funding was announced today as part of an investment of over $60 million from Genome Canada, provincial and federal partners, universities, and industry collaborators for eight large-scale applied research projects across Canada. The projects will harness genomics research and technologies for natural resources conservation, environmental protection, and sustainability. For more on the announcement, visit the website.

Four Queen’s University faculty members have been inducted as Fellows of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), the academy announced on June 14. Kim McAuley, Mark Diederichs, Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Mark F. Green, and Ugo Piomelli are among the 52 inductees for 2021.

Additionally, Queen’s alumni, Kim Sturgess, founder and CEO of Alberta WaterSMART, was the recipient of the Léopold Nadeau Memorial Award.

The CAE is the national institution through which individuals, who have made outstanding contributions to engineering in Canada, provide strategic advice on matters of critical importance to Canada and to Canadians. Fellows of the CAE, a self-governing, non-profit established in 1987, are nominated and elected by their peers in recognition of their distinguished achievements and career-long service to the engineering profession.

An induction ceremony to honour the 2020 and 2021 fellows will be held in October.

Dr. McAuley is an award-winning researcher in mathematical modeling of chemical processes, whose models and statistical techniques are used by chemical and pharmaceutical corporations for process design, scale-up, optimization and control. Collaborating with medical physicists, Dr. McAuley, a winner of the DG Fisher Award and Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, utilized modeling and statistical skills to advance the field of radiation dosimetry. Her team developed gel dosimeter recipes with enhanced sensitivity and chemical safety, which are used for quality assurance of 3D radiation dose distributions generated by cancer radiotherapy equipment. Dr. McAuley is lab leader of the Chemical Process Mathematics Lab, a multi-institutional laboratory of the Fields Institute’s Centre for Quantitative Analysis and Modeling.

Dr. Diederichs is an accomplished geological engineer with an exemplary record of contributing to the profession and positively influencing students/peers. He is a world expert, prominent lecturer, and top researcher. He is a sought-after international expert consultant, with roles in design and construction of world class tunnelling, mining, and hydro-power projects, producing tangible results through improved understanding of rock engineering at the project scale. Dr. Diederichs’ contributions to the engineering profession has vastly improved understanding by society, researchers, and industry regarding state-of-the-art geotechnical engineering. He is a visionary engineer with an outstanding record of creativity, enthusiasm, and innovation. Dr. Diedrichs was also named a Fellow of the American Rock Mechanics Association in early 2021.

Dr. Green, Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic), was recently the program leader for the innovative Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program, “Sustainable Engineering in Remote Areas.” Dr. Green is an internationally recognized leader in applications of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) materials to concrete structures, and the dynamics of bridge-vehicle interaction. He has published over 250 journal and conference papers and has won the Professional Engineers Ontario Medal for Research and Development and the Premier’s Research Excellence Award. Dr. Green is an advocate for engineering education for Indigenous students.

Dr. Piomelli is an international leader in the field of fluid mechanics and has developed advanced models for the prediction of turbulent flows and applied them successfully to problems in engineering and the natural sciences. His studies have resulted in improved understanding and prediction of the physics of turbulence. Models Dr. Piomelli introduced are in widespread use in the industrial and research communities. His impact is reflected in his publication and citation records, in the placement of his students in faculty positions at prestigious Universities in the U.S. and Europe, and in the awards and fellowships he has received.

The Léopold Nadeau Memorial Award for Distinguished Service is presented to acknowledge and celebrate the extraordinary efforts made by a fellow, helping to further the objective of the Academy. Dr. Sturgess received the award, which was established in 2008, to recognize her efforts as president of the CAE (2011-12). During her tenure, Dr. Sturgess refocused the operations of the Academy to be active, forward looking and take a more strategic approach. She also played a crucial role in the development of the Calgary section of CAE and promoted a significant increase of Western Canada representation in the Academy. Dr. Sturgess, who graduated from Queen’s with a degree in engineering physics, also received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Queen’s in 2016. That same year, she received the Order of Canada for her outstanding achievement, dedication to the community, and service to the nation. She was previously awarded the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal, YWCA Women of Distinction Award, and named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women, among many other accolades.

For more information, visit the CAE website.