New U of G Environmental Institute Funding Eight Research Projects

Press Release

April 21, 2020

With Earth Day approaching, the University of Guelph’s new Guelph Institute for Environmental Research (GIER) is announcing its first round of funding towards eight diverse research projects, all aimed at solving global environmental problems.

GIER is providing $111,000 through its Small Grants Program towards research projects ranging from green approaches to removing contaminates from water, to the impact of fish hatcheries on sustainability, to the establishment of a northern research hub.

GIER was created in late 2019 to tackle the world’s environmental problems through innovation and interdisciplinary collaborative research, building on U of G’s expertise in the environment and sustainability.

“More than ever before, we are seeing that the ‘environment’ is a complex, interconnected system in which conversations between researchers in the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the arts need to happen,” said Prof. Madhur Anand, the inaugural director of GIER. “That is why GIER was established.”

Interdisciplinary research and new partnerships spanning all seven of U of G’s colleges will help solve current environmental problems and avert environmental catastrophes in the future, she added.

The researchers receiving funding as part of the Small Grants Program include:

• Prof. Michael Denk, Chemistry, for the development of a new green approach to removing chlorinated contaminants from water and soil.
• Prof. Amanda Boetzkes, Fine Art and Music, received funding to explore the political rationales and ethical depositions that inform cultural responses to climate change in Greenland.
• Profs. Philip Loring, Geography, Environment and Geomatics, and Nicolas Brunet, Environmental Design and Rural Development, will collaborate with the Shawanaga First Nation near Parry Sound, Ont. to explore the impacts of fish hatchery methods on sustainability.
• Prof. Stefan Kremer, Computer Science, along with Prof. Genevieve Ali, Environmental Science, will design a machine-learning model to predict the flows and floods of Ontario’s Grand River with the aim of reducing environmental and health risks and minimizing property damage.
• Prof. Catherine Bush, English and Theatre Studies, is working with artists and scientists to explore the role that imagination plays in how we view and respond to the climate crisis.
• Profs. Craig Johnson, Political Science, and Kirby Calvert, Geography, Environment and Geomatics, will explore the ecological and social impact of global supply chains for solar panels, wind turbines, and chemical batteries.
• Profs. Thomas McIlwraith, Sociology and Anthropology, Shoshanah Jacobs and Sarah Adamowicz, Integrative Biology, Nicolas Brunet, Environmental Design and Rural Development, and Daniel Gillis, Computer Science, will establish a northern environmental research hub at U of G.
• Profs. Claudia Wagner-Riddle and Kari Dunfield, Environmental Science, Helen Hambly, Environmental Design and Rural Development, and Alfons Weersink, Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics, are promoting interdisciplinary research on soil health.

Pressing global challenges like the climate crisis and the rapid decline in biodiversity are interdisciplinary in nature, requiring an understanding of human-environment interactions, said Anand.

“The broad range of projects funded so far by GIER reflect that perspective.”

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519-824-4120, Ext. 53338,
lhunt@uoguelph.ca

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Manager, News Service
519-824-4120, Ext. 56581,
healeyd@uoguelph.ca

Angela Mulholland,
News Service Officer
519-824-4120, Ext. 56982,
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