Zoe Finkel awarded a Canada Research Chair
Thursday, 10 October 2011
SACKVILLE, NB —Mount Allison geography and environment professor and award-winning researcher Dr. Zoe Finkel has been named the newest Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Marine Environmental Ecology. The announcement was made as part of a national announcement by the Canada Research Chairs program on October 12.
Finkel’s research examines the effects of climate change on phytoplankton, microscopic organisms that live in the ocean, which produce half of all the oxygen on earth, and regulate carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations in the atmosphere.
As the CRC in Marine Environmental Ecology, Finkel will continue her extensive research program at Mount Allison, which includes partnering with researchers on campus, across the country, and internationally. She will be looking at how phytoplankton respond to changes in their environment caused by climate change such as temperature, pH, carbon dioxide, and nutrient concentration. Her research will improve understanding of how phytoplankton, and the marine food web, will change and be changed by climate.
Mount Allison Provost and Vice-President, Academic and Research, Berkeley Fleming says, “Dr. Finkel’s research program is one of global importance, and we are very pleased that, through having been awarded a CRC, she has been recognized for what she surely is, one of the finest researchers in the country. I look forward to Dr. Finkel’s continuing her work with students and colleagues at Mount Allison, and around the world, for many years to come."
Although based at Mount Allison, Finkel is currently conducting research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She also oversees the Mount Allison Marine Macroecology and Biogeochemistry (MMAB) Lab with math and computer science professor Dr. Andrew Irwin, as well as several undergraduate students and researchers, exploring applications that will greatly improve our understanding of the consequences of climate change (http://www.mmab.ca/)
Finkel is one of five Canada Research Chairs at Mount Allison University. The Canada Research Chairs program provides funding in support of exceptional, world-leading researchers at Canadian Universities. Along with Finkel, Mount Allison’s current CRC’s include biology professor Dr. Douglas Campbell, CRC in Environmental Processes (Tier 1); geography and environment professor Dr. Ian Mauro, CRC in Human Dimensions of Environmental Change; physics professor Dr. David Fleming, CRC in Medical Physics; and economics professor and CRC in Canadian Public Policy Dr. Craig Brett.