Category: Environmental Science

BRANDON, MB – With “I do so promise”, Dr. Gervan Albert Fearon was installed as the 15th President of Brandon University (BU) before a crowd including students, staff, provincial and federal politicians, Aboriginal leaders, and academics and University administrators from across Canada.
Cloaked in the grey and blue robes of office, President and Vice Chancellor Fearon thanked the audience for the opportunity to serve and to lead, noting, “We are all here with the sense of a brighter future for the University, and that spirit binds us.”
University Chancellor Michael Decter introduced Dr. Fearon as someone “who can move people in the direction of positive and constructive change”, a theme repeated by the province’s Minister of Education and Advanced Learning.

BRANDON, MB – A biology professor at Brandon University (BU) is studying an organic farm in southern Manitoba to better understand the owners’ success, and pass along that knowledge to other organic growers.
Dr. Terence McGonigle says there is an increasing market demand for meats, vegetables and fruit produced through ecological methods without the use of synthetic fertilizers, synthetic pesticides or genetically modified organisms.

BRANDON, MB – A renowned whale researcher who appears in a celebrated documentary movie that’s generating Academy Award buzz will be speaking at Brandon University (BU).
Dr. Dave Duffus, associate professor at the University of Victoria, is featured in the 2013 film Blackfish, which explores the controversy of killer whales in captivity.

BRANDON, MB – Manitoba’s only lizard, the endangered northern prairie skink, will receive new protection thanks to efforts by a researcher from Brandon University (BU).
Dr. Pam Rutherford, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology, has convinced the Canadian Herpetological Society to designate Spruce Woods Provincial Park an Important Amphibian & Reptile Area.

BRANDON, MB – Student success is at the heart of a new collaborative agreement signed today between Brandon University (BU) and Assiniboine Community College (ACC), a partnership to explore new courses, research opportunities and student mobility between the two institutions.
BU VP Heather Duncan signs MOU as Premier Selinger, MLA Caldwell, ACC VO Moes, BU President Fearon and Education Minister Allum look on
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will enhance both programming and accessibility for more than 9,500 students enrolled each year in post-secondary education in Brandon and the surrounding area.

BRANDON, MB – Following an exhaustive cross-Canada search, the Brandon University (BU) Board of Governors takes great pride in announcing that Dr. Gervan Fearon begins a five year appointment as President and Vice-Chancellor, effective August 1st, 2014.
Dr. Gervan Fearon
Currently the Vice-President (Academic and Provost), Dr. Fearon joined BU in 2013 as part of the senior executive team, developing and promoting academic programming and research advancement, and overseeing the University’s Faculties, Student and Registrarial Services, Library Services, and Information Technology Services.

BRANDON, MB – A handful of Brandon University (BU) students has been awarded federal funding for exciting research projects in biology, physics, and chemistry.
The Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA) are given annually to high achievers by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), to encourage graduate studies and research careers in the sciences.

BRANDON, MB – A Brandon University (BU) researcher, working with students and an international team, has new evidence suggesting prehistoric earth was lusher than previously imagined – a rainforest from pole to pole. A major part of their findings, just published in the European geosciences journal Climate of the Past, is reshaping scientific discussions about our world’s climate then and now.
“Our research shows that interior British Columbia and Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, about 55-million years ago, were both very wet, supporting rainforests,” says Dr. David Greenwood from BU’s Department of Biology.