Readership Survey
Work-term placements with National Research Council result in patent application, journal publication
BY REBECCA KENDALL
During the past three years, Marc Lamoureux has been learning about science in a way that's resulted in a patent application and his work being published in the Canadian Journal of Chemistry. The patent, which lists him as co-inventor, is related to a chemical structure that will be useful in identifying and targeting an organism that is a major cause of bacterial food poisoning.
In addition, Lamoureux was acknowledged for technical assistance in articles published in Molecular Microbiology, FEBS Journal and Journal of Bacteriology, and he co-authored research posters that were presented in Ottawa and Australia.
Not bad for a U of G student who hadn't yet completed his undergraduate degree.
Lamoureux spent four co-op work terms at the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada's Institute for Biological Sciences and was honoured in March with U of G's Co-op Student of the Year Award. He graduated in February.
“It's been an invaluable learning experience and helped me tremendously on an academic level,” he says. “My experience at NRC has given me such an academic advantage over the years and proved to be especially helpful in my last semester.”
He is currently working at NRC with his former supervisor and getting ready to start graduate work in medical physics in the fall. Although he has yet to decide which school to attend, he is armed with a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Graduate Scholarship valued at $17,500. In addition to his co-op award from Guelph, he received an honourable mention in the national co-op student of the year competition.
“My work terms at NRC enhanced my research skills and knowledge dramatically because they involved a broad range of subjects, including physics, animal science, structural biology and genetics,” says Lamoureux. “In addition, my co-op experience has built up my confidence not only as a scientist but also as a public speaker and a team member.”
The Co-op Employer of the Year Award was presented to Jeanne Bank on behalf of the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), a not-for-profit membership-based association serving business, industry, government and consumers in Canada and around the world.
Over the past seven years, the CSA has employed a total of 23 co-op students from Guelph's marketing and consumer studies, family and social relations, psychology and gerontology programs.
Jaime-Lee Brown, a student nominator of the CSA and a graduate of Guelph's psychology co-op program, completed a work term with the CSA, where she gained a solid base of knowledge and experience in consumer policy and standards development.
“My term at the CSA was a wonderful learning experience,” says Brown. She attributes the success of her placement to Bank, her CSA supervisor, “who was always mindful that tasks and projects assigned to me were in line with my learning goals.”
Previous recipients of the award are Uniroyal Chemical Ltd., Sybase Inc., McNeil Consumer Healthcare and the Toronto office of Acres & Associated Environmental Limited.
Also honoured at the awards presentation were Melissa Koschmider (Co-op Student Involvement Award), Adam Crossley (Kenneth James Berg Memorial Scholarship), Kate Oostrom (Guelph Trillium Rotary Award for Work-Term Excellence) and Lukas Beaton (CIBC Co-op Work Report Excellence Award).
