Features

Supporting rural communities and promoting sustainable food systems are the shared concerns of two University of Guelph emerging researchers who will receive the Government of Canada’s most prestigious scholarships. Maria Margarita Fontecha, PhD candidate in rural studies and an Arrell Scholar, has received a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship worth $50,000 per year for up to three years. Dr. Khodokar Kabir, post-doctoral fellow in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, has received a prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship worth $70,000 a year.

You could say Rebecca Osborne conducts her research at a snail’s pace.

And like that old adage of “slow and steady wins the race,” Osborne has indeed won. For the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Science Exposed photo contest, a snapshot of snail embryos by the U of G environmental science and toxicology doctoral candidate took home one of three jury prizes as well as the people’s choice prize.

“It’s really exciting to feel like my work is getting out there,” Osborne said.

Strip mall parking lots have never been renowned for their ability to entice passers-by to gather and mingle. But that has been changing in parts of Toronto in the last few years thanks to a University of Guelph-led project called plazaPOPS. 

The project has transformed barren parking lots in Toronto’s outer boroughs into inviting spaces where residents can sit and chat between shopping errands, or where entire neighbourhoods can gather for day-long community and cultural events. 

What does the future of food look like?  

The University of Guelph will help answer that question and more as it takes part in the 100th anniversary of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair – the largest fair of its kind in the world. The event takes place Nov. 4-13 under the theme “A Century of Champions.” 

The fair will encourage its 300,000 visitors to discover and learn about all that is equestrian, agricultural, culinary and educational.  

As interest grows in the possible therapeutic effects of psilocybin — a key active compound in so-called “magic mushrooms”– University of Guelph plant science researchers are preparing to begin research into this promising field. 

With Ottawa currently discussing a federal plan to reduce Canadian greenhouse gases, research by University of Guelph environmental scientists suggests that planting cover crops may help farmers mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from soil.

The team’s field experiments showed for the first time that planting cover crops such as red clover to protect and enrich soil over the winter can also reduce agricultural emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas.

Amid record-breaking heat waves and growing migration into cities, a University of Guelph atmospheric scientist has helped assemble a comprehensive overview of the problem of urban overheating, defining some key ways that cities can adapt as the planet warms. 

Dr. Scott Krayenhoff, a professor in the Ontario Agricultural College’s School of Environmental Sciences who studies the effects of urban development on climate, is one of two lead authors on the new paper, which appears in the journal Earth’s Future. 

What goes up must come down. That rings true for physics and for a batch of barley seeds University of Guelph scientists sent to space last year. Now that the seeds provided by The Glenlivet have returned to Earth, Dr. Mike Dixon, a professor in the School of Environmental Sciences and director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility, is overseeing their germination.

It’s common practice for farmers to apply insecticides to their crops, but one University of Guelph research team wants to know if the substances they’re using are pollinator friendly. 

Sneha recently graduated with her BScAgr as part of the OAC Class of 2022. She came to Guelph in 2018 as an international student from Mauritius, and despite studying abroad at a particularly challenging time, she excelled. Sneha attributes part of her success to the OAC scholarships she received and the encouragement they inspired in her, including the Rosemont Scholarship in Food Sustainability and Class of '51 O.A.C. Leadership Prize she received at convocation.