News

Congrats to Alexa and Hannah – directed studies done & dusted

Both Alexa Nicholson and Hannah Stevens have finished their directed studies projects.  Alexa was working with antifouling options for aquaculture, and Hannah on the influence of light on pond snail navigation.  Both did a fantastic job on their final reports, and now have to let the research go (for a while at least) and focus on the last semester of courses in their BSc degrees.

Ella Maltby switches to lobster for her MSc

A big welcome to the newest grad student in the WyethLab.  She hasn’t come from very far!  Ella Maltby has wrapped up her work on our collaboration with Waycobah First Nation (studying antifouling options for their aquaculture facility), ending a year and half working on various projects in the lab.   For her MSc (co-supervised by Dr. Jim Williams), she will be studying the acute effects of sediment from Boat Harbour Nova Scotia (the site of a pull mill treatment facility) on juvenile lobster behavior.

James Research Chair

I am both honoured and excited to have been offered a James Research Chair to start in July 2018.  Two years of halved teaching load will be a big boost to the Wyeth Lab!  I am looking forward to the opportunity to expand existing research projects and hopefully building some collaborations as well.  Most of all I am excited at the chance to involve more students in the Wyeth Lab.

Publication! Congrats to Marissa Webber & Jimmy Thomson

cne24286-toc-0001This one was more than 5 years in the making before publication in the Journal of Comparative Neurology.  Jimmy Thomson got us started, labelling neurotransmitters in the central nervous system of Hermissenda, and then Marissa Webber followed up with tons more labelling and then an amazing effort in cataloging all the labelled neurons.  Highlights were establishing that some neurotransmitters are considerably more variable between animals than others, and that one specific neurotransmitter (GABA) was not where it was supposed to be (it was missing from the statocysts – the balance organs).  You can read the (free) reprint to get our full explanation of that crazy result.  Thanks also to Roger Croll and Johnny Buckland-Nicks for help along the way.
DOI: 10.1002/cne.24286

 

Graduate Student Position Available

M.Sc. Position in Toxicology of Lobster Behaviour

IMPORTANT:  THIS POSITION HAS BEEN FILLED

Interested in aquatic animal behaviour or applied research in toxicology or estuarine restoration?  Interested in building expertise in a range of techniques, including field work with SCUBA, semi-automated video analysis of behavioural experiments, and contaminant tissue analyses?

Dr. Russell Wyeth and Dr. Jim Williams in Biology at St. Francis Xavier University (StFX) are accepting applications for an MSc student position to start Jan 1, 2018.  This position is fully funded ($18,000 x 2 years), and tuition support is also possible.

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