A prestigious research scientist is being added to the roster at the Great Lakes Forestry Centre (GLFC) and to the teaching ranks at Algoma University College (AUC).
Dr. Jenny Cory, a research specialist in molecular ecology, arrives in Sault Ste. Marie in February bringing with her a suitcase of federal funding to develop the college’s biology program into a future centre of excellence.
Cory is coming from the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxford, U.K., one of Britain’s centres of hydrological research.
A Canada Research Chair held by Dr. Corey for research in Evolutionary and Molecular Ecology is being established for Algoma University College - the institution’s first - along with $1.75 million in federal funding over seven years to cover her salary and contribute to her research in running AUC’s lab on site at the GLFC.
GLFC, a National Resources Canada-run facility, is an internationally recognized leader in the Canadian pest management sector.
“This is a significant coup,” says Errol Caldwell, Great Lakes Forestry Centre manager. “She’s a well-known scientist in her own right and the fact that AUC got this Canada Research Chair is very significant accomplishment especially in the growth of their biology program.”
The two institutions are setting up a biology program lab within the facility to take advantage of GLFC’s forest insect genomics program focused on insect control in forestry and agriculture.
Among Cory’s work will be to determine what role diseases play in regulating insect populations and whether or not they influence biodiversity.
Caldwell says attracting top-notch research talent is one vital component of the community-based Science Enterprise Algoma (SEA), a bio-economic cluster and future research park that is part of a larger regional Northern Ontario Biotechnology Initiative.
“This is one of the areas that SEA has been emphasizing and the centre is starting to bear fruit.”
