The School of Nutrition Sciences continued to grow, with the launch in September 2022 of the long-awaited new Master of Science in Nutrition and Food Biosciences. We thank Chantal Matar as well as all the administrative personnel members who helped bring forward new courses and perform supervision. We should mention as well that William Yan became associate coordinator of the Certificate in Food Policy and Regulatory Affairs. He’ll also continue to teach some courses.
The school’s annual research event, which took place March 31, 2023, was a peak moment in the academic year and an outstanding opportunity for networking among students, professors and administrative personnel. The 11 students in the new master’s program — as well as many others supervised by school professors — made poster presentations.
On January 28, 2023, another annual research event, on nutrition and mental health — also supported by a generous anonymous donation — proved to be another great success, with bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral students’ poster presentations, as well as oral presentations from postdoctoral fellows.
For undergraduates, we worked to develop many courses in the Honours Bachelor of Food and Nutrition Sciences (BFNSc), as well as to update the training curriculum. On May 15 of this year, the school council approved a request to the Senate to open the program to more students.
Once again this year, third- and fourth-year BFNSc-Dietetic students developed their interprofessional collaboration and active French-language service skills through simulations with many other disciplines, including occupational therapy, medicine, social work and psychology.
A follow-up report to the cyclical review of the BFNSc-Dietetic was submitted to the Committee on the Evaluation of Undergraduate Programs. On November 23, 2023, the vice-provost, academic affairs, informed the school that the program evaluation process for the 2018–2019 cycle was now complete; the next process will begin in 2026–2027.
The school played an active role in all bachelor’s and master’s student recruitment efforts, including mini-courses and the outreach project. The culinary camps designed and offered in summer 2022 in partnership with the Gee-Gees and uOttawa Food Services were a success. They also enabled us to offer hands-on public nutrition and population health placements for BFNSc-Dietetic students. Nutrition and wellness camps are in preparation for summer 2023.
The school’s Association des étudiants en nutrition (ADÉNUT) and the Association des étudiants gradués en sciences de la nutrition (AEGSN) offered their members many activities throughout the year. Events of note included welcoming activities, menu games organized in March, Nutrition Month (the team picked up its third national trophy) and a wine and cheese evening in April, an annual celebration made for networking that’s much appreciated by both students and professors.
We offer our warmest thanks to all members of the School of Nutrition Sciences for their contributions!