Seminars in biology | Faculty of Science

The Department of Biology regularly invites speakers to provide a research seminar to our diverse department. All the members of our community at uOttawa and OCIB are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Please note that the seminars are primarily conducted in English.

Schedule

Summer 2026

Date	Time	Location	Speaker name	Seminar title	Host name
June 1^st, 26	10:30	DRO214	Dr. Erin Zimmerman	‘Polite’ Botany for the Fairer Sex: The Changing Roles of Women in Plant Science	Carole Yauk & Julian Starr

Previous editions

Winter 2026

Date	Time	Location	Speaker name	Seminar title	Host name
January 12, 2026	10:30-11:30	DRO214	Dr. Thomas Kazmirchuk (Queen's University)	Designing the Future of Medicine	Prof. Xuhua Xia
January 26, 2026	10:30-11:30	DRO214	Dr. Toby Spribille (University of Alberta)	Microbial composition and metabolic complementarity in lichens: towards in vitro resynthesis of the one of our most visible terrestrial symbioses	Prof. Nicolas Corradi
February 23, 2026	10:30-11:30	STM117	Dr. Roslyn Dakin (Carleton University)	Competition and coexistence in birds	Prof. Jessica Forrest
March 9, 2026	10:30-11:30	DRO214	Dr. Terrence Bell (University of Toronto)	Assessing and changing soil microbial survival across diverse environments	Prof. Marina Cvetkovska and Prof. Allyson MacLean
March 23, 2026	10:30-11:30	DRO214	Dr. Castaneda Cortes (Institut national de la recherche scientifique)	From Genes to Behavior: Linking Endocrine Disruption and Srd5α2 Function in Amphibian Reproduction	Prof. Jan Mennigen
March 30, 2026	10:30-11:30	DRO214	Dr. David Smith (Western University)	The evolution of transcriptional architecture in organelle genomes	Prof. Nicolas Corradi
April 13, 2026	10:30-11:30	DRO214	Dr. Grégory Bulté (Carleton University)	Breathing, breeding, and burying: the underwater life of northern map turtles	Biology Graduate Student Association
April 20, 2026	10:30-11:30	DRO214	Dr. Matthew Meier (Health Canada)	Getting out of the rat race: Rethinking toxicology with genomics and machine learning	Prof. Carole Yauk

Winter 2025

Date	Speaker	Title	Host
Jan. 23	Dr. Jannice Friedman (Queen's University)	Genetic constraints on the evolution of plant reproductive strategies	Dr. Jessica Forrest
Jan. 30	Dr. Christina Davy (Carleton University)	Aeroconservation for the fragmented skies	Dr. Julie Lee-Yaw
Feb. 6	Annual Morand-Ferron Memorial Seminar Dr. Simon Reader (McGill University)	Social cues and risk assessment: Causes and consequences of learning from others	Dr. Vincent Careau
Feb. 13	Dr. Adam Algar (Lakehead University)	Tropical lizards and boreal frogs: from microclimate to macroecology	Dr. Jeremy Kerr and Dr. Julie Lee-Yaw
Feb. 27	Dr. Michael Downey (uOttawa)	Systems biology of polyphosphate metabolism: from protein binding to antibiotic resistance	Dr. Gilda Stefanelli
Mar. 6	Dr. Marco Leonti (University of Cagliari, Italy)	How taste shaped the use of botanical drugs	Dr. Cory Harris
Mar. 13	Dr. Lynn Gillespie (Canadian Museum of Nature)	Botanical studies in the Canadian Arctic: taxonomic complexity in an under-explored region	Dr. Yaseen Mottiar and Dr. Julian Starr
Mar. 27	Dr. Tuan Bui (uOttawa)	How the spinal cord learns to move (so that you don’t have to think about it)	Dr. Michael Jonz
Apr. 3	Dr. Tyler Smith (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)	Co-developing food systems research with the Inuit Community of Makkovik	Dr. Heather Kharouba
Apr. 10	Dr. Shelley Arnott (Queen's University)	Ecological context drives zooplankton response to freshwater salinization	Dr. Jessica Forrest
Apr. 17	Dr. Julian Starr (uOttawa)	Tiger nuts and velcro plants: a walk through the phylogeny, biogeography, and diversity of sedges (family Cyperaceae)	Dr. Marina Cvetkovska

Fall 2025

Date	Time	Location	Speaker Name	Seminar Title	Host Name
Sept. 15	10:30-11:30	DRO214	Prof. Jeremy Kerr (uOttawa)	Shelter from the storm? Why microclimates matter as climate changes	Prof. Vincent Careau
Sept. 12	10:30-11:30	STEM464	Dr. Chris Martyniuk (University of Florida)	What can new approach methods tell us about the toxicity of perfluorinated chemicals?	Profs. Jan Mennigen and Vance Trudeau
Sept. 22	10:30-11:30	DRO214	Dr. Marc Johnson (University of Toronto)	From cities to climates: Adapting to environments locally and globally during a biological invasion	Prof. Vincent Careau
Oct. 3	10:30-11:30	DRO214	Dr. Jonathan Wilson (Wilfrid Laurier University)	The enigmatic fish pseudobranch. The story of the fake gill and eye oxygenation	Prof. Katie Gilmour
Oct. 15	1-3:30pm	STM117	Dr. Axel Hutt (Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique)	Endogenous brain activity tunes brain dynamics: general anaesthesia and occipital alpha-blocking	Prof. Jérémie Lefebvre
Oct. 15	1-3:30pm	STM117	Dr. Stephen Coombes (University of Nottingham)	Mathematical neuroscience: large-scale brain modelling	Prof. Jérémie Lefebvre
Oct. 31	10:30-11:30	DRO214	Dr. Aerin Jacob (Nature Conservancy of Canada)	Conserving living landscapes, creating lasting legacies	Prof. Heather Kharouba
Nov. 17	10:00-11:30	DRO214	Dr. Bhaja Padhi (Health Canada)	Reliable mRNA biomarkers for toxicology: A pathway to reproducibility, comparability, and regulatory confidence	Prof. Marc Ekker
Dec. 1 (postponed)	10:30-11:30	DRO214	More information to come.	More information to come.	More information to come.

Fall 2024

Date	Speaker	Title	Host
September 19	Dr. Odette Laneuville	Transcriptomic characterization during long missions aboard the International Space Station and from an Earth-based space analogue	Dr. Rajendhran Rajakumar
October 3	Dr. Patrick Murphy (University of Rochester)	Repetitive elements compete for epigenetic factors during embryonic development	Dr. Gilda Stefanelli
October 10	Dr. Eugene Fletcher (Carleton University)	Re-designing biological systems in yeast for industrial applications	Dr. Yaseen Mottiar
October 24	Dr. Katrine Turgeon (Université du Québec en Outaouais)	How do dams modify aquatic ecosystems' biodiversity and trophic structure over time and space?	Dr. Heather Kharouba
October 31	Dr. Armand Séguin (Canadian Forest Service)	A rapid test for the direct detection of ash infestation by the emerald ash borer: science fiction or reality?	Dr. Yaseen Mottiar
November 7	Dr. Minoru Koyama (University of Toronto)	Neuronal mechanisms underlying flexible locomotor behaviour development	Dr. Tuan Bui
November 21	Dr. Andy Turko (University of Guelph)	Interactions between physiological plasticity and habitat choice in changing environments	Dr. Emily Standen
November 28	Dr. Anna Hargreaves (McGill University)	Where do species interactions matter most?	Dr. Julie Lee-Yaw

Seminars