Graduate Defences

Upcoming Defences

Thursday, November 27th, 2025 at 9:00am (ET) via Zoom.
Thesis title: "Learning in Context: A Transdisciplinary, Systems-Level Understanding of Contextualized Skill Development in Higher Education"
Advisor: Dr. Shoshanah Jacobs

Coleman Olenick - MSc Bioinformatics Defence
Thursday, December 11th, 2025 at 1:00pm SSC 2315 and via Teams
Thesis title: "SacTrace: an Interpretable Architecture for Assessing Contributions of Saccade Trajectories to Fixation Prediction"
Advisor: Dr. Mazyar Fallah

2024 Defences

Dec. 11 from 1 to 4 p.m.
Do Caribou Surf? An Empirical Test of the Green Wave Hypothesis for Woodland Caribou in Ontario, Canada
Advisors: Dr. Nicholas Bernier and Dr. John Fryxell

Dec. 10 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Squirrels and the City: Exploring the development of the gut-brain axis via maternal effects in response to urbanization in wild eastern grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis)
Advisor: Dr. Mehrdad Hajibabaei

Dec. 9 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Statistical Methods for High-Dimensional Complex Data with Application for Microbiome Studies
Advisor: Dr. Steffen Graether

Dec. 6 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Assessing Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) Diets in Canadian Sea Cages Using Morphological and DNA Metabarcoding Analyses
Advisor: Dr. Tess Grainger

Dec. 4
Improving the domain generalisation of camera trap image classifiers using inserted animal cutouts

Dec. 4
The effect of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on ectoparasitism in big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) maternity colonies.

Dec. 3
Causes and Consequences of Double-Brooding in Savannah Sparrows (Passerculus Sandwichensis)

Nov. 28
Taxonomic resolution and the implementation of molecular methods for benthic invertebrate identifications in bioassessment

Nov. 25
Disentangling the hybridization dynamics between Chrosomus eos, the northern redbelly dace, and Chrosomus neogaeus, the finescale dace

Nov. 15
Nature's Pitfall Trap: Are salamanders integrated by carnivorous plants in a nutrient-poor bog ecosystem

Aug. 22
Range-wide post- and pre-breeding migratory networks of a declining Neotropical-Nearctic migratory bird, the blackpoll warbler

Aug. 15
Determining the dominant biological and hydrodynamic factors affecting passive dispersal in rivers

Aug. 8
Nutrient Addition does not Strengthen Selection for Extended Floral Longevity in Response to Simulated Pollinator Decline in Lobelia siphilitica

July 25
Assessment of Fish Communities in Small Streams Adjacent to Agricultural Activity from a Community Level Perspective

May 15
Wrongfully Accused? Investigating the Role of an Invader in a Native Fish Species Decline

April 30
Applying Multivariate Decision Trees to Visualize, Select Features, and Gain Insights into Biodiversity Genomics Datasets

April 29
Experimental studies on the effects of soil nutrients, AM fungi and drought on the evolution of root morphology and function

April 29
Environmental and ecological factors, but not agricultural activity, are associated with brain form in a wild stream fish