Monarch Research, Profs In the News
June 06, 2014 - In the News
Groundbreaking research by Prof. Ryan Norris, Integrative Biology, and post-doctoral researcher Tyler Flockhart is making international headlines. Their new study on the cause of the monarch butterfly decline has received extensive media coverage, including in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, CTV News, CBC’s As It Happens, the Edmonton Journal, Huffington Post, News Tonight Africa, and the Environmental News Network, among others. The story was also picked up by the Canadian Press, PostMedia News, and United Press International wire services. A news report also aired on CBC’s The NationalJune 7.
A second Toronto Star story, published June 6, also features Flockhart, who completed his PhD with Norris and is now a postdoctoral research in Population Medicine, as well at Guelph plant scientist Prof. Francois Tardif. That story looked at the importance of milkweed in maintaining the monarch butterfly population, and whether it would post perils to people or their pets if planted in backyard gardens.
Prof. Amy Greer was featured by CBC and MSN news June 5, talking about why lyme disease cases are increasing in Canada. Greer, who holds joint appointments in the departments of Population Medicine and Mathematics and Statistics, studies infectious disease dynamics in humans and animals and their health, environmental and economic costs.
Greer, who joined U of G in January, holds a Canada Research Chair in population disease modeling. Before joining U of G she was a senior mathematician in the Centre for Communicable Diseases and Infection Control at the Public Health Agency of Canada and an epidemiology professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
Economics Prof. Ross McKitrick co-authored an opinion piece that was published June 3 in the National Post. The op-ed discussed the Ontario Power Authority’s directive regarding the implementation of Ontario’s long term energy plan.
A faculty member at Guelph since 1996, McKitrick specializes in the economics of environmental policy and has been studying climate change and related policy issues for about 10 years. He has given presentations on climate and environmental policy to the Canadian and U.S. governments. McKitrick has served as an environmental policy consultant for the Fraser Institute since 2002.
Prof. Eric Lyons, Plant Agriculture, was interviewed by the Globe and Mail on June 2 for a story on growing grass in Toronto's Rogers Centre. Lyons discussed the challenges of growing grass indoors, an option being considered by the Toronto Blue Jays for the field by the start of their 2018 season.
Lyons is working to better understand the factors that limit the growth and utility of turfgrass species and increase the understanding of the causes of these limitations. This knowledge will lead to a better understanding of the turfgrass ecosystem and better tools for effective turfgrass management.
