Sharon (Xueqi) Wang

I was born and grew up in the city of Luoyang, Henan province located in central China. I came to Canada for an undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph, where I completed a honours bachelor’s degree with a minor in mathematical science. The mixture of ecology, mathematics, and statistics provided me with a solid foundation for my MSc thesis research upon which to design and construct sophisticated population projection models to examine the dynamics of size-structured populations in response to varying environmental conditions. This work has built a theoretical foundation that will be further investigated throughout my doctoral research to understand the effect of agricultural runoffs, such as nutrient loading and pesticide levels on the aquatic environment. Furthermore, I will adapt state-of-the-art molecular techniques to assess whether eDNA can provide an efficient and reliable biomarker for long-term monitoring of freshwater ecosystems.