Meet our People

Faculty & Staff

Robert Laird

Co-Chair   
Professor
Office: WE1006 (Alberta Water & Env Science Bldg)
(403) 317-5074
robert.laird@uleth.ca

Elizabeth Schultz

Elizabeth Schultz

Co-Chair
Professor
Office: SA9214
(403) 329-2318
schultz@uleth.ca
 

Catherine McCord

Administrative Support 
Office: SA9202
(403) 329-2245
catherine.mccord@uleth.ca

John F. Bain

Professor Emeritus 
Volunteer Herbarium Director

Email: bain@uleth.ca

Randall Barley

Instructor III
Office: SA9224
(403) 329-2708
randall.barley@uleth.ca

Tegan Barry

Instructor III
Office: SA9234
(403) 329-2664
tegan.barry@uleth.ca

matthew-bogard-2019

Matthew Bogard

Assistant Professor
Office: WE2056 (Alberta Water & Env Science Bldg)
(403) 317-2857
matthew.bogard@uleth.ca

Theresa Burg

Professor
Office: WE1044 (Alberta Water & Env Science Bldg)
(403) 332-5299
theresa.burg@uleth.ca

Jennifer Burke

Instructor II
Office: SA9230
(403) 329-2321
jennifer.burke2@uleth.ca

Ashley Curtis

Lab Technician
Office: SA9442
(403) 382-1832
ashley.curtis@uleth.ca

Larry Flanagan

Professor
Office: WE2064 (Alberta Water & Env Science Bldg)
(403) 380-1858
larry.flanagan@uleth.ca

Cameron Goater

Professor
Office: WE1048 (Alberta Water & Env Science Bldg)
(403) 329-2752
cam.goater@uleth.ca

Roy Golsteyn

Professor
Office: SA9222
(403) 332-4553
roy.golsteyn@uleth.ca

Shelley Hoover

Shelley Hoover

Associate Professor
Office: WE1046 (Alberta Water & Env Science Bldg)
(403) 329-2127
s.hoover@uleth.ca

Andy Hudson

Andy Hudson

Lab Manager/Instructor II
Office: SA9440
(403) 329-2348
andy.hudson@uleth.ca

Michelle Konschuh

Michele Konschuh

Associate Professor
Office: SA9438
(403) 329-2661
m.konschuh@uleth.ca

Igor Kovalchuk

Igor Kovalchuk

Professor
Office: SA9238
(403) 329-2579
igor.kovalchuk@uleth.ca

Olga Kovalchuk

Olga Kovalchuk

Professor
Office: SA9236
(403) 394-3916
olga.kovalchuk@uleth.ca

Jenny McCune

Jenny McCune

Assistant Professor
Office: WE2062
(403) 317-5035
jl.mccune@uleth.ca

Katrina Mendez

Instructor II
Office: SA9228
(403) 329-2125
katrina.mendez@uleth.ca

Erasmus Okine

Professor 
Office: SA9434
(403) 317-8292
erasmus.okine@uleth.ca

Laurie Pacarynuk

Instructor II
Office: SA9204
(403) 332-4577
pacarynuk@uleth.ca

Stew Rood

Stewart Rood

Professor Emertus
Office: WE2058 (Alberta Water & Env Science Bldg)
(403) 329-2327
rood@uleth.ca

Tony Russell

Associate Professor
Office: SA9218
(403) 329-2696
tony.russell@uleth.ca

Kim Stanford

Kim Stanford

Associate Professor
Office: SA9436
(403) 394-3996
kim.stanford@uleth.ca

Quintin Steynen

Instructor II
Office: SA9232
(403) 329-2210
steyqj@uleth.ca

Nehal Thakor

Professor   
Office: SA9220
(403) 317-5055
Lab: SA9262
(403) 332-4446
nthakor@uleth.ca

Neha Vaid

Assistant Professor
Office: SA9212
(403) 329-2320
neha.vaid@uleth.ca

Steve Wiseman

Associate Professor
Office: WE1058 (Alberta Water & Env Science Bldg)
(403) 329-2320
steve.wiseman@uleth.ca

Dmytro Yevtushenko

Dmytro Yevtushenko

Associate Professor
Office: SA9216
(403) 317-2879
dmytro.yevtushenko@uleth.ca

Associate Members

Andrew Iwaniuk

Professor
Office: SA8144
(403) 332-5288
andrew.iwaniuk@uleth.ca

Dan Johnson

Professor
Office: WE1012 (Alberta Water & Env Science Bldg) 
(403) 329-2040
dan.johnson@uleth.ca

David Logue

Associate Professor
Office: SA8380
Lab: SA8304
(403) 329-2781
david.logue@uleth.ca

Adjuncts

Wade Abbott PhD

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Research Areas: Group research themes include the discovery of carbohydrate active enzymes and metabolic pathways in sequence datasets, agricultural glycomics, carbohydrate-based innovations for the production of food animals.

Contact me via email

Kingsley Amoako PhD

Director, NCAD Lethbridge Laboratory, Science Branch

Canadian Food Inspection Agency / Government of Canada

Dr. Amoako is currently the Director for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Lethbridge Laboratory. He is the Head of the World Organization for Animal Health  (OIE) Reference Lab for Anthrax at the CFIA Lethbridge Laboratory.

Tel: 403-382-5505

Ali Azizishirazi PhD

Dr. Azizishirazi is an aquatic ecotoxicologist and is currently employed as a water quality guidelines specialist with BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. His work is mainly focused on derivation of water quality guidelines using data produced in ecotoxicology laboratories. Dr. Azizishirazi’s research position with University of Lethbridge provides opportunities for students to become involved in the application of toxicological data to the management of aquatic ecosystems.

Contact me via email

Manjula Bandara PhD

Dr. Bandara was previously a research scientist at the Crop Diversification Centre (CDCS), Alberta agriculture and Forestry in Brooks, Alberta  from May 1999 until he retired from my position in 2020 December. His research areas are crop physiology and Agronomy. Although retired, he is currently collaborating/ conducting  two research projects, (i) 'Identifying benefits and drawbacks of Brassica crops in pulse and wheat crop rotation', which is the Ph.D. thesis research component, established at CDCS test site in Brooks, and  (ii).'Integrated weed management in soybean' with AFFC.

Syama Chatterton PhD

Dr. Syama Chatterton leads a number of research projects on root rots of pulse crops, particularly pea and lentil, and associated pathogen complex which includes Aphanomyces euteiches and numerous Fusarium species. Her particular research interests are on the environmental effects that impact the pathogen composition of the root rot complex and how this leads to expression of disease severity, and on the nature of the interaction relationship between multiple soil-borne pathogen species and strains on root rot development. She is also developing molecular quantification tools for soil-borne pathogens as the basis for a decision support system for pulse producers.  She also leads projects on epidemiology of white mould of dry bean, and identification and importance of pathogens of faba bean, and the potential interaction between foliar pathogens and insect pests.

Kevin Floate PhD

I am an insect ecologist employed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at the Lethbridge Research and Development Centre.  Research in our lab covers a broad range of topics that includes study of insects affecting crops, stored grain products and livestock; insect-microbe (symbiont) interactions; and host-parasitoid interactions. We’ve also done extensive research on dung-dwelling insects and how they are affected by faecal residues of veterinary medicines applied to cattle.

Contact me via email

Sophie Kernéis-Golsteyn PhD

Dr. Sophie Kernéis directs the Microbiology Research Laboratory at Lethbridge College. Prior to moving to Lethbridge in 2007, Sophie was a tenured Research Scientist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. She developed in 2015, the Antibiotic Prairie Plant Project at Lethbridge College that has the goal of identifying new antibiotics from prairie plants to serve the health and food industries.

André Laroche PhD

Argriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Dr. André Laroche is a Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada located in Lethbridge, AB. His research program focus on functional genomics of cereals‎. He is working on the physical organization of stripe rust resistance genes, the identification of new disease resistance genes and regulation of expression during wheat development.

Tel: 403-393-5337

Contact me via email

 

Nilu Malmuthuge PhD

A food animal immunologist and microbiologist with research and scholarly experience in microbiology, immunology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics. The long-term goals of my research program are to reduce antimicrobial usage in livestock production and to facilitate the production of consumer-attractive (antibiotic-free) products through improved health and resilience. My current research program at the Agriculture Agri-Food Canada focuses on; 1) early life interventions to improve host health, 2) identifying non-invasive metabolic markers and regulatory molecules to select resilient animals, 3) identifying diagnostic markers at the initial stages of infections, and 4) developing an animal model for neonatal heal.

nilusha.malmuthuge@agr.gc.ca / Tel: 403-915-6542

Nariman Shahhosseini PhD

Research interests: My research focuses on novel/emerging zoonotic viruses, as well as arboviruses and associated vectors. I integrate virological, entomological and bioinformatics (e.g. state-of-art metagenomics) approaches to better understand virus/vector ecology, and predict spillover events into humans in order to prevent future outbreaks.

Contact me via email

Stacey Singer PhD

Dr. Singer's research program at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge Research and Development Centre focuses on unraveling the genetic mechanisms behind various performance- and quality-related traits, including abiotic stress tolerance, digestibility, lipid content/composition and photosynthesis. She is also interested in the improvement of these traits using advanced molecular breeding tools such as genome editing, especially in forage crops such as alfalfa.

Waqas Tahir PhD

Dr. Waqas Tahir is a Research Scientist and Head of the TSE unit, NCAD Lethbridge Laboratory at Canadian Food Inspection Agency/ Government of Canada. Dr. Tahir is also the head of the World Organization for Animal Health’s BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) reference lab in Canada. Dr. Tahir’s research focuses on the identification of underlying molecular mechanisms of prion diseases, novel ante-mortem diagnostic biomarkers as well as sensitive detection methods for animal prion diseases. In his research, Dr. Tahir amalgamates various high throughput approaches ranging from genomics, transcript-omics, differential proteomics and spectral confocal imaging using both in-vitro as well as in-vivo models. Ultimate goal of Dr. Tahir’s research is to develop technologies to promptly diagnose animal prion diseases for designing mitigation strategies in a timely manner to protect public health and preserve food chain.

Contact me via email: waqas.tahir@inspection.gc.ca