NuclearFACTS 2024
October 23, 2024
About NuclearFACTS
Fedoruk Centre project grants enable Project Leaders from Saskatchewan institutions to create social and economic benefits related to nuclear science, technology and policy.
NuclearFACTS is an annual event where Project Leaders report on the progress of their research projects and share their vision of potential benefits. Keynote speakers will address the context of nuclear research, development and training. Opportunities for networking will be provided during breaks and lunch, for those who choose to attend this hybrid event in person.
The audience will include members of the Fedoruk Centre Project Advisory Committee (PAC), Project Leaders and team members, as well as interested participants from the broader community. PAC members and other attendees are welcome to ask questions about the progress of each research project, issues, highlights, and the vision of how expected outcomes will advance science or technology for the benefit of society.
The date of NuclearFACTS coincides with Nuclear Science Week.
Click on the links below to go directly to any of the following sections:
Our Keynote Speakers
DR. ESAM HUSSEIN is a professional engineer, a fellow of the Canadian Society of Senior Engineers, a professor emeritus of engineering and applied science, and an adjunct professor in physics at the University of Regina. He is also a professor emeritus of mechanical engineering at the University of New Brunswick (UNB).
After completing his undergraduate studies and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering at Alexandria University, Egypt, he also earned a PhD in nuclear engineering from McMaster University. He was employed as a nuclear design engineer
at Ontario Hydro (now Ontario Power Generation) prior to joining UNB, where he taught in chemical engineering then in mechanical engineering, and served as department chair and associate dean.
DR. ERIC PRICE has a strong interest in using chemistry to solve pressing issues in animal and human health. His lab works towards making new molecular imaging and radionuclide therapy drugs that can be used to improve the detection, staging, and treatment of a variety of diseases such as cancer and severe bacterial infections. Radiochemistry is an exciting and powerful field of study, and he is thrilled to be working at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) with the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation and their Saskatchewan Centre for Cyclotron Sciences (SCCS), as well as the Canadian Light Source (CLS) and many other fantastic resources on campus. He started his lab at the USask in the Chemistry department (College of Arts and Sciences) in the summer of 2016. He has been awarded the position of Canada Research Chair in Radiochemistry (Tier-2, renewed until 2026). As well as being promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in July 2022.
DR. ELIZABETH (LIZ) SNEAD completed her internship at the Mesa Veterinary Hospital in 2000 and her residency at the University of Prince Edward Island in 2003. Her teaching expertise is in the area of small animal nephrology and endocrinology. She is the director of the Feline Radioiodine Treatment Program for treating hyperthyroidism in cats.
Our Moderator
LARKIN MOSSCROP started her career in the sciences, having her masters in science in biology from Queen’s university. She has been in the nuclear industry for over 10 years but has been an educator for over 20, with 15 years specifically related to science communication and education. She is currently pursuing her PhD in public policy looking at energy literacy in youth. She has worked across the nuclear sector, from decommissioning and waste management, operations to science and technology. She started with Kinectrics in January 2024 leading a team in clean energy, environmental services, and community engagement. She is passionate about energy and believes that the future energy system must be a mix of non-emitting sources to power our future. She volunteers with the CNS education program, the Renfrew County Science Fair, and Riverview Rescues. She is an outdoorsy person and can often be found hiking in a forest with her rescue dogs (she has 4!), swimming in the river, or at home reading a book with one of her rescue cats (she has 3!).
Agenda
Our Project Speakers
DYLAN CHUNG studies energy and computer sciences at the University of Calgary. He works with Prof. Jason Donev on how different communities talk about nuclear energy. Dylan is also a Track and Field athlete for the University of Calgary Dinos
ANKON DAS is a PhD Student in the department of animal clinical sciences, and is a veterinarian from Bangladesh.
DORSA MEHRABANPOUR is a master’s student in Veterinary Biomedical Sciences.
ADALIA LOPES has a degree in Animal Science and has worked in pet nutrition for 10 years. In 2021, Adalia was selected to participate in the Yale-Proxima Mentorship Project as an Associate Student. In 2023, Adalia completed her Master’s degree in Animal Science – Comparative Oncology Research at the Federal University of Ceará in Brazil.
ARTHUR SITUM is an Assistant Professor at the University of Regina within the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Energy Systems Engineering program. Prof. Situm’s group will investigate challenges surrounding the corrosion or corrosiveness of nuclear fuel proposed for use in various SMR designs in order to improve the safety and support the licensing of these SMR designs.
DR. GRAHAM GEORGE – As Canada Research Chair in X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy, Dr. Graham George makes extensive use of synchrotron radiation to answer fundamental chemical questions in the life, environmental and health sciences.
Specific areas of his research range from developing new methods and research tools, to studying the complex chemistry of sulfur in fossil fuels, examining the molecular mechanisms of metal-containing enzymes, and researching the toxic properties of heavy elements, such as mercury and arsenic.
DR. CHRIS PHENIX grew up in the small town of Arcola, Saskatchewan located in the southeast part of the province. Although having typical interests in camping, fishing and roughrider football, he has developed a passion for applying chemistry and nuclear medicine to help answer important questions regarding enzyme activity in cells, plants, animals and humans. More specifically, he is developing probes that target cysteine proteases which are enzymes that digest other proteins and peptides and are known to play an important role in cancer, arthritis and some forms of dementia. Additionally, He is developing tools to study the activity of glucocerebrosidase, a glucosidase that hydrolyzes glucose from glucosylceramide. He is interested in studying this enzyme in the context of Gaucher and Parkinson’s disease. He recently moved his laboratory from Thunder Bay to Saskatoon given the strong support that the University of Saskatchewan, the province of Saskatchewan and local funding organizations (such as the Silvia Fedoruk Centre for Nuclear Innovation, SHRF) have provided for nuclear-based research.
DR. GORDON HUANG is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Energy and Environment, and Executive Director of the Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Communities at the University of Regina, Canada. He holds BSC from Peking University (China), MSc from Simon Fraser University (Canada) and PhD from McMaster University (Canada). Since the 1990s, Huang has led over 150 research projects, produced over 800 peer-refereed international journal papers (with an SCI-based H-index of 51 in Science Citation Index under Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science), and supervised over 100 Master/PhD students (with degrees awarded). Over 20 Huang’s PhD graduates were appointed as faculty members at universities in Canada, USA, China and Singapore. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the President of the International Society for Environmental Information Sciences. He also acts as editor-in-chief for Journal of Environmental Informatics, and served the United Nations Development Programme as Chief Scientist for a program of Rural Water Resources Management and Drinking Water Safety. His pioneering work in environmental risk management has been recognized as a significant innovation, and has influenced government and business approaches for tackling environmental challenges and formulating related policies.
Our Project Advisory Committee
DR. ANDREA ARMSTRONG has 18 years experience in the development and commercialization of medical isotope technologies. Prior to joining Synergy Oncology, she spent 14 years leading McMaster University’s radioisotope research program, where she led the commercialization of two large-scale production technologies, as well as the development of a new process for generating high-quality lutetium-177 in medium flux research reactors. She was a critical member of the multi-institutional team that secured $35 M from ISED Canada to create the Canadian Medical Isotope Ecosystem in 2023, and was the McMaster lead for the “Care By Air” initiative that saw the first-in-world use of a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System to deliver medical isotopes to hospital.
Andrea is the chair of the Canadian Nuclear Society’s Science & Technology of Radioisotopes (STORI) division, a member of the IAEA’s Consultancy Group on Lu-177, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology at McMaster University. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Calgary.
DR. DUANE BRATT is a political science Professor educated at the Universities of Windsor (BA 1991, MA 1992) and Alberta (Ph.D 1996). He teaches in the area of international relations and Canadian public policy. His primary research interest is in the area of Canadian nuclear policy. Recent publications include: co-editor, Orange Chinook: Politics in the New Alberta (University of Calgary Press, 2019), co-editor, Readings in Canadian Foreign Policy: Classic Debates and New Ideas 3rd edition (Oxford University Press, 2015) and author of Canada, the Provinces, and the Global Nuclear Revival (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012). Current projects include the risk assessment of Canada’s nuclear waste site selection process.
DR. DAVID SHOESMITH is an emeritus professor in the Department of Chemistry at Western University (London, ON) and ex-Director of Surface Science Western (2011 – 2019). He was a research scientist with Atomic Energy of Canada (Whiteshell Laboratories, Manitoba) from 1973 to 1998 and subsequently holder of a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NSERC/NWMO) Industrial Research Chair in Nuclear Fuel Disposal Chemistry (2000 – 2019). He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2016), NACE International, the Canadian Society for Chemistry (1985) and the Electrochemical Society (2011) and has won a number of international and national awards. His research is concentrated on the electrochemistry and corrosion of materials with a special emphasis on the corrosion of uranium dioxide and nuclear waste container materials under permanent waste disposal conditions. In these areas he has been, and in some cases still is, involved in collaborative projects with universities and research organizations in Sweden, USA, South Korea, China, and Spain. His research was also funded by automobile, chemical processing, and oil and gas transmission companies
DR. KATHERINE ZUKOTYNSKI is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Radiology at McMaster University and an Associate Member of the School of Biomedical Engineering at McMaster University. She is affiliated with several hospitals including Children’s Hospital Boston. After completing an undergraduate degree in Engineering Science at the University of Toronto, Dr. Zukotynski completed medical training followed by a residency in radiology, also at the University of Toronto. In 2009, she completed nuclear medicine training through the Joint Program in Nuclear Medicine at Harvard. She was a staff radiologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital from 2009 through 2012, and Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, Dr. Zukotynski was a staff radiologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre from 2012 through 2015, an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. She is board certified in nuclear cardiology, as well as in nuclear medicine and radiology, in both the United States and Canada.
Event Details
NuclearFACTS 2024 will take place both virtually and in person in Saskatoon at Innovation Place, 111 Research Drive, Atrium Candle Room. Visitor parking is available at the building.
