Grad Research Day showcases student research in areas in agriculture and the environment

Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC) graduate students had a chance to showcase the valuable work they are doing on behalf of the environment and agri-food industry at the ninth Annual Graduate Research Day on Mar.28, 2008. The event promotes graduate student research at NSAC and gives students an opportunity to inform and interact with the NSAC community, industry and general public about their exciting and innovative research.


Garima Kakkar displays a poster of her research “Apparent Nitrogen Balance in Direct-Seeded Cool-Weather Broccoli”

Graduate Research Day is organized by the Graduate Communications Class. Graduate Research Day began in 2000 under the guidance of Dr. Rob Gordon, who continues to instruct the class.

Jill Rogers, Manager of the Research & Graduate Studies, welcomed students to the event and Dr. Raj Lada, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Communications Rep at NSAC gave students a brief introduction on his role and NSERC programs for students.

Nineteen graduate students presented their research during concurrent oral presentations and a poster session. Research from Plant, Animal, Environmental and Engineering and Business & Social Science departments will feature topics such as post harvest quality of vegetables, effects of disease on wild blueberry, nitrogen use efficiency and organic crop production. Best poster award went to Di Fan and Best Oral Presentation Awards went to David Thibideau and Katherine Rutherford.

A large crowd of faculty and students turned out for a debate moderated by Dr. David Burton and led by two teams of faculty was held on the topic “Climate Change: an unparalled opportunity?” A team comprised of Dr. Julien Winters, Dr. Alex Georgallas and Lauranne Sanderson argued on the opportunities resulting from climate change. Solid arguments opposing these views were presented from Vimy Glass, Dr. Gordon Price and Dr. Alan Fredeen.

Dr. David Burton Introduces the debating teams

Graduate Research Day is sponsored in part by the NSAC Association of Graduate Students, NSERC and the NSAC Research & Graduate Studies Office.

Navratan Bahia and a poster of his project “Susceptibility of Broccoli to High Temperature and Downy Mildew Fungus Infection”

Charmilla Ratnasooriya and a poster of her research "'Green' Extraction Technologies for the Recovery of Polyphenols from Grapes and their Pomace"

Bala Jayaraman and a poster of his project "Determination of apparent metabolizable energy (AMEn) of full fat yellow seeded canola fed to broilers"