​ABOUT IFHAB WORKSHOP

The Interdisciplinary Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms Workshop is a yearly meeting of scientists focusing on the study of cyanobacterial and other harmful algal species in freshwater environments. During this workshop, researchers from different disciplines will present their most recent studies, including harmful algal blooms monitoring and fate, ecology, analytical method development and drinking water treatment. The workshop will take place in an informal environment, aiming to help researchers expand their networks and learn from the different areas affecting this complex environmental threat.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

---

​Daniel Beach​, National Research Council of Canada
Daniel is a Research Officer in the Biotoxin Metrology group of the National Research Council Canada in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His research focuses on the development of analytical mass spectrometry methods and reference materials for the analysis of marine and freshwater biotoxins in seafood and the environment. Recently, he has become involved in a broad range of interdisciplinary collaborations across multiple sectors to address emerging concerns around toxic cyanobacteria in Atlantic Canada and beyond. This has included research into toxic benthic cyanobacteria, the improved detection of polar classes of toxins and the development of non-target analysis methods using high-resolution mass spectrometry.

---

R. Michael McKay​, University of Windsor
R. Michael McKay is Executive Director and Professor at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor. Prior to that, he served on the faculty at Bowling Green State University (OH, USA) for 21 years where he held an endowed Professorship. Professor McKay received undergraduate- and graduate degrees in Biology from Queen’s University at Kingston (Canada) and McGill University (Montréal, Canada), respectively. Upon completion of his doctoral work, he held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and with the University of Delaware where he served concurrently at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, NY. From his roots in ocean science, Professor McKay’s research expanded to include large lakes on his return to the Great Lakes basin where his contributions to the field of environmental microbiology have advanced our current understanding of the dynamics of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, including the role of cyanophage as agents of bloom decline which threatens the security of our potable water supply

---

David McMullin, Carleton University
David is a natural products chemist studying chemical interactions between microorganisms (mainly cyanobacteria and fungi) and their environment through the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. David received his PhD in Chemistry from Carleton University in 2014 where his studies focused on toxins produced by fungi common in damp buildings. After a post-doctoral fellowship abroad in Austria David joined Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (Charlottetown, PE) in 2017 before returning to the Carleton University Department of Chemistry as an assistant professor in 2018.​

---

Herb Schellhorn, McMaster University
Herb Sch ellhorn received both his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Microbiology at the University of Guelph.  He obtained a Ph.D. in Microbiology from North Carolina State University. His group studies gene regulation and physiological adaptation in E. coli and other bacteria to better understand how bacteria cause disease and persist in the environment.  He has many collaborative projects with biochemists, engineers, industry and government agencies to develop new tools for monitoring water quality and understanding waste treatment processes from a microbiological perspective. Dr. Schellhorn’s group uses new DNA sequencing technology and bioinformatics analysis tools to track microorganisms, characterize composition of complex microbial communities and conduct comprehensive studies of gene expression. His interdisciplinary group uses DNA analyses to identify cyanobacterial communities that form cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (cHABs).  This work is funded through a Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) with additional funding thought the NSERC Alliance program.

---

René Shahmohamadloo, Washington State University & University of Guelph
René is both a Liber Ero Postdoctoral Fellow and NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Washington State University and the University of Guelph. His research aims to advance our understanding of human-induced environmental change on ecological and evolutionary processes in wildlife. Specifically, René researches pollution-driven adaptation, or “evolutionary ecotoxicology”, which seeks to understand the role of adaptation in organisms that enable populations to thrive in anthropogenically-stressed ecosystems. His work focuses on understanding the biology of harmful algal blooms and the evolutionary and toxicological responses on organisms exposed to them. René has additionally served on the Board of Directors for the International Association for Great Lakes Research.

---

Arthur Zastepa, Environment and Climate Change Canada
​Dr. Zastepa is a research scientist at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters at Environment and Climate Change Canada. Dr. Zastepa is actively involved in collaborative work on cyanobacterial and harmful algal blooms and source-water impairment in large aquatic systems across Canada, particularly those of binational importance. Dr. Zastepa’s research examines the factors regulating the abundance and diversity of microbes, their chemical ecology, and the fate and consequences of toxins and other bioactive metabolites produced in these aquatic systems. Dr. Zastepa has developed expertise in the application of bioanalytical technologies and paleolimnological tools to aquatic ecosystem research and has led the design and execution of large-scale field studies and surveys.

---