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Dr. Anna Majury received her DVM from the University of Guelph and a MSc in Veterinary Immunology and Infectious Diseases, also from Guelph. Following this she practiced medicine for 2 years prior to moving to Queen's Univeristy as a CIHR Fellow where she completed her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology. She then trained for three years as a Clinical Microbiologist at the UHN and U of T, in Toronto, until accepting a position in Kingston working as a Public Health Microbiologist working for Public Health Ontario, overseeing the Eastern Ontario Region. She was Chair of the Ontario laboratory working group for pandemic planning since its inception and sits as an expert member on the national Pandemic Influenza Laboratory Preparedness Network under CPHLN. Dr. Majury also trained as a Federal Field Epidemiologist with the Public Health Agency of Canada. She is also Co-Chair of the Canadian Drinking Water Working Group, and a member of the Water Food Safety Enterics Network, under CPHLN, and on the advisory council for the Water Research Center at ³ÉÈË´óƬ. 

She is currently an assistant professor within the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Health Sciences, at ³ÉÈË´óƬ and a proud member of Veterinarians Without Borders and Public Health Veterinary Outreach. Her interests and expertise are within the areas of respiratory viral infections, pandemic influenza, environmental microbiology, epidemiology, zoonotic diseases and public health.

Anna is involved with several projects in the Network. She is a collaborator on the Ontario Research Fund - Research Excellence and the COVID-19 Wastewater Surveillance Initiative. She is also a co-applicant in the LEADERS CREATE program. 

Before joining Queen’s University, Dr. Ehssan Koupaie was an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto. He has been also affiliated with BioZone, The Centre for Applied Bioscience & Bioengineering Research and The Pulp & Paper Centre at the University of Toronto as well as The Bioreactor Technology Group at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Koupaie received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of British Columbia, Canada, in 2017. During his Ph.D., he collaborated with an interdisciplinary team of researchers from environmental engineering, electrical engineering, and physics disciplines; a collaboration that led to the development of a novel energy-efficient radio frequency (RF) thermal hydrolysis technology for enhanced bioenergy recovery from municipal biosolids.

Ehssan is a co-applicant on the NFRF-Exploration Project. 

The main research focus in the Petkovich lab is understanding the role of hormone receptor signalling in health and disease. Their current efforts are focused on vitamin A and vitamin D signalling and metabolism as they relate to bone development (along with pathological calcification of tissues), skin disorders, kidney disease, and tumour metastasis. The Petkovich lab is also actively involved in drug development for treatment of diseases that respond to modulators of vitamin A and D signalling, such as CKD, acne, wound healing, and metastasis. 

Martin is a co-applicant on the NFRF-Exploration Project. 

Bas Vrien's Full Profile 

Bas is an environmental engineer and earth system scientist by training and interested in the sources, behavior and environmental footprints of large-scale waste streams. The main goal of his research is to quantify the environmental impacts of anthropogenic pollutants by studying their occurrence and transport and transformation processes in natural and industrial context. He uses an interdisciplinary combination of concepts from environmental (bio)geochemistry, hydrology, analytical chemistry, civil and environmental engineering, et cetera. 

Bas is the Principal Investigator of the NFRF-Exploration Project. 

The theme of our research is the development of techniques to support dynamic modeling, analysis, estimation, monitoring and control of chemical processes. The emphasis is on the use of nonlinear process models, consisting of systems of ordinary differential, partial differential, or differential algebraic equations derived from fundamental energy and material balances, and equilibrium relationships.

James is a Project Co-Leader on the Open Plastic. 

David Zechel grew up in southeastern Manitoba and attended Whitemouth School. Following graduation he studied chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Toronto as a U of T Arbor scholar, supplemented with summer research experiences with Ronald Kluger (bioorganic) and Ian Manners (organometallic polymers). David moved on to PhD studies with Stephen Withers at the University of British Columbia where he focused on the mechanisms of glycosidases. He was supported by NSERC and Killam fellowships, which was helpful as he became a father of two at this time. As a postdoc David studied X-ray crystallography with Gideon Davies (York University, UK) and directed evolution with Andreas Plückthun (University of Zürich), the latter position supported by a Human Frontiers fellowship. In 2004 David started his independent research career in the department of Chemistry at Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario). He was promoted to full Professor in 2017. 

David is a Project co-leader on the Open Plastic. 

​Dr. diCenzo joined the Department of Biology at ³ÉÈË´óƬ as an Assistant Professor in July of 2019. He completed my B.Sc. (2012) in Molecular Biology and Genetics at McMaster University (Canada), during which he performed research in the group of Prof. Turlough Finan. He remained in Dr. Finan's group to complete his Ph.D (2017) in Biology. He then joined the group of Prof. Alessio Mengoni at the University of Florence (Italy) as a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow, where he also worked closely with Prof. Marco Fondi. During this time, he spent two months with Dr. Peter Mergaert at a CNRS institute just outside of Paris (France). In 2017 he was awarded the Armand Frappier Outstanding Student Award from the Canadian Society of Microbiology for my Ph.D. research. 

George is a Project Co-Leader on the Open Plastic. 

Our lab develops predictive models of cell metabolism, protein expression, and gene regulation. Specifically, we develop holistic models that integrate multiple biological processes and large-scale networks. Interpreting biological data in the context of these integrated models provides a systems-level perspective on cellular functions.

Our lab trains systems biologists from two angles. First, trainees will learn to express their biological knowledge and intuition in the form of computable, mathematical models. These models then provide an in silico platform to virtually test hypotheses and to design efficient experiments. Second, researchers have ample opportunity to deploy machine learning and distributed algorithms on big biological data sets. These algorithms can improve the accuracy of model predictions, or to help understand biological mechanisms by constructing explainable models from data.

Laurence is the Project Leader for the Open Plastic. 

Kela Weber is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. He is the head of the Environmental and Bioprocess Engineering Laboratory (EBEL), an environmental science and engineering laboratory with a focus on biological interactions and the use of microorganisms in both natural and engineered systems. EBEL is involved in a wide variety of research projects at both the fundamental (lab scale) and applied (field scale) level. EBEL research endeavours can be categorized into 4 major themes: 1) Water Treatment; 2) Environmental Protection; 3) Environmental Remediation; 4) Fundamental Science Exploration. Dr. Weber brings an extensive network of government stakeholders and also manages extensive projects across Canada in First Nations communities; experience and connections, which will be applied to training and research opportunities for students.

Kela is a co-applicant on the LEADERS CREATE Program and the Ontario Research Fund - Research Excellence. 

Dr. Philip Jessop is a professor and Canada Research Chair of Green Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. He also serves as Executive Research Director at Forward Water Technologies. After his Ph.D. (British Columbia, 1991) and a postdoctoral appointment (Toronto, 1992), he was a contract researcher in Japan working for R. Noyori (Nobel Prize 2001).  As a professor at the University of California-Davis (1996-2003) and since then at Queen’s, he has studied green solvents and the chemistry of CO₂ and H₂. Distinctions include the NSERC Polanyi Award (2008), Killam Research Fellowship (2010), Canadian Green Chemistry & Engineering Award (2012), Eni Award (2013), Fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada (2013), a Canada Research Chair Tier 1 (2013 to 2020), and the NSERC Brockhouse Prize (2019). 

He serves as Chair of the Editorial Board for the journal Green Chemistry, has chaired three international conferences, and helped create GreenCentre Canada, a National Centre of Excellence for the commercialization of green chemistry technologies. Forward Water Technologies Inc. is a spin-off company based upon Dr. Jessop’s switchable solvents. 

Philip is a co-applicant on the Ontario Research Fund - Research Excellence.