Greetings and welcome to 2024!
Greetings and welcome to 2024 Many of our trainees have been highly successful over the past months and several exciting things have happened in the School of Human Nutrition. The School of Human Nutrition faced several challenges in the Fall 2023 term. It began with the closure of the 4th floor of the Raymond building, forcing several members of the School to find alternative spaces for teaching. The basement also flooded in December, which presented challenges for conducting our animal research. However, in collaboration with the strong leadership from the Office of the Dean of FAES and McGill, SHN was able to find solutions to these problems. Space was availed in the Group Education Room of Clinical Nutrition Research Unit (CNRU) to teach courses and animal users, due to their safety preparedness, were able to continue accessing the Small Animal Research Unit (SARU) for critical research. The CNRU proved to be an incredibly valuable resource for continuing the School’s mission in teaching excellence. Meanwhile, the quick response of McGill leadership and the preparedness of SHN allowed us to maneuver rapidly in response to the flooding so we could continue conducting innovative research.
On the topic of the CNRU, we are now expanding the use of the facilities in the unit. SHN has started hosting more activities in CNRU including the undergraduate research day and lab tour hosted by the Dietetics and Human Nutrition Undegraduate Society (DHNUS). The research day hosted by DHNUS was a great success and the SHN is looking forward to the next one in 2024. The CNRU was also the site used for the McGill Home Coming. Professor Linda Wykes gave an excellent presentation to Alumni on the exciting research activities being carried out by trainees and professors at SHN. Research activities are also expanding at the CNRU with the establishment of new wet space, infrastructure, and facilities. The CNRU was also used to support doctoral comprehensive exams and is serving as a space to hold important committee meetings. It is also being used to deepen our ties with the Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education.
On the Macdonald campus, Professor Wykes worked in collaboration with Professor Stephan Bayen from Food Science and Agilent to establish a new Metabolomics platform. The platform is located next to the New Tissue Culture Lab and Metabolic Flux Core. The platform will be used faculty wide and will significantly augment the -omics capacity of the Macdonald campus. As part of this initiative, the School has granted Agilent Technologist Jean-Francois Roy Affiliate Status to augment the use of the Metabolomics Platform and collaborations in SHN.
The SHN conducted two successful searches for Contract Academic Staff (CAS) hires to fill Faculty Lecturer positions in Dietetics. Dr. Popi Kasvis, RD/DtP and Ms. Amani Al-Asmar RD/DtP are now being onboarded by the unit. Both hires will be vital for the continued development of the dietetics program. The School also welcomed two new dietetics affiliate members, Jessica Coll and Suzanne Lepage. Sarah Contreras-Wolfe also joined the School as its new Administrative Assistant. Sarah has been incredible in this capacity and has shown she is very dynamic and resourceful and knowledgeable of many McGill dossiers and systems. SHN also welcomed a new Associate Director to the unit, Professor Anne-Sophie Brazeau, who has been an integral component to the leadership of the unit. On top of her duties as the associate director and program director for Dietetics, Professor Brazeau, was part of the planning committee for the VASCULAR 2023 conference, which was held October 25th-29th in Montreal. She presented on importance of working with persons with lived experience to enhance the quality of care and research.
Our trainees have also been very successful. Dr. Didier Brassard (postdoctoral fellow working with Professor Stephanie Chevalier) won the ODNQ award for best Scientific publication and Meryem Talbot (PhD student with Professor Anne-Sophie Brazeau) was an invited speaker at the University Global Coalition 2023 Annual Gathering, as one of the winners of the SDG2: Zero Hunger International Student Challenge. Pablo Arrona Cardoza (Nielsen), Atheer Attar (Nielsen), Asmaa Housni (Brazeau), and Krystel Haydamous (Quinonez) successfully completed their doctoral comprehensive exams. Trainees are also making incredible contributions to the School. Cathryn Grayson, for example, now serves as a graduate student representative at SHN staff meetings and has fulfilled other important roles across the unit, like serving as a graduate student representative on the departmental safety committee. Many of the trainees in SHN also enjoyed much success attending conferences, winning awards, obtaining scholarships, and publishing their important findings in reputable journals. Finally, McGill Human Nutrition Alumna Zoey Li was named to Forbes 30 under 30. This list honors the industry’s brightest young entrepreneurs who are redefining the way we eat, drink, and think about nutrient intake. Collectively, our trainees, past and present, have enjoyed incredible success.
The School of Human Nutrition, along with our colleagues across FAES, faced many challenges over the Fall term.
We overcame these challenges through our strong collaborations and united vision for practicing teaching excellence and research innovation in the fields of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Metabolism.
The unit will be faced with more challenges down the road. Indeed, it is no secret that the policies imposed by the Legault government could have serious consequences for McGill. However, I am confident that our resourcefulness and collaborative nature coupled with the strong leadership from the Office of the Dean of FAES and McGill, that our unit will be able to navigate these turbulent times and continue to grow and foster new dynamic and interdisciplinary relationships to practice teaching excellence and research innovation.
I wish you all continued success in 2024
Ryan J. Mailloux,
PhD Associate Professor
Director of the School of Human Nutrition
