Faculty and Staff

Full-time Faculty

Erin Cameron
Associate Professor

Lab Website

Video

Office: S 112/113
Email: erin.cameron@smu.ca

Dr. Cameron’s research examines effects of global change (climate change, invasive species, habitat loss) on species distributions, community composition, and ecosystem functioning. She is especially interested in earthworm invasions, aboveground-belowground interactions, and soil biodiversity. She uses a combination of field observations, experiments, citizen science, molecular approaches, data synthesis, and modelling to assess global change impacts across spatial and temporal scales.

Linda Campbell ‌‌
Chairperson, Department of Environmental Science
Senior Research Fellow
Professor, Environmental Science

Profile

Video

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lmcampbell.bsky.social

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/linda-campbell

Office: S 227
Email: lm.campbell@smu.ca

Dr. Campbell's research interests include how contaminants cycle in aquatic food webs in Canada and around the world. Dr. Campbell is also interested in using multi-disciplinary approaches to improve our understanding of anthropogenic and natural impacts in the environment, with focus on aquatic ecosystems.

Tony Charles
Director, School of the Environment
Professor, Environmental Science/Management Science

Office: SB 115
Phone: 902-420-5732
Email: tony.charles@smu.ca

Webpage

Video

Dr. Charles' role at Saint Mary's is in both Management Science (School of Business) and Environmental Science (Faculty of Science). He is a committed interdisciplinary researcher, using a range of approaches to study coastal, marine, fishery topics, with a focus on how people interact with their environment and manage their natural resources. That includes looking at ocean uses like fishing, aquaculture, tourism, offshore oil and gas, and more. It also includes conservation approaches like protected areas, ecosystem-based management and community-based natural resource management. Dr. Charles is interested as well in methods for assessing and monitoring natural resource and environmental sustainability. He works in the Canadian Maritimes, and internationally with the United Nations and with colleagues in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Japan and elsewhere.

Cristian Suteanu‌‌
Professor
Geography and Environmental Studies‌/Environmental Science

Profile

Video

Office: B 106
Phone: 902-420-5731
Email: cristian.suteanu@smu.ca

Dr. Suteanu’s main interests concern information processes and the ways in which they link humans and the environment. On one hand, he focuses on the analysis and modeling of natural systems, with applications regarding mainly environmental variability and natural hazards; examples include space-time patterns related to seismicity and volcanism, structural aspects of geosystems from small to large scale, landslide dynamics, climate variability, and renewable energy. On the other hand, he studies epistemological aspects of our interactions with the environment and their implications for cultural processes.

Aldona Wiacek
Professor, Environmental Science/Astronomy and Physics

Profile

Video

Office: AT 308
Phone: 902-491-6481
Email: aldona.wiacek@smu.ca

Dr. Wiacek is interested in remote sensing of atmospheric trace gases and aerosols (solid or liquid suspended particles) involved in air pollution and climate. Her remote sensing research includes the development of both retrieval algorithms as well as ground- and satellite-based instrumentation. She is also interested in modeling the atmospheric transport of aerosols that affect ice clouds and climate.

Part-time Faculty

Sarah de Mendonça

Email: sarah.de.mendonca@smu.ca

Dr. de Mendonça’s research interests include spatial ecology, marine invertebrates, deep-sea research, and interdisciplinary conservation. She received a Doctorate in Oceanography and a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology with Honours, Co-op, and an Environmental Impact Assessment certificate from Dalhousie University. Her most recent publications quantify spatial patterns and examine changes in composition, diversity, and abundance of animals that live on the seafloor, in the Laurentian Channel Marine Protected Area (Atlantic Canada). She recently joined the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI) Biodiversity Task Force, a working group with the goal of supporting global conservation research and policy.

David Foster

David Foster is a recent graduate of the Master of Resource and Environmental Management program at Dalhousie University’s School for Resource and Environmental Studies. His past studies and current research focus on urban forest management, especially how data derived from field observations and remote sensing can jointly inform practice. Recent projects involve an assessment of HRM’s urban forest, work to improve the practice of urban forest management in HRM, and studying the relationship between tree location and the provision of benefits. He has also worked extensively in non-governmental organizations, working to improve how communities are consulted and involved in urban greening initiatives.

Susan Glenn

Email: susan.glenn@smu.ca

• Landscape Ecology
• Plant Community Ecology
• Environmental Education

Susan Glenn is an environmental educator. She spent 20 years in the US teaching environmental science, ecology, and botany, in the field, lab, and online. She also worked on curriculum development.  Susan is excited to be teaching on Canadian soil at St. Mary's. Her expertise is in plant community ecology and landscape ecology.

Karen Harper

Office: Science 220
Phone: 902-420-5643
Email: karen.harper@smu.ca
Website: www.karenharperifern.com  

Karen Harper is a plant biogeographer primarily interested in the spatial and temporal patterns  of plant communities. Her research interests have expanded from a focus on forest edges in the context of fragmentation and conservation to include patterns of structural diversity. Recent projects in her research group include the relationship between vegetation structure and Atlantic Coastal Plain Flora at lakeshore edges in Nova Scotia, structural diversity in ripairan zones in Belize and edge influence on structural and taxonomic diversity at forest edges in fragments of Atlantic Forest in Brazil.

Peter Oram

Areas of Interest:

• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Public and Indigenous Engagement
• Site Reclamation 

Peter is an environmental impact specialist with over 35 years of industry experience leading multi disciplinary teams for projects in Canada, US and Caribbean. He has been a part time lecturer for over a decade at Dalhousie and Saint Mary’s Universities for impact assessment and indigenous experience with impact assessment. He is the Minister’s appointee on the Biodiversity Council of Nova Scotia and past President of the Mining Association of Nova Scotia. 

Office: Science 220
Phone: 420-5737
Email: peter.oram@smu.ca

Thomas Steele

Email: thomas.steele@smu.ca
Research Interests: Invertebrate pathology, beneficial insects

Thomas Steele is a recent graduate of the Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Science program at Saint Mary’s University. His research has focused on diseases of beneficial insects, specifically microsporidia in lady beetles used for biological pest control, and factors that influence these sublethal chronic infections. Past projects include: the effects of multiple microsporidian-infections in beneficial lady beetles; formal descriptions of two new species of microsporidia from lacewings and lady beetles; the influence of stress and secondary metabolites on the development of microsporidiosis in lady beetles.

Adjunct Faculty 

Tony Bowron

Email: Tony.Bowron@smu.ca

A co-founder, President and Coastal Wetland Ecologist with CB Wetlands & Environmental Specialists (CBWES Inc.),Tony Bowron has been working on coastal wetland restoration and monitoring projects in Nova Scotia since 1998. Research interests include the ecology of coastal wetlands, ecological restoration design & implementation, ecosystem response to restoration, and climate change adaptation (i.e. managed realignment, living shorelines).

Emily Chapman

Email: emily.chapman@smu.ca

Research areas:
Human health risk assessment of contaminated sites 
Hazardous materials assessment
Environmental risk assessment and remediation

Donald McAlpine
Chair, Department of Natural History, New Brunswick Museum

 Research areas:

• Biodiversity
• Ecotoxicology
• Epidemiology

Article: Notes on the natural history of Donald F. McAlpine

H. Peter White
Environmental Physicist, Research Scientist at the
Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation, Natural Resources Canada

Website
SMU Alumni Profile

Email: H._Peter.White@SMU.CA     

With continued advances in optical remote sensing technologies, spectral detail directly related to the Earth’s environment is becoming more readily available and applied. By analyzing this wealth of information, remote sensing can move towards increased accuracy in characterizing the Earth’s surface, supporting initiatives in responsible natural resource exploration, in environmental monitoring, and in site remediation. Peter’s research activities works to advance capacity and develop new methods to extract information products supporting the monitoring and management of our natural resources and environment.

Dean Emeritus

David Richardson

Office: S 210
Phone: 902-496-8174
Email: david.richardson@smu.ca

David Richardson, Dean Emeritus has a research interest in lichens and has published widely on these plants including two books, `The Vanishing Lichens` and `Pollution Monitoring with Lichens`(which is available from the Saint Mary`s University Bookstore. He is co-chair of the Lichens and Mosses subcommittee of COSEWIC (Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada). He is also Editor In Chief of the International journal Symbiosis which is published by Springer and has nine issues per year. He is also past President and Associate Editor of the Proceedings of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science.

Staff 

Ashley Campbell
Manager, Interpreting Services Faculty of Science
ASL-English Staff Interpreter

Office: S219A
Phone: 902-496-8761
Email: ashley.n.campbell@smu.ca

Ashley Campbell is the manager of the SMU Faculty of Science Interpreting Services office and works as the STEM ASL-English staff interpreter for the faculty. She has considerable experience and expertise in interpreting and interpreting services coordination for diverse STEM settings ranging from classroom lectures & labs to outdoors research sites to international conferences. She has developed an in-house English-ASL/ASL-English dictionary of STEM terminology for interpreter preparation and development, produced Best Practice documents for interpreters working at SMU, maintained and updated the SMU Deaf Academics – Professional Interpreters website resource which is used by people across North America, and co-led the Atlantic Canada Sign Language Place Names project. She has served on the national ASL-English interpreting association (Canadian Association of Sign Language Interpreters [CASLI]) board in various positions (including president) and is currently the treasurer of the provincial association the Maritimes Association of Professional Sign Language Interpreters (MAPSLI).

Starla Predham
Interpreting Services Faculty of Science
ASL-English Staff Interpreter

Office: S219A
Phone: 902-496-8761
Email: starla.predham@smu.ca

Starla Predham is one of the staff interpreters with Interpreting Services. She was the first STEM Internship participant before joining the university full-time. Born and raised in Newfoundland, she is known as a Child of Deaf Adults (CODA) and a heritage signer in her community, having been brought up by Deaf parents. Starla is on the board of the local interpreting association, Maritime Association of Professional Sign Language Interpreter as a director. Starla likes working and enjoying the outdoors. 

Jess Younker
Science Technician
(On leave until October 26, 2024.)

Office: S 104
Phone: 902-496-8260
Email: jessica.younker@smu.ca 

Nicole Luttrell
Administrative Assistant 

Office: B 109
Phone: 902-420-5737
Email: envs@smu.ca

 Research Assistants/Associates

 Students