Laurentian SETAC Marks 30 Years

Carolyn Martinko, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and Jack Salole, McMaster University and Nautilus Environmental

2026 Annual General Meeting & Conference

The Laurentian Chapter of SETAC (L-SETAC) held its 30th Annual General Meeting & Conference on June 8 and 9 at Ontario Tech University’s Science Building in Oshawa, Ontario. The theme of the conference was “Empowered Environments: Integrating Toxicology, Energy, and Policy.”

The conference began on Monday with a full day of short courses. In the morning, Sana Gavarikar and George Alipanopoulos, with Egis Canada, and Lara Alves Beese, with Dillon Consulting, led a “Career Development & Mentoring” course featuring a panel of mentors from government, academia and consulting. Mentors gave an overview of their career path and discussed their day-to-day responsibilities as well as the similarities and differences between each work sector. Participants then learned how to develop a career portfolio map and how to identify different types of mentors in their life to build a personal board of advisors. Finally, participants were able to seek one-on-one advice from the mentors.

In the afternoon, Denina Simmons, Ontario Tech University, and members of her Aquatic Omics Lab taught a course on “Fish Mucus Proteomics,” during which environmental toxicology students and professionals learned about this novel approach for non-invasive fish health assessment and monitoring and had an opportunity to practice mucus sample collection techniques in the lab.

Following the short courses, Rebecca Peters, Canada North Environmental Services, provided an engaging and fascinating talk on accounting for radiological parameters in risk assessment during our pub night at 2200 North.

On Tuesday, Ken Wilson, Dean of Science at Ontario Tech University, provided inspiring opening remarks. Simmons then delivered an important and timely plenary on assessing the environmental impacts of clean energy, including hydroelectric and nuclear power generation. Her presentation highlighted the Learning from Lake Sturgeon collaborative project with Moose Cree First Nation as well as the work of her Aquatic Omics Lab. Following the plenary, participants had the opportunity to attend 24 platform and 31 poster presentations in the fields of laboratory toxicology, field toxicology, chemistry, omics and risk assessment. This year’s meeting brought together 88 attendees. Following presentations, attendees headed to the campus pub for a student-mentor networking event and awards ceremony. Thanks to our generous sponsors, we awarded more than $3,200 in student prizes and travel awards. We also presented the Laurentian SETAC Chapter Award to Tyler Black, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, in recognition of his involvement and commitment to our chapter.

This conference would not have been possible without the support of the organizing committee: Carolyn Martinko, Environment and Climate Change Canada; Jack Salole, McMaster University and Nautilus Environmental; Denina Simmons, Ontario Tech University; Quinn Allamby and Vanessa Bautista, McMaster University; Olivia Coffield, University of Guelph; Sarah Gewurtz, Environment and Climate Change Canada; Spencer Hang, Ontario Tech University; Maxwell Hendershot and Hunter Herron, McMaster University; Sarah Kowalczyk, University of Waterloo; Aisha Pasha, Ontario Tech University; Ryan Rosniak, University of Guelph; Lauren Song, Ontario Tech University; and Mateas Winter, SLR Consulting.

Finally, we would like to extend our thanks to our sponsors for their generous support: Syngenta Canada, Egis Canada, Nautilus Environmental, MTE Consultants, Wellington Laboratories, Ontario Tech University’s Faculty of Science, Ecoreg Solutions, Dillon Consulting and WSP.

The L-SETAC Diversity in Science Committee (DISC) actively strives towards equity in all facets of our chapter, raises awareness of disparity in science, and highlights the achievements of women and members of underrepresented groups in science.

Hidden Figures

The L-SETAC DISC hosted a virtual screening and discussion of “Hidden Figures,” a film about the Black women mathematicians at NASA whose work was critical to the success of the early U.S. space program. The screening was followed by a discussion on representation, equity, intersectionality and the experiences of women in STEM and professional spaces.

Radical Self-Care: Rethinking Wellbeing in Demanding Systems

The L-SETAC DISC hosted a webinar with clinical psychologist Carol-Anne Hendry, Solasta Psychological Services. We discussed practical strategies for navigating burnout, boundaries and sustainability within high-demand professional environments.

Indigenous Scientist Spotlight

Check out L-SETAC’s new spotlight on Indigenous scientists in the Ontario region, and reach out to [email protected] or fill out this form if you have recommendations for who to put in the spotlight next!

This year, L-SETAC members were involved in three regional science fairs, hosted four pub nights across Ontario, and held two Lunch & Learn webinars. We also regularly post member spotlights on our website, including for Very Employable Persons (VEPs). Read more about them on our website if you’re hiring, or fill out the form if you’re interested in being featured.

Regional Science Fairs

Laurentian SETAC volunteers judged junior, intermediate and senior-level science fair projects at the Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair in Hamilton, Ottawa Regional Science Fair and Peterborough Regional Science Fair. Laurentian SETAC sponsored two awards at each fair to projects that conducted research in a field related to environmental chemistry, pollution, contamination, remediation, environmental protection, ecology or toxicology.

Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair – March 12

• Judges: Lara Alves Beese and Jack Salole
• Junior award: Celina Yun, “The Effects of Light Pollution on Marine Ecosystems and a Proposed Global Lighting Standard”
• Senior award: Aryan Mohanty, “FruitPlast: Engineering and Performance Assessment of Fruit-Derived Biopolymers”

Ottawa Regional Science Fair – March 27-28

• Judges: Jillian Rohonczy, Caitlyn Hisung and Hardeep Gill
• Junior award: Ayah Siddique, “Mycovoltaics”
• Senior award: Justin Huang, “AI-Driven Monitoring of Water Quality for Northern Lakes”

Peterborough Regional Science Fair – April 8

• Judges: Elise Millar and Tyler Dow
• Intermediate award: Claire Shen, “A Novel Biodegradable Treatment to Limit Drought and Wildfire Disaster and Retain Soil Nutrients” 
• Senior award: Ella Sehn, “Removal of Aquatic Microbial Biocontaminants with Ozonide: An Assessment of Apoptosis in Wild Type and CRISPR-Cas9 iPT Homozygous Knockout Cell Lines”

Thank you to all of the judges who participated on behalf of Laurentian SETAC, and congratulations to the students for their excellent work! Our involvement in these science fairs would not be possible without L-SETAC members being so gracious with their time.

If you’d like to become a member of our chapter, you can learn more. Please reach out to [email protected] if you want to get involved in our chapter or if you have event suggestions for the upcoming year!