Researchers at Brock

Brock University provides a dynamic and creative environment that breaks the boundaries of academic convention while providing students, faculty and staff exceptional opportunities to develop both personally and academically.

Brock encourages a heart for community and a passion for innovation. These elements foster an excellent research environment, and an ability to discover, disseminate and apply new knowledge with a goal of improving the quality of life through leading-edge research.

<p>Imagine a tourism experience where you pay to spend hours pretending to illegally cross the American border from Mexico. <br />You trudge through muddy fields under the blare of gunfire. You run exhausted through sewer tunnels. You are placed, scared and blindfolded, in the back of a truck, only to end up where you started &mdash; at a restaurant, gift shop and main offices, and people telling you to enjoy your stay.&nbsp;This is the new trend in post-9/11 dark tourism, a term that describes the act of visiting the sites of tragedies as a tourist. This experience is called immersive simulation, and Natalie Alvarez, assistant professor of Dramatic Arts, is writing a book about it.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.brocku.ca/research/research-profiles/natalie-alvarez"><em>Profile continued...</em></a></p> [1]

<p>Tony Bogaert is used to making waves with his research into sexual orientation. And that fascination is unlikely to die any time soon. The Community Health Sciences professor cross-appointed to Psychology has two studies in the works &mdash; one on gay men and birth order, and one on physical differences between those who identify as straight versus those who identify as gay or lesbian.<br />Both are the continuation of a body of sexual orientation research that has garnered worldwide interest in the past 10 years.</p><p><em><a target="_blank" href="http://www.brocku.ca/research/research-profiles/tony-bogaert">Profile continued...</a></em></p> [2]

<p><span style="color: rgb(88, 88, 88); font-size: 1em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6em; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">While Gaynor Spencer is officially on sabbatical during the summer of 2010, you will likely find the associate professor of Biological Sciences in her lab nearly every day, working on the projects for which she recently earned a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant. <em><a target="_blank" href="http://www.brocku.ca/research/research-profiles/gaynor-spencer">Profile continued ...</a></em></span><a target="_blank" href="http://www.brocku.ca/research/research-profiles/gaynor-spencer">&nbsp;</a></p> [3]

<p>Barry Grant is having a busy year. In the spring, he was honoured for 34 years of teaching, research and overall service with an award from the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). A few months later,&nbsp;with adjunct professor Joan Nicks, he celebrated the release of the book Covering Niagara: Studies in Local Popular Culture, a book they co-edited. Then, in the late summer, it was announced that Grant, a professor in Communications, Popular Culture and Film, will be the recipient of Canada's highest academic honour with his election to the Royal Society of Canada (RSC).</p><p><em><a target="_blank" href="http://www.brocku.ca/research/research-profiles/grant">Profile continued ...</a></em></p><p>&nbsp;</p> [4]

<div>There are a lot of chest X-rays that show abnormalities. But the only way to know if the abnormality means lung cancer has been to perform an invasive and sometimes life-threatening biopsy.</div> <div>Until now.</div> <p>Martin Tammemagi, associate professor, Community Health Sciences, and a team of U.S. researchers have found a way to better pinpoint when an abnormal chest X-ray means cancer. They studied the chest radiographs of 12,314 people and found 14 factors that help determine whether to proceed with a biopsy. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.brocku.ca/research/research-profiles/tammemagi"><em>Profile continued...</em></a></p> [5]

<div>Studying a legendary poet&rsquo;s impact on national identity has earned Elizabeth Sauer a place as one of nine distinguished scholars across Canada.</div> <p>Sauer, a professor in the Department of English, is only the second Brock professor to receive the Killam Fellowship, an award that comes with two years of funding to focus on one&rsquo;s area of research.&nbsp;</p><p><!--StartFragment--><span style="color: rgb(88, 88, 88); font-size: 1em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6em; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">Her works focus on the writings of John Milton, the famous early modern poet and polemicist, who composed one of the most celebrated works in the English literary canon, <em>Paradise Lost</em>. </span><em><span style="color: rgb(88, 88, 88); font-size: 1em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6em; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; "><a target="_blank" href="http://www.brocku.ca/research/research-profiles/sauer">Profile continued...</a></span></em><!--EndFragment--></p> [6]

<p>&ldquo;A new kind of heating bill.&rdquo; &nbsp; &ldquo;Who can cool his body fast? Toucan.&rdquo; &nbsp; &ldquo;Toucan&rsquo;s bill gives big chill.&rdquo;<!--StartFragment--></p><p class="MsoNormal">Those are just a few of the colourful headlines Glenn Tattersall&rsquo;s work generated recently when the results of his study were published in the prestigious journal Science.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Tattersall, an associate professor in Biological Sciences, found that Toco Toucans use their bills to regulate their body temperature.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">&ldquo;An elephant uses its ears to dump heat,&rdquo; Tattersall said. &ldquo;Mice use their tails. Toucans use their bills.&rdquo; <em><a target="_blank" href="http://www.brocku.ca/research/research-profiles/tattersall">Profile continued...</a></em></p> <!--EndFragment--> [7]

<div>As a young athlete in her native Greece, Nota Klentrou couldn&rsquo;t have guessed that a painful dismount would one day lead her to Namibia.</div><div>&nbsp;</div> <div>At age 12, Klentrou had a promising future in artistic gymnastics. She had the strong, slight physique, but not, as she learned, the nerves of steel.</div><div>&nbsp;</div> <div>She injured her ankle, but proceeded to compete on the asymmetric bars anyway. Despite her dismount, which sent her tumbling injured to the floor, she gave valuable points to her team but missed the individual medal.<div><em><a target="_blank" href="http://www.brocku.ca/research/research-profiles/klentrou">Profile continued...</a></em></div></div> [8]

<div>&nbsp;This Brock researcher is working on a pilot project to ensure that kids who struggle with literacy don&rsquo;t lose all their progress during the lazy summer months.</div><div>&nbsp;</div> <p>John McNamara, associate professor, Child and Youth Studies, has teamed with Jackie Van Lankveld, manager of Pre-school Speech and Language Services at the Niagara Peninsula Children&rsquo;s Centre, to develop a program to keep the minds of kindergarten students sharp, even during a season when school is a memory.&nbsp;<em><a target="_blank" href="http://www.brocku.ca/research/research-profiles/mcnamara">Profile continued...</a></em></p> [9]

<div>Commercial weight loss programs pop up online and proliferate in plazas.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>But little is known about what motivates people to adhere to such programs.</div> <div>Is it an innate human desire to be healthy? Is it other motivators like money, prestige, or physical attraction? Or is it a combination of several motivators?</div><div>&nbsp;</div> <p>At Brock&rsquo;s Behavioural Health Sciences Research Lab, two professors and trainee researchers at the graduate and undergraduate levels aim to answer that question across the next three years. <em><a target="_blank" href="http://www.brocku.ca/research/research-profiles/wilsonmack">Profile continued...</a></em></p> [10]

<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(88, 88, 88); font-size: 1em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6em; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">Travis Dudding is a problem solver on a molecular level.</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(88, 88, 88); font-size: 1em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6em; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">The associate professor in the department of Chemistry spends much of his research time trying to solve the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">mechanistic</i> riddles around synthetically <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">important</i> chemical reactions using computational chemistry. In many cases, Dudding and his research team are after the synthesis of medicinally useful pharmaceuticals in a much shorter time, while utilizing considerably fewer resources as well.</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(88, 88, 88); font-size: 1em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6em; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; "> His work has come to the attention of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, who have awarded Dudding a $64,800 U.S. sub-contract to work on a specific reaction discovered by a colleague at the University at Buffalo.<!--EndFragment-->&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.brocku.ca/research/research-profiles/dudding"><em>Profile continued...</em></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> [11]