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Carleton Adds Six New Dogs to Popular Therapy Program

A new group of Carleton University students just aced their final exams. They sat and came on command, politely accepted petting and ignored distractions. Six dogs—with the help of their handlers, who are all Carleton faculty or staff—officially passed the Canadian Kennel Club's Canine Good Neighbour test on Sept. 12, 2019 and became the latest Carleton Therapy Dogs. “Our truly unique therapy dog program has become emblematic of the wide range of initiatives and support mechanisms to foster mental health and well-being,” says Carleton President Benoit-Antoine Bacon. “With six new dogs and their wonderful humans joining the program, there will be a Carleton therapy dog 'in office' essentially every day.” Carleton University President Benoit-Antoine Bacon meeting a therapy dog. The…

Neuroscientist Focuses on Students as New Graduate Studies Dean

Patrice Smith didn’t have her sights set on academic leadership. She was focused on her work as a neuroscientist, conducting research investigating how the brain responds to strokes, traumatic injuries and diseases such as Parkinson’s, and how we can promote central nervous system regeneration and recovery. Smith has long been fascinated by the brain and its mysterious inner mechanisms, exploring this area of research since emigrating to Ottawa from Jamaica in 1995. Her professorial position at Carleton, which began in 2008 after a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, was a perfect opportunity to build a fulfilling career as a scientist and post-secondary educator. Patrice Smith, Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs But in 2016, she was approached…

What’s New at Carleton in 2019-2020

Students, faculty, staff and visitors to Carleton University in the new academic year will notice several striking changes as the campus’s growth and evolution continue at a steady pace. The most outwardly visible differences this fall are the new buildings taking shape — the Advanced Research and Innovation in Smart Environments Building, which hosted distinguished guests for a sneak preview in late August, as well as the rapidly rising Nicol Building and an upgraded Co-Generation Facility, which will increase Carleton’s energy self-sufficiency. But some of the changes are more subtle, including a long list of new or adapted programs and projects, as well as the arrival of new senior leaders responsible for aligning all this momentum with the university’s core values…

Carleton Faculty Receive CIHR Funding for Research Focused on the Health of Canadians

Carleton University researchers have received almost $700,000 from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) to support projects exploring the link between pollution and suicide and the connection between brain inflammation and Parkinson’s disease. “CIHR funding enables Carleton to expand its world-class research into these important areas which directly impact the health and wellness of Canadians and people everywhere,” said Rafik Goubran, vice-president (Research and International). Shawn Hayley, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience will be using CIHR funding to investigate pesticides associated with Parkinson’s disease called Paraquat, which is still used in Canada. “In our lab, we found that Paraquat causes a degeneration of the dopamine neurons in rodent brains,” said Hayley. “These are the same neurons that…

Carleton Experts Available: Back to School

As the summer winds down and students prepare to return to class, Carleton experts are available to discuss related topics, including goal setting, healthy choices, routines, mental health, the transition to university, cannabis use and multitasking. Marina Milyavskaya Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology Phone: 613-520-2600, ext. 7490 Email: Marina.Milyavskaya@carleton.ca Milyavskaya is available to discuss goal setting, as well as healthy choices and routines. Milyavskaya’s research examines why people are successful in the pursuit of certain goals, but not others. Her work looks at the factors that promote successful goal pursuit and attainment, as well as self-regulatory mechanisms. Her other research interests include autonomy support, health behaviours, attachment and well-being across a person’s lifespan. Jim Davies Professor, Institute of Cognitive Science…

Carleton’s Mike Hildebrand and Fellow Researchers Bridge the Gap between Animal Studies and New Treatments for Chronic Pain Sufferers

Carleton University’s Mike Hildebrand and his partners are publishing new research into managing chronic pain. The lack of effective treatments has created a major health crisis affecting one in five Canadians. The opioid epidemic has highlighted the magnitude of this clinical problem, as well as the urgent need for safer more effective treatments. “To develop new pharmacological options, pain researchers are investigating what goes wrong to drive out-of-control pain signalling,” said Hildebrand, professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Most pain studies use rodent models of human chronic pain conditions, such as sciatica, neuropathies and arthritis. Once targets and candidate compounds are identified and shown to be safe, they advance to human testing. Until recently, a major gap in this development…

By the Numbers: Carleton Hosts International Conference on How Kids Learn Math

Although numbers are thousands of years old, our knowledge of how people learn about them is still emerging. This growing knowledge is being explored from June 16 to 18 at the 2019 Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society (MCLS) scientific conference at Carleton University, where researchers gathered from North and South America, Europe, and Asia to share their newest findings. "Many of the society's members are studying questions that will help educators find better ways to teach math to kids," says Carleton Prof. Jo-Anne LeFevre, a co-organizer of the event. "They are trying to understand mathematical thinking from a scientific perspective and to extend their findings to real-world situations like math class." Founded in 2015, the MCLS has 320 members around…

Spring Convocation: Top Medal Winners Pick up Diplomas and Awards

Convocating will be extra special for four students who are receiving the highest medals awarded annually for their impressive academic accomplishments. Receiving either perfect GPA scores or just a hair short of perfection, these students are thrilled to have their hard work recognized. Elyn Rowe is this year’s Chancellor’s Medal winner—an award given to a graduating undergraduate student of outstanding academic achievement. “I am very humbled to have been chosen for such a prestigious award,” says Rowe. “Upon receiving notification about the award from the president’s office, I couldn’t put my excitement into words so I just forwarded the email to my parents back home in North Bay, Ont. My mum was over the moon excited about the news. My…

Da Vinci’s 3D Mastery Explored by Carleton President

When we look at a black-and-white image of several outlined circles with varying degrees and placement of shading inside their rings, some of the circles will look like bumps, while others will look like holes, despite the fact that they’re on a flat piece of paper. Image bv V.S. Ramachandran That’s because we assume that light comes from above and use shadows to interpret 3D shapes and depth. “The brain has learned that light comes from above, because for millions of years the sun has come from above,” Carleton University President Benoit-Antoine Bacon said during “da Vinci’s Vision: The Beauty (and Limitations) of Painting a 3D World,” a lecture he gave on May 8, 2019 as part of the university’s…

Carleton Life Sciences Day Celebrates Top Research

Human health doesn’t begin at birth – or even at conception. “The origins for health, development and disease trajectories occur even earlier than that,” says Kristin Connor, assistant professor in the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease in Carleton University’s Department of Health Sciences. That’s because parental health before and at conception, and during the early stages of pregnancy, can influence the health and development of a fetus and then the lifelong health of that individual after birth. Life Sciences Day Highlights Groundbreaking New Research Connor shared her research at the Human-Microbe Interactions session of Life Sciences Day 3.0, an all-day event that brought together academia, government and entrepreneurs to share their work. “We want to make sure that people…