People in the Wolfe Lab
Lab phone: (780) 492 5451 lab; fax: (780) 492 2030

Alexander P. Wolfe, BSc (Western Ontario), PhD (Queen's): awolfe@ualberta.ca

Ryan McKellar, PhD 2011, MSc, BSc (Hons. Paleo.), University of Alberta: ryan_mckellar9@hotmail.com.
1) Arthropod taphonomy, Ordovician phacopid trilobites
2) Amber and fossil insects (especially parasitic micro-Hymenoptera of Cretaceous and Paleogene age)
3) Stable isotopes of modern and fossil conifer resins, history and fate of plant exudates

Dr. McKellar defended his PhD thesis on September 2, 2011. His dissertation, entitled "Paleobiology of Canadian amber: an exceptional record of Late Cretaceous Hymenoptera, with contributions to other taxa and the study of amber", was well received and aptly defended. Most of the thesis is published (see paper titles here), culminating with a paper in Science that has earned him notoriety for his contribution to fossil feathers and to the Late Cretaceous vertebrate fauna of southern Alberta. The whole feather team was tickled upon learning that the paper would fly, largely because publishing on amber can be a sticky issue.

Nathan Ballard, MSc 2011, BSc Geology, Alberta: nballard@ualberta.ca
Internal phosphorus generation from lake sediments in Alberta prairie lakes; measuring and modeling porewater bioinorganic chemistry; organic matter diagenesis; eutrophic lake diatoms; First Nations environmental issues
Band: Millionaire seeks lady

Nathan successfully defended his M.Sc. April 17, 2011. The thesis was entitled "Mechanisms and algal ecology of internal phosphorus loading in alkaline lakes". Nathan did an admirable job of tracking P, Fe, S, Mn, N in lakes that are both warming and eutrophying fast (can you say Microcystis?), always retaining his stoichiometric balance.

Heather Mosher, BSc Biology and Earth Science, St. Francis Xavier University: hmosher@ualberta.ca
Dendrochemical records of atmospheric pollution and recent climate change in western North America

Now, he is also interested in the Carbon cycle. Colin obtained his PhD April 6, 2010 for a thesis entitled Reconsidering the preindustrial mercury cycle using lake sediment archives. This was a well-conceived and well-received effort that failed to put the committee asleep. You can peruse Colin's details here.

Will O. Hobbs, PhD 2008 (BSc British Columbia, MSc Trinity Dublin).
Currently assistant research scientist at the St.Croix Research Station, Science Museum of Minnnesota; Marine on St.Croix; whobbs@smm.org;
Paleolimnology of alpine lakes, salmon-derived nutrients, climate change, hot-spring diatoms, dissoluton kinetics, reconstructing the limnological consequences of Irish potato famines, drought history, making negative results look better with fancy stats and graphs. Cool publication: Hobbs, W.O. et al, 2010. Quantifying recent ecological changes in remote lakes of North America and Greenland using sediment diatom assemblages. PLoS ONE 5: e10026. PDF

Collin Quarrie, undergraduate assistant and piper in residence;
now techie at Campbelll Sceintific: Collin.Quarrie@campbellsci.ca

Amber Garrett, undergraduate assistant and spectroscopist in residence amber.garrett@hotmail.com

Erin Doxsey-Whitfield, BSc Alberta inisfail15@hotmail.com
Arctic and alpine lake diatoms, now in graduate school at Queen's

Neal Michelutti, once NSERC postdoctoral Research Fellow now resident redneck at Queen's
arctic diatoms, spectral reflectance, nm37@queensu.ca

Roderick Hazewinkel, MSc, paleolimnology of lakes in the Alberta oilsands airshed
now Alberta Environment: roderick.hazewinkel@gov.ab.ca

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