The range of expertise of our scientists spans the disciplines of botany, horticulture, nutrition, plant and animal physiology, food chemistry, and natural products chemistry.
Dr. Marva Sweeney, BSc (Mt. Allison); PhD (Dalhousie). Blueberry Team lead. Pharmacologist, sub-specialty Neurosciences. Associate Professor (Dept. of Biology, UPEI) and Louis Levesque Research Professor. Brain injury after hypoxic damage, antioxidants as neuroprotectants and beneficial substances with respect to hypertension and atherosclerosis.
Dr. Katherine Gottschall-Pass, BSc (St. Francis Xavier), PhD (Saskatchewan). Registered Dietitian and Nutritional Physiologist. Associate Professor (Dept. of Family & Nutritional Sciences, UPEI). Food components and nutritional factors involved in the prevention of chronic disease and the mechanisms of their action particularly through antioxidant functions.
Dr. Wilhelmina Kalt, BSc (St. Andrews College, NC), MSc and PhD (North Carolina State).Food Chemist. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Atlantic Food & Horticulture Research Centre, Kentville, NS. Blueberry flavonoid chemistry, their in vitro and in vivo bioactivity.
Dr. Shawna MacKinnon, BSc (UNB), MSc (Dalhousie), PhD (Ottawa). Roses Team Co-lead. Natural Products Chemist. Research Officer, Institute for Marine Biosciences, National Research Council, Halifax, NS. Isolation and structure elucidation of natural products. Bioactives.
Dr. Carolanne Nelson, BSc (General: Alberta; Nutrition: Alberta), PhD (UBC). Nutritional Scientist, with specialty in nutritional genomics. Assistant Professor, Dept. of Family & Nutritional Sciences, UPEI. Interaction between bioactive compounds and gene function using novel technologies such as DNA microarray.
Dr. K. Wilf Nicholls, BSc (Univ. College Wales), PhD (UBC). Team Co-lead. Botanist and Horticulturist. Director of Botanical Garden, MUN , President of New Found Plants Inc. and Professor of Biology, MUN. Ornamentals, breeding selection, conservation, re-vegetation, taxonomy, mapping and speciation of wild roses, along with their nursery propagation and field cultivation.
Dr. David Percival, BSc, MSc, PhD (Guelph). Horticultural Scientist and Plant Physiologist. Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Environmental Sciences, Nova Scotia Agricultural College. Agricultural practices for enhancing blueberry fruit yield and the antioxidant content of the fruit and other parts of the plant.
Kevin R. Sanderson, BSc (UPEI). Horticulturist. Research
Scientist, Crops and Livestock Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, PEI. Horticultural crops with special interest in crop management, fertility, and new crop development, greenhouse and field protocols for propagating and cultivating wild roses.
