Brock Fenton
M.B. (Brock) Fenton received his Ph.D. in 1969 for work in the ecology and behaviour of bats. Since then he has held academic positions at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada 1969 to 1986), York University (Toronto, Canada 1986 to 2003) and the University of Western Ontario (2003 to present). He has published over 200 papers in refereed journals (most of them about bats), as well as numerous nontechnical contributions. He has written three books about bats intended for a general audience (Just bats 1983, University of Toronto Press; Bats 1992 - revised edition 2001 Facts On File Inc; and The bat: wings in the night sky 1998, Key Porter Press). He has supervised the work of 46 M.Sc. Students and 22 Ph.D. students who have completed their degrees. He currently supervises 5 M.Sc. students and 2 Ph.D. students. He continues his research on the ecology and behaviour of bats, with special emphasis on echolocation. He currently is an Emeritus Professor of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Denis Maxwell
(Ph.D., University of Western Ontario) teaches in the Department ofBiology at the University of Western Ontario. Following his doctorate, he was awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada post-doctoral fellowship. He undertook post-doctoral training at the Department of Energy—Plant Research Laboratory at Michigan State University, where he studied the function of the mitochondrial alternative oxidase. His research program, which is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, is focused on understanding the role of the mitochondrion in intracellular stress sensing and signalling.
Tom Haffie
Tom Haffie is a graduate of the University of Guelph and the University of Saskatchewan in the area of microbial genetics. Newly retired, he devoted his 33-year career at Western University to teaching large biology classes in lecture, laboratory, and tutorial settings. He led the development of the innovative core laboratory course in the Biology program; he was an early adopter of computer animation in lectures; and, most recently, he led a deep blended redevelopment of introductory biology informed by a students-as-partners approach to collaborative course design. Tom was a founding force in the Western Biology Undergraduate Society (BUGS), the Open Consortium for Undergraduate Biology Educators (oCUBE), and the Western Conference on Science Education (WCSE). Tom’s educational practice was honoured with several awards, including a Western University Students’ Council Award for Excellence in Teaching, a Western University Edward G. Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching, a Western University Fellowship in Teaching Innovation, a Western University Teaching Fellowship for Science, a Province of Ontario Award for Leadership in Faculty Teaching (LIFT), and a 3M National Teaching Fellowship for excellence in teaching.
Bill Milsom
Bill Milsom (Ph.D., University of British Columbia) is currently the Head of the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia where he has taught a variety of courses, including first year biology, for over 30 years. His research interests include the evolutionary origins of respiratory processes and the adaptive changes in these processes that allow animals to exploit diverse environments. He examines respiratory and cardiovascular adaptations in vertebrate animals in rest, sleep, exercise, altitude, dormancy, hibernation, diving, etc. This contributes to our understanding of the mechanistic basis of biodiversity and the physiological costs of habitat selection. His research has been funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. He has received several academic awards and distinctions including the Fry Medal of the Canadian Society of Zoologists, the August Krogh Award of the American Physiological Society, and the Izaak Walton Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring. He has served as the President of the Canadian Society of Zoologists and as President of the International Congress of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry.
Todd Nickle
Todd received his PhD from Oklahoma State University in 1998 and taught Biology at Mount Royal University, advocating active learning: students come to class prepared to work with material rather than just hear about it. Student preparation involves reading the text and applying the concepts to online exercises, the results of which inform what the next lecture will be about. Class time focuses on exploring connections between concepts and ideas in biology and how they relate to other disciplines, which inspired him to coauthor a handbook for first-year science students (Science3). A compelling candidate for the 3M National Fellowship, Todd’s work put him in the first cohort of full professors at Mount Royal University in 2012 and garnered him the 2015 ACIFA Innovation in Teaching Award and the Distinguished Faculty Award from MRU in 2016. His interest in promoting best teaching practices among educators beyond his home campus saw him expand and lead the Alberta Introductory Biology Association (AIBA) to official society status in Alberta as the Undergraduate Biology Educators of Alberta (UBEA).
Shona Ellis
Shona Ellis (M.Sc., University of British Columbia) is a professor of teaching in the Botany Department and Associate Head of Biology at the University of British Columbia. She developed a keen interest in forests and the ocean and growing up on the central coast of British Columbia. As an undergraduate, Professor Ellis pursued her interests in botany and entomology. Her MSc research incorporated tissue culture, phytochemistry, and plant anatomy. As a teaching assistant, she realized a passion for teaching and joined the teaching faculty at the University of British Columbia in 1998. She teaches botany courses that have included nonvascular and vascular plants, economic botany, bryology, and plant systematics, as well as introductory biology. Professor Ellis has taught in a number of settings: large and small lectures, laboratories, and fieldtrips. While she feels the best classroom is outdoors, she integrates online technologies into all of her courses; she is an early adopter of online teaching and learning resources. Professor Ellis has received two Killam Teaching Awards and a Charles Bessey Teaching Award (Botanical Society of America).
Shelby Riskin
Shelby Riskin received her BA from Grinnell College in Iowa, where she was first exposed to the wonderful world of biological research. She received her PhD from Brown University in a joint program with the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Her dissertation focused on ecosystem-level biogeochemical consequences of conversion to agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon, the region of the world where deforestation and conversion to large-scale farming are happening most rapidly. Shelby then joined the University of Toronto as Assistant Professor in the teaching stream in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. She teaches a variety of undergraduate courses exploring ecosystem ecology and conservation biology and is Director of the U of T National Biology Competition, an international competition for high-school students. She is also passionate about mentoring undergraduates through independent research projects and about teaching biology and ecology to students outside the life sciences—understanding the diversity of life is for everyone.
Peter Russell
Paul E. Hertz
Beverly McMillan
Beverly McMillan holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked extensively in educational and commercial publishing as an author, science writer, project manager, and multimedia content developer. In addition to her contributions to college textbooks, Beverly has written or coauthored multiple popular books on topics in natural history and human health and biology, as well as field guides to the flora and fauna of more than 20 US states. She has also created Web and print content for such clients as the US National Park Service, the Science Museum of Virginia, The Mariners’ Museum, the San Francisco Exploratorium, the University of California system, and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science/College of William and Mary.
Joel H. Benington
Joel H. Benington received his BA from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1985 and his PhD in biology from Stanford University in 1992. He performed postdoctoral research at the University of Los Angeles and Stanford University until 1996. Since then, he has been a member of the Biology faculty of St. Bonaventure University, where he is currently Professor of Biology and Director of the Bioinformatics and Health and Society programs. He has twice served as Chair of the Department of Biology. During his entire time at St. Bonaventure University, he has taught one or both semesters of the general biology sequence for first-year life science majors. He also teaches upper-level Neurobiology, Genomics, and Evolution courses and has led a variety of seminar courses in the university’s Honors Program. He has published his research in journals such as Progress in Neurobiology, Brain Research, The American Journal of Physiology, and The Scientist. In addition to laboratory research, he has published hypotheses concerning the role of sleep in brain energy metabolism, the functional relationship between REM sleep and non-REM sleep, and connections between sleep and learning. Joel’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, and he has served as Principal Investigator of a National Grid grant to support K–12 STEM education in Cattaraugus County, New York.
