By Melissa Kozy, MSc student at McGill University
The QCBS excellence award allowed me to attend the Canadian Society for Microbiology (CSM) conference in London, Ontario this year. This conference is an annual meeting for Canadian microbiologists and covers a wide array of topics, from food safety to human health to environmental microbiology.
Presenting my poster at CSM was the first time I had the opportunity to share my science with people outside of my department or circle of friends. This not only gave me excellent experience and taught me more about presenting a poster, but I also welcomed new ideas and feedback from people who I otherwise would’ve never had the opportunity to talk to. My research is looking at carbon and nitrogen cycling of Arctic cyanobacterial mats using metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and culture-based methods. This work has allowed me to travel to the Canadian High Arctic to collect samples and run in situ experiments (Figure 1). Because this work is done in such a unique environment, it brought a lot of interest to my poster.
CSM provided me with the opportunity to catch up with a previous supervisor and old friends. It also allowed me to meet new professors and learn about different types of research happening all over Canada. This gave me an idea of what kinds of research are being explored in Canada and allowed me to think of what may be next for me following my Master’s degree.
Some of the presentations that were the highlights of the conference for me included tracking the black plague using teeth from exhumed bodies, how World War II impacted the rise of anti-microbial resistance, the creation of a mock honeybee gut microbiome, and the biogeochemistry of electronic waste. While listening to presentations throughout the week, I learned a lot about what makes conference talks interesting. I learned that good presentation skills are the most important aspect of the presentation. If a speaker is clear, engaging and passionate, it can make a topic that I would not normally be interested in become much more appealing. Alternatively, if a talk was on a topic that I thought was interesting, but the presentation was dull, I would find it harder to stay engaged. I can take this knowledge and use it to try and improve my presentations moving forward.
A highlight of the non-academic portion of the conference was going to Heeman’s Nursery, a plant nursery and cidery. I love plants, so being in a nursery is always fun to me, but they also had a beautifully landscaped area that had frogs living in the water feature that I sat and watched for longer than I would like to admit (Figure 2). We also got to taste test a few types of cider and mead that they make there and learn about their fermentation process. I can imagine that talking about the microbiology of making cider and mead to a group of microbiologists would be intimidating, but he did an excellent job.
Overall, CSM was a very rewarding experience. I felt that it was a great balance between being fun and educational. I am very grateful to QCBS and my supervisor, Lyle Whyte, for giving me the opportunity to go to CSM in London, Ontario.
About the author: Melissa Kozey is a 2nd year MSc candidate at McGill University’s Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. Her research focuses on carbon and nitrogen fixation of cyanobacterial mats in the Canadian High Arctic. Melissa completed her BSc in cellular and molecular biology at the University of Regina.
Twitter: @Mel_Kozey
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