Speakers

Dr. David Cooper is a Professor, Centennial Enhancement Chair in Synchrotron Sciences and former Tier II Canada Research Chair in Synchrotron Bone Imaging at the University of Saskatchewan. He has 25 years of experience working with X-ray micro-computed tomography, including conventional and synchrotron systems. He is the co-Leader (with Dr. Dean Chapman) of the BioMedical and Imaging and Therapy (BMIT) Beam Team at the CLS and former member of the CLS User Executive Committee. Dr. Cooper has contributed to extensive works focused on bone adaptation, aging and disease as well as advanced imaging.  Working with local, national and international partners, his group has employed BMIT and other beamlines (CLS and abroad) in interdisciplinary projects that have been supported by all three of Canada’s national Tri-Agency funders (CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC), New Frontiers, and international agencies (including the Australian Research Council and Novo Nordisk Foundation).

Dr. Lindsay is a Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan. His research in environmental geochemistry and mineralogy broadly examines controls on metal mobility in the terrestrial hydrosphere. Lindsay is particularly interested in complex metal-mineral interactions under dynamic environmental conditions, where diverse reaction pathways can produce non-intuitive outcomes for metal mobility and bioavailability.

Maria G. Corradini is a Professor in Food Science and the Arrell Chair in Food Quality at the Arrell Food Institute (University of Guelph). During her career, she has focused on developing procedures and protocols to identify and assess changes in food quality and safety linked to processing and handling practices throughout the supply chain, from producer to consumer. She has also developed and validated models to evaluate and predict how food processing and handling practices can favor or act in detriment of food quality, safety, and nutritional content. Using a systems dynamics perspective, she has leveraged her expertise to participate as the PI and co-PI in research projects that take an integrative view of food chemical and microbiological safety and security within communities in Argentina (City of Buenos Aires), China (City of Macau), and USA (Newark, NJ). She has authored or co-authored over 160 research articles in refereed journals, 21 book chapters, two contributions to encyclopaedias, and six educational kits to promote STEM among underrepresented populations (middle/high school level).

Robert Szilagyi is an associate professor of chemistry at The University of British Columbia, Okanagan campus (UBCO). He received his degrees from University of Pannonia, Hungary in Carbon and Oil Technology (M.Sc.), Theoretical Organic and Organometallic Chemistry (Ph.D.), while working with Prof. Lajos Bencze. He was a postdoc with Prof. Keiji Morokuma at Emory University and then gained his synchrotron science skills at Stanford University with Profs. Ed Solomon, Britt Hedman, and Keith Hodgson. His independent academic carreer started at Montana State University, where he rose to the rank of associate professor. Since 2022, he is member of the faculty at UBCO. He was recognized as an emerging young scientists in 2011 by the Kavli Foundation, and received the “Momentum” prestigeous research award from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2014. He thrives at the boundaries of experimental and theoretically research by contributing to fundamental scientific discoveries using quantum chemical methods and synchrotron spectroscopic techniques in bioinorganic systems, coordination chemistry, and materials science of Fe-S systems and carbon materials.

Jessie Freese is a PhD candidate in the physics department at the University of Saskatchewan supervised by Prof. Robert Green.  She completed a BA in Physics at Mount Holyoke College in 2013 and worked in industry as a crystal growth scientist with a focus on electro-optical and non-linear optical crystals and x-ray characterization before returning to academia to pursue graduate work at the University of Saskatchewan.  She completed her MSc in 2022, examining the metal-insulator transition in NdNiO3 using x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and scanning transmission x-ray spectromicroscopy (STXM) using data collected at the REIXS and SM beamlines at the CLS.  Her current work applies resonant x-ray reflectometry (RXR) to understanding surface electronic states in titanate materials.

Jerit Mitchell is currently a PhD physics student at the University of Regina, where he also received his BSc and MSc in physics. His PhD research continues his MSc work, focusing on tomographic imaging of fossils using synchrotron radiation and neutrons, particularly large dinosaur bones, to look for preserved soft tissues. He also has experience with chemical analysis techniques such as X-ray Fluorescence, X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy, and Infrared Spectroscopy applied to paleontology research.

Ariel Tirado is a M.Sc. candidate in Chemistry at the University of Saskatchewan, and currently working in collaboration with the Far-Infrared Beamline at CLS, as a Mitacs Intern. He graduated with a B.Sc. (Hon) in Chemistry at USask, where he has published work in infrared spectroelectrochemistry. Concurrently, he has worked at the Far-Infrared Beamline since May 2024, developing infrastructure for the sustainable coupling of electrochemical techniques to synchrotron-based Far-Infrared spectroscopy. The milestones achieved by this work, and the scientific output it has led to, will the topic of this presentation.

I received my BSc in Biomedical Neuroscience in 2025. I am currently an INSPIRE funded MSc student in the department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology at the University of Saskatchewan. My research focuses on the behavioural effects of gestational cannabis exposure and investigating associated biochemical and biomolecular changes in the brain. I use X-ray fluorescence imaging (XFI) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectromicroscopy at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) to compliment my behavioural research.