Anniversary Scholar Awards

Celebrating 50 Years of Academic Excellence

As part of Cape Breton University’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, the Anniversary Scholar Awards recognize five outstanding faculty members, one from each of CBU’s academic schools. These awards, established to honour CBU’s commitment to academic excellence, provide $10,000 to each recipient to pursue a timely research project in their area of expertise and field of study.

The Anniversary Scholars will share their findings in a series of public presentations throughout November and December 2024. All presentations are taking place in the Yvonne LeVert Hospitality Suite.

There is limited seating so please, fill out this form to RSVP.

Presentation Schedule

Tuesday, November 19 | 11:30am-1:00pm

  • Dr. Xu Zhang, Canada Research Chair in Healthy Environments and Communities and Associate Professor of Chemistry in the School of Science and Technology
  • Electrochemical removal of uranium from well water

Uranium is a common groundwater contaminant in Nova Scotia where more than 40% of residents rely on private wells for drinking water. Chronic exposure to uranium is associated with kidney disease, cancer, and other chronic health issues, but testing well water for uranium is costly and requires sending samples to a centralized laboratory, which is challenging for families living in rural areas. Our research objective is to develop small-scale uranium monitoring and treatment technologies suitable for household use.

Dr. Shine (Xu) Zhang’s talk will discuss how electrochemical sensors and water treatment technologies can address this problem. Electrochemical strategies compare favorably to conventional processes, such as adsorption and coagulation/flocculation, with advantages in speed and efficiency, materials regeneration, uranium recovery, and recycling. This research also considers the environmental and economic aspects of electrochemical technologies for uranium monitoring and remediation.


Thursday, November 21 | 11:30am-1:00pm

  • Dr. Kevin McKague, Canada Research Chair in Social Enterprise and Inclusive Markets and Associate Professor in the Shannon School of Business
  • Cape Breton Business History Book Series

Working in partnership with four CBU students, the Beaton Institute, and Heritage Cape Breton Connection (HCBC), Dr. Kevin McKague will implement a research project will result in the creation of a series of 14 books on Cape Breton business history – one each for the communities of: 1. Sydney (including North Sydney and Sydney Mines) 2. Baddeck 3. Cheticamp 4. Glace Bay 5. Ingonish 6. Inverness 7. Iona 8. Louisbourg 9. Margaree 10. New Waterford 11. Port Hawkesbury 12. Reserve Mines and Dominion 13. St. Annes 14. St. Peters. The goal is to include listings of every mercantile business that operated in each community organized by year, beginning in 1864 or whenever businesses began to be established, until 1927. All original business listing information is being compiled from information gathered by historic credit rating agencies.


Tuesday, November 26 | 11:30am-1:00pm

  • Dr. Bettina Callary, Canada Research Chair in Sport Coaching and Adult Learning and Associate Professor in the School of Arts and Social Sciences
  • Building sustainability in the “Home of girls’, women’s, and para hockey”

Cape Breton University (CBU) will soon become the first “Home of girls’, women’s, and para hockey” in the world. This exciting endeavor began because of CBU’s strong focus on community engagement and a connection with the Cape Breton Blizzard hockey association (Blizzard), an-all girls’ minor league. Blizzard was formed in 2017 and consistently struggled to find ice time for practices and games around already established leagues. The Sledgehammers, Cape Breton’s para-hockey association, also struggled in its quest for appropriate and accessible facilities to grow the game.

Together with CBU (and the CBU women’s hockey team), Blizzard won the national Kraft Hockeyville competition, which focused on the revitalization and accessibility of CBU’s arena, ultimately winning the $250,000 grand prize. As the first facility devoted to advocacy for equity and inclusion in hockey, this inspiring story on the “Home of girls’, women’s, and para hockey” required documentation and analysis. The leaders of this initiative hold rich information about how they worked together to secure infrastructural support and the key ingredients to advocating and sustaining equity for gender and disability in hockey moving forward. With this knowledge, other regions across Canada will gain a better understanding on how to make specific changes that contribute to equity and inclusion in sport, and in particular, hockey.


Thursday, November 28 | 11:30am-1:00pm

  • Dr. Kristin O’Rourke, Assistant Professor in the School of Education and Health
  • Growth beyond our campus: Supporting schooling for newcomer youth in Cape Breton

The drastic growth of CBU’s international student population is seen all over Cape Breton Island.  The diversity has added much needed perspective and vibrancy to our community.  With all rapid growth comes areas that need further examination and attention.  International students are increasingly bringing their families to our island during their time of study and their children are embedded within our school system.  Given the housing crisis, the majority of newcomer children are attending four particular elementary schools in the local Cape Breton Regional Centre for Education (CBVRCE).  The large influx of students with a significant range of academic and emotional needs, English language proficiency, and cultural complexities are undoubtedly requiring schools to significantly shift and pivot.

This project aims to examine the perspectives of teachers, administrators and school staff during this unprecedented time in our local community.


Tuesday, December 10 | 11:30-1:00pm

  • Dr. Virginia Gunn, Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing
  • Mapping the use of algorithmic management in healthcare and its possible implications for the health workforce: A scoping review

Technological advances affect all economic sectors and the labour market, changing the ways in which work is organized and directed. Algorithmic management (AM)—commonly referred to as the application of computer-programmed techniques to coordinate labour—is increasingly used, however, there is limited knowledge about its workforce impacts. While the study of AM in certain economic sectors is currently underway, there is a lack of research regarding its health system applications and health workforce impacts. To address this gap, we will conduct a systematic scoping review of available evidence, to map the documented uses of AM in healthcare and potential impacts on work environment and workers’ health and wellbeing. This novel research endeavour is significant and timely given the (i) pervasive use of algorithmic management in healthcare and (ii) persisting health worker shortages, emphasizing the need for new perspectives when examining factors impacting health workforce sustainability. The project will be completed by a team of health researchers and practitioners with expertise in health system and health workforce issues, who will engage CBU students as research assistants and multidisciplinary national and international researchers as collaborators.

 

Learn more about the Anniversary Scholar Awards by clicking here.