Research Group
Cynthia Kallenbach; Associate Professor
Cynthia is in the Natural Resource Sciences department at McGill University. She has a MSc in International Agricultural Development and in Soils and Biogeochemistry from University of California, Davis and a PhD in Earth and Environmental Science from the University of New Hampshire. She values collaborations across disciplines and is excited about applying fundamental ecological theories to understand how soil responds to agriculture and climate change.
Sophie Burgess, MSc; co-supervised with Ian Strachan, McGill and Queens University
Sophie is studying carbon inputs and outputs at the Mer Bleue Bog sediment marsh in Ontario. She is determinmg the source and fate of carbon in this system to help understand how it is a net carbon sink ecosystem.
Melanie Burnett , PhD candidate; co-supervised with Peter Douglas
Melanie has a MSc. from the University of Alaska where she examined denitrification and nitrous oxide emission in soils and sediments of the boreal forest. Her dissertation is linking greenhouse gas emissions in permafrost ponds with upstream soil processes and coupled soil carbon and nitrogen cycling. Melanie holds an FRQNT scholarship.
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Deniz Dutton, MSc; co-supervised with Mary-Cathrine Leewis, AAFC
Deniz has a BSc in Environmental Science from the University of Vermont, where she researched the effect of timber harvesting and wood decomposition on saprophytic fungal communities and soil carbon in temperate deciduous forests. Deniz's thesis is on the interactive effects of crop diversity and precipitation variation on soil microbial communities as they relate to crop and soil productivity in agricultural settings. Deniz hold a FRQNT scholarship and is a NSERC-CREATE Climate Smart Soils fellow.
Juliette Lebold, MSc; co-supervised with Jacynthe Masse, AAFC
Juliette is MSc student researching the ecology of sweetgrass and its impacts on soil health, to assist the revitalisation of this knowledge with the W8banaki Nation in Quebec. She is interested in weaving social science and natural science to create a complete picture of the current issues involving the decline of sweetgrass populations
Hannah Lieberman, PhD candidate; co-supervised with Chris von Sperber
Hannah received received her BSc in Biology from Grinnell College in 2016 and completed a fellowship at Gobabeb research station in Namibia, and worked on invasive species at the US Fish and Wildlife Service and as a post-bac internship at Archbold Biological Station. At McGill, Hannah’s research is focused on how flooding impacts carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus sorption and desorption dynamics under different land management practices, soil depths, and flood conditions. Hannah holds a FRQNT scholarship and is a CAPI fellow and NSERC-CREATE Climate Smart Soils fellow.
Nadia Moukanni, Postdoctoral researcher
Nadia is investigating soil organic matter responses to altered precipitation across a crop diversity gradient. She earned her Ph.D. in Soils and Biogeochemistry from the University of California, Davis, and her MS in Soil and Water Management from the Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine- Morocco. In both experiences, she worked across differences of cultures and disciplines and witnessed the capacity and resilience of the human connection. She highly values collaborative and community-based participatory approaches for conducting research.
Jessica Nicksy, PhD candidate
Jess completed her M.Sc. at the University of Manitoba in soil science, where she evaluated amendments for organic agriculture that cycle nutrients from urban areas back onto farmland. She is interested in the intersection of sustainable agriculture practices and climate change. Her research investigates how management practices impact soil carbon dynamics and storage. Prior to starting graduate studies, Jess worked as a vegetable market gardener on her small farm, Barefoot Gardens. Jess holds a NSERC-CGS-D scholarship.
Aaron Price, PhD; co-supervised with Peter Douglas
Aaron has a MSc from Virginia Tech where he studied the application of microbially explicit models in predicting mineral-associated matter changes in Loblolly Pine forests under future climate and management conditions. His dissertation focuses on integrating microbially explicit process-models into the representation of permafrost soils to facilitate improved global accounting of soil carbon pools.
Visveshwar (Vish) Senthilkumaran, Research Assistant
Vish has BSc in Environment from McGill University, with a concentration in Ecological Determinants of Health. Vish has a background in agronomy with previous experience working in small organic and regenerative farms and carrying out sustainable soil practices. He manages the DART (Diversity and Rainfall Treatments) project, which looks at how varying precipitation and crop diversity affects soil health and crop yield.
Lab alumni
Rachael Harman-Denhoed, MSc 2024
Jessica Chadwick, PhD 2023 Mitacs visiting scholar
William Lapin, NSERC USRA, 2023
Krisztina Mosdossy, PhD 2023
Caitlyn Horsch, MSc 2022
Grace McDougall-Vick, NSERC USRA 2022
Maia Rothman BSc, Honours 2020
Morgan McMillan, MSc 2020
Bingjie Sun, Postdoc 2019