Past Scholarship Recipients

2017 Recipients

Shazadi Mahjebeen Rana
MASc in Chemical Engineering
University of Ottawa

Shazadi is working towards her MASc in Chemical Engineering at the University of Ottawa. The focus of her thesis is on reactive solid looping technologies for carbon capture from fossil fuel combustion, the research for which is in collaboration with Natural Resources Canada. Shazadi has been involved in carbon capture research since the third year of her undergraduate studies. She also has experience in waste treatment through her co-op work terms at the municipal wastewater treatment plant and the tailings management division of an oil sands mining company. Shazadi is active with the university's waste reduction program, helping to promote recycling and composting options across campus. She is passionate about the preservation of our planet and aspires to play an active role in climate change mitigation.

Phillip Labarge is currently completing an Environmental Engineering Bachelor’s degree at the University of Guelph. He has developed a knowledge of a number of environmental engineering fundamentals, including elements of water treatment design, geotechnical engineering, storm water management, and air quality engineering through his program. He has been an outstanding student at the University of Guelph, receiving the Dean’s Scholarship in 2014 and being included on the University’s dean’s list since the beginning of his program in 2013.

Phillip expanded on his knowledge of air quality engineering during co-op employment with the province’s Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, Local Air Quality and Technology Standards sections. Here, he contributed to the development of comprehensive technical standards for the Metal Finishing, Hot Mix Asphalt, and Non-Integrated Steel Mill industries. His interests include numerical physical modelling, best practice implementation, policy development, and pollution reduction through engineering design.

Phillip hopes that he can continue utilizing his knowledge of modelling and engineering design to improve the relationship between environmental pollution reduction and process design, superseding the need for end-of-pipe control.

Robyn Chatwin-Davies
Masters of Applied Science
Carleton University 

Robyn Chatwin-Davies is a M.A.Sc. student at Carleton University studying atmospheric modelling and air quality. Specifically, her research focuses on environmental justice, a field that seeks to understand the relationship between pollution and socio-economic status. Her preliminary results have shown that lower income households tend to be exposed to higher air pollution, placing disproportionate burden on vulnerable populations. 

Robyn previously completed a Bachelor in Environmental Engineering, graduating with High Distinction in 2012. Robyn is passionate about environmental issues and social justice. This led her to work extensively with Engineers Without Borders, including a 4-month placement in Malawi. She also volunteers her time with groups that encourage women and girls to pursue engineering.

2015 Recipients

The A&WMA Ontario Section is proud to announce the winners of the 2015 Paul G Complin Memorial Scholarship.  The scholarship was renamed this summer after the passing of our dear friend and colleague Paul.  Thank you to all our applicants and congratulations to Melissa, Prateek and Holly.

Melissa Cusack Striepe
Engineering
McMaster Univeristy

Melissa Cusack Striepe is an entering undergraduate engineering student at McMaster University. She has been extensively involved in the Ontario Nature Youth Council since 2010, a group of youth from across Ontario whose goal is to educate and inspire youth to protect the environment. The Youth Council plans events throughout the year, including an annual Youth Summit, and is currently running a campaign to advocate for the protection of Ontario’s pollinators. Within the Youth Council Melissa has hosted a wildflower planting at the Cawthra Mulock Nature Reserve, has advocated for Pollinators at various conferences including presenting a workshop on them at the International Sustainability Conference in Toronto and running a booth at the Guelph Organic Conference, and has been active in getting postcards signed and sent to the provincial government.

It is Melissa’s goal to use her education in engineering as a way to gather the information and skills she needs to effect positive change and create feasible solutions to global environmental and food security issues.

Prateek Gupta
J.D. in Law and M.Sc. in Geology
Western University

Prateek Gupta is a current dual-degree student concurrently pursuing his J.D. in Law and M.Sc. in Geology at Western University, where he focuses upon mining law and environmental law.  His passion on the interplay of resource management and the environment led him to do an exchange semester in New Zealand at the University of Otago to understand the country’s approach first-hand.  Prateek’s recent legal research endeavours include analyzing the normative dimensions of agricultural biotechnologies in Canada and assessing the responsibility dairy farmers should lend to sustainable water management in New Zealand, both demonstrating his passion in solving issues on the interface of the environmental sciences and law.

He previously completed his Bachelors at McMaster’s University in its Integrated Science Program, where he concentrated in Earth and Environmental Science and conducted his NSERC-sponsored thesis research on formation mechanisms of glacially-carved bedrock features.  Prateek is currently embarking upon a career in corporate law, where he aims to become an expert on environmental advice to his clients.

Holly Stover
PhD Student
Western University

Holly Stover is a PhD student in the Department of Biology at Western University. As part of her PhD, she is also pursuing a collaborative degree in environment and sustainability. Holly obtained her MSc in ecological restoration at the University of Alberta where she worked with Parks Canada in Waterton Lakes National Park to restore native grassland. For her PhD, she is studying how different soil amendments can be applied to degraded areas for the greatest ecological benefit. In a field experiment, she is testing if applying different soil substrates in a non-uniform way in a mosaic of complex patches can increase plant species diversity and ecosystem function. She also currently volunteers with the Thames Talbot Land Trust, Carolinian Canada Coalition and is a member of the Field Botanists of Ontario.

In her collaborative program, she works with other graduate students in departments across campus such as anthropology, engineering and geography. This year with her fellow students, they started a project performing waste and recycling audits of campus waste to determine recycling habits to improve people’s awareness of recycling and divert more recyclables from the waste stream by providing more education through posters and social media. Ultimately, Holly’s career goal is to work in the environmental sector and become established as a botanist and restoration ecologist in academia, government, industry or a non-profit organization with the aim of using ecological research to find environmental solutions.

2014 Recipients

Benoit Duhoux
Chemical engineering
University of Ottawa

Benoit Duhoux is a MASc candidate working on carbon capture processes based on reactive solids at the University of Ottawa. He first obtained a bachelor and a master degree in chemical engineering from the University of Mons in Belgium before moving to Canada and starting a new graduate studies program.

Benoit has been involved in carbon capture research since his 2nd year at the University of Mons and values the role of engineers in environment protection projects.

Matthew Russell
Carleton University

Matthew is a PhD student at Carleton University where he has the opportunity to leverage his software background to pursue atmospheric modelling.  His current research is to push large scale atmospheric modelling into the very high resolution (sub kilometer) range - this work is done in conjunction with Environment Canada.  Matthew has always had a strong interest in environmental issues, and after doing a little travelling after his undergrad he saw both how good the air quality in Canadian cities is, as while as seeing the risk of what it could become.  This led him into graduate school where he wanted to learn about how municipalities, provinces and nations could better engineer their air quality.

2013 Recipients

Holly Dole
Chemical Engineering
University of Ottawa

Holly Dole is currently a Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering at the University of Ottawa where her project focuses on the removal of volatile organic compounds from the air using nano-structured catalysts and the application of the phenomenon of electrochemical promotion. She graduated from her B.A.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ottawa in December 2010, continued onto her Master’s in 2011 and, finally, switched to the fast-track Ph.D. program in May 2012.

In addition to her experience as a graduate student, she has had the opportunity to work in a variety of research fields during her co-op placements during her undergraduate program. All of these placements had aspects of environmental concern ranging from environmentally-friendly coatings for parts for next generation nuclear reactors to using non-toxic chemicals to electroplate coins. Holly hopes to continue performing research concerning the environment as she believes it is an important field that affects not only the present generation but generations to come.

Unam Ejaz 
Environmental Engineering
University of Windsor

Unam has been involved with research in the Windsor-Detroit border air quality study. She is also actively participating in tracking, assessment and improvement of Sustainability in the University of Windsor campus. She aims to find ways to use the world’s resources in a sustainable way so we could return the earth 'borrowed from our children'.  

Natalie Wright
Chemical Engineering
Western University

Natalie Wright holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Western University and is currently enrolled in the Environmental Engineering Applications post-graduate program at Conestoga College.  Through volunteering abroad and participating in local initiatives, Natalie has seen the importance of championing responsible management of our land and water resources and is committed to returning previously contaminated sites back to productive and usable land.

2012 Recipients

Kyle Eckart 
Candidate Environmental Engineering University of Windsor

Kyle Eckart is a 4th year Environmental Engineering student at the University of Windsor who will begin a Masters this upcoming Fall.  Kyle has also been heavily involved with Engineers Without Borders where he promotes sustainability within the engineering profession.

Terri Rutty
MA Candidate Environment and Management
Royal Road University

As the Director of Sustainability at the YMCA of Greater Toronto (GTA) Terri Rutty is responsible for developing and implementing Environmental initiatives at all 274 YMCA sites across the GTA.   Terri believes that in order to have healthy children, teens & young adults we need a healthy planet.

Eva Webster
PhD Candidate Environmental and Life Sciences
Trent University

Eva Webster is a Ph.D. student in the Environmental & Life Sciences graduate program at Trent University. She is developing new models to address the fate of ‘model-hostile’ organic chemical contaminants in the environment