Dr. Pascale B. Beauregard obtained her B.S. in biochemistry from Université de Montréal (2002) and completed her PhD thesis under the supervision of Dr Luis Rokeach (2009, Université de Montréal). She then went on to Harvard Medical School (2010-2014, Boston) in the laboratory of Dr Roberto Kolter, where she started exploring the relations between Bacillus subtilis and plants. Dr Beauregard joined the biology department at Université de Sherbrooke in 2014, where her group investigates many topics gravitating around bacterial biofilms, including interaction with plants, horizontal gene transfer, nutrient acquisition and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Ensminger is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, where he has led a highly collaborative team of microbial systems biologists since 2011.

Using the model organism, Legionella pneumophila, he and has team have made significant contributions in three areas of bacterial pathogenesis: effector function (with a focus on a special class of proteins called “metaeffectors”), CRISPR-Cas genome defense, and experimental evolution. Dr. Ensminger also serves as Associate Chair of Undergraduate Education in the Department of Biochemistry and co-chaired the 2016 CSM General Meeting. After growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he attended Haverford College, a small liberal arts school outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He completed his Ph.D. (focused on mammalian epigenetics and non-coding RNAs) in the laboratory of Andrew Chess at the Whitehead Institute at MIT. For his postdoc, Dr. Ensminger received training as a microbiologist under the expert mentorship of Ralph Isberg at the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts.

Dr. Kari E. Dunfield, is a Professor and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Environmental Microbiology of Agro-ecosystems, in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph. She received her BSc in the Biological Sciences Department at the University of Calgary in 1995, and her MSc in the Department of Plant Agriculture (1999) and PhD in the Department of Soil Science at the University of Saskatchewan (2002). She worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Maine, Darling Marine Center, and joined the University of Guelph in 2004. Working at the intersection of microbiology, ecology, and soil science, her work investigates the microbial communities and microbial processes driving the global processes that help support life on Earth, and focuses on climate change, soil conservation, human pathogens and antimicrobial resistance genes in the environment, and food security. She is passionate about educating the public about the importance of soils, and is the Executive of a knowledge mobilization and outreach program, called Soils@Guelph, and the North American Representative for UN-FAO Global Soil Partnership (Pillar 1). Dr. Dunfield has contributed previously to the CSM as the Co-Chair of the Education and Careers Committee and is currently the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Microbiology.

Jonathan Van Hamme is Professor of Microbiology and founding Director of the TRUGen Applied Genomics Laboratory at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia. He received an Honours B.Sc. in Co-Op Biology with a Chemistry Minor from the University of Waterloo in 1996, and a Ph.D. in petroleum microbiology from the University of Waterloo in 2000. Thanks to the encouragement of his Ph.D. supervisor, Dr. Owen Ward (CSM President, 1996-1997), he attended his first CSM Annual Meeting in Guelph in 1998 and was hooked. After three years with the National Resources Canada at their National Centre for Upgrading Technology, where he was leading work on microbial biotechnologies for heavy oil upgrading, he joined Thompson Rivers University in 2003 and established his own research program with a major focus on biodegradation of organic pollutants. His group is currently focused on uncovering the biochemical basis of bacterial per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) metabolism. He served for ten years as an editor for Biodegradation, is currently an editor for the Canadian Journal of Microbiology, and previously served the CSM as Meetings Secretary (2009 – 2011). He currently serves as Chair and the CSM representative of the Biological and Chemical Defence Review Committee.

Following his undergraduate and Master’s studies at the University of Waterloo, he joined the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. Under the supervision of Professor Jean Gariepy, his doctorate studies were focused on the biophysics of microbial protein toxins. Prior to joining the Department of Biology at Laurentian University, he spent time as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and Colorado State University.

Dr. Denice Bay is an assistant professor (as of June 2015) in the Department of Medical
Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Bay began her studies at the University of Manitoba where she completed both her BSc (in 2000) and PhD (in 2007). Her PhD thesis examined mitochondrial voltage dependent anion channel (VDAC) folding and function from the fungus Neurospora crassa with Dr. Deborah Court. During her post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Raymond Turner’s lab at the University of Calgary (in 2007-2015), Dr. Bay examined TolC-independent efflux pumps, the role of biofilm formation in efflux mediated antimicrobial resistance, and protein secretion system structure-function in Enterobacteria. Her current research program explores how antiseptics and disinfectants contribute to antibiotic resistance in critical priority bacterial pathogens.

Sarah Piché-Choquette is a postdoctoral fellow working with Profs. Steven Kembel at UQAM and Marie-Claire Arrieta at UCalgary. She completed her B.Sc. in Microbiology and Immunology at Université de Montréal, her Ph.D. at INRS Armand-Frappier Health and Biotechnology Centre and her first postdoc at the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Her current postdoctoral research focuses on how the gut microbiome mediates asthma risk in premature infants.

Camille Ou is a Ph.D. student at Université de Montréal. She is working with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi in the laboratory of Dr. France Daigle and co-supervised by Dr. Charles Dozois from Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie Research Centre – INRS. Her research focuses on characterizing fimbriae regulation of S. Typhi, a human specific pathogen. With the current antibiotics resistance crisis, treatments are becoming less efficient. Thus, better understanding of S. Typhi pathogenesis will contribute to the identification of new therapeutic targets.

Wafaa Antonious has been providing secretariat services for CSM since 2008 first through the Canadian Federation of Biological Socieites (CFBS). When CFBS folded at the end of 2008, Wafaa resumed providing secretariat services through her own company “Rofail Conference and Management Services (RCMS) as of January 2009. Wafaa’s services for CSM includes providing support to CSM Executive (services and consultation), organizing the annual conference when requested, maintaining the website, book keeping, dealing with inquiries from members and others related to CSM activities. Through RCMS, Wafaa provides secretariat services to other organizations and organizes scientific workshops, meetings and conferences from 20 – 800 attendees. Wafaa graduated in 1983 with a BA in English from Faculty of Linguistic, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt and moved to Canada within a month of her graduation.