Dr. Nora Casson

Growing up on the lakes of Algonquin Provincial Park, Dr. Nora Casson quickly fell in love with all things outdoors.

As an undergraduate student years later, she developed a passion for environmental research while taking part in her first fieldwork measuring soil moisture and temperature at the very same park.

“I thought, ‘this is what I’d do for fun and it’s a job, this is awesome,’” Casson recalled. “I was fortunate to form a deep appreciation for the natural world after spending time outdoors and around the lakes and streams there.”

Producing internationally renowned research

As Canada Research Chair in Environmental Influences on Water Quality and Co-Director of The University of Winnipeg’s Prairie Climate Centre, Casson is making waves internationally through her research.

Her expertise is looking at how environmental pressures — including climate change — impact water quality. Casson and her team are working to unravel relationships between water and nutrient cycling to better understand how patterns and processes vary across the landscape and how human activities impact the surface waters that drain forested ecosystems.

“I love figuring out the puzzle of how ecosystems work and the ways in which humans are altering ecosystems and affecting the things we really care about,” she explained. “How does what we put in the air and water affect lakes?”

Over the last few years, Casson co-led an international team of scientists looking at how climate change has significantly impacted winters in the northern forest region of North America over the last 100 years, as well as wildlife, forests, people, and water.

“冬天我们的子孙)ence depend on the choices we as a society make today,” she said. “It’s in our hands to change the course we’re on and protect some of the things we really value about winter.”

Inspiring the next generation of environmental scientists

So, what inspires Casson as an educator? It’s simple: the students.

“The part that’s exciting about my job is that students bring their own ideas and own approaches to the questions I thought had thought through,” she said. “Working with really bright, interesting, and enthusiastic students is inspirational.”

Most of the research that happens in her lab is led by undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral fellows.

Under Casson’s guidance, students have gone on to do field work at FortWhyte Alive, Churchill, and the Experimental Lakes Area; they’ve run water samples for trace nutrients at labs in the state-of-the-art Richardson College for the Environment; and they’ve taken on data analysis projects using long-term data sets other people have collected over the years,

“One of the reasons I was attracted to working at UWinnipeg is because the small class sizes mean there’s lots of contact between undergraduate students faculty members, and lots of opportunities for students to be meaningfully involved in research.”

For undergraduate students looking to gain meaningful research opportunities, Casson has this advice: “There’s a lot of opportunities out there that aren’t always visible. If you take a class and you’re interested in the content, don’t be afraid to go talk to the professor — we can help point you in the right direction.”