Dr. Jules M. Blais

Brief Description of Research

   We are interested in tracking human impacts on natural environments. Our research questions often relate to identifying sources, pathways, and fate of chemicals in different environmental media, and we use environmental archives (especially sediment cores) to track historical changes in the environment. We are working on new ways to track historical changes using emerging methods in paleoclimatology and paleolimnology, sediment biomarker discovery, stable isotopes, and environmental DNA, among others. Our goal is to provide the necessary long-term perspectives in environmental studies to resolve questions related to ecosystem stability, natural variability, and natural vs anthropogenic drivers of ecosystem change. 


   Nous cherchons à identifier les impacts anthropiques sur les milieux naturels. Nos questions de recherche portent souvent sur l'identification des sources, des voies, et du devenir des produits chimiques dans différents milieux environnementaux, et nous utilisons des archives environnementales (en particulier des carottes de sédiments) pour suivre les changements historiques de l'environnement. Nous travaillons sur de nouvelles façons de suivre les changements historiques en utilisant des méthodes émergentes en paléoclimatologie et paléolimnologie, la découverte de biomarqueurs sédimentaires, les isotopes stables, et l'ADN environnemental, entre autres. Notre objectif est de fournir les perspectives à long terme nécessaires dans les études environnementales pour résoudre les questions liées à la stabilité des écosystèmes, à la variabilité naturelle et aux facteurs naturels vs anthropiques du changement des écosystèmes.

To Contact:

Dr. Jules M. Blais

Program for Chemical and Environmental Toxicology

Department of Biology

University of Ottawa

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

K1N 6N5

 

Phone: (613) 562-5800 Ext. 6650

Fax: (613) 562-5486

Laborartory: (613) 562-5800 Ext. 6668

Email: Jules.Blais@uottawa.ca

Dr. Jules M. Blais, Curriculum Vitae (abbreviated)

 

2015-present    Founding Editor in Chief of FACETS, a multidisciplinary open access science journal, Canadian Science Publishing.


2012-2015        President of The Society of Canadian Limnologists

 

Degrees:

 

Ph.D. Biogeochemistry, McGill University, Department of Biology, 1995.

 

B.Sc. Biology, Concordia University, Department of Biology, 1990

 

Employment History:

 

2017                        Honorary Professor, Qinghai Normal University, Xining, China

2012-Present          Honorary (adjunct) Professor, University of Science and Technology of China,

                                Hefei, China

2009-Present          Professor, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa

2003-2009              Associate Professor, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa

1998-2003              Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa

2001 (July)              Visiting Scientist Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, Pau, France

1995-1998               Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta

 

Awards:

 

Frank Rigler Memorial Award, Society of Canadian Limnologists, 2017.


2013 NSERC Brockhouse Canada Prize for outstanding contributions to interdisciplinary research in science and engineering (awarded jointly to Jules Blais and John Smol (Queen’s University) by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada).

 

Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Royal Canadian Geographical Society, 2010

 

Environmental Scientist of the Year Award, Royal Canadian Geographical Society, 2008

 

Stevenson Award, Canadian Conference for Fisheries Research, 2005

 

Lindeman Award, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, 2003.

 

Teaching:

 

Freshwater Ecology / Écologie des eaux douces (BIO 4136 / BIO 4536), University of Ottawa, Taught yearly since 2000, alternately in English and French.

 

Field methods in Ecotoxicology (BIO 3107), Summer 2000, 2001, 2002 (taught with Prof. Peter Hodson, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada)

 

Ecotoxicology / Écotoxicologie (BIO 4146 / BIO 4546), University of Ottawa. Taught every year since 1998 alternately in English and French.

 

Environmental Issues / Problèmes environnementaux (EVS 3101/ EVS 3501), University of Ottawa, Fall, 1999 (English and French).