The University of Manitoba’s faculty of agriculture and food science has a new head.
Dr. Martin Scanlon has been appointed dean for a five-year term effective January 1, 2019.
Scanlon is a professor in the department of food and human nutritional sciences, and has served as associate dean (research), chair of the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment and acting head of the former department of food science. Previously he was employed at the Canadian Grain Commission’s Grain Research Laboratory in Winnipeg and the Flour Milling & Baking Research Association in Chorleywood, U.K.
Read Also
Mazergroup’s Bob Mazer dies
Mazergroup’s Bob Mazer, who helped grow his family’s company into a string of farm equipment dealerships and the main dealer for New Holland machinery in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, died July 6 from cancer.
“I look forward to working together with partners across a wide spectrum to develop research capacity that aligns with the University of Manitoba’s priorities in food and agriculture,” Scanlon said in a media release. “Collaboration drives us forward because interdisciplinary perspectives often shed new light on the complex problems we encounter in food systems research.”
Scanlon has championed several cross-campus initiatives, including setting up top-up funding for internal interdisciplinary research with faculty of science academics and a roundtable workshop that brought agronomists and other agricultural crop and soil experts together with data scientists to discuss multidisciplinary approaches to leverage existing big data sources and expertise, machine learning and artificial intelligence. He was also instrumental in establishing the University of Manitoba Food Systems Research Group, a multidisciplinary research activity centred on “Safe, Healthy, Just and Sustainable Food Systems” that fosters the exchange of ideas and information, the pursuit of research initiatives, and the training of graduate students in this area.
Among his priorities over the next five years will be the continued renewal of the faculty’s undergraduate programming. The two-year diploma in agriculture program launched its revised curriculum in fall 2018 and the bachelor of science programs are currently under review.
