PRESENT MEMBERS / PAST STUDENTS / JOIN THE TEAM?

Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Researchers

Jacinta Kong (Postdoc; co-advised with Prof. Heath MacMillan at Carleton University)

I am an ecophysiologist interested in how animals live where they live, with particular interest in the climate adaptation of ectotherms and the ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences of physiological diversity. I completed my PhD at the University of Melbourne, Australia with Michael Kearney and Ary Hoffmann. I then worked as a teaching and research fellow at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland working with Nicholas Payne. I joined the MacMillian and Bertram Labs in 2023 as a NSERC Alliance-Mitacs Accelerate postdoctoral fellow to work on how diet and rearing context interactions affect the life history of crickets, in partnership with Entomo Farms.

Matthew Muzzatti (PhD student; co-advised with Prof. Heath MacMillan at Carleton University)

Matt completed his MSc at the University of Guelph with Rebecca Hallett, where he developed an action threshold for timing insecticide applications in canola to combat swede midge (Contarinia nasturtii), an established insect pest in Canada. He then joined the MacMillan and Bertram labs in 2020 to study how to maximize the health and growth rates of cultivated crickets for human consumption. Matt enjoys insect photography and pedagogy, and is a proponent of experiential learning to enhance teaching methods.

Émile Vadboncoeur (PhD student; co-advised with Prof. Heath MacMillan at Carleton University)

Émile obtained his MSc from Memorial University of Newfoundland. He developed biomarkers of cold stress for the aquaculture industry and identified a potential metabolic disease affecting Atlantic salmon in winter. In 2023, he joined the Bertram and McMillan labs to study how technical rearing parameters can maximize physiological performance in cricket farming in partnership with Entomo Farms. Émile has great interest in researching the physiology of future foods to ensure sustainability in our food systems.

Sophie Kasdorf (MSc student; co-advised with Prof. Heath MacMillan at Carleton University)

Sophie joined the lab as a fourth-year undergraduate student in the fall of 2021 to complete her honours thesis, which focused on the use of brewery waste as the primary protein source in cricket feed. In the fall of 2022, she started her M.Sc. co-supervised by Heath MacMillan. Her research focuses on the use of sustainable feed sources for edible crickets.

Emily McColville (MSc Student; co-advised with Prof. Heath MacMillan at Carleton University)

Emily McColville joined the Bertram Lab in 2023 after completing her Honours thesis quantifying microplastic ingestion in field crickets. Currently pursuing her MSc, which is co-supervised by Dr. Heath MacMillan, Emily is working on interdisciplinary solutions to food supply challenges in long-term space missions. Her current research combines biology and computer vision to leverage AI by monitoring edible insect colonies on Earth and in space. Emily aims to utilize Machine Learning to generate novel insights into unknown aspects of insect physiology, contribute to cultivating insects as a sustainable food source, and help grow the Canadian space sector.

In addition to her scientific pursuits, Emily is a passionate science communicator who uses photojournalism, illustrations, and documentary films to engage audiences in her work.

Tricia Skelton (MSc student)

Tricia obtained her BSc in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour from McMaster University. Her studies have focused on aggression in fruit flies, activity patterns in various species of ants, and group decision making in the ant Temnothorax ambiguus. She now studies social learning in the fall field cricket, Gryllus pennsylvanicus, at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. Tricia has a strong interest in science communication and visual art.

Jenna Watson (MSc student)

Jenna graduated from Carleton University with a BScH in Biology working with Roslyn Dakin for her Honours thesis on sociality and female mating behaviour in the Wire-tailed Manakin (Pipra filicauda). Jenna joined the Bertram lab in the fall of 2022, where she is exploring how high protein and carbohydrate rearing diets influence a variety of female cricket mating behaviours in Gryllus pennsylvanicus.