The caliber of work produced by StFX earth sciences faculty member Dr. Andrew MacDougall was recognized recently when he was invited to write a "News and Views" opinion article on a research paper on permafrost carbon for the prestigious journal, Nature Geoscience.
Dr. Andrew MacDougall
Journal editors invite scientists to write an 800-word commentary piece on another researcher's paper for its "News and Views" section. The subjects are selected for their broad interest and articles are intended to be widely accessible and are written more for a general audience. They detail why this research is new, why it's a highlight, things that could have been done differently, and help direct the field on what new questions and avenues the research opens up.
"It's a recognition of your work in the field that you would be asked to do this," says Dr. MacDougall, a 2008 StFX earth sciences graduate and Antigonish, NS native who recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship at ETH-Zürich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He joined the StFX faculty this year.
He says it's an honour to be asked to contribute to this leading journal, which will be widely read.
In the article, "Catalyst for deglaciation," appearing in the journal's current issue, he writes that "the sources contributing to the deglacial rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations are unclear. Climate model simulations suggest thawing permafrost soils were the initial source, highlighting the vulnerability of modern permafrost carbon stores."
While a student at StFX, Dr. MacDougall had the rare opportunity to publish research conducted as an undergraduate.
He worked as a research assistant with earth sciences professor Dr. Hugo Beltrami, and capped off his student career at StFX as the first author of a paper published in the highly ranked Geophysical Research Letters, and another in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Much of the work was done in StFX's Environmental Sciences Research Centre (ESRC).
"The work with Hugo definitely launched my career," he says. "It certainly launched me on a good career path."
Dr. MacDougall also credited StFX earth sciences professor Dr. Brendan Murphy and StFX instructor Colette Rennie, who taught him a geology course at Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional High School, with sparking his interest in the field.
