Innovative Waste Management Research Laboratory
Innovative Waste Management Research Laboratory
Our Team.
The Innovative Waste Management Research program is located in Truro, Nova Scotia in the Faculty of Agriculture at Dalhousie University. Our research facilities and analytical laboratories are part of the Agricultural Campus. We are also a founding member of the Centre for Sustainable Soil Management.
We have a story, everyone does. Through this website, we hope to be able to share our journeys in science and discovery.
Gordon Price, PhD, PAg
Principal Investigator
Professor, Biowaste and Processing Systems
Gordon has a PhD in soil biochemistry and works in the Department of Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture. He was hired as the Innovative Waste Management Research Chair in 2007 to establish a program of research on environmental sustainability centred around organic wastes. His research program focuses on the management, valorization, and impacts of organic wastes from all sectors of the economy and on the impacts to soil health.
Weixi Shu, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
​Dr. Weixi Shu is a graduate of Dalhousie University in both the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Agriculture with a background in soil science, agriculture, and sustainable environmental management. His long-term research interests involve the development of comprehensive models of carbon, nitrogen, and contaminant cycling and transport in soil and water. Currently, Weixi is a McCain Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow Scholar at the Dalhousie University Faculty of Agriculture, working on the project aims to develop a rapid and cost-effective MIR-based soil testing approach for informative assessment of the quality and quantity of soil organic carbon across intensive agricultural systems in Atlantic Canada.
Behnam Asgari Lajayer, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
In February 2019, Behnam Asgari Lajayer graduated from University of Tabriz, one of Iran's prestigious universities in the field of Soil Science. He is very interested in climate change, waste management, environmental remediation, and their impact on human life. Regarding his scientific researches in these field, he has worked with numerous knowledgeable professors and researchers from all over the world (Canada, the United States, France, Australia, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweeden, India, Russia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Oman, and China, including Tess Astatkie (Dalhousie University), Eric D. van Hullebusch (Université Paris Cité), Scott x Chang (University of Alberta), Mohammad Pessarakli (University of Arizona), Muhammad Farooq (Sultan Qaboos University), Bernard Dell (Murdoch University) for instance. He has >70 SCI/JCR articles published in top-ranked journals, and an H-Index of 22 with over 1900 total citations. Currently, Behnam is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Dalhousie University, Faculty of Agriculture, focusing on quantification of food system GHGs, specifically from food loss and waste.
Gayathri Remani Sudarsanan Pillai
IWM Technician
Zheya Lin
PhD student
Zheya Lin is originated from Fuzhou, China and came to Canada in 2015 based on the joint academic program offered through Dalhousie University and the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU) in China. She started her Master in 2018 with the Innovative Waste Management Research Program, focusing on nutrient dynamics (N,P,K) and crop production on corn fields amended with three types of municipal biosolids. She continued her education and started her Ph.D program in 2021. The current research interests focus on understanding how biosolids contribute to carbon storage in agricultural contexts to fully comprehend how to optimize the use of these underused organic materials; and technique and modeling for predicting soil properties using Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy.
Alexis De Laronde
Phd student
Mandi Wilson
PhD student
Lina Maria Gomez Cortes
PhD student
Mina Mehnati
PhD student (co-supervision)
Xiaowen Ni
PhD student (co-supervision McGill University)
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PhD student
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PhD student
Alejandro Quezada
MSc student
Since the beginning of my research experience, I always wanted to focus on climate change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. During my undergrad studies at Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana (UAM) in Mexico City, my desire to get more involved in waste management to produce greener energies guided me to collaborate in the initial stage of Sargassum’s anaerobic digestion for biogas production towards the design of an anaerobic digestor to counter the excessive growth of these algae over Mexico’s coast. At the end of that period, I wanted to learn more about biogas production from a different perspective. With Mitacs support I was able to attend a summer research internship at UBC Faculty of Forestry. At the forest product biotechnology lab, I identify that through pulp-based biorefineries there are different kinds of waste that could be used to produce greener energies. Today, as my graduate studies are getting started. I decided to get more involved in organic waste management practices for sustainable development considering both pathways anaerobic digestion and aerobic compost. To measure their global impact and gather data to help strengthen Canada’s science capacity to accelerate actions towards achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 in Canada.
Stuart Downie
MSc student
I originally hail from Hamilton, ON. I earned my HBSc at Trent University in Peterborough, where I majored in Environmental Science and minored in Chemistry. After my undergrad, I worked for a Waste Management/Agricultural company that land applies treated sewage on cash crop farms in Southern Ontario. I love to cook, read, and go on hiking and camping excursions. I play drums in a band back in Hamilton, and I also play guitar and piano, albeit rather poorly. My research involves monitoring the impacts of compost, biosolids, and manure on various soil characteristics and SOM fractions over a 12-month period. This will be analyzed using conventional wet chemistry as well as spectroscopic techniques. Soil spectroscopy is a novel rapid, inexpensive, and non-destructive technique for soil analysis. Spectra obtained by scanning soil samples with known chemical characteristics can be modelled and used to predict characteristics of unknown samples. My research will assess the accuracy of using soil spectroscopy to measure soils when they have been incubated with organic amendments.
Charlie Little
MSc student
My name is Charles (Charlie) Little, I am originally from Ontario, and I am a graduate student under Dr. Price. Prior to starting my masters, I completed my BSc (agriculture) here at Dalhousie’s Agricultural Campus with a double major in animal and environmental science; also obtaining a certificate in animal welfare. I have always enjoyed being outdoors in whatever form that may take and have always had a passion for both animals and the environment. While at Dalhousie’s Agricultural Campus I have enjoyed working on the campus farm for three academic years and two summers, taking on a high degree of responsibility in the ruminant animal centre (RAC) and the cropping unit. My most recent summer, however, was spent as a research student for Dr. Price, where I gained valuable insight into how a graduate level research laboratory is run and was able to learn how to use much of the equipment. I am now into the first year of my masters, developing my thesis; I am looking at the quantification, characterization, and analysis of microplastics in biosolid amended agricultural soils and the potential implications for soil health.
Nandhini Krishnamoorthy
MSc student
Allan Thomson, PhD
Adjunct Faculty (Dalhousie University)
Climate Change Adaptation Coordinator, Perennia Food and Agriculture Corporation
Allan is from Glasgow, Scotland. He studied agriculture, energy and sustainability at the Scottish Agricultural College before moving to Nova Scotia, Canada for his MSc and PhD at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Agriculture where he focused on energy efficiency in agriculture and biomass energy production. Allan has been a Part-time Academic for the last 10 years, teaching courses in energy, waste management, irrigation and environmental impacts. Allan worked for 3 and a half years with the Innovative Waste Management program as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, focusing on composting, carbon cycling (sources and sinks), GHG emissions and waste valorization. Projects included a mussel shell valorization project with a local mussel producer and a coordinating role on an Environment Canada project through the Climate Action and Awareness Fund. He is currently working with Perennia Food and Agriculture Corporation.
Anjie Luo
MSc student (defended 2020)
Anjie Luo is originally from Fuzhou, China, and came to Canada in 2014. He joined the 2+2 academic program with Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU) in China and Dalhousie University in Canada. He got his bachelor’s degree in horticulture and plant science after he completed this cooperative program in 2016. He started his Master in 2018 with the Innovative Waste Management Research program, focusing on the effects of decomposing process generated carbon dioxide on plant growth in a controlled environment. He finished his Master's program in 2020 and began working as a lab technician in a commercial food laboratory. He is also working as a part-time research assistant in the IWM lab, focusing on sample preparation, analysis, and instrument maintenance.
Qianhan Le
MSc student (defended 2023)
Qianhan grew up on the largest archipelago of China, Zhoushan island. She holds a BSc in IEM (Integrated Environmental Management) from Dalhousie’s Faculty of Agriculture. She has been a part of the IWM team since the Summer of 2018. She started off working as a research assistant. Then she completed a project looking at the effectiveness of different polymers (synthetic polymer and biopolymer) for removing solids and nutrients (N and P) from liquid dairy manure as an undergraduate honours thesis student. Qianhan is currently working towards the completion of her MSc in Agriculture. Her research focused on examining the effect of physical, chemical, and biological treatment processes on biosolid N forms and their influence on soil N mineralization dynamics and N-acquiring enzyme activities in an acidic soil, which aimed to build knowledge of how treatment processes impact the nature of different types of biosolids applied to soil and help enhance N use efficiency. Through her education, she developed interests in soil nutrient cycling, soil microbiology, waste management, water quality, and environmental restoration. Outside of the lab, she enjoys hiking, playing sports, photographing, practicing calligraphy, and baking.
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Charlie Parent
MSc student (defended 2023)
Hi my name is Charlie Parent and I was born here, in Nova Scotia but moved to Manitoba at a very early age. I was raised in Winnipeg where I attended and graduated with an Environmental Engineering and a minor in Agricultural Business from the University of Manitoba in early 2019. After graduating I moved to Nova Scotia in search of something new. I quickly found myself falling in love with craft beer and began managing a microbrewery in the Valley. However, during this time, I kept coming back to the idea of continuing my education and building my research skill set. In the fall 2020, I began my M.Sc. studies in the Innovation Waste Management Research Program at Dalhousie in the Agricultural Faculty. My studies focus on biochar and biochar-alginate composites as adsorbents of Lead (Pb) from wastewaters and drinking water. These materials are anticipated to support development of novel, lower cost solutions for remediation of contaminated water systems or for wastewater treatment. During my M.Sc. I have continued working and managing a microbrewery, New Scotland Co. in Dartmouth. Over the past couple years I have been lucky enough to grow my research and laboratory skill set while gaining hands-on experience with microbrewing.
Jessie Davidson
Engineering Summer Research Assistant (2024)
Emmanuel Tsimanga
Chemistry Co-Op student Acadia University (2024)
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Matthew McLaughlin
Engineering Summer Research Assistant (2023-24)
Matthew was a summer research assistant working on programming and development of scaleable CO2 gas sensors for environmental monitoring in soils and composts. He continues to work on development of automated sensor systems for environmental and waste monitoring as he pursues his BEng. at Dalhousie.
Emily Gowan
Engineering Co-Op student (NSERC USRA) and Undergraduate Research Project (2023)
​Emily is a graduate from the Department of Civil and Resource Engineering at Dalhousie University. She completed two co-op terms with our research group and conducted a study on greenhouse gas emissions from fields receiving municipal food waste composts as part of her Research Project requirements. She is now employed at an Engineering firm in Nova Scotia.
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Ryan Bell, BSc. Dfs LFD & LE
​Associated Researcher - Whale Skeleton Preservation and Mortality Management
Ryan was born and raised in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. In 2017 she obtained her Bachelor of Science in Biology as well as a Diploma in Forensic Science from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax Nova Scotia. It was at this time in the fall of 2018 that Ryan first joined the IWM team at Dalhousie University’s Agricultural Campus as a Casual Research Assistant. She was a vital team member on a whale composting project. Handling multiple takes such as weighting, cleaning and categorizing skeletal structures for both a Blue whale and North Atlantic Right Whale. Some would say she was having a ‘whale’ of a time. Along with this project, Ryan also works closely with other students and colleagues in areas such as biosolid application, 3D scanning, and composting. While working at IMW, Ryan continue to pursue further education. She enrolled in Nova Scotia Community College’s Funeral & Allied Health Services program. Ryan is now a Licensed Funeral Director and Licensed Embalmer. You can say she has a very niche set of interests. Currently, Ryan now works full-time at Eirene, Nova Scotia’s first online cremation provider. Although she is often busy, she still provides her services to the team at IWM in any way she can. Just recently Ryan has been working on editing and finalizing 3D scans of whale bones to make virtual models.
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