At this point, Iain can’t remember a time before the collections of insects, and a relentless preoccupation with scientific exploration.   Today he’s the Senior Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Ecologist with the Water Security Agency of Saskatchewan, but started all this bug curiosity while growing up in rural Saskatchewan.  Few high school kids are told that they can take a route in life researching insect ecology, but early in his undergraduate degree Iain met and found mentorship from Dr. Rolf Vinebrooke (Home | Vinebrooke Lab (ualberta.ca)) who steered him toward all the wonder of the natural sciences as an undergrad at the University of Regina. Iain conducted independent studies on carabid beetles, post-fire ecosystems, ants, and pill beetles in Dr. John Spence’s lab at the University of Alberta under the direction of Dr. Tyler Cobb during his undergrad, but then leapt into the pond for a Masters at the University of Alberta, studying crayfish and aquatic ecology at the Experimental Lakes Area (IISD Experimental Lakes Area - Home) under the direction of Dr. Rolf Vinebrooke again. From there, Iain started working with the Water Security Agency and, in his evenings, ground out at a PhD in Dr. Doug Chivers’ Lab at the University of Saskatchewan. Moving on from his doctoral work, Iain is now completing a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, in Berlin, Germany (IGB Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (igb-berlin.de)), under the direction of Dr. Sonja Jähnig (Sonja Jähnig | IGB (igb-berlin.de)).

Iain is one of the founding members of Troutreach back in 2012, and has overseen the development of its programs since.  Iain’s research is conducted under an umbrella of ecosystem health or biomonitoring technology development; however, it is comprised of a diverse field of projects, all contributing to human understanding of the natural world. The work he has undertaken covers broad, landscape-scale community ecology all the way to stressor-specific experimental manipulations, and taxa-specific life-history studies. Currently, his major projects focus on benthic macroinvertebrate-water chemistry relationships, deuterium isotopes, post-fire forest ecology, and even snail, sturgeon, and salamander studies.  If you have an interest in entomology, stable isotope research, lake sturgeon or doing ecology research in Saskatchewan in general Iain would love to hear from you.

To see a list of Iain's publications, click this link here or visit his ResearchGate profile here.