Awards and Honours

Recent award-winning faculty

Dr. Dan Robinson – 2024 Winner of the University Research Award

Dr. Dan Robinson joined the StFX Faculty of Education in 2009 and quickly established himself as an outstanding teacher, scholar, researcher, and leader.

Currently, he serves as both the Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Leadership, and Coordinator of PhD in Educational Studies. Dr. Robinson is well known as a leading scholar in the field of physical education and sport pedagogy. A prolific author, he has over 100 publications, including over 70 peerreviewed journal articles, three books, 15 book chapters, and over 10 teacher resources. Dr. Robinson has presented his research at over 90 international and national conferences. Widely recognized for his impactful work, he is a recipient of the Metzler-Freedman Exemplary Paper Award and the Dr. Andy Anderson Young Professional Award. His research is often timely, equity-focused, and responsive. His work appears in highly regarded and high-impact peer-reviewed journals, including, selectively: Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, Curriculum Studies in Health and Physical Education, European Physical Education Review, International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, Journal of American Indian Education, Journal of Intercollegiate Sport, Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, Kinesiology Review, Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, and Teaching and Teacher Education. Dr. Robinson’s current research focuses upon the following: culturally relevant pedagogy; inclusive and adapted physical education, physical activity, and sport; physical literacy; and school communities’ health promotion programming. Dr. Robinson is also an active collaborator who continues to mentor and inspire as he provides exemplary support for colleagues and students as they develop their identities as scholars.

Dr. Geniece Hallett-Tapley – 2023 Winner of the President's Research Award

Dr. Geniece Hallett-Tapley has been a member of the StFX Chemistry Department since 2014 and has established herself as a strong, independent researcher.

She has attracted over $900,000 in research funding, including from NSERC, CFI, Research Nova Scotia and Nova Scotia Business, and has published 14 peer-reviewed publications and one patent on work performed at StFX and has a long list of 30 publications overall. Over and above these accomplishments, of particular note is her relevant and important research, that often involves graduate and undergraduate students. Dr. Hallett-Tapley's work has resulted in publications and conference presentations with 21 different undergraduate students. Her lab is a beehive of activity, with students excited and eager to be involved. Dr. Hallett-Tapley is noted for her ability to help direct inexperienced students into effective researchers producing meaningful, important, and often publishable, work that can help prepare them for a career in the sciences. She has hosted five research associates/visiting professors from Argentina, Brazil, and Spain. Her work in supporting early career researchers has also been exemplary. She is a strong advocate for improved equity and diversity in the sciences and for first generation university students. Dr. Hallett-Tapley's research is in a crucial area of modern chemistry: how we can create processes that allow us to do important chemistry with minimal environmental impact. She uses relatively low energy light to effieciently encourage reactions that would otherwise require harsh conditions and prolonged heating to accomplish. In doing so, she takes advantage of (and creates) advances in material science that will have a broad impact.

Dr. Erin Mazerolle – 2023 Winner of the President's Research Award

Dr. Erin Mazerolle, is an assistant professor in the StFX Psychology Department and is cross-appointed to the Computer Science Department.

She joined StFX in 2020 and has already established an excellent research track record in reproducibility in brain imaging research, neurovascular impacts on the human brain, neurological diseases, neuroscience knowledge translation, and white matter imaging. Dr. Mazerolle has secured over $1 million in research funding, spanning NSERC, CIHR, and several other granting agencies. Her innovative, impactful published studies have furthered understanding of neuroimaging methods and the human brain. Remarkably, at this stage in her career, she has already published 47 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her research has pushed the boundaries of what we know about functional magnetic resonance imaging activation in white matter, she has developed unique data analysis pipelines, and she has improved the conceptualization of rare brain conditions. Dr Mazerolle is also known for her ability to encourage and collaborate with colleagues and students in her own and other disciplines. This year, her work as a mentor and researcher earned an Early Career Research Discovery Award for Science and Innovation nomination. Dr. Mazerolle is also committed to inclusion and social justice in her work, promoting the visibility of women in science, and making neuroscience accessible. She has been involved with science outreach organizations and has been involved in projects focused on sharing neuroscience findings with individuals living with housing instability. This year, she initiated the Antigonish Brain Bee, pairing undergraduate students in her Brain and Behaviour course with local high school students to help prepare them to compete in a local neuroscience competition that culminates in a Canadian competition.

Dr. Mike Melchin – 2022 Winner of the University Research Award

Dr. Michael Melchin, Professor of Earth Sciences, is a prolific researcher who has published more than 120 refereed scientific journal papers. Dr. Melchin’s research

is focused on understanding the response of life to a pivotal time interval of global change, some 500 and 400 million years ago. He has championed the use of elemental and isotopic geochemical techniques to understand the processes that govern the relationship between ocean water chemistry, nutrient supply and the diversification or extinction of species. Dr. Melchin has had continuous research support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) since 1990 and his NSERC Discovery Grant was recently renewed until 2024. His research requires an extraordinary commitment of time and effort. He has provided numerous generations of StFX students with unique research experiences, including field work in the Arctic, the Canadian Rockies, and in China. These are remote and rugged areas for field research; many require expensive helicopter support, and he has been isolated on occasion for up to eight weeks. Dr. Melchin is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including visiting professorships and fellowships in other countries such as the Czech Republic and China. He is a President’s Medal recipient and Distinguished Fellow of the Geological Association of Canada. In 2020 he was awarded a James Chair in Pure and Applied Sciences at St. Francis Xavier University. In the community, Dr. Melchin’s abilities as a musician and organizer of charity concerts are legendary – to his colleagues, students, and our community he truly is a “rock star”.

Dr. Kara Thompson - 2021 Winner of the President's Research Award

Dr. Kara Thompson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology. Dr. Thompson received a Ph.D. in Life Span Development Psychology from the University of Victoria in 2014. After completing a post doctorial fellowship at Dalhousie University, she joined the Psychology department at St FX in 2015. Dr. Thompson quickly established herself as prolific scholar. Dr. Thompson has already published more than 50 peer reviewed articles at this early stage in her career. Her research revolves around child and youth health. In particular, she is internationally recognized as an expert in alcohol and cannabis use in youth and emerging adulthood. Her research spans mental health and health policy, focusing on prevention and harm reduction in youth drug use and abuse. Dr. Thompson’s outstanding publication record and focus on health has helped to attract a substantial amount of external support for her research program. She has been a principal investigator on grants totaling more than $250,000 and is a co-applicant on a $200,000 CIHR grant and a $2.5 million SSHRC partnership grant.

Dr. Tara Callaghan - 2020 Winner of the University Research Award

Dr. Tara Callaghan is internationally recognized as a leading researcher in the development of children’s symbolic representation. Her research into the cross-cultural effects of symbolic understanding in children has led her to broaden her investigations into children’s understanding of reciprocity, fairness, and sharing across cultures. She has studied children's development in Canada, India, Peru, Thailand, Samoa, and Japan. Tara brings rigor, creativity, and energy to her research program. In her cross-cultural work, she often takes student interns into the field where they hone their research skills and problem-solving abilities as they learn to appreciate the issues and challenges of doing this type of research. Currently Tara holds two federally-funded research grants, one in which she is longitudinally investigating preschool children’s reciprocal sharing in two cultures, India and Canada, and a second in partnership with international agencies in which she is investigating altruism, sharing, and compassion in Rohingya refugee children in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Her most recent project in Rohingya refugee camps has the potential to benefit the lives of children who have been witnesses or victims of conflict, violence, and displacement, as well as add to our understanding of how such experiences affect children’s development.

Dr. Mathias Nilges - 2019 Winner of the President's Research Award

Dr. Mathias Nilges, a StFX English professor since 2008, has in just over a decade, established a laudable record of achievement, positioning him as one of the pre-eminent literary and cultural critics of his generation. He holds a PhD in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he won the 2009 University of Illinois at Chicago Outstanding Dissertation Award. He has been appointed an Obama Fellow, Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, May/June, 2019, and is a Jules Léger Scholar in the Humanities and Social Sciences at StFX. In 2018, he was named director of StFX’s Frank McKenna Centre for Leadership. A frequently invited keynote speaker, he was the prestigious Rheney Lecturer at Vanderbilt University. He was also the driving force behind The Examined Life Lab, a student-led online lab at StFX. He is the author of three monographs, including one in preparation, and numerous edited collections, edited journal volumes, articles, book chapters, reviews, and translations. He has been actively involved in the StFX community, from serving as the Chair, Faculty of Arts to an Immersion Serving Learning faculty leader.