I took the long road to starting my PhD work in Biology at Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS) in 2008. I began my academic career at Mount Allison University (Sackville, NB) where I studied engineering and received my Engineering Core Certificate. After taking a year off from Academia to work/travel and attend ground school at Scotia Flight Centre (Waterville, NS), where I obtained my radio license and student pilot licence, I proceeded to Acadia University (Wolfville, NS) where I received a BSc in Physics, with a minor in Mathematics, over the next two years. Having been forced kicking and screaming to take a first-year English course as a part of my BSc, I decided I enjoyed the Arts and I attended Acadia for an additional two years at the end of which I received a BA in English. During this same tenure I wrote and published my own personal memoir about growing up in rural Nova Scotia (http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/) and joined the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) (http://www.writers.ns.ca/Writers/hwright.html).

At this point my life took yet another turn when I accepted a job at the Kentville Research Centre (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) as the driver of a 1974 3-tonne spray truck with faulty brakes used for the organic apple thinning trials. I worked my way through different jobs gradually graduating to equipment that was less faulty and began to attend Acadia University part-time, this time taking a few core Biology courses. I followed this up by attending Dalhousie/NSAC (Truro, NS) from which I received a MSc in Plant Science for my work on chlorophyll fluorescence in response to osmotic stress in grapes (Vitis spp.). My current PhD work seeks to better understand the Anaerobic Compensation Point (ACP) in plants and has immediate potential applications to the energy-reducing food storage industry. As a special topics course I am also attempting to characterize of organelle behavior and cyclosis in lace plant (Aponogeton madagascariensis) leaves undergoing PCD.