News

Mark Bernards looks ahead as the new Chair of Biology

 

Dr.Mark BernardsPhoto courtesy of Western News

Dr. Mark Bernards.

By Mitchell Zimmer

Mark Bernards says that he doesn’t plan on changing any of the things which the Biology Department is already doing; rather he is intent on raising the profile of research.

“We have a very large and strong undergraduate program that is, in my opinion, very well run and supported for the most part, especially with the first year biology program.” As encouraging as that is, Bernards also says that in the eleven years since he has been at Western there has been a lot of emphasis on this program and that the time is ripe to focus “more of our attention on our faculty research activities.” Part of the plan to raise this awareness will be making decisions that make it possible to accelerate faculty research programs. As budget concerns and teaching accountability for faculty mount, Bernards says that “the time available to work on research becomes more and more precious.” The challenge he faces is “just finding ways to protect faculty, and especially untenured faculty, from some of these other pressures, and to promote some of the really good things that have been done in recent years by faculty in the department.”

The present active research programs associated with the department has another benefit. Biology has the largest graduate program in the faculty of science with approximately 150 students. “We have a large extended supervisory pool with many adjunct faculty particularly with Agriculture Canada, Bird Studies Canada and some of the hospitals,” says Bernards. “So there is a lot of extension to the core faculty that make up the department and that allows us to have more students in the program than we would have otherwise.” He also says that the current strength of the undergraduate program aids the teaching assistantships “so funding graduate students becomes a little less onerous. There is room for a little bit more growth but not much… which again comes back to this idea that it’s not so much that we have to change what we’re doing we just have to make what we’re doing better known.”

One such major undertaking that the department will be involved in is getting the Biotron fully operational. “While the Biotron is not a Biology facility, there is a heavy Biology component to the Biotron,” says Bernards. “There are a lot of people working in conjunction with the Biotron, but there’s a lot that Biology can do to facilitate its functioning. Another is the involvement of Biology in new collaborative programs, such as the Graduate Program in Environment and Sustainability. Thus there are lots of new initiatives that we’re already involved in.”

All of these activities go beyond stewardship of the department. “You can’t underestimate what it takes to facilitate all of the initiatives that we are heavily involved in while maintaining the high quality of our undergraduate program,” says Bernards. On top of that he also has to make sure that the faculty, “especially our junior faculty, don’t get distracted away from the things that they will be evaluated on ultimately. That’s a nontrivial activity and I think that my number one priority is to protect the faculty and programs, to facilitate their development as researchers and maintain an environment in which everyone, faculty, staff and students can realize their objectives.”