The Atlantic HQP Summit

On August 8th and 9th, the Highly Qualified Personnel Association held their first ever workshop, the Atlantic HQP Summit, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The event was a huge success, bringing together HQP, representing ten different AFMNet projects, from around the Atlantic region as well as from Ontario and Quebec.

The summit provided an excellent forum for students to present their current research to their peers. Not only were students able to gain valuable experience presenting their research to an audience with vastly different backgrounds, but were also able to benefit from the comments and discussions that followed each presentation.

In addition to student presentations, the summit included talks on a wide range of topics from four invited speakers. The keynote speaker, Dr. Jeremy Pencer, from the Canadian Neutron Beam Centre, spoke about neutron scattering, while other subjects included drinking water distribution systems and salmon pigmentation. Rounding up the talks was a presentation from Dr. Ross McCurdy, who spoke about the Nova Scotian Company, Ocean Nutrition Canada Ltd.

Despite the summit's busy agenda, several social activities were also included. A tour of the Alexander Keith's Brewery provided a nice afternoon break on the first day while the warm Halifax evening was spent aboard Theodore Tugboat, admiring the sunset as the ship sailed past Point Pleasant Park and the Dingle.

The second day of the conference began bright and early, showcasing more student research. With new friendships forged and valuable information gained from the presentations, the conference wrapped up in the afternoon with a networking session. Many HQP stayed to make use of this session, establishing new collaborations and exchanging ideas. The HQPA looks forward to learning what has come from these meetings and is busy organizing their second workshop to be held in Montreal this October 3rd and 4th.

Download the agenda here. (PDF)