Lakehead's living labs spawn forestry doctorate program.

If nothing else, Lakehead University can see the forest for the degrees.

The Thunder Bay school will be accepting students into its third doctorate-level program this September.

Lakehead's Education and Psychology doctorate programs will be joined by the new four-year PhD in Forest Sciences this fall.

The program will be hosted by the faculty of Forestry but as an interdisciplinary program will feature contributions from faculty in several academic units, according to Dr. Reino Pulkki, dean of the Faculty of Forestry and the Forest Environment.

Students will have the opportunity to learn from professors from the forestry and biology departments as well as the school of outdoor recreation, parks and tourism.

"The program is the only program of its type in Northern Ontario, and we already have 12 professors participating," Pulkki says.

The PhD in Forest Sciences will be a research-based program focused on the development of researchers with expertise in the Boreal and Great Lakes--St. Lawrence Forest Regions, according to a release from the school.

Graduates from the program can pursue careers as research scientists at universities, in all levels of government, with private industry, or with forestry and environmental consulting companies. They will be experts in forestry, forest conservation, environmental sciences linked to forest ecosystems, natural resources management and sustainable development, and other areas.

"We see these people working in federal and provincial government research labs and also for private industry, (hopefully) raising the calibre of Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) in product development. Also there is a whole huge area developing around forestry consulting."

More feet in the forest

The Ontario government, in hopes of competing with the United States and other countries, has made it a "major priority" to double the number of people with graduate-level degrees in the province.

The Canadian Forest Service forecasts about half of their research scientists plan to retire in the next 5-10 years.

"At the same time, universities are hiring a lot more professors to teach the students in the programs," he says. "Forest sciences is a very specialized area."

Their trouble is compounded in more applied areas such as forest management, forest economics, silviculture and forest inventory.

"There is a severe shortage of people with a PhD in forest sciences within Canada."

The program will start with three students in the fall, and will grow slowly.

The board of governors has yet to decide on a tuition rate, but Pulkki says it will probably be on par with the other PhDs, which are worth about $5,190 per 12 months.

But if Lakehead attracts the kind of students it hopes to, they likely won't have to worry much about a student loan.

"We hope to get high-caliber students, so we have different options to top off on the funding," he says. "A student could come in with an NSERC post-graduate scholarship, which is over $20,000. Through our Living Legacy Graduates program we can top that up with another $5,000 and through our NSERC Initiative fund provide some more so we can be competitive with other universities. So in fact, a student's tuition would be paid through the scholarships."

Why now?

"The whole university is moving more toward research and graduate-level programming," says Pulkki. "It's just part of the evolution. We really see this as an opportunity to take our research to the next level. Once you have PhDs, you can get into some longer-term, very complicated research projects. That can benefit Northern Ontario greatly."

The Faculty of Forestry and the Forest Environment currently offers two graduate degrees: the Master of Science in Forestry (MScF), which started in 1977, and the Master of Forestry (MF), which started in 1993.

Pulkki says the location of the school, literally surrounded by living laboratories, will help maximize a student's experience in the program.

"We have our laboratory right beside us so we can do some real hands-on research that can help in managing our forests in a sustainable manner," he explains. "Students are exposed right to that. We see good ability to cooperate with the industry in the area and the Ministries of Natural Resources and the Environment."

Lakehead offers twenty-nine graduate programs in both academic and professional disciplines and we are planning to develop exciting interdisciplinary degrees in the areas of biotechnology, Northern Studies and applied Health Sciences. (Lakehead University is also home to the Western campus of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.) The administration has filled five of six Canada Research Chairs in Environmental Engineering, Psychology, Forestry and Technoculture.

www.lakeheadu.ca

By CRAIG GILBERT

Northern Ontario Business