Lakehead hub of research activity.

Lakehead University is seeing an abundance of activity and development, the school's communication director says.

Specifically, Nancy Angus points to new research taking place in the university's faculty of forestry and the forest environment, development in the school's department of anthropology and additions to Lakehead's applied science programs.

The faculty of forestry and the forest environment, under the leadership of Dr. Jian Wang, was recently awarded nearly $100,000 in research grant money to undertake a study examining the growth and economic potential of paper birch, Angus says.

Wang says his four-year research program will analyze paper birch and its potential as an alternative hardwood.

"I used to work in British Columbia," Wang says. "In B.C. most people focus on conifers - softwood lumber. But when the Asian financial crisis hit we couldn't sell enough two-by-fours and we suffered economically. We had lots of other hardwood species that we could use in a value-added way, like furniture-making.

"When I came to Ontario and I realized Ontario is a net hardwood importer, I realized we have a lot of hardwood that we never utilize."

Wang says using paper birch as an alternative hardwood would stabilize the economy through diversification resulting in new jobs "for the forest-dependent small communities.

"We have this tremendous resource that we traditionally used as fireweed and always treated as a weed species that we tried to kill off. We spend millions of dollars every year on herbicides to control it and not manage it (and instead) plant jack pine."

Although paper birch is found across Canada, Wang says Ontario is home to two different species: white birch in north-western Ontario, and yellow birch - which is more valuable- in central Ontario.

He says there are about 60 million cubic metres of mature paper birch presently in northwestern Ontario.

The plant is abundant and grows naturally in northwestern Ontario, and therefore the only planting work necessary is for site preparation and land scarification after a harvest.

Wang's research began recently after being awarded a research grant of $18,000 per year for four years from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

Research conducted by the university's anthropology department has given the school international exposure.

Under the direction of Ryan Parr, the co-director of Lakehead's paleo-DNA laboratory, a team of researchers traveled to Halifax last month hoping to obtain enough DNA material to identify three victims of the Titanic disaster of 1912.

Although two of the three bodies provided insufficient DNA sampling material, a third body - that of a two-year-old boy - did produce enough sampling material for analysis.

Over the next six months, Parr, along with paleo-DNA laboratory co-chair El Molto, will attempt to identify the child by matching DNA extracted from a bone fragment with the DNA of a maternal relative.

The project is just one example of the type of work that can be undertaken at the facility. The laboratory, which specializes in ancient DNA analysis, will make its home at the Northwestern Ontario Technology Association building on Balmoral Street this summer.

Parr says the $2-million facility is one of only a few of its kind in Canada; it will be equipped with specific workstations and an extraction lab, all designed for ancient DNA analysis.

He says the lab poses business opportunities for the university aside from historical analysis, including general analysis and paternity testing.

Paternity testing, he says, was a $340,000-industry in the United States last year. The new lab will be fully functional by the end of summer, he adds.

Angus notes the university will be a hub of activity over the next few months. Lakead's Advanced Technology and Academic Centre, a $43-million facility, will get underway this summer.

Measuring 8,400-square-metres, ATAC will house a multitude of advanced technology applications, primarily in the areas of engineering and science.