Cloaked in Trent's new PhD gowns, doctoral graduates Karen Smokorowski (left), Dawn Burke and David Woodfine gather at Champlain College prior to afternoon convocation May 29. They became the first three PhD graduates from Watershed Ecosystems, currently Trent's only PhD program.

This year's convocation was particularly significant for the Watershed Ecosystems Graduate Program (WEGP), with degrees conferred on the program's first three PhD graduates. Prior to this year's convocation, the university has conferred only one PhD in Biology in 1968. WEGP is currently the only program offering a PhD at Trent.

      Paul Healy, dean of research and graduate studies, feels that it's important to stress the significance of this event in Trent's history. "The establishment of PhD programs and the conferring of doctoral degrees is the pinnacle of academic endeavor and achievement for a university. It's been a very long process to get us here," says Healy, noting that discussions leading to the establishment of the Watershed Ecosystems PhD program began about a decade ago. "It's taken a lot of effort on the part of many faculty and other members of the Trent community."

      "That Trent is able to present PhDs in this discipline says a great deal about the quality of the program and about Trent's reputation in this field."

      Receiving the first PhDs in Watershed Ecosystems were Dawn Burke, Karen Smokorowski and David Woodfine.

      Burke, 29, who is also the winner of the Governor General's Gold Medal for the highest academic standing in a graduate program, completed a Bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of Western Ontario. She came to Trent in 1994 as a Master's student and quickly qualified to move into the PhD program. Her dissertation research focused on the reproductive success of forest breeding birds in relation to disturbances of forest habitats. Burke says that her research, which was geographically focused in the Peterborough area, indicates that the size of a forest can have a significant impact upon the reproductive success of the birds that breed within that area.

      At the time of convocation Burke was within weeks of giving birth to her first child. She is hoping to continue to do research in landscape ecology, possibly through post-doctoral work at Carleton University.

      Smokorowski, 29, did her undergraduate work at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1993. She decided to pursue graduate studies at Trent because of the reputation of the program and the faculty associated with it.

      "I chose Trent largely because of the holistic approach of the Watershed Ecosystems program, and I had heard nothing but good things about [professor] David Lasenby." Her research involved studying the response of the freshwater shrimp Mysis relicta to the fertilization of Kootenay Lake in British Columbia.

      While she was still working on revisions to her thesis, Smokorowski was contracted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Great Lakes Laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (DFO GLLFAS) in Burlington, to write a report outlining the response of the fish community in Hamilton Harbour to the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan, an extensive rehabilitation effort undertaken over the past eight years. That work has led to a three-year contract as a research scientist (a position for which a PhD is required) with the Sault Ste. Marie branch of the DFO GLLFAS. Smokorowski began that job in March and is in charge of a new series of experiments involving whole lake manipulation of fish habitat.

      David Woodfine, 29, completed a general B.Sc. in biology at the University of Western Ontario, but came to Trent for his honors year specifically because of the Watershed Ecosystems program.

      "I had begun to look for graduate programs, and I had already taken all the aquatic courses offered at Western by the end of my third year. People told me that if that's what I was interested in, Trent was the place to be."

      Woodfine entered the Watershed Ecosystems master's program, and became the first student to move into the PhD program when it was established. His research focused on the recovery of acidified lakes in the Sudbury region.

      Woodfine taught a number of courses in biology and environmental science during his time at Trent, and is currently seeking a teaching position at a university in Canada or the United States.