Andrew Tanentzap is a Professor and Head of the Ecosystems and Global Change Groupat Trent University, and is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Climate Change and Northern Ecosystems. Adam Bergren is a Senior Research Officer at the Quantum and Nanotechnologies Research Centre at the National Research Council (NRC), and Team Lead for Detection and Automation.
Poor water quality is one of the most serious public policy challenges faced by Canada, disproportionately affecting Indigenous communities. Bergren and Tanentzap’s project aims to benefit Canada by increasing the breadth, sensitivity, and spatial coverage of water quality monitoring through development of a new and potentially disruptive environmental monitoring technology.
Their project will enable a far cheaper, easier, and automated way to monitor water quality than current approaches that require physical collection of water and laboratory testing by individuals. Their machine learning algorithms will also forecast the chemical properties of waters that make them more prone to harbour contaminants. Together, the project will allow decision-makers to track water quality in a more integrated way, identify problems before they arise, and respond more quickly to problems that do arise.
The collaboration between Tanentzap and Bergren aims to transform how water quality is monitored internationally and help position Canadians to drive scientific innovation in environmental technology and green tech.
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On May 28, 2025, Paul Corkum joined Alan Neal of All in a Day on CBC Listen for a discussion with the scientists Andrew Tanentzap and Yaser Abu-Lebdeh, two of the recipients of a Killam NRC Paul Corkum Fellowship.
