On July 1st, 2015, Dr. Keith Tierney joins Dr. Yong Chen as Co-Editor of the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Keith, an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta, will be taking the place of fellow U of A faculty member Dr. Rolf Vinebrooke. We at CSP are indebted to Rolf for his hard work and dedication and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours. We welcome Keith to his new position and wish him the same success that his predecessor had as Co-Editor.
Image: University of Alberta
Q. How did you become interested in studying fish physiology?
A. I did a B.Sc. in general biology (Simon Fraser), but took a keen interest in fish physiology and toxicology in my last year. Dr. Christopher Kennedy was kind enough to hire me on as a research assistant for a brief period where I was part of a project looking at the impact of the Exxon Valdez spill on the health of herring. Next, Dr. Anthony (Tony) Farrell took me on as an M.Sc. student to look at how pathologies and physical damage affect the ability of sockeye salmon to migrate (Simon Fraser). This project started me on what appears to be a never-ending path of building flumes to assess fish swimming performance.
Q. You made a temporary move away from the research world, could you describe what made you decide to come back?
A. Before emerging as an M.Sc, I started an M.B.A. (University of British Columbia). This puzzling move was made because of what appeared to be bleak job prospects for those with an M.Sc. in fish physiology. What I learned after getting my M.B.A. and working in the “real world” was that I would much rather not be working in the “real world”. So, for my final degree (and final go with Simon Fraser), I returned to do a Ph.D. with my original mentor, Dr. Kennedy, mainly on olfactory toxicity, i.e. impairment of the sense of smell, to salmonids (though I did manage to do some more work using a flume). Olfactory toxicology may seem odd to some, but for many fishes their nose is invaluable to feeding, mating and migrating. Said simply, a “nose blind” fish is dead in the water.
Q. Could you describe your research lab at the University of Alberta?
A. Following my Ph.D., NSERC was kind enough to give me money to do a postdoctoral fellowship on olfactory neuroscience. For this I worked with Dr. Barbara Zielinski (Windsor), and began my membership in the zebrafish club. In the fall 2008, the University of Alberta advertised a position for an environmental toxicologist. Somehow I managed to convince them to hire me, and I have been thrilled to be in this position ever since. At present my lab is split about fifty-fifty basic and applied science. My lab works on olfactory neuroscience, northern salmon ecophysiology, developmental toxicity of petroleum and related process-affected waters, and avian toxicology. I have funding from NSERC, Alberta Innovates, Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, and others. I have five graduate students, and as many as ten undergraduates, working with rainbow trout, arctic char, goldfish, zebrafish and mallard ducks. This year I was awarded the R. G. Boutilier New Investigator Award from the Canadian Society of Zoologists, which for me means I have a lot to live up to (it is also nice to be called “new” at middle age).
Q. What motivated you to become a Co-Editor of the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences?
A. I am thrilled to take the position as Co-Editor of this extremely important and long-lived journal. Many of the seminal papers that are still cited today in the fish physiology work that I and many others do were published in this journal, albeit under an earlier name (then the Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada). I spent many hours in the library as a new graduate student reading papers from this journal. I still have many original copies of the journal from that era.
Q. What excites you most about being a Co-Editor of the journal?
A. I am looking forward to working with Co-Editor Dr. Yong Chen, the numerous Associate Editors and reviewers of CJFAS. A personal drive will be to bring back more fish physiology papers to the journal, especially those involving flumes.
