CURRICULUM VITAE

Ben Speers-Roesch

Department of Zoology

University of British Columbia

6270 University Blvd.

Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4

bensr@zoology.ubc.ca

 

Current Position

 

á      Ph.D. candidate, Zoology (Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology)

Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia (2006-present)

Supervisor: Dr. Jeffrey G. Richards

Thesis: Energy supply and demand during hypoxia in fishes

 

Education

 

á      M.Sc., Zoology (Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology)

Department of Zoology, University of Guelph (2003-2005)

Supervisor: Dr. James S. Ballantyne

Thesis: Metabolic organization of the chondrichthyan fishes: evolutionary implications

 

á      B.Sc., Honours (with Distinction), Marine and freshwater biology

University of Guelph (1999-2003)

 

Awards

 

Scholarships:

 

  1. Zoology Graduate Fellowship, University of British Columbia, $16 000 (declined full value, 2010-2011)
  2. IODE War Memorial Scholarship, $15 000 (2010-2011)
  3. Pacific Century Graduate Scholarship, $20 000 (2008-2010)
  4. Li Tze Fong Memorial Fellowship, $16 000 (2008-2010)
  5. NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship, $70 000 (2006-2008)
  6. Graduate Entrance Scholarship, University of British Columbia, $2000 (2006)
  7. Ontario Graduate Scholarship, $15 000 (declined, 2006)
  8. NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship A, $34 600 (2003-2005)
  9. R. C. Frazee Huntsman Marine Science Centre Scholarship, $500 (2003)
  10. Ontario Graduate Scholarship, $15 000 (declined, 2003)
  11. University of Guelph Entrance Scholarship, $1000 (1999-2000)

 

Research:

 

  1. Graduate Travel Award, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, $500 (2010)
  2. Graduate Travel Award, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, $500 (2009)
  3. Journal of Experimental Biology Travelling Fellowship, Company of Biologists, US$2038 (2009)
  4. Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry Student/PDF Research Grant, Canadian Society of Zoologists, $500 (2009)
  5. Arthur D. Latornell Graduate Travel Grant, University of Guelph, $750 (2004)
  6. Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Northern Scientific Training Program Arctic Research Grant, $2500 (2003)
  7. Helen Battle Award for the Best Student Poster, Canadian Society of Zoologists Annual Meeting, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, $200 (2003)

 

Technical Skills

 

á      Whole animal and subcellular respirometry

á      Spectrophotometric and radiometric assays of enzymes and metabolites

á      Gas chromatographic analysis of lipids

á      Protein immunoblots

á      PCR gene cloning

á      Real time PCR gene expression analysis

á      Cannulation and other surgical techniques for instrumentation, serial sampling, and drug administration in fishes

á      Flow probe measurement of cardiovascular function in fishes

á      Experimental design, statistical and data analysis

 

Field Experience

 

I have extensive experience collecting research animals and conducting experiments in the field, including at the Polar Continental Shelf Program in Nunavut, Huntsman Marine Science Centre in New Brunswick, Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre in British Columbia, and Lizard Island Research Station and Moreton Bay Research Station in Australia.

 

Academic Work Experience

 

á      Teaching assistant

Animal Physiology Lab (BIOL363). Dept. of Zoology, University of British Columbia

September 2006 – December 2006; September 2008 – April 2009; September 2009 – April 2010; September 2010-April 2011.

 

á      Student councilor

Canadian Society of Zoologists

May 2006 – May 2008.

 

á      Teaching assistant

Invertebrate Zoology I and II. Dept. of Zoology, University of Guelph

September 2003 – December 2005.

 

á      Graduate research assistant

Dept. of Zoology, University of Guelph, Dr. James S. Ballantyne

May 2003 – August 2003.

 

á      Undergraduate research assistant

Dept. of Zoology, University of Guelph, Dr. E. Don Stevens

April 2002 – May 2003.

 

Journals Served as Referee

 

á      Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A

á      Endangered Species Research

á      Environmental Biology of Fishes

á      Journal of Fish Biology

á      Journal of Thermal Biology

á      Lipids

á      Marine Biology

á      Pan-American Journal of Aquatic Sciences

á      Physiological and Biochemical Zoology

 

Professional Affiliations

 

á      Canadian Society of Zoologists

á      Society for Experimental Biology

 

Training

 

á      SCUBA certified (PADI Divemaster; PADI Enriched Air Nitrox)

á      Emergency First Response CPR/First Aid

á      Pleasure Craft Operator Card

á      Life-Saving III certification (Canadian Lifesaving Association)

á      Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS)

á      Animal Care

á      Radionuclide Safety and Methodology

 

Current Research Interests

 

          I am broadly interested in the evolutionary and environmental physiology and biochemistry of animals, particularly fishes. My current research focuses on mechanisms of hypoxia tolerance in fishes, including hypoxia-induced metabolic rate depression. I am interested in how substrate oxidation is regulated in aerobic tissues such as the heart to allow survival of these tissues and contribute to metabolic rate depression when fishes encounter low oxygen environments, which impair aerobic metabolic pathways.

I have a long-standing interest in the physiology of elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) and holocephalans (ratfishes), which among vertebrates are metabolically unusual in several ways including possessing low to non-existent lipid oxidation in muscle, chronic utilization of ketone bodies as metabolic fuel, and urea- and methylamine-based osmoregulation. I have studied the characteristics and interrelationships of these aspects of chondrichthyan physiology in order to better understand the evolution of metabolism in this group and vertebrates as a whole.

 

Publications

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Treberg, J.R. 2010. The unusual energy metabolism of elasmobranch fishes. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 155: 417-434. Invited review.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Sandblom, E., Lau, G.Y., Farrell, A.P., Richards, J.G. 2010. Effects of environmental hypoxia on cardiac energy metabolism and performance in tilapia. American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 298: R104-R119.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Ip, Y.K., Ballantyne, J.S. 2008. Plasma non-esterified fatty acids of elasmobranchs: comparisons of temperate and tropical species and effects of environmental salinity. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 149: 209-216.

 

  1. Semeniuk, C.A., Speers-Roesch, B., Rothley, K.D. 2007. Using fatty-acid profile analysis as an ecologic indicator in the management of tourist impacts on marine wildlife: a case of stingray-feeding in the Caribbean. Environmental Management 40: 665-677.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Robinson, J.W., Ballantyne, J.S. 2006. Metabolic organization of the spotted ratfish, Hydrolagus colliei (Holocephali: Chimaeriformes): insight into the evolution of energy metabolism in the chondrichthyan fishes. Journal of Experimental Zoology 305A: 631-644.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Ip, Y.K., Ballantyne, J.S. 2006. Metabolic organization of freshwater, euryhaline, and marine elasmobranchs: implications for the evolution of energy metabolism in sharks and rays. Journal of Experimental Biology 209: 2495-2508.

 

  1. Treberg, J.R., Speers-Roesch, B., Piermarini, P., Ip, Y.K., Ballantyne, J.S., Driedzic, W.R. 2006. The accumulation of methylamine counteracting solutes in elasmobranchs with differing levels of urea: comparison of marine and freshwater species. Journal of Experimental Biology 209: 860-870. Featured in Inside JEB.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Ballantyne, J.S. 2005. Activities of antioxidant enzymes and cytochrome c oxidase in liver of Arctic and temperate teleosts. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 140: 487-494.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Lingwood, D., Stevens, E.D. 2004. Effects of temperature and hydrostatic pressure on the routine oxygen uptake of bloater (Coregonus hoyi). Journal of Great Lakes Research 30: 70-81.

 

Presentations

 

Invited Lectures:

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B. The unusual energy metabolism of elasmobranchs. Biology of Elasmobranchs symposium, Society for Experimental Biology, Glasgow, Scotland, June 28-July 1, 2009.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B. The evolution of energy metabolism in cartilaginous fishes: lessons from deep-sea chimaeras and freshwater stingrays. VOX Salmonis Seminar Series, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, March 29, 2005.

 

Papers Presented (13 total, selection shown):

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Brauner, C.J., Farrell, A.P., Hickey, A.J.R., Renshaw, G.M.C., Wang, Y., Richards, J.G. Cardiorespiratory function and hypoxia tolerance in elasmobranchs. (Poster). American Physiological Society Intersociety Meeting, Global Change & Global Science: Comparative Physiology in a Changing World. Westminster, Colorado August 4-7, 2010.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Brauner, C.J., Farrell, A.P., Hickey, A.J.R., Renshaw, G.M.C., Wang, Y., Richards, J.G. Cardiorespiratory function and hypoxia tolerance in elasmobranchs. Canadian Society of Zoologists, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, May 17-21, 2010.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Sandblom, E., Farrell, A.P., Richards, J.G. Regulation of cardiac metabolic supply and demand during hypoxia in the tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Society for Experimental Biology, Glasgow, Scotland, June 28-July 1, 2009.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Sandblom, E., Farrell, A.P., Richards, J.G. Cardiac function and metabolic responses during graded hypoxia in the tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Canadian Society of Zoologists, University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, May 12-16, 2009.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Sandblom, E., Farrell, A.P., Richards, J.G. Regulation of cardiac metabolic supply and demand during hypoxia in the tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Zoology Graduate Student Association, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, April 8, 2009. Best Talk, Runner-up.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Richards, J.G. Regulation of cardiac substrate oxidation during hypoxia exposure in tilapia. Canadian Society of Zoologists, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 19-23, 2008.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Richards, J.G. Regulation of fatty acid oxidation during hypoxia in heart of the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). (Poster). Canadian Society of Zoologists, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, May 20-25, 2007.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Richards, J.G. Identification of three isoforms of carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1 in an elasmobranch, the spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias). (Poster). Canadian Society of Zoologists, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, May 20-25, 2007.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Ip, Y.K., Ballantyne, J.S. The evolution of energy metabolism in elasmobranch fishes: lessons from euryhaline and freshwater stingrays. Canadian Society of Zoologists, QueenÕs University, Kingston, Ontario, May 10-14, 2005.

 

  1. Speers-Roesch, B., Lingwood, D., Stevens, E.D. Effect of hydrostatic pressure on the routine oxygen uptake of bloater (Coregonus hoyi). (Poster). Canadian Society of Zoologists, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, May 6-10, 2003. Winner of Helen Battle Award for the Best Student Poster.

 

Teaching Lectures:       

 

  1. Cardiac function and hypoxia tolerance in fishes. Molecular Adaptation of Animals to the Environment, fourth year undergraduate course, University of British Columbia, March 30, 2010.

 

  1. The solute system of elasmobranchs and its metabolic consequences. Marine and Freshwater Adaptations, fourth-year undergraduate course, University of Guelph, March 16, 2005.