McLaughlin Centre - Research Team - Administrative and Research Team

Research Team

The McLaughlin Centre’s activities are supported by a dynamic group of highly-qualified personnel.

	Ahmed Almaskut, M.Sc. Risk Analyst Ahmed Almaskut has obtained two bachelors degrees one in computer engineering and the second in Mathematics from Carleton University. He has also obtained a Master’s degree in statistics under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Krewski and Dr. Patrick Farrell. Ahmed is currently working as a Risk Analyst with the centre and his research focuses on the environmental burden of disease. His interests include biostatistics and applied statistics.
	Mustafa Al-Zoughool, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow Mustafa Al-Zoughool is currently working as a cancer epidemiologist with the Centre. He is involved in several projects on cancer epidemiology and in risk management of prion disease in Canada. He completed his B.Sc. in Biology in 1996 from the University of Jordan, Jordan as well as his Masters degree in Analytical Toxicology in 2000. In addition, he completed his Ph.D. in Molecular Toxicology from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio in 2005. He finished one year of postdoctoral fellowship at the International Agency for Research on Cancer where he completed research on cancer epidemiology.
	Daniel Bédard, M.Sc. Project Coordinator Daniel Bédard is a Research Project Coordinator at the McLaughlin Centre. His areas of interest include electromagnetic fields and health as well as Pharmacovigilance. He has coordinated the INTERPHONE Study in Ottawa, an international case-control study of cell phone use and tumours of the brain and salivary glands. He also coordinated the Canadian retrospective validation study, the Software-Modified Phone (SMP) study and the Base-Station study of output power levels emitted by cell phones. His main research interests are radio-frequency fields and health, adverse drug reaction and post-market drug safety and nutritional methodologies.
	Angela Brazeau, B. Comm., MBA Business Manager Angela Brazeau was appointed Business Manager for the McLaughlin Centre in December 2006. Angela has worked in an administrative capacity for the University of Ottawa for five years, first with the Centre on Governance working closely with the former Auditor General of Canada, Denis Desautels, and then as Administration Officer for the Institute of Population Health. She is a business graduate from the University of Ottawa, School of Management, and is currently working towards her Certified Human Resources Professional designation (CHRP).
	Maxine Croteau, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow Maxine Croteau has obtained a Ph.D. in Biology/Chemical and Environmental Toxicology from the University of Ottawa and is now conducting research at the McLaughlin centre in the fields of environmental toxicology and epidemiology. Dr. Croteau is currently involved in projects related to risk assessment or management of prion diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy and chronic wasting disease and of occupational/environmental exposure of humans to manganese. She is also working on various projects related to risk communication and chemical toxicity screening.
	Shalu Darshan, Ph.D. PrioNet Project Coordinator Shalu Darshan is a Research Coordinator at the Centre. Currently she is involved in coordinating research activities in Networks of Centres Excellence (NCE) funded project "PrioNet". The main goal of the project is to elaborate the etiology of prion diseases in Canada along with risk management strategies to deal with the challenges posed by prions through five research themes and their targeted core projects. She is directly involved in theme five addressing the prion disease risk management issue.
	Judy McDonald Ph.D. Affiliate Scientist & Part-time Professor Over the past 15 years, Judy McDonald has been a part-time Human Kinetics Professor at the University of Ottawa, and has served as a Faculty Council Member in Health Sciences for six years. Original work with Olympic athletes has become the framework for her discipline in operational readiness assessments for high-risk workplaces. She has authored books on mental preparedness strategies for surgery, air traffic control, and policing. Her academic foundations are combined with extensive municipal experience in program management and public-private partnerships. Her pursuit is in applying this cross-disciplinary approach to other high-performance situations-where the standards of excellence have serious consequences.
	Yuanli Shi, M.D. Research Associate Yuanli Shi is currently a Research Associate at the McLaughlin Centre. Prior to joining the Institute of Population Health at the University of Ottawa in 1998, she was a Biostatistician at the Institute for Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society. Yuanli has been trained in Applied Statistics at the University of Reading (1993-94) and University of Salford (1994-97) in England. Yuanli is interested in cancer, environmental epidemiology and risk assessment.
	Natalia Shilnikova, M.D. Radiation Epidemiologist Natalia Shilnikova graduated from Perm State Medical Institute (Russia) in 1985, completed a postgraduate course in hygiene at the Institute of Biophysics (Moscow, Russia) in 1990, and received her Candidate of Medical Sciences degree in 1991. From 1990 to 2007 she worked at the Southern Ural Biophysics Institute, taking part in studies of cancer mortality among workers at the Russian nuclear complex, the Mayak Production Association, and thyroid cancer incidence in the population living near Mayak. Dr. Shilnikova joined the McLaughlin Centre as a Cancer Epidemiologist in February 2007.
	Michael Tyshenko, Ph.D. Project Coordinator Michael Tyshenko is a Research Associate at the University of Ottawa. His academic background includes a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, a MPA in Public Administration and postdoctoral training in Policy Studies and Risk Communication. Dr. Tyshenko specializes in interdisciplinary studies combining Molecular Biology, science policy and risk communication focusing on emerging issues including: genomics, bioinformatics, zoonotic diseases and transmissible spongiform encephalopathy prion research.
	Margit Westphal, Ph.D. Risk Analyst Margit Westphal is a Risk Analyst at the University of Ottawa. Her academic background includes a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, a Master’s Degree in Biochemistry, and graduate training in Population Health Risk Assessment and Management. Dr. Westphal’s Ph.D. focused on the role that cytokines play on the acute phase response during inflammation. Her postdoctoral work involved the investigation of transcriptional pathways activated during cancer pathogenesis. Dr. Westphal is presently involved in several risk assessment projects at the McLaughlin Centre including the risk management of chronic wasting disease in cervids.
	Nagarajkumar Yenugadhati, MBBS, M.Sc. Cancer Epidemiologist Nagarajkumar Yenugadhati is a cancer epidemiologist at the McLaughlin Center. He obtained Masters Degree in Epidemiology at University of Ottawa. His master’s thesis focused on identifying the occupational risk factors for lung cancer based on a British Columbia cancer study. Nagarajkumar is currently involved in several risk assessment projects in the fields of occupational cancer and environmental health, and clinical risk assessment projects at the McLaughlin Center for Population Health Risk Assessment.