Daniel Atkinson, Ph.D. Email & Phone Number

Guelph, On, Ca

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Design, adaptation and conduct of specialized research procedures, reviews ofliterature, and contribution to report and manuscript writing.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Planning and conduct of qualitative field research as part of a team of researchers. Responsibilities included interview protocol development, in situ interview conduct, creation of field notes, interview transcription, thematic data analysis, report write-up, PowerPoint presentation design, and presentation of results at academic conferences and professional meetings. In addition, from 2016-2019, I was intimately involved in the creation and production of 'Controversy in Science Museums: Re-imagining Exhibition Spaces and Practice' (Pedretti & Navas-Iannini, 2020), a book focusing on hyper-contemporary science museum exhibitions that involve sensitive and controversial topics. My roles in the project involved idea generation, data management, text editing, cover and interior photography, and decisions regarding final layout.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

As a member of the food service team at the Toronto Medieval Times castle, I was responsible for arena set-up, front-of-house ticket management, greeting and seating guests prior to the beginning of the show, fast-paced and entertaining food service for upwards of 30 guests throughout the two-hour show, safety assurance for fellow staff and guests at all times, and arena clean-up. Working part-time, mostly weekends, this job financed my housing, food, tuition and research costs for the majority of my PhD. In all honesty, it was one of the most consistently fun jobs I've ever had. In this most unusual setting, I was blessed to work alongside a great many excellent and brilliant people - some of whom remain close friends. The pace of food service each shift was relentless, and the generation of bad medieval-themed jokes even more so. At home, I maintained a spreadsheet detailing my earnings for every shift I ever worked - and it was fascinating to watch my earnings trending consistently upwards. I am proud to say that it is because of this strange and delightful job that I graduated my PhD completely debt-free.Employee of the Month, March 2012.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

In this role, I was responsible for coordinating and teaching pre-math, early math, pre-reading, reading, and writing skills to groups of up to four 3-8 year-old students. As such, early learners and I worked through math, reading and writing worksheets together so as to introduce such skills as counting, writing numbers and letters, identifying nouns, verbs and adjectives, and holding a pencil.This was a profoundly satisfying job in terms of being a part of the beginnings of these children's formal learning journey, and I enjoyed being a positive and supportive influence in their lives. It was fascinating to note how different young people respond to confusion and the newness of their math and reading experiences - some became frustrated, some were indifferent, and a few bubbled with excitement as they navigated and transcended their initial confusion.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

In this role, I worked in two laboratories, one studying muscle regeneration under Dr. Thomas Hawke, and one studying diabetic myopathies under Dr. Michael Riddell. My work involved the dissection and cryosectioning of animal tissues, immunohistochemical protocol development and analysis of target proteins, slide-mounting of tissues, bright-field and fluorescent microscopic imaging of resultant slides, quantitative statistical analysis of results, and report write-up. This work built on techniques that I learned while completing my Masters of Science in the previous years. It was high-stress work (48- to 60-hour protocols iteratively developed and meticulously followed using very limited sample tissue - very little room for error!) but tremendously satisfying to work as a part of a team to make the invisible visible, and unknown a little more known. I remain tremendously grateful to Drs. Hawke and Riddell for upholding the highest standards of scientific inquiry in their respective laboratories. No matter the prior findings and/or funding imperatives they were managing, I was never in any way pressured to 'massage' my findings to support pre-existing data or hypotheses. They each asked me to develop protocols and seek understandings my own way, and insisted that I report my findings, warts and all. This was very satisfying scientific work indeed.

Guelph, Ontario, Canada

In this role, I served as the assistant to the primary staff pathologist at the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) at the University of Guelph during the summers of 2001-2003. As such, I was responsible for assisting the staff pathologist in autopsying various avian and mammalian carcasses that were submitted to OVC by zoos, public health units in Ontario, and members of the public. I also wrote reports and prepared tissues for histological analysis.During this time period, West Nile Virus (WNV) was first emerging in Canada, and I was hired to staff a Health Canada project intended to detect and track the virus' presence in Ontario. As such, I had the pleasure of being part of a team tasked with autopsying suspected WNV-positive crows, blue jays and ravens under Biosafety Level 3 conditions, sectioning extracted tissues for histoanalysis, and entering resultant data into a national database. In this capacity (and completely by luck!) I personally autopsied Canada's first known WNV-positive bird.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Critical Food Education

Activities and Societies: Academic book editor, photographer, and consultant (2016-2019); Research assistant (2015-2019); Science, Math.

Master Of Science - Msc, Kinesiology And Health Science: Muscle Stem Cell Biology

Activities and Societies: Undergraduate teaching assistant in Exercise Physiology, Human Anatomy, and Human Anatomy for Fine Arts.

Honours Bachelor Of Science, Minor In Drama, Biological Sciences, Human Kinesiology, Graduated With Distinction, 3.6 Gpa

Activities and Societies: Dean's List status (80% or higher grade average) 1997-2002. Recipient of McArthur Humphries and John Vanderkamp.