Today@Dal

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail:

Doug Wallace grew up on the Isle of Cumbrae, Scotland, and jokes it was destined he would study oceans.

As an ocean scientist, however, Dr. Wallace says he’s at a disadvantage from his colleagues as he doesn’t study “charismatic megafauna – the big animals, the animals that everybody loves, the turtles or the sharks …” he explains.

Rather, the 54-year-old is a chemist, studying the elements and molecules in the ocean, especially greenhouse gases and the exchange of those gases between the atmosphere and the ocean, and how it relates to climate change.

Based at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Dr. Wallace is the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ocean Science and Technology.

Appointed to a seven-year term in May, 2010, he was given $10-million in federal funding. Last week, the $41-million Dalhousie Ocean Sciences Building opened, housing Dr. Wallace’s state-of-the art labs.

Read the Q&A with Doug Wallace at the Globe and Mail's website.