The University of Winnipeg is pleased to announce Dr. Melanie Martin as Acting Dean of Graduate Studies. On November 1, 2026, Dr. Martin will move from her current role of Acting Associate Dean of Science to serve as Acting Dean of Graduate Studies.
A Professor in the Department of Physics, Dr. Martin is a medical physicist with a highly interdisciplinary research program that integrates physics, computer science, and chemistry to address complex problems in biology and neuroscience. She is the NSERC Leader at UWinnipeg and the Co-Director of the University's Brain and Metabolic Research Lab.
A dedicated advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion, Dr. Martin founded the Pathways to Graduate Studies program and co-created the Indigenous Leaders in Science program. She also serves as an Advisor for the UWinnipeg Chapter of the Canadian Indigenous Science and Engineering Society (.caISES). She has supervised postdocs, PhD and MSc graduate students, and undergraduate students across a wide range of disciplines. Dr. Martin has been awarded research grants from NSERC, CIHR, and CFI. She has chaired and co-chaired a variety of national committees, such as the Canadian Association of Physicists' NSERC Liaison Committee, NSERC Physics Scholarship Committee, and New Frontiers in Research Exploration Fund Committee.
Dr. Martin will be taking over the leadership of Graduate Studies from Dr. Kyle Devine, who is leaving the role of Dean of Graduate Studies to pursue an opportunity in Ireland. Dr. Devine will be joining University College Dublin as a Distinguished Professor, where he will lead a 2.25 million ($3.6 million) grant on the environmental impact of generative AI in the creative economy. He is an award-winning author and editor of books on the political economy and political ecology of culture and is internationally recognized for his work on the environmental situation of music. "On behalf of the University, I would like to congratulate Dr. Devine on this exciting opportunity and thank him for his contributions to UWinnipeg," said Provost and Vice-President, Academic. "I wish Dr. Devine all the best on his new journey."
While Dr. Martin serves as Acting Dean of Graduate Studies, her previous role of Acting Associate Dean of Science will be filled by Dr. Christopher Storie. A Professor in the Department of Geography, Dr. Storie specializes in the use of GIS and remote sensing technologies to study how our urban environments are organized, how they change over time, and what impacts those changes have on both people and the landscape. His research also involves the use of advanced geographic information systems (ArcGIS) integrated with satellite imaging software (ENVI, Idrisi, and PolSAR Pro) to analyze and fuse various geospatial datasets in order to derive land-use/land-cover maps of urban environments.
"I am grateful to Dr. Martin and Dr. Storie for stepping into the roles of Acting Dean of Graduate Studies and Acting Associate Dean of the Faculty of Science and look forward to working with them," said Dr. Radia.
