Project: Sulfur Isotope Variability in Arctic Ecosystems & Quality Control for Ancient Bone Samples.

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​Bio

Jen is one of the OG crew and a stalwart of the lab. On track  to complete a hat-trick of degrees through TEAL, her research has spanned polar bear ecology in her BSc to her PhD work addressing sulfur isotope variation in Arctic marine organisms. Although Grade 3-Jen is very proud of some of the things she has accomplished, Now-Jen muses that in the mirror universe, she is probably an accounts payable clerk, holed up in a room with columns of numbers, a trusty adding machine, and no people. Jen loves to travel and collect cultural phenomena experiences. Her favourite places visited to date are Iceland and Australia. Svalbard is on her wish list to visit one day because it is above the Arctic circle and is home to polar bears and several other taxa frequently analysed in the lab. Jen's best skill acquired in graduate school to date is knowing when to leave out a comma and her advice to new TEAL members is to wear gloves or "you will burn your fingies". Bio by Kate Dougherty. 

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TEAL Publications

• Routledge J, Sonne C, Letcher RJ, Dietz R, Szpak P, 2023. Unprecedented shift in Canadian High Arctic polar bear food web unsettles four millennia of stability. Anthropocene 43, 100397. doi: 10.1016/j.ancene.2023.100397. [DOWNLOAD .pdf]

• Hyland C, Scott MB, Routledge J, Szpak P, 2021. Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Variability of Bone Collagen to Determine the Number of Isotopically Distinct Specimens. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. doi:10.1007/s10816-021-09533-7. [DOWNLOAD .pdf]

• Louis M, Routledge J, Heide-Jørgensen MP, Szpak P, Lorenzen ED, 2022. Sex and size matter: foraging ecology of offshore harbour porpoises in waters around Greenland. Marine Biology 169, 140. doi:10.1007/s00227-022-04123-x. [DOWNLOAD .pdf] 

• Rey-Iglesia A, Wilson T, Routledge J, Skovrind M, Garde E, Heide-Jørgensen MP, Szpak P, Lorenzen ED, 2022. Combining δ13C and δ15N from bone and dentine in marine mammal palaeoecological research: insights from toothed whales. Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies, 1-12. doi:10.1080/10256016.2022.2145285.

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TEAL Awards and Honours

🏆 2019 Lowest δ15N Value

🥇 2021 Lab Olympics Gold Medal: Bone Cutting

🏆 2021 Matt Teeter Award for Most Glassware Broken

🏆 2021 Best Analytical Session (Shared with Kate Dougherty)

🏆 2022 Best Sample Replicate

🏆 2023 Highest δ13C Value

🥉 2023 Lab Olympics Bronze Medal: Reagent Weighing

🥉 2023 Lab Olympics Bronze Medal: Bone Cutting

🥉 2024 Lab Olympics Bronze Medal: Microbalance Speed

🥈 2024 Lab Olympics Silver Medal: Microbalance Accuracy

🏆 2024 Tess Wilson Award