COGRAD
Advancing monitoring and analysis of environmental contaminants
Cutting edge research on developing tools to address remediation challenges
Providing opportunities for current and prospective student to work in a leading research facility
COGRAD was founded in 2015 as a result of funding from the Western Economic Diversification Canada. The vision of the Centre is to provide an internationally accredited analytical facility committed to advancing and supporting industry and/or government mandated environmental monitoring obligations. This will be achieved through the development of faster and cheaper analytical monitoring techniques, tools designed to delineate sources of crude oil exposures, design of innovative strategies to remediate and monitor crude oil components in the environment and forensic studies leading to new areas of analytical research.
News & Updates
What We Do
Environmental Monitoring
COGRAD is a 115 m2 state-of-the-art analytical facility located on the University of Manitoba campus. The Centre is equipped with some of the newest analytical instrumentation currently available including:
– Agilent’s gas chromatograph triple quadrupole mass spectrometer
– LECO’s two dimensional gas chromatograph high resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer
– Applied Biosystems liquid chromatograph triple quadrupole mass spectrometer
– Thermo Scientific’s Accelerated Solvent Extractor
– J2’s Automated Gel Permeation Chromatography
Research & Development
One of the unique features of COGRAD is that it actively engages in R&D activities. COGRAD’s R&D activities are driven in part by needs identified by our industrial partners. For example, COGRAD is working on improving the detection limits associated with measuring components known to be present in crude oil like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In addition, there is ongoing research to improve on detection and accurate analysis of alkylated PAHs which will aide in meaningful source apportionment indicators that has been a primary focus of the oil sands monitoring programs.
Skills Development
Students that are interested in research at COGRAD can expect an enriching environment that fosters studies in the areas of environmental analytical chemistry, ecotoxicology and biochemistry by combining field-based research at IISD-ELA with hands on training on the use of state-of-the-art instrumentation in an accredited facility. Our research team encourages both dependent and independent learning and the diversity of skills that are transferred to students ensures that they are well equipped for the workplace.
COGRAD 