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Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

Learn more about Indigenous Education and Cultural Services

March 30, 2012

Speaker: Dr. Farhana S. Saleh, Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Science, Ontario Tech University

Title: Fabrication of Novel Carbon Composite Electrodes for Biosensors and Biofuel Cells

Abstract: Electrochemical reactors and biosensors with enzymes have important applications of electrochemical technology in bioprocess engineering. Much effort has been exerted in the search for novel materials to design electrochemical biosensors and biofuel cells in developing faster, environmentally friendly, effective and more economical portable power sources for communication devices, sensors and medical implants.

The first part of the presentation discusses the construction of a new kind of highly sensitive amperometric glucose biosensor based on dehydrogenase enzyme immobilized nanocomposites modified carbon electrodes.

The second part focuses on the performance of the fabricated biosensor in analyzing glucose without interferences from the usual interferes present in the physiological system. Moreover, it explains the effective employment of these nanocomposites as bioanodes in glucose/O2 biofuel cell to provide improved film stability with a reasonably high power production.

Biography: Dr. Farhana S. Saleh is currently a PDF under Dr. Brad Easton’s supervision in the Faculty of Science, Ontario Tech. She received both her B.Sc. and M.Sc. (2000 and 2002) in Chemistry from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and obtained her Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) (2006) in Chemistry from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh where she has been a Lecturer since 2003. In 2007 she entered the doctoral program and received her doctorate in Electronic Chemistry from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT), Japan in 2010. She worked briefly as a Visiting Researcher at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT), Japan in 2011 before moved to Ontario Tech. Her doctoral research areas include (i) Modification of carbon substrates with functional materials, polymers and carbon nanotubes for electrochemical sensing of biological materials and coenzyme, (ii) Immobilization of dehydrogenase enzymes for glucose and alcohol biosensors and (iii) Fabrication of enzymebased bioanodes and biocathodes for biofuel cell applications. She gets involved in a new research project that focuses on the development of materials for fuel cell based breath alcohol sensors.