Winter 2023

Newsletter Archive

Staff Profile: Nilo Sinnatamby

Meet Nilo Sinnatamby, the newest full-time member of the Miistakis team.

I am thrilled to have joined the Miistakis team this past December. So far, this has been an exciting, fast-paced work environment with a clear focus on making a difference and getting things done. I've had an interest in nature for as long as I can remember and despite growing up in Toronto, I spent a lot of my childhood hiking in the Rouge Valley or visiting the Toronto Zoo. My childhood interest in nature translated into an undergraduate degree in ecology where I got to take a Saturday field course where each week, a different professor introduced us to a new ecosystem in southern Ontario and taught us about really cool ecological features of the landscapes right outside of our doors.

I first visited Alberta as a Masters student studying paleolimnology in the Peace-Athabasca Delta where I got to see so much of Alberta's beautiful northern landscape. I returned to Alberta years later when I relocated in 2012 and made Calgary my home. I hold a Ph.D. in biology where I focused on fish ecology and have since worked as a Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta and a research associate at the University of Calgary. Prior to joining Miistakis, I worked as a Species at Risk Biologist and a Marine Planning and Conservation Biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

When I'm not working on conservation causes, or wrangling my two small humans, I spend most of my free time making nature-themed art. I vary what media I use from watercolour to alcohol-based markers or even graphic illustrations, but fish and birds are my favourite subjects.