A recent power outage lasting four days at Western University in London, Ontario, has resulted in the loss of invaluable research samples, disruptions to experiments, and concerns among biology students and faculty about the university’s ability to safeguard millions of dollars worth of scientific research assets.
The Biological & Geological Sciences Building, Materials Sciences Addition, Chemistry Building, and Natural Sciences Centre have been operating on backup power since Friday following an incident at a campus power substation. Although power was restored to most buildings on Friday evening, the four affected buildings continue to rely on backup power as repair work progresses. Access to these buildings has been restricted as a precautionary measure, with the university working closely with students, faculty, and staff to address individual needs, including facilitating research requirements.
This incident marks the fifth major outage impacting biology research facilities since August 2025, as noted by Beth MacDougall-Shackleton, a biology professor at the institution. Expressing concerns over the reliability of power access, she highlighted the challenges faced in maintaining stable conditions for living organisms and temperature-sensitive materials essential for research. The outages have led to overheating in growth chambers, thawing of research samples in freezers due to insufficient backup power, and hindered access to animals used in studies.
Furthermore, the department has incurred significant losses in replacing reagents, enzymes, and other research materials, with the most substantial impact being on irreplaceable samples. Graduate students have dedicated months or even years to breeding insects, cultivating plants, and studying bacterial strains, many of which may no longer be viable following the power outage.
According to Matheus Sanita Lima, a fifth-year PhD candidate and chair of the Society of Biology Graduate Students at Western University, the department has suffered the loss of irreplaceable samples, including specimens from extinct species, collections dating back to the 1970s, and materials from longstanding cohort studies that cannot be replicated. The repercussions of these losses extend beyond financial implications, affecting the progress of graduate students working within strict research timelines.
In response to the ongoing challenges, faculty and students have called for action from Western’s administration, emphasizing the need for improved communication during outages and long-term investments in modernizing the campus electrical system to prevent future disruptions. Concerns have also been raised about the university’s reputation among research partners and potential risks to research funding, particularly in areas regulated by organizations like the Canadian Council on Animal Care.
As students and faculty strive for solutions to mitigate the impact of power outages on research activities, there is a growing urgency for Western University to address infrastructure issues and enhance support for teaching and research endeavors.
