Mount Allison researchers awarded grants worth more than $1 million
2012-07-31 09:31:09
SACKVILLE, NB — Five Mount Allison University researchers were recently awarded Discovery Grants worth a total of more than $1 million by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). In addition, one researcher won an Engage Grant and five Mount Allison students were awarded Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships valued at $17,500 each to pursue graduate studies.
“This investment is of enormous value to Mount Allison. Not only will it help our faculty to pursue their research, it will also provide hands-on work and employment opportunities for our students — the next generation of researchers — as research assistants,” says Mount Allison President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Robert Campbell. “We are proud of the many innovative projects that our faculty are engaged in and we are pleased to see that so many of them have deservedly received funding to continue their work.”
The Discovery Grant winners include:
• Biologist Dr. Diana Hamilton — $21,000 per year over five years ($105,000) to study the impact of stress on mudflat invertebrate communities and the resulting effects on diet and habitat use by migrating shorebirds;
• Biochemist Dr. Tyson MacCormack — $29,000 per year over five years ($145,000) to study the influence of dietary fatty acids and engineered nanoparticles on the cardiorespiratory system of fish;
• Chemist Dr. Vicki Meli — $33,000 per year over five years ($165,000) to study the preparation and properties of ultra thin films containing gold nanoparticles for medical and electronic devices;
• Biochemist Dr. Jeffrey Waller — $36,000 per year over five years, plus a Discovery Accelerator Supplement of $40,000 per year over three years ($300,000) to study how some abundant marine organisms protect themselves from environmental stresses; and
• Physicist Dr. David Hornidge (principal investigator, in collaboration with colleagues at Saint Mary’s University and the University of Saskatchewan) — $110,000 per year over three years ($330,000) to study the atomic nucleus and its constituents using electromagnetic probes at MAMI in Germany and JLab in the U.S.; and $46,000 per year over three years ($138,000) to study the electromagnetic structure of hadrons at Jefferson Lab in collaboration with researchers at Saint Mary’s.
Biologist Dr. Suzie Currie was awarded a $22,250 Engage Grant to work with P.E.I.-based company AquaBounty to study the physiology of hatching and early development in transgenic Atlantic salmon. Chemist Dr. Khashayar Ghandi was awarded a Collaborative Research and Development Grant worth $87,000 per year for four years ($348,000) to study radiation in the coolants of future generation nuclear reactors in order to develop safer and more economical reactors. Ghandi is collaborating with colleagues at Simon Fraser University and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL).
Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships are offered to the top-ranked applicants at each level (Master’s and doctoral). This year’s winners include the following Mount Allison graduates:
• Ryan Clarke, who will be studying inorganic chemistry at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC;
• Emma Davis, who is reconstructing the fire history of regions in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at Carleton University in Ottawa, ON;
• Jennifer Jeans, who will investigate how the plankton that live in coral and provide its food source respond to coral bleaching at the protein level at Mount Allison;
• Sarah Quann, who will be developing a record of past fire activity in Fort McPherson, NWT at Carleton University in Ottawa, ON; and
• Andrew Taylor, who will be researching the movement patterns, seasonal distribution, and habitat use of Atlantic sturgeon in the Saint John River at Mount Allison.
The Government of Canada awarded a total of more than $410 million in grants and scholarships for projects ranging from one to five years during the announcement of the 2012 NSERC competition results.
The complete list of NSERC grants and scholarships is available on the NSERC web site.
About NSERC
NSERC is a federal agency that supports some 30,000 post-secondary students and postdoctoral fellows in their advanced studies. NSERC promotes discovery by funding more than 12,000 professors every year and fosters innovation by encouraging about 2,000 Canadian companies to participate and invest in post-secondary research projects.About the Discovery Grants Program
The Discovery Grants Program is NSERC’s largest program and a key element of Canada’s support for excellence in science and engineering research and training at Canadian universities. Discovery Grants support ongoing programs of research with long-term goals rather than a single short-term project or collection of projects. This year a total of 2,161 Discovery Grants were awarded, valued at more than $325.7 million.About the Discovery Accelerator Supplements Program
The Discovery Accelerator Supplements Program provides substantial and timely resources to a small group of researchers whose research proposals suggest and explore high-risk, novel, or potentially transformative concepts and lines of inquiry, and are likely to have impact by contributing to groundbreaking advances in the area. Only 125 supplements were awarded this year, valued at $15 million.About Engage Grants
Engage Grants are designed to give Canadian companies access to the unique knowledge and expertise available at Canadian universities. The aim of the grants is to foster the development of new research partnerships between an academic researcher and a company that have never collaborated together before.
About Collaborative Research and Development Grants
Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) Grants are intended to give companies that operate from a Canadian base access to the unique knowledge, expertise, and educational resources available at Canadian postsecondary institutions and to train students in essential technical skills required by industry. The mutually beneficial collaborations are expected to result in industrial and/or economic benefits to Canada.
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