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Laurier faculty members secured more than $3.3 million in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to support research in a range of scientific fields.
In total, 20 Laurier faculty members will receive support from NSERC programs over five years. Their research is also supported by the federal government’s Research Support Fund.
“Laurier researchers are historically successful in the NSERC Discovery Grants competition and this year was no exception,” said Jonathan Newman, vice-president: research at Laurier. “Discovery Grants support ongoing research programs with long-term goals and it speaks to the vision and commitment of these 20 exceptional faculty members that the government has chosen to invest in their research.”
Jonathan Newman
Diane Gregory, associate professor in the departments of Health Sciences and Kinesiology and Physical Education, will receive $235,000 in funding over five years to support her research on the spine’s response to mechanical and biological stimuli. Scott Smith, professor in the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, will receive $260,000 in funding over five years to support his study on ion transport in natural and engineered membranes.
Four Laurier faculty members were selected for Discovery Launch Supplements, which provide a one-time payment of $12,500 to support early-career researchers as they establish a Discovery Grant-funded research program. The recipients included:
• Danve Castroverde, assistant professor of Biology, who will also receive $140,000 in Discovery Grant funding over five years for his study “Mechanistic insights into the temperature regulation of plant immunity.”
• Homa Kheyrollah Pour, assistant professor of Geography and Environmental Studies, who will receive $125,000 in Discovery Grant funding over five years for her study “Northern lakes as sentinels of environmental changes.”
• Borzou Rostami, assistant professor of Operations and Decision Sciences, who will receive $130,000 in Discovery Grant funding over five years for his study “Discrete optimization under interactions and uncertainty.”
• Jiashu (Jessie) Zhao, assistant professor of Physics and Computer Science, who will receive $120,000 in Discovery Grant funding over five years for her study “Adaptive understanding of big data for smart systems.”
A full list of Laurier’s NSERC-funded researchers is available on NSERC’s awards database.
Related story: Faculty members receive nearly one million dollars from SSHRC