The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council has announced $14.3M in funding to Queen's researchers to advance their innovative STEM and health research projects.
Pursuing transformational research can be a long road. To make an impact on addressing major social issues or work towards ground-breaking discoveries researchers need sustained support to fully realize their projects.
Today, the Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages announced $11.8M in funding for Queen’s from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s (NSERC) Discovery and Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) programs. Intended to support ongoing research with long-term goals, the Discovery programs provides multi-year grants that support operating funds and facilitate access to funding from other programs. The RTI grants program supports the purchase of critical research equipment necessary to pursue breakthrough research. The NSERC announcement is part of a larger $960M suite of funding announced by the federal government.
"Our government is funding the top-tier researchers and scientists whose work makes Canada a world leader in research and innovation," says the Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages. "These projects – from reimagining teacher education with Indigenous wisdom traditions to creating equity in mental health care to researching the impacts of space radiation and weather on Earth’s climate – will help transform today’s ideas into tomorrow’s solutions. This is why Canada is an innovation leader."
In total, 43 Queen’s researchers are recipients of Discovery and RTI program grants as part of today’s announcement. Additionally, in recognition of the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic presented to advancing research, Minister Boissonnault announced a 1-year extension of existing NSERC funds. At Queen’s, 57 researchers will be receiving an additional $2.5M to support their active projects.
The Discovery-funded Queen’s projects:
Subatomic Physics Discovery Grant
Mark Chen (Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy): SNO+ Scintillator Phase and Tellurium Operations (2023-2025) – $2,960,000
Discovery Grant
Biology
Robert Colautti (Biology): The Genetic Basis of Rapid Evolution and Constraints on the Spread of an Invasive Plant – $195,000
Biomedical and Molecular Sciences
Faith Brennan (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Microglia-Astrocyte Cross-Talk in the Central Nervous System – $177,500
Sarah Dick (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Investigating the Mechanisms of Cardiac Macrophage Self-Renewal – $212,500
Katrina Gee (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Deciphering the Molecular Mechanisms of IL-27-Mediated Innate Anti-Viral Immune Responses – $225,000
Neil Magoski (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Plasticity of Electrical Transmission Regulates Synchronous Activity in Neurons that Control Reproduction – $260,000
Chemical Engineering
Kevin De France (Chemical Engineering): Functional Materials from Cellulose and Protein – $172,500
Paul Hungler (Chemical Engineering): Development of Adaptive Mixed Reality Simulation for Training and Education Using Multimodal Machine Learning – $192,500
Chemistry
Philip Jessop (Chemistry): Chemical Applications of Carbon Dioxide with Water and Amines – $415,000
Lucia Lee (Chemistry): Functional Structures Based on Main-group Supramolecular Interactions – $152,500
Nicholas Mosey (Chemistry): Materials for Energy Applications via Advanced Chemical Simulations – $260,000
Kevin Stamplecoskie (Chemistry): Tailoring the Excited State Properties of Metal Clusters for Photonics Applications – $195,000
Civil Engineering
Leon Boegman (Civil Engineering): Physical-Biogeochemical Flux Paths in Lakes and Coastal Oceans – $105,000
Amir Fam (Civil Engineering): Fundamentals of Laboratory-Based Rolling Versus Pulsating Loading Fatigue of Bridges Built with High Performance Materials – $295,000
Jason Olsthoorn (Civil Engineering): Quantifying the Impact of Climate Change on Mixing in Lakes – $162,500
Xiaying Xin (Civil Engineering): Development of Nanobubble-Enhanced Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Water Disinfection Systems – $185,000
Computing
Hesham Elsawy (Computing): Towards Diverse, Intelligent, and Perceptive 6G Network Architecture: Theoretical Foundations and Optimization Schemes – $172,500
Nick Graham (Computing): Fostering Collaboration through Digital Games – $260,000
Ting Hu (Computing): Interpretable and Explainable Learning with Evolutionary Computing – $205,000
David Skillicorn (Computing): Data Analytics in Adversarial Settings – $180,000
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Melissa Greeff (Electrical and Computer Engineering): Toward Resilient Multi-Robot Collaboration in Emergencies – $167,500
Ning Lu (Electrical and Computer Engineering): Constrained Online Learning for Wireless Computing Networks – $250,000
Joshua Marshall (Electrical and Computer Engineering): Mobile-Robot Navigation, Control, And Mapping in Spatiotemporal Worlds – $210,000
Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering
Daniel Layton-Matthews (Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering): Application of Non-Traditional Isotopes at Higher Spatial Resolution to Element Cycling in Mineral Deposits – $175,000
David McLagan (Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering): Seeing the Forest from The Trees: Understanding Pollutant Biogeochemical Cycling Between Vegetation and Air, Fire, Soil, and Water – $187,500
Kinesiology and Health Studies
Brendon Gurd (Kinesiology and Health Studies): Mechanisms Controlling Mitochondrial Biogenesis in Human Skeletal Muscle – $220,000
Mathematics and Statistics
Maria Teresa Chiri (Mathematics and Statistics): Evolution Problems for Moving Sets – $162,500
Felicia Magpantay (Mathematics and Statistics): Transient Dynamics in Deterministic and Stochastic Systems from Eco-Epidemiology – $195,000
James A. Mingo (Mathematics and Statistics): Random Matrices and Higher Order Freeness – $185,000
Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Jackson Crane (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): Detonation Chemistry and Propagation Dynamics: Experiments and Models for Next-Generation Engines – $197,500
Claire Davies (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): Participation Requires Communication: Developing Accessible Communication Devices – $250,000
Yong Jun Lai (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): Development of Ultrasensitive Biosensors for Rapid Pathogen Detection – $210,000
David Rival (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): In Situ Lagrangian Measurements – $250,000
Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining
Julian Ortiz (Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining): Towards Geometallurgical Digital Twins: Stochastic Models for Risk Management of Mining Systems – $210,000
Psychology
David Hauser (Psychology): How Do Vaccine Resistors Recruit Evidence to Support their Beliefs and Meta-Beliefs? – $202,500
Jonathan Smallwood (Psychology): States of Mind and Brain – Understanding the Neural Basis Behind Different Thought Patterns – $295,000
Sari van Anders (Psychology): Social Neuroendocrinology and the Evolution of Diversity in Human Intimacy – $350,000
Public Health Sciences
Wei Tu (Public Health): Statistical Learning and Inference for Sparse and Heterogeneous Functional and Longitudinal Data – $147,500
Smith School of Business
Vedat Verter (Smith School of Business): Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics for Delivery of Mental Health Care – $210,000
Research Tools and Instruments Grant
John Allingham (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Protein Structure Determination Facility Upgrade – $85,434
Chantelle Capicciotti (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): A Benchtop SPR Instrument for High-Throughput Interrogation of Protein-Ligand Interactions – $136,528
Aris Docoslis (Chemical Engineering): A Raman Spectroscopy System for (Bio)Chemical Analyses and Materials Characterization – $149,500
Christian Muise (Computing): Customizable Platform for Autonomous Agriculture Research – $146,183
Nir Rotenberg (Physics, Engineering Psychics, and Astronomy): Tunable Pulse-Shapers for the Exploration of Dynamic Photon-Photon Interactions – $149,936
To learn more about this round of Discovery Grants, visit the NSERC website. You can also read about Queen’s success in recent SSHRC Partnership and Insight and CFI JELF grants competitions in the Queen's Gazette.