by Meaghan Whelan

Researchers and graduate students at Memorial University received a major boost, thanks to new funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

Thirty researchers in the Faculties of Arts, Engineering and Applied Science, Medicine and Science and at Grenfell Campus earned a combined $975,000 to support innovative and creative research projects. These range from projects investigating how black holes interact with their environment to fish metabolism under adverse conditions, and from the principles of memory to cryptography. A list of all funded projects is below.

“NSERC funding continues to make a difference for our researchers,” said Dr. Christopher Loomis, vice-president (research). “Not only does this funding enable outstanding research across a range of disciplines and issues, it also creates a variety of opportunities for students to participate in the research process.”

The excellence of Memorial’s graduate students was also recognized with 19 scholarships in the Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS) and NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (PGS) programs. CGS awards are offered to the top-ranked applicants in master’s and doctoral programs. The next tier of meritorious applicants receive NSERC PGS awards. A full list of recipients and their academic unit is listed below.

“Each year, the competition for these awards becomes more intense as the quality of the applications increases,” said Dr. Noreen Golfman, dean of the School of Graduate Studies. “This year Memorial was successful in receiving 13 CGS and 6 PGS awards. The range of disciplines earning this recognition is indicative of the quality of Memorials’ graduate students and their research.”

The funding was announced by Gary Goodyear, minister of state (science and technology) at a news conference in Ottawa, Ont., on May 21. More than $413 million was awarded through the 2013 Discovery Grant, Discovery Accelerator Supplement, Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship, Postgraduate Scholarship and Postdoctoral Fellowship programs.

“Discovery Grants is the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s flagship program and one of Canada’s largest sources of funding for basic research,” said Mr. Goodyear. “It provides researchers with the means and freedom to pursue their most promising ideas. Our government is proud to support 10,000 researchers who are creating the advances that will drive tomorrow’s innovations.”

Discovery Grants

Faculty of Arts

• Dr. Trevor Bell, Department of Geography, Mapping and Modelling Deglacial Ice Dynamics and Relative Sea-level History in Newfoundland

 Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science

• Dr. Octavia Dobre, Cognitive Co-existence of Non-cooperative Heterogeneous Wireless Systems
• Dr. Kelly Hawboldt, Waste and Produced Gas Management on Offshore Platforms
• Dr. Howard Heys, Lightweight Symmetric Key Cryptography: Design, Analysis, Implementation, and Application
• Dr. Faisal Khan, Risk-based Safety and Integrity Management of Oil and Gas Production and Processing in Harsh Environment
• Dr. Azizur Rahman, Development of Power Apparatus and Advanced Motor Drive Systems
• Dr. Lihong Zhang, Synergistic Synthesis Methodologies and Computer-Aided Design Tools for Analog and RF Integrated Circuits in Advanced Technologies

 Faculty of Medicine

• Dr. Qi Yuan, Division of Biomedical Sciences, The Engram of Odour Learning in the Piriform Cortex of the Rat

 Faculty of Science

• Dr. Graham Bodwell, Department of Chemistry, Aromatization-based Methodology in the Synthesis of Designed and Naturally Occurring Pi Systems with Unusual Structures and Useful Properties
• Dr. Ivan Booth, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Black Holes and Their Boundaries: From Equilibrium Properties to How Dynamical Black Holes Interact with their Environment
• Dr. Thomas Chapman, Department of Biology, Soldiers and Medics: Altruistic Caste Battles Micro and Macro Enemies
• Dr. Qiying Chen, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Ultrafast Laser Studies of Photonic Materials and Structures
• Dr. William Driedzic, Department of Ocean Sciences, Fish Metabolism Under Adverse Conditions
• Dr. Colin Farquharson, Department of Earth Sciences, Development of New Quantitative Interpretation Techniques for Applied Geophysics
• Dr. Ronald Haynes, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Parallel Space-Time Approaches for the Numerical Solution of Partial Differential Equations
• Dr. Kathleen Laura Houriha, Department of Psychology, Metamemory: The Monitoring and Control of Memory
• Dr. Abir Igamberdiev, Department of Biology, Nitric Oxide Turnover and the Strategy of Physiological Adaptation of Plants to Low Oxygen Stress
• Dr. Ian Jones, Department of Biology, Behavioural Ecology and Demography of North Pacific Seabirds
• Dr. Mikhail Kotchetov, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Algebras with Action and Coaction of Hopf Algebras
• Dr. Shawn Leroux, Department of Biology, Biotic Drivers of Ecosystem Nutrient Cycling
• Dr. Annie Mercier, Department of Ocean Sciences, Rhythms of a Changing Ocean: Chronobiology and Control of Reproduction in Marine Organisms
• Dr. Ian Neath, Department of Psychology, Testing System-Wide Principles of Memory
• Dr. Michael Slawinski, Department of Earth Sciences, Distance in the Space of Elasticity Tensors: Optimal Choices of Hookean Models
• Dr. Paul Sylvester, Department of Earth Sciences, In Situ Mineral Analysis of Earth’s Early Crust and Impact Rocks by LA-(MC)-ICPMS
• Dr. Helene Volkoff, Department of Biology, The Endocrine Regulation of Feeding in Fish
• Dr. Anand Yethiraj, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Tunable Hydrodynamics and Restricted Motions: Probing Dynamics and the Mechanisms of Self-Organization in Soft Matter
• Dr. Susan Ziegler, Department of Earth Sciences, Tracking Changes in Organic Matter Reservoirs in Boreal Forest Landscapes

Grenfell Campus

• Dr. Carla Krachun, Division of Social Science, False Mental-State Attribution in Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes)
• Dr. Telex Magloire Ngatched Nkouatchah, Division of Science, Queuing Analysis of Opportunistic Access in Multichannel Cognitive Radios
• Dr. Ian Warkentin, Division of Science, Queuing Analysis of Opportunistic Access in Multichannel Cognitive Radios

 NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s Scholarship

• Spencer Bellows, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
• Corrina Copp, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science
• Christine Fontaine, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science
• Robert Gash, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
• Victoria Grandy, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science
• Hiliary Martin, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science
• Grant O’Brien, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
• Kristine O’Rielly, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
• Nikhil Pansare, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
• Laura Pittman, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
• Nicholas Snow, School of Human Kinetics and Recreation
• Sachin Waghmare, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science

 NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships – Doctoral Scholarship

• Alexander Howse, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science

NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship – Master’s Scholarship

• Jessica Besaw, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science

 NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship – Doctoral Scholarship

• Colleen Connors, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science
• Barbara de Moura Neves, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science
• Rajib Dey, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
• Vincent Lecours, Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts
• Heather Penney, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science