UW RELEASE – 2015/066
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Monday, June 22, 2015
WINNIPEG, MB – The University of Winnipeg has been awarded $1,294,620 in Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) funding; the latest awards come via eight Discovery Grants, two Discovery Development Grants, a Discovery Accelerator Supplement, and a NSERC Graduate Scholarship.
“University of Winnipeg faculty members continue to produce relevant scientific research that has been rewarded with this announcement,” says Dr. Jino Distasio, UWinnipeg Associate Vice President, Research and Innovation. “This round of successful NSERC awards further demonstrates the quality of research being carried out in a variety of fields on our growing and vibrant campus.”
Discovery Grants Program (over five years)
- Dr. Diane Santesso, Psychology, Age and individual differences in reinforcement learning: A behavioural and electrophysical study, $122,120
- Dr. Craig Willis, Biology, Individuals, energetics and infectious disease, $200,000
- Dr. Athar Ata, Chemistry, Phytochemical Studies on Medicinally Important Plants, $140,000
- Dr. Christopher Wiebe, Chemistry, Exotic Magnetism in Geometrically Frustrated Magnets Under Extreme Conditions, $210,000
- Dr. Ed Cloutis, Geography, Pristine lithologies, modifications, astrobiological potential, and habitability of planetary surfaces, $135,000
- Dr. Ross Stokke, Mathematics and Statistics, Banach algebras in abstract harmonic analysis, $55,000
- Dr. Melody Ghahramani, Mathematics and Statistics, Semiparametric Inference for Integer-Valued Time Series, $55,000
- Dr. Andrew Frey, Physics, The Building Blocks of the Universe, $200,000
Willis receives $120,000 in extra funding via a Discovery Accelerator Supplement, awarded to researchers nominated by members of the Evaluation Group for having “a superior research program that is highly-rated in terms in terms of originality and innovation, and who show strong potential to become international leaders within their field.” There are only 125 awards in this category.
In addition, as part of a new program, NSERC has offered two Discovery Development Grants (Pilot) to members of UWinnipeg’s faculty, valued at $20,000 each.
NSERC is also providing a UWinnipeg student with a $17,500 Canada Graduate Scholarship at the Master’s level. The recipient, Johanna Robson, is entering the Masters in Science (BioScience, Technology and Public Policy) program in September 2015, and will be working with Dr. Jacques Tardif on her project Susceptibility of host tree species to Eastern Larch Beetle attacks.
NSERC is a federal agency that helps make Canada a country of discoverers and innovators for all Canadians. The agency supports some 30,000 post-secondary students and postdoctoral fellows in their advanced studies. It promotes discovery by funding more than 12,000 professors every year and fosters innovation by encouraging more than 1,500 Canadian companies to participate and invest in post-secondary research projects.
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MEDIA CONTACT
Megan Benedictson, Communications Officer, The University of Winnipeg
P: 204.988.7129, E: me.benedictson@uwinnipeg.ca
