A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.
| Year | Citation | Program |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Dr. McEwen helped characterize an epigenetic process called DNA methylation. She analyzed thousands of genome-wide DNA profiles ranging from newborns to centenarian-aged individuals. Her work increases our understanding of how methylation changes across the life-course and the potential implications it may have on human longevity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2018 | Leakage of oil and gas wells and consequent emission of greenhouse gases has been an industry focus for the past 2-3 decades. Dr. Marjan focused on the Fluid Mechanics causes of gas migration and studied complex flows that are at the heart of this problem. Her study provides practical suggestions to mitigate the root causes of gas migration. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Song studied why individuals with Down syndrome inevitably develop Alzheimer's diseases. She discovered a gene overexpressed in Down syndrome that promotes neurodegeneration and supresses neurogenesis. This work provides insights for the development of potential interventions to treat Alzheimer's in Down syndrome by targeting the USP25 gene. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Li studied the Kahler-Ricci flow on non-compact manifolds. He investigated conditions under which the solutions exist, and studied the existence time of the solutions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Chen's doctoral studies focused on the automatic broadcasting of team sports, like basketball and soccer. He developed several methods of learning knowledge from human operators. His research contributes to camera calibration, camera angle prediction and camera location prediction, using computer vision and machine learning techniques. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Keats-Osborn examined the collaborative work involved in generating works of literary journalism. He clarified how reporters and editors develop conventional procedures by anticipating how their work will be received. His research illustrates important links between the production and consumption of culture. | Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Chang examined the role of culture in human sexuality. Her research highlighted sexual diversity of minority groups previously assumed to be homogeneous. Findings revealed that mechanisms protecting relationships from infidelity differ between individualistic and collectivist cultures, and demonstrated that unconscious attitudes predict sexual behavior. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. King's research highlighted the complex processes that control the spatial organization of surface meltwater features on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Her work improves our understanding of the processes controlling ice sheet melt in a warming world. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Wong King Yuen muscled in on the calcium channels, which play a crucial role in skeletal and cardiac muscle contraction. Her research characterized a novel interaction between an adaptor protein and the voltage-gated calcium channel. This work furthers our understanding of how an electrical action potential is converted into muscle contraction. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Wijesekera developed a contextual permission system to better safeguard personal and sensitive resources in smartphones. The new permission system significantly increases privacy protection of current mobile platforms over the status-quo by engaging the users more effectively. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Salkeld developed a foundation for applying computer programming languages to recordings of running software. Called "Time-travel Programming," it allows computer scientists to interact with previously recorded software behavior using the same tools and techniques as live execution. This approach can be used to diagnose previously unsolved, difficult-to-reproduce bugs. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Rock advanced the risk stratification of oral precancerous lesions by examining different associations between microscopic diagnosis, molecular features, risk habits, clinical lesion characteristics over time and progression to cancer. This research provides a new framework to integrate lesion change over time into risk models. | Doctor of Philosophy in Craniofacial Science (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Canen studied the organization of political institutions, including the formation of political networks, the sources and effects of polarization, and the impacts of information during campaigns. To do so, he also developed new theoretical models with improved statistical properties for these problems. Such tools may be applied in other fields. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2018 | Flowering plants' genomes have large numbers of genes that arose by gene duplication events. Dr. Qiu studied the evolution of these duplicated genes. He characterized three new models of the evolutionary fates of gene pairs after duplication. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Ben-Eltriki explored the benefits of combining a ginseng-based compound with vitamin D as an anticancer strategy to treat advanced prostate cancer patients. This combination demonstrated both synergy and sensitization of anticancer activities over using either compound alone, which could yield superior therapeutic effects for cancer patients. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2018 | The fairytale fantasy is a hybrid literary genre that combines fairy tale and fantasy characteristics. Through an examination of two sets of case-studies from different national literatures, Dr. Dreier provided means to the understanding of the narrative apparatus and the revisionist qualities of fairytale fantasy works. | Doctor of Philosophy in Germanic Studies (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Poon studied Canadian abstract painting in Toronto in the 1950s. She highlighted the artistic and practical strategies used by Toronto artists to establish themselves as the vanguard of modern painting in Canada. Her research considers the contributions made by Canadian artists towards the international world of modern art at midcentury. | Doctor of Philosophy in Art History (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Almehairbi examined how the United Nations Secretariat uses their informal authority to persuade member states to award funds to specific departments. This study enables a more accurate understanding of the strategies of non-state actors within international organisations, as well as how and why international organisations expand over time. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Olyaei employed a feminist legal lens to assess the overemphasis on law and legal reform to realize gender justice. She argued that feminist strategies should critically situate themselves in specific sociopolitical contexts, concluding that feminist theories of global south are vitally important for directing the future of Iranian feminist activism. | Doctor of Philosophy in Law (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Fang studied how to use seismic data to create an image of the Earth's interior. He developed a technique to achieve this goal without knowing the original signal characteristics. This technique can help oil and gas industries make better exploration decisions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Bedo studied cognitive neuroscience, with a focus on how children's brains develop the ability to read. His research examined how brain networks coordinate to make reading happen and how this differs in kids who struggle with reading. His research offers insights into how reading programs affect brain development and how this training can be improved. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Zhuang developed adaptive methods to improve the visualization of the human spine in ultrasound imaging. This research benefits real-time, ultrasound-guided, spinal needle injection procedures, such as Epidural. His work also furthers our understanding of connecting ultrasound with other imaging modalities to get the benefits from each. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Lockyer examined the meanings and functions of emotional talk in English and Polish digital communication and literary dialogue. Her findings provided insight into the role of evaluative affixes in conveying various emotional connotations of interjections. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Mansour investigated alternatives to antibiotics for bacterial infections caused by multidrug resistant pathogens. This resulted in the discovery of a novel peptide-based treatment, which could effectively treat skin infections caused by Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (or MRSA) as well as increase the efficacy of existing antibiotics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Balandeh developed a routine to grow high-quality single crystals of barium bismuth oxide and studied their electronic structure with x-ray spectroscopy measurements and theoretical calculations. Barium bismuth oxide family exhibits interesting physical properties including superconductivity. This research showed it is predominantly the oxygen that dictates these interesting physical and electronic behaviors. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |