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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Dr. Mundorff used a wide array of historical materials and legal documents to examine the role played by the concept of "culture" in the original meaning of the Genocide Convention. He argued that current interpretations of the Genocide Convention, which exclude considerations of culture, are legally and historically untenable. | Doctor of Philosophy in Law (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Dettelbach demonstrated how ultraviolet light could be used to produce a silver-copper alloy that is difficult to obtain through commonly used methods. This alloy has applications toward clean energy conversion. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Hockley examined performer agency in complexism, a contemporary musical aesthetic. Although complexism is often suggested as leaving the performer no room for interpretation or expression, he developed a new analytical perspective that examines how complexism's distinctive material and conceptual elements engage unique forms of performer agency. | Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Instrument (DMA) |
| 2019 | Dr. Gamontle demonstrated that healthcare workers in Botswana were of the perspective that occupational health and infection control measures used in preventing Tuberculosis in the hospital environment were not adequate. Improving such measures can contribute to protecting the health of healthcare workers which in turn can improve patient care. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Rubiano developed a mathematical model and simulation of low consistency refining, a process used in the forest products sector to improve the mechanical properties of paper and other natural materials. His experiments have been used to optimize the papermaking process and have demonstrated large industrial energy savings. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Wang explored scientific advancement in analytical methods for the quantification of small molecule medicines and the characterization of complex biopharmaceutical substances. His study assists people in producing medicines with better safety and efficacy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2019 | In her research, Dr. Lenz Kothe asks, "What are community-based, responsive participatory art museum practices, and what does education mean within those practices?" She advances the understanding that education in responsive participatory practices is an ongoing process of creating conditions for potential learning and mutual transformation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum Studies (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Miucin studied the ways in which the programs we write interact with computer memories. His work introduces data-driven techniques which can help programmers improve the performance of the software they write. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Bazilli interviewed global women's activists on how transnational feminist movements use international human rights law. Her research illustrates how autonomous women's organizations address violence against women and other rights issues. Her research will be used by feminist activists in the ongoing struggle for gender equality. | Doctor of Philosophy in Law (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Heagy studied the use of electromagnetic data for monitoring hydraulic fracturing operations. Her work contributed to the understanding of electromagnetic fields and fluxes in settings with steel-cased wells, as well as the development of open-source software tools for building models of the subsurface from geophysical data. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Wang spent the past four years developing carbide catalysts using petroleum coke. She combined experimental data and theoretical calculations to study the performance of her catalysts during the hydrotreating process. Her work provides a potential way to turn waste from oil sands refinery into a valuable product. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Ahmed worked on developing better optimization algorithms. Optimization plays a key role in building more efficient artificial intelligence systems. Through Dr. Ahmed's work, machine learning systems can be trained faster and use less computer memory. This work has a lot of applications such as computer vision and natural language processing. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. MacWilliam studied gold mineralization in western Yukon and eastern Alaska. She found that different styles of gold mineralization are genetically related. Her results advance the understanding of gold deposit models, which can be applied for the benefit of exploration in the northern Cordillera as well as globally. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Pulido Pescador studied different implications of resource misallocation across heterogeneous agents. His research helps to understand how frictions in the factor markets can shape the patterns of specialization of an open economy and the gaps in income between agriculture and non-agriculture workers in developing countries. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Teichert examined digital literacy practices of children in their homes before and after kindergarten entry. She found children moved fluidly between digital and non-digital activities during play, but that parents had concerns about their children's use of digital devices and preferred that their children engage in non-digital activities. | Doctor of Philosophy in Language and Literacy Education (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Wilson examined the accessibility, availability, and acceptability of health-related services for urban Indigenous people offered by an urban Aboriginal agency. Her research offers much to culturally responsive health services, Indigenous health policy, and professional health education regarding urban Indigenous people. | Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy (EdD) |
| 2018 | Yield-stress fluids such as cement paste are neither solids nor "simple" fluids like water. They will flow only when we put enough force on them. In this study, Dr. Chaparian addressed the stability of particles in yield-stress fluids. He also investigated the motion of particles and hydrodynamic interaction. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Mehrbod studied how teams work together using state of the art 3D and 4D-modelling technologies during building design. He formalized the coordination processes, identified bottlenecks, and proposed novel design considerations. His results have practical implications for the construction industry, and the software development community. | Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Black studied how children and adults detect linguistic patterns in streams of sound. She found that both pre-existing knowledge and factors related to cognitive development, such as executive function, impact this learning process in different ways. This work contributes to our understanding of low-level mechanisms driving language acquisition. | Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. de Paula studied the effectiveness of riparian buffer management strategies to protect stream ecosystems in agricultural landscapes of the Amazon. These strategies were retaining forests in place and land abandonment for natural regeneration. He found that both strategies were effective, contributing to more sustainable agriculture practices | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Fenninger studied the role of calcium channels in immune cells. He demonstrated that a specific channel is vital for an efficient immune response and that its mutation causes an immunodeficiency. His research highlights the importance of calcium channels in the immune system and their role as novel targets for therapeutic drug intervention. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Multistage compressors are used extensively in high-speed natural gas operations and liquid natural gas industries. Dr. Hemmati's research proposed a new approach for identifying safe operation regions of these compressors. His work enriches our understanding of how to accurately estimate the stable boundaries of rotor bearing machinery. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. van der Zwan studied the factors limiting production of renewable biomass-based products. Through insights in rheology and enzymology, he revealed the underlying causes of key limitations and the mechanisms by which enzymes can be used to overcome them. This work betters our understanding of what is required to develop a sustainable bioeconomy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Boyle examined the role of repetition in a selection of postmodern compositions, proposing new theoretical principles for understanding the perception of musical segments. Her work expands on previous discussions of musical form by explaining not only the emergence of closed segments, but also of more open forms and processes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Music, Emphasis Musicology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Osmond created and analyzed mathematical models of evolution to ask how genetic adaptation is expected to overcome two challenges: (1) intermediate genotypes are deleterious and (2) rapid environmental change threatens extinction. Both are difficult problems but can be overcome by genetic drift and rapid evolution, respectively. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |