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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Dr. Mirazimi studied the dissolution of arsenic from mine waste materials and investigated the key factors that control arsenic release from arsenic bearing minerals to the environment. His study provides key information for the prevention and management of waste rock drainage containing arsenic. | Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Glowacki co-developed the Exercise and Depression Toolkit collaboratively with individuals with depression, health care providers, researchers, exercise professionals and community partners. The toolkit aims to integrate treatment guidelines into practice, consider how exercise could be used as a treatment, and has had an international reach. | Doctor of Philosophy in Kinesiology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Yuen studied how the antipsychotic medication clozapine can cause unwanted changes in blood glucose and heart function. She found that the side effects can be reversed with drugs that block specific targets called adrenoceptors. Her findings provide valuable insight for clozapine to be used safely and effectively in patients with schizophrenia. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Wells offers a corrective to the common historiography of the Korean language, which treats vernacularity as natural and literary vernacularization as foreordained. He shows that turn-of-the-20th c. shifts in Korean language practice were not inevitable, but driven by Korean nationalists, Western missionaries and Japanese imperial officials. | Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Yang investigated the interdependency analysis and modelling among critical infrastructures. He optimized the preparation and restoration processes at both the pre- and the post-disaster phase. This research increases the resilience of critical infrastructure systems for disaster response. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Nasir did research on intelligent wood machining. He developed AI-based models for wood sawing monitoring and automation in the sawmilling industry. His work enables sawmills to do online monitoring and prediction of surface quality of produced lumber, leading to efficiency gains in the Canadian lumber manufacturing and sawmilling industry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Danescu established novel microscopic methods to visualize the embryonic face as it develops. He was able to see coordinated and symmetrical patterns of cell behaviour and observe how specific drugs block cell movements. The insights from his work will impact our understanding of normal and abnormal facial development. | Doctor of Philosophy in Craniofacial Science (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Brook studied the positive side effects of a vaccine called BCG to determine how it protects from infections, and how it can reduce newborn mortality by 50%. He discovered a new mechanism of protection, describing the essential steps needed for protection, and how protection could be enhanced. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Alotaibi examined the roles of molecular targets in endometriosis cell invasion and nerve growth. He found that protein IL-1 beta enhances invasive capacity of endometriosis and is associated with nerve growth and worse sexual pain reported by patients. His findings suggest a novel therapeutic target for treatment of endometriosis related pain. | Doctor of Philosophy in Reproductive and Developmental Sciences (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Mulverhill developed methods for estimating forest inventory attributes in a boreal mixedwood forest with terrestrial photogrammetry and airborne laser scanning. These estimates often matched or exceeded those made using conventional inventory techniques and could contribute to more informed and sustainable management of the world's forests. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Manson examined how Romani people living in France are being affected by state efforts to regulate their movement and place of residence. His analysis shows that larger debates about the place of the Roma in Europe are increasingly being played out spatially through localized battles over housing, mobility, and other basic rights. | Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Al Shekaili generated and characterized a novel mouse model for a human genetic disease known as pyridoxine-dependent epilepsy. The model recapitulated the human disease and uncovered new possible pathological mechanisms. The model can be used for further investigations of the disease mechanisms and to test new therapeutics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Peiris explored a drumming tradition in Sri Lanka, looking at how people have thought of it before, during, and after the encounter with European colonial rule. He used musical change as a lens to examine changing social contexts in South Asia, contributing to broader discussions about the reach and impact of ideas that cross national borders. | Doctor of Philosophy in Music, Emphasis Ethnomusicology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Majewski studied the atomic structure of the bacterial type 3 secretion system, a syringe-like nanomachine used to hijack host cells. Her research has improved our understanding of how the system is assembled, creating a foundation for future drug design against pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Amundrud combined machine learning, observational surveys along environmental gradients and controlled experiments to demonstrate that the processes that shape species distributions and ecological communities depend on spatial scale and environmental context. This research sheds new light on how ecosystems will respond to climate change. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Corbett examined the history of punctuality in modern Britain to better understand its development as a value. Tracing the use of the word punctuality, he found that the pressure to be 'on time' is rooted in moral valuations of debt, credit, and trust, which emerged in early eighteenth-century Britain. | Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Villacreses proposes a conceptual approach to understand literary production from a writer's global creative project. He incorporates media studies, the analysis of works of fiction, critical interventions, and public image into the overall literary study of an author. He applied this method in Latin American writers from the late 20th century. | Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Studies (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Sawatzky-Girling studied patient and family experiences of quality improvement. Her Relational Safety Framework shows that when feeling safe and valued, people welcome connections with others, fostering trust. Appreciating these liminal and ethical implications of QI implementation is a new strategy to advance health care system improvement. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Gonzalez Anaya's research is concerned with the complexity of geometric spaces arising as solutions to polynomial equations. His work contributes to our understanding of how the process of deforming their shape can sometimes result in new geometric objects having significantly more intricate geometric properties. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Daniel studied the interfaces between layers in the multilayer structure of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell. His work resulted in an integrated multilayer architecture that eliminates detrimental gaps around the catalyst layer to improve the performance and operational flexibility of fuel cells, critical for automotive applications. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Singh examined how modern European technology played a central role in colonizing Punjab. He showed that technology played such a central role that coloniality should be understood as techno-coloniality. He demonstrated that non-Western traditions, such as the Sikh spiritual tradition, can play a crucial role in building a decolonial future. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Lin performed structure-activity relationship studies on anti-HIV molecules. During this process, she discovered novel chemical reactivities of these compounds. The findings are crucial for the future development of biologically active molecules toward treatments of various diseases and crop protection. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmaceutical Sciences (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Kadhim found a new role for MED15, a protein that physically links DNA to proteins which regulate gene expression. His findings suggest that MED15 is critical to make mature, insulin secreting beta cells. Understanding how and why beta cells need MED15 to develop and mature will allow new treatments for diabetes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Hughes studied mathematical models for random spatial populations which arise in a variety of settings, including ecology. His work focused on fractal properties of the population densities. This research sheds light on how these populations, and other important stochastic models, are locally distributed in space. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Zhou studied 3D interactions and spatial perception for Virtual Reality displays. She created techniques to generate realistic visualization on 3D displays. This research paves the way for future VR studies and applications. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |