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. Blundon showed that hearing may be one of the last senses to remain active before death. Some hospice patients may still be able to hear sounds, especially music, when they become unresponsive just before they pass away. These results broaden our understanding of what happens to us as we die and how best to care for our dying loved ones. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Li's research focused on nuclear medicine in cancer treatments, particularly metal-based radiopharmaceuticals. She developed several metal-binding agents which demonstrated promising chemical and biological properties upon binding with important medical radiometal ions. Her discoveries impact medicinal inorganic chemistry and nuclear medicine. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Marchand examined patients' experiences with injectable opioid agonist treatment, a novel treatment for opioid use disorder. Her research showed that this treatment was optimized when patients and providers establish positive therapeutic relationships. This evidence informs a conceptualization of patient-centered care for this disorder. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Shukla's research explored the complicated nature of algebraic structures, focusing on two measures of complexity: essential dimension and the number of generators of an algebra. This research contributes to our understanding of objects with highly complex symmetries that frequently arise in mathematics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Rasouli prepared a synthetic inorganic ion exchanger for removal of toxic selenate from wastewaters. The goal of this study is to create a novel technology to prevent selenate release into the environment and to protect aquatic life. | Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Mohseni studied matrix defects in aerospace composites manufacturing. He developed analytical models and approaches for process optimization to minimize waste and reduce the manufacturing cost, especially for small enterprises. This research will inform improvements to cure cycle design, which will enable defect-free part manufacturing. | Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Reza developed a highly-scalable, distributed solution to support practical pattern matching based analytics in large graph datasets. He demonstrated the effectiveness of this technique through scaling experiments on massive real-world graph datasets and at platform scales, orders of magnitude larger than used in the past for similar problems. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Le Renard studied the evolution of fly-speck fungi, microfungi growing on the surfaces of plants and abundant as fossils. He analyzed the evolutionary relationships of living fungi using DNA, compared their anatomy to fossils, and described three new fossils. This comparative work sheds light on the evolution of a very diverse group of fungi. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Fang developed comprehensive approaches to help applications detect and recover from failures caused by hardware faults in high-performance computing systems. These approaches improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of error detection and resilience techniques that are commonly practiced in the high-performance computing domain. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Wu developed a versatile microscope for noninvasive human skin characterization and diagnosis. This microscope provides information on three-dimensional tissue structure, cellular morphology, micro-volume biochemicals, and dynamic physiology, with a large field of view. It was also demonstrated to be useful for precise laser micro-surgery. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2020 | What's the best way to utilize the limited biomass resources to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions? Dr. Wang investigated the environmental impacts, economic viability, and policy implications of producing bio-energy from the available resources in British Columbia. His work provides insight into a cost-effective transition to a sustainable future. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Jiang studied Chinese planning practices on sustainable cities and developed a set of ecological and social metrics for Chinese ecocities. This study contributes to urban community research, presenting a dialogic critique between Western scholars and local Chinese practitioners on how the ecocity concept has been framed locally in China. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Heieis investigated how cellular metabolism allows immune cells to respond in various scenarios of disease. He found that T cells have different requirements for glucose when fighting parasites versus bacterial infections. This research will have future implications in the development of immune-based therapies for infection and autoimmunity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Munawar designed an intersectional and de-colonial Islamic ethic of care by weaving her mother and father's experiences into the stories of Hajar, Yunus, and Maryam in the Islamic tradition. Her findings centre the epistemic authority of disabled Muslims and care-givers as knowers of the 'Islamic' and care-based modes of knowing Islam. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Lemon conducted a narrative examination of school-based trauma-informed practices. This is one of the first Canadian studies to investigate trauma-informed practice implementation from the perspective of school counselling professionals. This research supports the continued development of trauma-informed practices in the education system. | Doctor of Philosophy in Counselling Psychology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Baronas discovered new regulatory mechanisms for a potassium channel involved in severe childhood epilepsy and movement disorders. Her findings demonstrate how a potassium channel can be influenced by its environment, and reveal unexpected ways that electrical signaling in the brain can be regulated and disrupted in neurological diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Gherga investigated an infinite family of equations whose solutions admit deep mathematical applications in elliptic curves and elliptic curve cryptography. In her work, she helped to develop the theory and implementation of an efficient algorithm to fully resolve these equations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Putra developed a process for bio-fuel production using renewable carbon from woody biomass and hydrogen from glycerol and water. He showed that gasoline-like compounds can be obtained in a single process. His findings will contribute to the development of sustainable and scalable bio-refineries. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Lesage studied geological controls on the district-scale footprints of porphyry deposits. He found that the formation of copper deposits affects the surrounding rock to distances up to several kilometers away. This research improves mineral deposit genetic models and will help to increase the success rate of future mineral exploration efforts. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD) |
| 2020 | Direct Air Capture is a radical technology which removes carbon dioxide from the air for sequestration or utilization. Dr. Campbell's research provides a new understanding of the reactions involved in this technology and explores alternative reaction pathways with lower temperatures, which enables a more cost-effective removal of CO2 from the air. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Nackiewicz studied how immune cells called macrophages contribute to inflammation in insulin-producing islets in type 2 diabetes. She showed that macrophages could either induce or resolve islet inflammation. This work could aid in the design of therapies that may improve function of islet cells in diabetes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Ahmed investigated the effects of preparation design and sintering on the marginal accuracy of zirconia crowns, and established an innovative method for measuring the shrinkage of zirconia crowns during processing. This research provides valuable knowledge for achieving precise fit and improving the clinical success of zirconia restorations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Craniofacial Science and Diploma in Prosthodontics (PhD/Dip. Prosthodontics) |
| 2020 | Dr. Burnett studied the role of automated activity monitors in the reproductive management of dairy cows. Her findings show the correlation between increased estrous expression and improved fertility. This research demonstrates the importance of estrous expression in breeding decisions and provides alternatives for reducing hormonal interventions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Animal Biology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Caiazzo studied the X-ray emission of neutron stars and black holes. She modelled the polarization of light from pulsars and black holes that accumulate material from companion stars, and from highly magnetized neutron stars called magnetars. She has shown that X-ray polarization can answer many of our questions about these fascinating objects. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Hussain investigated the feasibility of using volumetric medical images for kidney cancer prediction and prognosis. He developed novel deep neural network-based approaches for kidney cancer detection, cancer grading, and staging for CT scans. This approach will improve our ability to detect and therefore treat kidney cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering (PhD) |