Five researchers at Waterloo Engineering have had Canada Research Chairs for world-class scientists and scholars awarded or renewed by the federal government through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).
Sriram Narasimhan of civil and environmental engineering, Dongpu Cao of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, Hossein Abouee Mehrizi of management sciences, Michael Fowler of chemical engineering, and Zhou Wang of electrical and computer engineering are among 14 researchers at the University of Waterloo named to chairs worth a total of $12.4 million.
Waterloo Engineering professors Michael Fowler, left, and Zhou Wang were named today to new, seven-year Canada Research Chairs worth $1.4 million each.
Country-wide, 346 new or renewed chairs totalling more than $275 million at 52 institutions were announced in Victoria today by Kirsty Duncan, the federal minister of science and sport.
Almost half of the chairs are women, with strong representation as well among visibile minorities, people with disabilities and Indigenous peoples.
“Our government recognizes that when our institutions better reflect the diversity of Canada, science and research are stronger and their impacts on the lives of Canadians are more profound," Duncan said.
Wang was named a new tier one chair with funding of $1.4 million over seven years for work on multimedia quality-of-experience. Fowler was also named a new tier 1 chair with $1.4 million over seven years for research on zero-emission vehicles and hydrogen energy systems. Nar
Cao was named to a new tier two chair in driver cognition and automated driving. Abouee Mehrizi, in health-care analytics, and Narasimhan, in smart infrastructure, had their tier two chairs renewed. They will each receive $500,000 over five years.