Student researchers making their mark

Friday, November 21, 2014

Companies can say goodbye to tedious food testing processes, thanks to a new innovation from postdoc Adam Metherel. The tool for quickly measuring fatty acids and cholesterol won him the prestigious Mitacs and National Research Council Industrial Research Assistance Program Award for Commercialization.

Undergraduate Erin Wong was recognized with the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer’s Young Investigator’s Award— typically given to medical doctors and residents in training — for her co-op work-term research on the safety of re-irradiation of bone metastases in cancer patients.

Winner of the COU’s 2014 Women’s Health Scholars Award, PhD candidate Kristin Marks’ investigation of estrogen’s effect on the synthesis of fats has wideranging implications for women’s health. Her work will provide a foundation for dietary guidelines at each life phase.

With just 1 slide and 3 minutes to explain their research, Matt Vonk and Bronwen Valtchanov took top spots in the AHS 3-Minute Thesis competition. Vonk later won the university competition while Valtchanov was celebrated at the Canadian Congress on Leisure Research for most outstanding paper authored by a student. See the 3MT presenters in action.

Katie Di Sebastiano’s work combines the study of nutrition and cancer research to help improve prostate cancer treatments for patients and survivors. It recently earned her a $40,000 Constantine Karayannopoulos Graduate Studentship Award from Prostate Cancer Canada.

Kristin Brown (left) is spearheading Waterloo’s participation in a cross-Canada research project examining the culture of mental health on university campuses. Brown, Stephanie Lu (right), and a colleague in Science won second place at the Council of Ontario Universities’ Mental Health 2.0 competition for their Facebook campaign, Stand Up to Stigma