Future students

Innovation, research and discovery are key factors in maintaining and growing Canada’s socio-economic well-being, to benefit all Canadians. The Canada Research Chair Program is investing $140 million toward 182 new and renewed Chairs at 34 institutions. The University of Waterloo had three chairs renewed, including Chemistry's Derek Schipper.

The common belief is that electron microscopy (EM) can only be used on dry samples because of the vacuum inside the microscope’s column. This is no longer the case, as researchers can now visualize fully solvated nanoscale objects in liquids such as water from cryogenic to room temperature conditions. Room temperature in-liquid observations are achieved by squeezing the sample into a nanofluidic chip with a very narrow with a very narrow gap (down to 50nm) between two ultrathin membranes, so that the electron beam can get through the “sandwich” and reach the image detector.

What if you could spray away COVID-19? That’s the idea behind an anti-viral surface coating being developed in a collaborative project between by researchers at The Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) within the University of Waterloo and SiO2 Innovation Labs. The coating will kill the COVID-19 virus immediately upon contact with any surface.