Today, the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport, announced more than $39 million for state-of-the-art research labs and equipment through the John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF). This investment will support 251 researchers leading 186 projects at 43 universities across Canada, including three Waterloo chemists.
Chemistry professors Anna Klinkova (WIN member), Janusz Pawliszyn and Rodney Smith all received JELF funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). Their research will convert greenhouse gas emissions into valuable products, streamline biological testing and help manage renewable grid energy.
WIN Director Sushanta Mitra and Waterloo Engineering Professor Parsin Haji Reza also received JELF funding.
“CFI lays the cornerstone for the future by providing equipment that ensures the success of researchers from the very start of their careers," Roseann O’Reilly Runte, CFI President and CEO. "JELF funding creates the conditions necessary for the extraordinary talents in Canada’s universities and hospitals to excel.”
JELF funding aims to help universities attract and retain top talent from around the globe by providing researchers with the highly specialized infrastructure they require to be leaders in their field.
Learn more about the Waterloo Chemistry JELF recipients
Anna Klinkova, Nanocatalyst Characterization and Performance Studies Platform
Human-made
greenhouse
gas
emissions
- the
most
abundant is
carbon
dioxide
-
drive
climate
change
and
cause
extreme
weather
conditions
worldwide.
To
foster
our
transition
to
a
low
emissions
energy
economy
without
compromising
quality
of
life
for
the
growing
population, Klinkova's
research aims
to
develop
electrocatalytic
systems
that
utilize
the
excess
electricity
from
renewable
energy
sources
for
the
electrochemical
conversion
of
carbon
dioxide
to
valuable
products.
Pivotal to this technology's success is the development of efficient, selective and long-lasting catalytic materials. Nanotechnology offers unprecedented control over material structure and tunable material design. Despite early promising results, gaps in our understanding of how the structure of nanocatalysts affect chemical reactions are hindering progress in the field.
The $130,000 in JELF funding will provide the infrastructure needed to enable a detailed understanding of how nanocatalyst structure influences chemical reactions by visualizing nanocatalyst structural features and their transformations under reaction conditions. This infrastructure will enable the establishment of nanocatalyst design framework and development of transformative carbon dioxide reduction technologies for industrial applications, while providing excellent training opportunities for the next generation of Canadian scientists.
Janusz Pawliszyn, Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer
Pawliszyn's
analytical
chemistry
research
group focuses on
the
development
and
enhancement
of
sample
preparation
technologies.
His
lab
aims
to
streamline
the
process
of
analyzing
small
molecules
in
biological
samples
(e.g.
tissue,
biofluids)
through
the
development
of
low
cost,
practical,
and
quick
analysis
methods.
For example, implementing these approaches for monitoring therapeutic drugs will reduce clinical analysis turnaround times, providing healthcare professionals with more accurate and reliable information faster, thereby ensuring more precise drug treatment dosage administration to patients. Moreover, by providing the tools to non-invasively monitor living tissues and organs during surgeries and other medical procedures, his research opens the door for an entirely new facet of personalized medicine.
These tests have the potential to be implemented not only in clinical settings, but also with law, environmental and food enforcement agencies. The $100,000 JELF award will enable the Pawliszyn lab to permanently retain a mass spectrometer with "extreme quantitative performance" which is critical to continuing the discovery of rapid diagnosis tools, and the retention-attraction of HQP and industrial collaborators.
Rodney Smith, Spectroelectrochemical Analysis of Heterogeneous Electrocatalysts
The
cost
of
electricity
generation
from
wind
and
solar
energy
has
approached
economically
competitive
levels
in
recent
years,
leaving
society
struggling
to
adapt
with
the
generation,
distribution
and
usage
problems
that
arise
from
the
intermittency
of
these
energy
sources,
and
generating
calls
to
develop
markets
that
can
accommodate
fluctuations
in
electricity.
Electrochemical synthesis of commodity chemicals is an ideal technology for such fluctuations as electricity is directly used to drive chemical reactions, enabling rapid scaling of output in response to electricity availability. Smith's research investigates solid-state electrocatalysts to expand the limited scope of electrochemical synthesis.
His research extracts chemical information by developing innovative fabrication techniques and spectroscopic methodologies, and exploits the synergy between the two to gain insights into fundamental chemical behaviour. The $130,000 JELF award will help Smith acquire a Raman microscope and help his lab identify and track key structural features as well as study reaction mechanisms.
The advances in fundamental understanding that will arise from this research will guide the development of more selective, efficient and stable reaction systems. Expanding the scope of industrial electrosynthesis will foster growth of the technology in the chemical manufacturing sector, maximizing the value of renewable energy infrastructure and improving Canada's ability to compete in clean-technology markets.