Celebrating the 2025 Vanier scholars | Waterloo News

As part of a recent Government of Canada announcement, six University of Waterloo doctoral students were named recipients of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS).

The Vanier CGS is one Canada’s highest academic honours, awarded to doctoral students who demonstrate academic excellence, research potential and leadership. These scholars join a community of researchers at Waterloo who are tackling today’s most pressing challenges through both fundamental discovery and applied innovation.

Challenging systemic injustice with cross-border insight

Kaitlyn Hunter, a PhD candidate in Sociology, is exploring the far-reaching effects of American police violence on Canadian trust in law enforcement. Her research investigates how high-profile events influence crime reporting and perceptions of legitimacy in Canadian communities.

“I want to explore whether and how the consequences of touchstone events, such as the police murder of George Floyd, extend beyond geographic borders,” Hunter says. “Do high-profile cases of American police violence impact how people in Canada — especially in racialized communities — interact with and view the police?”

Engineering scalable tools for health and environmental safety

Ahmed Shahin, a PhD student in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and a researcher at the Institute for Quantum Computing, is building the next generation of low-cost, highly selective gas sensors. These sensors can detect volatile compounds for applications in air quality monitoring, food safety and health diagnostics.

By leveraging a novel manufacturing technique known as AP-SALD, Shahin is making these sensors more affordable and scalable. “Unlike traditional methods that require expensive vacuum chambers, AP-SALD works in open air. This makes it faster and more affordable, and enables us to produce tiny, layered coatings that are sensitive to specific gases.”

Building more inclusive societies and resilient communities

Richard Adeleke and Satveer Dhillon, PhD candidates in the faculty of Environment, are using geography as a lens to examine social and health inequities at a local and global scale.

Adeleke’s research focuses on financial inclusion for people with disabilities in Waterloo region and is working to uncover the barriers that prevent access to basic financial services and advocating for equity in everyday life. “At the heart of my career aspirations lies the desire to contribute meaningfully to an inclusive society through my research, where no one is marginalized.”

Dhillon’s doctoral research focuses on the impacts of climate change on health and well-being in Uganda with a focus on regions that highly susceptible to resource scarcity. “The findings from this research will help us better understand how people residing in lower-income, vulnerable communities are adapting to climate change,” she explains. “The results can help inform what community-led interventions can be implemented to improve psychosocial health and well-being.”

Forecasting climate threats with AI and compassion

Irfhana Zakir Hussain, an interdisciplinary PhD candidate in Public Health Sciences and Systems Design Engineering, uses AI, data science and community collaboration to predict and prevent heat-related health crises. Her work aims to identify vulnerable Waterloo neighbourhoods and help cities prepare for extreme climate events before they happen.

“Heat is one of the most immediate and severe consequences of climate change,” Zakir Hussain says. “Some homes, especially in lower-income neighbourhoods, don’t have access to cooling resources and people may live in structures with poor insulation or infrastructure issues. We’re currently trying to incorporate indoor smart thermostats in these neighbourhoods to collect information we can then use as an indicator.”

Powering a sustainable future through materials science

Cameron Dean, a PhD candidate in Chemistry, is unlocking the potential of solid-state batteries by using computational methods to explore the smallest building blocks of energy storage. His work could reshape the future of electronics, electric vehicles and sustainable energy systems.

“I want to better understand the function of battery materials, so that we can improve battery performance, safety and cost,” Dean says.