Eight University of Waterloo researchers receive prestigious research grants

WATERLOO, Ont. (Friday, May 4, 2012) - University of Waterloo research into the early detection of prostate cancer may give hope to the more than 25,000 men annually diagnosed with this disease that is the third leading cause of cancer death among Canadian men.

Professor Alexander Wong is developing advanced computer-aided systems for diagnosing the disease, and he is among the eight uWaterloo researchers receiving prestigious Early Researcher Awards. The Hon. John Milloy, MPP for Kitchener Centre, today announced the 11 Waterloo-area researchers and their projects from uWaterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics that this provincial initiative will help support. The total amount of the funding announced today is $1.5 million.

“The province, the country and the world continue to learn more about the world-class research taking place here,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president & vice-chancellor of Waterloo. “The funding we receive today will increase the ability of our faculty and students to anticipate, address and overcome some of the key challenges of tomorrow.”

Each uWaterloo researcher will receive $140,000 to support their projects, for a total of $1.12 million. In addition to Professor Wong, the Ontario government is recognizing the following uWaterloo researchers and their projects:

• Professor Andrew Thomas Faulkner is examining Greek literature to learn how the cultural interaction of the Late Antiquity, a time of much political and cultural change, informs our current understanding of multicultural interaction in Ontario.

• Professor Zhongwei Chen is working on a long-term solution to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels by developing nanomaterials that could improve fuel-cell performance and reduce their cost.
• Professor Ricardo Fukasawa is studying Mixed-Integer Programming (MIP), a mathematical technique that uses data to improve an organization’s decision-making process.

• Professor Roxane J. Itier aims to improve diagnosis and treatment of people with autism and other mental disorders by using leading-edge technologies to examine how gaze, emotions and social skills are connected.

• Professor John Edward Turri is investigating speech and cognition to determine how social factors affect how we interpret verbal behaviour and the role it plays in how we communicate through speech.

• Professor Shawn Wettig is working to develop a system of delivering DNA in gene therapy to certain parts of the body, specifically for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

• Professor Boxin Zhao is developing new adhesion technologies, based on geckos’ foot pads, that will help increase the province’s profile in the biotechnology industry.

“These researchers are emerging talents and the Early Researcher Awards recognize the value of their work already evident at this stage of their careers,” said D. George Dixon, vice-president, university research at Waterloo. “This funding will provide the means for each researcher to further their individual projects as well as their contribution to university research as a whole.” 

The Early Researcher Award program assists promising, recently appointed researchers in Ontario build their research teams. This year, 62 researchers at 19 institutions received funding through this program.

About the University of Waterloo

In just half a century, the University of Waterloo, located at the heart of Canada's technology hub, has become one of Canada's leading comprehensive universities with 34,000 full- and part-time students in undergraduate and graduate programs. Waterloo, as home to the world's largest post-secondary co-operative education program, embraces its connections to the world and encourages enterprising partnerships in learning, research and discovery. In the next decade, the university is committed to building a better future for Canada and the world by championing innovation and collaboration to create solutions relevant to the needs of today and tomorrow. For more information about Waterloo, please visit www.uwaterloo.ca.

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Media contact:

Pamela Smyth
Media Relations Officer
Communications & Public Affairs 
University of Waterloo
519.888.4777
psmyth@uwaterloo.ca
www.newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca
 


Waterloo news release no. 39