Since 2020 University of Waterloo has had the privilege of welcoming annual cohorts of exceptional scholars though the AMTD Waterloo Global Talent Postdoctoral Fellowship. With research interests in disciplines that span the breadth of the institution, AMTD scholars contribute to transformative and disruptive research that is impactful. Read more about the scholars in our 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 cohorts below.
Emma Brandt
Faculty of Arts, Department of Communication Arts
Primary supervisor: Jordana Cox
Co-supervisor: Shana MacDonald
Emma's postdoctoral research will examine alternative health movements across a range of national public spheres (Serbia, Jordan, Canada, and the US) in order to understand how the Internet and social media platforms have allowed traditional and folk knowledge to circulate in new ways, as well as how these movements impact medical expertise.
Weiao Xing
Faculty of Arts, Department of English Language and Literature
Primary supervisor: Katherine Acheson
Faculty of Arts, Department of History
Co-supervisor: Susan Roy
Weiao's postdoctoral research respectfully involves and engages with Indigenous communities. Focusing on Indigenous encounters with English and French settlers, Weiao will examine narratives about translingual exchanges and linguistic knowledge in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Caruso, Elena
Faculty of Arts, Department of Political Science
Supervisor: Alana Cattapan
Elena’s project aims to question the role of the state in the regulation of abortion, to reshape dominant legal paradigms in abortion care, and to draw important lessons for the future of health technologies.
Learn more about the research Elena is conducting as an AMTD scholar in this recent publications:
- Caruso, E. (2024). ‘How Did You Get in There and Make the Law Work?’ Feminist Activism, Doctors and Abortion Law: The Occupation of an Hospital. Social & Legal Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09646639241254359
Lee, Juyeon
Faculty of Health, School of Public Health
Supervisor: Ellen MacEachen
Juyeon's research project examines the health, safety, and well-being of domestic workers on digital labour platforms who provide direct and/or indirect care services in one or more private households.
Panferov, Vasily
Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry
Supervisor: Juewen Liu
A food allergy is a body's immune response to food's naturally occurring components (allergens). Even trace amounts of allergens can induce severe reactions or sudden death by asphyxia.
Vasily's project will, for the first time, develop a screening method for multiple common major allergens (allergens of eggs, milk, peanut, soy, and wheat) at once.
Shirzadi, Erfan
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Supervisor: Mahla Poudineh
Continuous monitoring of multiple biomolecules in a body is an essential part of personalized medicine. Among these biomolecules, antibiotics’ concentration in a body should remain in a certain therapeutic window to avoid irreversible adverse effects of overdose and underdose. Erfan's project will present a minimally invasive microneedle aptamer-assisted detector (MAD) that is able to monitor both antibiotics in interstitial fluid, and be used for spontaneous and real-time monitoring of the pharmacokinetics of VCM and GTM via voltammetric andamperometric techniques.
Gilchrist, Jenna
Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology
Supervisor: Allison Kelly
Jenna’s work focuses on self-compassion and emotional adjustment among students transitioning to post-secondary education. Learn more:
Martens, Reuben
Faculty of Arts, Department of Communication Arts
Supervisor: Imre Szeman
Reuben is studying the violence of and resistance to settler-colonial extractivism in Canada as rendered and reckoned in contemporary Indigenous Canadian literature, art, and film.
Reis, Paula
Faculty of Science, Department of Biology
Supervisor: Josh Neufeld
Studying Methane-oxidizing bacteria in Boreal Shield lakes, Paula’s work will examine how methane-consuming microorganisms in Canada’s lakes will react to climate change.
Patterson, Samantha Kaitlyn
Faculty of Health, School of Public Health Sciences
Supervisor: Hannah Neufeld
Kaitlyn’s work will focus on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (IFS) in urban Indigenous communities while documenting stories of policy pathways and relationship building within IFS movements from the urban Indigenous communities within Katarokwi and Waterloo-Wellington Region.
2021 Scholars
Waterloo welcomes three postdoctoral scholars (Waterloo Story)
Jaber, Anwar
Faculty of Engineering, School of Architecture
Supervisor: Robert Jan van Pelt
Anwar is pursuing research on the role that architecture plays in cities facing political transitions and extreme conditions, focusing on museums that aim to address national narratives of war, memory, and violence. Learn more:
Nazarahari, Milad
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering
Supervisor: Arash Arami
Milad is working to advance the medical community’s capacity to engage intelligent robots and biofeedback in developing affordable and accessible technology to support the rehabilitation of stroke patients in Canada. Learn more:
Walker, Chad
School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability
Supervisor: Ian Rowlands
Chad conducts interdisciplinary research investigating how Smart Local Energy Systems (SLES) - projects that combine smart technology with sustainable, local energy production and management - can create just and inclusive clean energy systems. Learn more:
Learn more about the research conducted during Chat's time as an AMTD scholar in these recent publications:
- Walker, C., Rowlands, I. H., Devine-Wright, P., Soutar, I., Wilson, C., Gupta, R., ... & Ford, R. (2024). The ‘Four Ds’ and support for Local Smart Grids: Analysis from national surveys in the United Kingdom and Canada. Oxford Open Energy, oiae004. https://doi.org/10.1093/ooenergy/oiae004
- Fiander, J., Walker, C., Rowlands, I. H., Devine-Wright, P., Wilson, C., Soutar, I., & Gupta, R. (2024). Energy democracy, public participation, and support for local energy system change in Canada. Energy Research & Social Science, 113, 103526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103526
2020 Scholars
Four brilliant researchers join Waterloo on fellowships (Waterloo Story)
Amodu, Oluwakemi (Kemi)
Faculty of Health, School of Public Health Sciences
Supervisor: Craig Janes
Kemi’s research addresses the accessibility of reproductive health resources for women in Nigeria who have been internally displaced due to terrorism. Learn more:
Hoskin, Rhea Ashley
Faculty of Arts, Department of Sociology and Legal Studies
St. Jerome’s University, Sexuality, Marriage, & Family Studies
Supervisors: Toni Serafini & Andrea Quinlan
Rhea Ashley examines the role of femmephobia as a catalyst for violence and discrimination, and how femmephobia manifests itself and results in violence and decreased health outcomes for all. Learn more:
Krolewski, Alex
Faculty of Science, Department of Physics
Supervisor: Will Percival
Alex is working on fundamental questions in physics and astronomy. His work addresses the cause of the accelerated expansion of the universe. Learn more:
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Alex Krolewski wins the AMTD Postdoctoral Fellowship to explore the origin and composition of the universe | Physics and Astronomy
Madadian, Edris
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering
Supervisor: David Simakov
Edris is a leading scholar in biofuels, particularly the reuse of waste biomass to the creation of energy in carbon-neutral ways. Learn more: