Renewed CRCs Investigating Bacterial Pathogens, Nanostructures, Probability

Four UBC Science researchers–with expertise in areas ranging from bacterial pathogens to nanostructures to probability–are among 13 Canada Research Chairs renewed at UBC this fall. Two of the renewals are in the Department of Math.

David Brydges, who comes to UBC from the University of Virginia, is Canada Research Chair in Mathematical Physics. His research looks at applications of probability and statistical mechanics in complex systems, including those used in computer science.

Edwin Perkins, CRC in Probability, also hails from Math. His work delves into measure-valued diffusions, stochastic differential equations and general theory of processes. Many areas of probability have important applications in finance, statistical mechanics, mathematical biology and telecommunications.

Erin Gaynor is CRC in Bacterial Pathogenesis in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Gaynor's research focuses on exploring the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis in the foodborne human pathogen Campylobacter—the leading worldwide cause of bacterial food poisoning.

UBC physicist and chemist George Sawatzky, who has made major contributions to the understanding of the transition metal oxides and pioneered spectroscopic methods to study these materials, has also been renewed. Sawatzky holds the CRC in Physics and Chemistry of Nano-Structured Materials, and is a joint appointment between the departments of Physics and Astronomy, and Chemistry.

The 13 UBC renewals bring with them $13.7 million in funding--the largest renewal awarded to a Canadian university in this round of the competition.

Chairs provide research and salary support for either seven- or five-year terms, and are designed to attract the best talent from Canada and around the world.