Eight new Canada Research Chairs have been appointed and one renewed at the UBC Faculty of Science. The newly appointed researchers are helping improve stress-tolerant crops, solar electricity and tuberculosis treatments, and making big discoveries about the origins of planets and of life on Earth.
With 13 new appointments and three renewals valued at $11.6 million UBC now has 186 Canada Research Chairs, the second-highest number in the country.
“The CRC program provides a major boost to UBC research, and helps our school attract and retain the best and brightest minds from across the globe,” said John Hepburn, vice president Research and International. “Our professors are making important discoveries that are invaluable to academia and to the world at large, so we’re very grateful for the program’s support.”
Nationally there are 137 new and renewed chairholders in 37 postsecondary institutions, receiving $118,000,000 of new funding.
“Our government is committed to science, technology and innovation to improve our quality of life and create new jobs and opportunities for Canadians,” said Ed Holder, Minister of State (Science and Technology), who made the announcement in Toronto on October 16. “Our government’s Canada Research Chairs Program develops, attracts and retains top researcher talent in Canada whose research, in turn, creates long-term social and economic benefits while training the next generation of students and researchers in Canada.”
New UBC Science CRCs
Curtis Berlinguette, Canada Research Chair in Solar Energy Conversion Berlinguette leads a research team working on solar energy conversion that is designing new materials to convert sunlight into electricity, and finding economically viable ways to store the energy in clean hydrogen fuels.
Aaron Boley, Canada Research Chair in Planetary Astronomy Boley is looking into how planets are formed, taking advantage of knowledge gleaned from recent discoveries of thousands of planets and possible planets outside of our solar system.
Sabin Cautis, Canada Research Chair in Mathematics Cautis is a leading mathematician focusing on algebraic geometry, geometric representation theory, knot invariants, categorification and combinatorics.
Sean Crowe, Canada Research Chair in Geomicrobiology Crowe is a geochemist investigating the early origins of life on Earth, and how early evolution interacted with the planet’s surface chemistry.
Lindsay Eltis, Canada Research Chair in Microbial Catabolism and Biocatalysis Eltis’ research is deepening our understanding of how enzymes work and how certain pathogens survive in their hosts, and contributes to the development of new therapeutics for tuberculosis, and also helps advance green chemistry.
Abel Rosado, Canada Research Chair in Plant Physiology and Cellular Dynamics Rosado’s research into how plants respond to stresses – particularly focusing on plasma membrane repair – has important implications for mitigating losses of crop yields in agriculture by helping to develop stress-tolerant crops.
Matthijs Smit, Canada Research Chair in Applied Geochemistry of Earth’s Lithosphere Smit researches the geochemistry and tectonics of the interface regions of the Earth’s crust and mantle, such as subduction zones.
Laura Wegener Parfrey, Canada Research Chair in Protist Ecology Wegener Parfrey’s lab is advancing the understanding of the ecology and evolution of microbial eukaryotes such as amoebae. Part of her research involves determining how Western lifestyles have influenced the microbes living in our bodies.
UBC Science Reappointments
Robert Hancock, Canada Research Chair in New Anti-infective Strategies Hancock and his team are trying to come up with alternative drugs and methods to fight the life-threatening superbugs that exhibit antibiotic resistance.
