Dr. Taylor Owen, Dr. Stephen A. Pless and Dr. Diomidis Michalopoulos will each receive a $70,000 two-year award toward advancing their research.
 

Within UBC’s Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dr. Michalopoulos will be working on Green Communications under the guidance of Professor Robert Schober.

“Banting gives me the opportunity to seek for the environmental and thus social aspects of telecommunications, as the word ‘communication’ implies.” said Dr. Michalopoulos.

In recent years, telecommunication traffic has experienced tremendous growth, with a concomitant increase in energy consumption. Dr. Michalopoulos’ research project involves the use of technological advances in telecommunications that allow for a considerable reduction on the energy footprint of future networks, towards environmentally friendly as well as sustainable communications. His research focus will centre on a) Free Space Optics, where communication is achieved via light beams, offering high data-rates and energy efficiency; and b) Cooperative Communications, where network users assist each other in conveying the information to the base stations, thus saving substantial energy through resource pooling.

For more information on the work of Dr. Michalopoulos and Dr. Schober visit the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems website.
 

The Liu Institute for Global Issues at UBC will be home base for Dr. Taylor Owen’s research project with Professor Brian Job as supervisor.

Dr. Owen commented, “I couldn't be more excited by the opportunity provided by both the Banting Fellowship, and the support of the Liu Institute. It will provide me with the unique space to build my doctoral work into a meaningful and lasting research agenda, and to do so at a Canadian institution."

Dr. Owen’s aim is to advance our understanding of civil war and violence by analyzing unique historical data on the US bombing of Cambodia and the rise of the Khmer Rouge insurgency. Specifically, it will use GIS-based spatial analysis to better understand onsets of violence, motivations for rebel recruitment, tactics used by insurgents, and the strategic impact of both the use of airpower and of civilian casualties on counterinsurgency and peacebuilding operations.

More generally, the project will seek to demonstrate the manner in which this type of analysis can contribute to the field of international relations, and explore how large and diverse databases can be used to tell new theoretical, historical and political narratives.

Visit the Liu Institute for Global Issues  webpage for more on Dr. Owen, Dr. Job and their work.
 

The project proposed by Dr. Stephen A. Pless aims at the development of new drugs to treat cardiac arrhythmias, which are electrical disturbances in the heart that can cause potentially life threatening conditions. Anti-arrhythmic drugs (AADs) are useful in converting irregular heart rhythms back to normal beating by inhibiting a so-called ‘sodium channel’ in the heart.

Unfortunately, many available AADs have serious side effects. Dr. Pless will be working at the Ahern Lab at UBC using a combination of novel chemical methods and computer modeling to define the essential characteristics of what makes a good/safe AAD.

Dr. Pless commented, “I feel very honored to have received this fellowship and I am very grateful for the support I have received for my application, in particular from my supervisor, Dr. Chris Ahern, my referees and the PDFO (Postdoctoral Fellows Office).”

Visit the Ahern Lab website for more information on the work of Dr. Ahern, Dr. Pless and the Cardiovascular Research Group.

Established by the Canadian government with the intention to attract and develop the world’s best and brightest postdoctoral researchers, the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships will grant 70 new fellowships annually, with funding provided through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. This year marks the very first time these prestigious fellowships have been awarded.

In choosing recipients for the honour of a Banting Fellowship, the selection committee places emphasis on the synergy between the applicant’s individual merit, their potential for a successful research career and the environment and research capability of the host institution with which the applicant is affiliated. Visit the website to view the official media release and for more information on the fellowships program.

The Faculty of Graduate Studies would like to congratulate UBC’s Banting Fellowship recipients and their supervisors. We look forward to following their research progress and wish them every success.

For more information on Postdoctoral Fellows at UBC, contact the Postdoctoral Fellows Office within the Faculty of Graduate Studies: www.grad.ubc.ca/postdocs

Dr. Tony Farrell
Associate Dean, Postdoctoral Fellows
Phone: 604.822.6293
Email: tony.farrell@ubc.ca
Web: www.grad.ubc.ca/postdocs

Hourik Khanlian
Manager, Human Resources and Postdoctoral Fellows
Phone: 604.827.5394
Email: hourik.khanlian@ubc.ca
Web: www.grad.ubc.ca/postdocs
 

Visit the Ahern Lab website for more information on the work of Dr. Ahern, Dr. Pless and the Cardiovascular Research Group.

Established by the Canadian government with the intention to attract and develop the world’s best and brightest postdoctoral researchers, the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships will grant 70 new fellowships annually, with funding provided through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. This year marks the very first time these prestigious fellowships have been awarded.

In choosing recipients for the honour of a Banting Fellowship, the selection committee places emphasis on the synergy between the applicant’s individual merit, their potential for a successful research career and the environment and research capability of the host institution with which the applicant is affiliated. Visit the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships website to view the official media release and more information on the fellowships program.

The Faculty of Graduate Studies would like to congratulate UBC’s Banting Fellowship recipients and their supervisors. We look forward to following their research progress and wish them every success.