Convocation May 2010

Canadian Immigration Updates

Applicants to Master’s and Doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details

Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership and Policy)

  • Dr. Monica Pamer: "Dr. Pamer has written a conceptual study of educational leadership using the work of Hannah Arendt as a basis for analysis. Key concepts used include the distinction between public and private and Arendt's ideas of labour, work and action."
  • Dr. Jeanette Robertson: "Dr. Robertson examined how university field education coordinators address the challenge of assessing the professional suitability of social work students. Her research highlights the critical role field education coordinators play and generated recommendations for improving collaboration between university administrators, social work faculty and field educators."

Doctor of Musical Arts

  • Dr. Jennifer Butler: "Dr. Butler created "Conversations with Silence", a 50-minute-long interdisciplinary composition incorporating theatre, song, chamber music, and electronic music. This work explores the concept of a feminine aesthetic in music and examines the role gender plays in creating and understanding art."
  • Dr. Erinn Roberts: "Dr. Roberts analyzed the fusion of operatic techniques, traditional art song approaches, cabaret elements, popular music and dance forms in the Cabaret Songs of Benjamin Britten and W.H. Auden. Her document discusses Britten and Auden's professional working relationship and outlines the evolution of cabaret music from its beginnings in fin-de-siècle France."
  • Dr. Kathryn Koslowsky Schmidt: "Dr. Koslowsky Schmidt's thesis is a narrative analysis of Enrique Granados' 1914 piano suite Goyescas: Los majos Enamorados (1910 - 1914), using his 12 Tonadillas for voice and piano (1913) as a primary tool. The narrative is bolstered with formal analysis as well as relevant extra-musical factors, including socio-political context, and the influence of Goya and his Caprichos. Performance practice considerations in light of the narrative findings concludes the study."

Doctor of Philosophy (Animal Science)

  • Dr. Ravinder Singh: "Dr. Singh for the first time showed the presence of gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptors in cows' uterus and oviducts and demonstrated that this hormone influences uterine functions. This research can be used to improve reproductive performance in dairy cows and to enhance female fertility."

Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology)

  • Dr. David Geary: "Dr. Geary provided a historical ethnography on the place of Buddha's enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, India. He examined the different ways in which social groups attach meaning to this sacred space and negotiate the multiple claims and memories that underlie a UNESCO World Heritage monument."

Doctor of Philosophy (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)

  • Dr. Ho Jun Lee: "Dr. Lee structurally and kinetically characterized essential enzymes involving sialic acid metabolism in bacterial pathogens. These studies significantly contribute to our understanding of various enzymes encoded by pathogenic bacteria, providing valuable insight into their catalytic mechanism and specificity."
  • Dr. Queenie Chan: "Dr. Chan studied honey bees and their ability to fight a highly contagious bacterial disease. She discovered that young bees lacked key proteins, which resulted in high susceptibility to infection. This research was the first detailed look into the molecular biology of the developing bee immune system."
  • Dr. Weissy Lee: "Dr. Lee's research provides important new information about the control of acetyl-CoA carboxylase, an enzyme that plays a vital role in controlling fat storage in the body. Her work increases our understanding of fat metabolism and may provide the basisfor developing drugs to treat obesity."

Doctor of Philosophy (Bioinformatics)

  • Dr. Xi Zhang: "Dr. Zhang investigated how the interactions between biomolecules determine biological functions within cellular systems by developing novel methods and tools to extract new knowledge from various types of biomolecular networks."
  • Dr. Michael Hsing: "Dr. Hsing developed novel bioinformatics tools and approaches to identify highly-interacting proteins in bacteria. This research provides an effective drug discovery platform for future therapeutic applications. As a result of Dr. Hsing's work, new antibiotic candidates have been developed which are capable of eliminating major drug-resistant infections."

Doctor of Philosophy (Botany)

  • Dr. Jeanne Robert: "Dr. Robert investigated the role and molecular-genetic underpinning of terpenoid compounds in Sitka spruce resistance to white pine weevil. Because of weevil attack, Sitka spruce is no longer planted for commercial reforestation in British Columbia. Her research supports tree breeding to re-introduce Sitka spruce as a valuable asset for sustainable forestry."
  • Dr. Bita Jafarpour: "Dr. Jafarpour characterized the X4 protein of tomato ringspot virus and analysed its variability among virus isolates. She provided preliminary evidence that X4 is an unstable protein and that it may have a role in supressing plant defence mechanisms. This research provides new into the role of this unique protein in the virus replication cycle."
  • Dr. Jacqueline Monaghan: "Dr. Monaghan studied the plant immune system using a combination of genetics and molecular biology. She showed that components of a highly conserved protein complex associated with the cell's RNA splicing machinery are necessary for successful defense against microbial pathogen infection in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana."
  • Dr. Jianjun Guo: "Dr. Guo studied the function of a protein, RACK1, in the process by which plants convert the signal of the key stress hormone abscisic acid. He identified RACK1 as a novel link between abscisic acid signalling and protein synthesis. These findings advanced our understanding of the molecular mechanism by which plants respond to environmental stresses."
  • Dr. Ankit Walia: "Using a combination of modern molecular-biology tools, Dr. Walia discovered a novel signalling network that regulates cytoskeletal functions in plant growth and development. This work will advance our understanding of the mechanisms that determine plant cell wall properties to the benefit of the forestry, fibre and biofuels industries."
  • Dr. Yunkun Dang: "Dr. Dang examined how dinoflagellate chloroplast minicircle genes are transcribed and further processed. He found evidence for a novel type of "rolling-circle" transcription and developed a folding model for the ultra-divergent 16S ribosomal RNA. These studies contribute to our knowledge of the fundamental characteristics of dinoflagellate minicircle transcription."

Doctor of Philosophy (Business Administration)

  • Dr. Dmitry Dubrovinsky: "Dr. Dubrovinsky examined quality provision across for-profit and non-profit organizations in healthcare. Applying empirical analysis, Dr. Dubrovinsky developed a new theory that resolved weaknesses in current explanations and provided new approaches to understanding the issue."
  • Dr. Liping Liang: "Dr. Liang studied the design of performance-based incentive schemes in supply chains, which contract on outcomes rather than work performance. She identified issues in the design of service-level agreements for outsourcing inventory management and examined features of volume incentives through allocating business between competing suppliers."
  • Dr. Mehmet Begen: "Motivated by surgeries, Dr. Begen developed methods to find optimal planned start times of appointments minimizing total expected overtime of healthcare resources and wait time of patients. He also investigated incentive conflicts between surgeons and hospitals in surgery scheduling and suggested ways to remedy these misalignments."
  • Dr. Lan Jiang: "Dr. Jiang studied how the presence of others affects customers' feelings and behaviors when they are treated preferentially. She found that while people assume that only positive feelings would arise, negative concerns can also emerge in a social environment. The research will help managers optimize the use of preferential treatment."
  • Dr. David Walker: "Dr. Walker explored the reasons why some customer service employees are uncivil toward customers. He found that employees were rude to customers and had lower performances particularly when customers were rude to the employee. His work provides guidance for service managers seeking to improve employee performance among customer service workers."
  • Dr. Jing Shao: "Dr. Shao studied incentive issues in supply chain management. Often, manufacturers and retailers have different objectives, causing incentive conflicts that may lead to inefficiency. When firms can control both prices and inventories, Dr. Shao used analytical models to investigate firms' incentives, and recommended ways to eliminate or mitigate the inefficiency."
  • Dr. Bo Xiao: "Dr. Xiao developed a typology of deceptive information practices that takes into account the unique characteristics of business-to-consumer e-commerce. She examined consumer vulnerability to different types of deceptive information practices and explored mechanisms that can help consumers better detect deception online."

Doctor of Philosophy (Cell and Developmental Biology)

  • Dr. Charles Pin-Kuang Lai: "Dr. Lai investigated the roles of a novel protein family responsible for cell-to-cell communication in the central nervous system. His work led to the first description of how this protein family enhances neuronal maturation, as well as how it suppresses tumour growth in brain cancer."
  • Dr. Cima Cina: "Dr. Cina investigated the role of a certain protein isoform of a family of proteins responsible for communication between neighboring cells in brain development. She showed that the protein is required in directing neuronal migration in the mouse brain. This research has implications for understanding the spectrum of human neuronal migration disorders."

Doctor of Philosophy (Chemical and Biological Engineering)

  • Dr. Anne-Marie Kietzig: "Dr. Kietzig studied ways to reduce friction of metals sliding against ice. Imitating the super-hydrophobic lotus leaf, she used micro-structured metallic surfaces with a femtosecond laser and thereby reduced ice friction. Her findings were directly implemented by the Canadian Speed Skating Teams for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games."
  • Dr. Sharif Zaman: "Dr. Zaman used theoretical and experimental methods to investigate molybdenum phosphide as a new catalyst for syngas conversion to alternative fuels such as ethanol and other oxygenates. The new catalyst had higher selectivity to alcohols and lower selectivity towards the undesired product, methane, compared to other molybdenum-based catalysts."
  • Dr. Monica Danon-Schaffer: "Dr. Danon-Schaffer explored how brominated flame retardants reach the environment, transfer from waste streams to water and soil, and transport to distant locations (Northern Canada), focusing on landfills which receive products containing these compounds. Simultaneously she developed simulations that indicated that these contaminants persist for decades. This has clear policy implications."
  • Dr. Diwen Zhou: "Dr. Zhou studied interfacial deformation in viscoelastic liquids. He studied how viscoelastic stress can have unusual and sometimes counter-intuitive effects on interfacial deformation. These findings lead to an important new method for measuring elongational viscosity of low-viscosity liquids."

Doctor of Philosophy (Chemistry)

  • Dr. Huan Liang: "Dr. Liang developed and modified new synthetic methods to prepare bioactive natural products and their derivatives. These included sordarin (a potent antifungal agent), himandrine (a possible cure for a number of human ailments) and lepadiformine (a potent drug for treatment of cardiac arrhythmia)."
  • Dr. Timothy Kelly: "Dr. Kelly synthesized a series of composite materials using polymer semiconductors. He found that the composites could be arranged into ordered structures with novel optical and electronic properties. The composites may be used in applications ranging from lasers to supercapacitors."
  • Dr. Eric Escobar Cabrera: "Dr. Escobar used Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to study DAXX, a human protein that helps to control the growth and division of the cells in our bodies. Most importantly, Dr. Escobar determined the first three-dimensional structure of the protein which provides a "molecular blueprint" for understanding how it interacts with other proteins that are fundamental in diseases such as cancer."
  • Dr. Timothe Croteau: "Dr. Croteau showed that the presence of defects on kaolinite particles plays a significant role in water adsorption and possible ice nucleation. These studies allow us to better understand the interactions between clay surfaces and water."
  • Dr. Gavin Carr: "Dr. Carr worked on the isolation and structure elucidation of novel biologically active compounds from marine organisms. In addition, he synthesized analogs of these compounds with the goal of discovering compounds that can be used to treat various diseases."
  • Dr. Anusha Karunakaran-Datt: "Dr. Karunakaran-Datt studied the oxidation processes at the sulfur atom of the amino acids cysteine and methionine in biological systems. Her research has provided new insights into the reactivity of these amino acids and their involvement in age-related diseases such as senile cataract formation and Alzheimer's disease."
  • Dr. Ying Sun: "Dr. Sun studied how compounds interact with each other during capillary electrophoresis process using a computer simulation model and experimental methods. With the assistance of the computer program Dr. Sun developed, the behavior of the species migrating in the capillary during electrophoresis can be well understood."
  • Dr. Howard Jong: "Dr. Jong investigated rare divalent carbon compounds and combined them with transition metals to form catalyst precursors. This work contributes to the development of future catalysts that will be applied for the conversion of organic substrates into industrially useful products."
  • Dr. Zhan Zhang: "Dr. Zhang studied the chemistry of bis(dipyrromethene) triple-stranded complexes. He developed a method for the synthesis of novel isomer of diformyldipyrromethanes, exhibited the first pair of isolated helicates and mesocates, and proposed a new scenario for the formation of helicate versus mesocate."
  • Dr. Emily Simpson: "Dr. Simpson developed and characterized new analytical instrumentation for the study of atmospheric particles. This work contributes to an improved understanding of certain physical properties of aerosols like size and composition, which can then be related to their role in atmospheric chemistry and global climate."
  • Dr. Mario Ulises Delgado-Jaime: "Dr. Delgado-Jaime developed a methodology and a computer program to process spectroscopic data to fundamentally understand the reactivity of ruthenium-based catalysts in olefin metathesis reactions. This work serves as the foundation to study and understand similar catalytic systems in chemistry."
  • Dr. Tamara Kunz: "Dr. Kunz investigated the optical and electronic properties of functional conducting polymers, including the discovery of reversible amplification of fluorescence quenching using molecular switches. This research facilitates the development of organic based sensor materials."
  • Dr. Yakun Chen: "Dr. Chen studied transition metal doped systems and the hyperfine coupling constants of muoniated radicals. The studies help the development of new transition metal based materials and enhance the understanding of EPR spectra at the molecular level."

Doctor of Philosophy (Civil Engineering)

  • Dr. Jianguo David Ye: "Dr. Ye developed a framework for improving information integration in the construction industry. The research shows how the framework can leverage existing information technologies to move beyond current system interoperability towards information aggregation and a much higher level of construction management integration."
  • Dr. Nathan Loewen: "Dr. Loewen developed an analytical methodology that allows engineers to estimate the influence of design decisions on the probability of a successful design outcome. The method was subsequently applied to industrial case studies involving complex structures, and was used to estimate the probability of meeting performance and cost targets."
  • Dr. Michael Gedig: "Dr. Gedig developed methods for the conceptual engineering design of industrial and architectural structures. The methods use image processing, pattern recognition and mathematical optimization techniques to help create, explore, and reason with structural forms. The research facilitates the rapid and cost-effective development of structural design concepts."
  • Dr. Md. Saifur Rahaman: "Dr. Rahaman developed a mathematical model for a reactor used for phosphorus recovery from wastewater through struvite crystallization, incorporating process kinetics, thermodynamics and reactor hydrodynamics. The model is used for efficient designing of the reactor and the process performance evaluation."

Doctor of Philosophy (Classics)

  • Dr. Emily Varto: "Dr. Varto researched ideas of kinship in the burials, housing, and genealogical writing of early Greece. She found that kinship involved ideas of biology, multi-generational households, and descent. This research illuminates kinship's role in social, political, and economic differentiation, power, and change in the developing Greek city-state."

Doctor of Philosophy (Computer Science)

  • Dr. Tiberiu Stephan Popa: "Dr. Popa worked on geometry processing for computer graphics and developed several novel techniques for acquisition and manipulation of shapes that deform over time. These methods support realistic modeling of complex virtual objects such as clothing or organic shapes increasing the realism of virtual environments."
  • Dr. Jacek Kisynski: "Dr. Kisynski developed new techniques for probabilistic reasoning in large domains that involve multiple objects and probabilistic relations between objects. For example, in reasoning about the probability that a suspect committed a crime, we need to reason about all of the other people who could have committed the crime, even if we don't have specific information about them. Dr. Kisynski demonstrated how to improve the efficiency of reasoning in such domains."
  • Dr. Karyn Anne Moffatt: "Dr. Moffatt examined the types of difficulties older adults encounter when using pen-based computers such as Tablet PCs. She found three main sources of interaction difficulty and developed seven new techniques to address the difficulties uncovered. This work improves the accessibility of pen-based devices, especially for older adults."
  • Dr. Ewout van den Berg: "Dr. van den Berg studied theoretical and practical aspects of convex optimization for sparse signal recovery, which aims to obtain sparse approximate solutions to underdetermined systems of linear equations. His work has culminated in an optimization code that has found wide-spread use in the recently emerged field of compressed sensing."
  • Dr. Suwen Yang: "Dr. Yang's research explored novel methods to speed up the transfer of data inside integrated circuits. Her techniques achieve near-speed-of-light speeds while addressing problems of delay variations and signal degradation. She developed the theory behind these techniques and designed and tested a real chip to demonstrate them."

Doctor of Philosophy (Counselling Psychology)

  • Dr. Cornelia Zeisser: "Dr. Zeisser investigated the substantive aspect of construct validity in Canadian school tobacco policy ratings. Using cognitive process models, her findings enhanced understanding of policy score meaning via the process of expert rater responding. Results made novel contributions to assessment and tobacco policy research. Her research has implications for future policy development and tobacco-related harm reduction."

Doctor of Philosophy (Cross-Faculty Inquiry in Education)

  • Dr. Betty Rideout: "Dr. Rideout's work investigated how religiously unaffiliated young adults critically evaluate meaning of life questions such as whether there is a soul and the significance of spirituality. Her study examined the current trend to choose spirituality over religion, and helped to demonstrate how one's tacit theory of knowledge influences one's ability to effectively justify and create complex, well-founded spiritual beliefs."
  • Dr. Brent Cameron: "Dr. Cameron researched a group of graduates from SelfDesign programs over the past 25 years. The thesis is a narrative and ethnography of the development and methodologies of SelfDesign, a new model for and way of thinking about learning beyond the paradigm of schooling."
  • Dr. Christine Higgins: "Dr. Higgins studied the evolution of competing notions of professionalism in teacher education in Canada and the United States. Dr. Higgins demonstrated that educators' obligations are best framed as a search for balance between notions of individual moral responsibility and professional accountability."

Doctor of Philosophy (Curriculum Studies)

  • Dr. Juan Carlos Castro: "Dr. Castro researched and designed an adaptive art curriculum with teens and teachers online. He found that there are particular dynamics of social and collective learning, identity construction and performance, and teacher identity through new and social media that have significant implications for education."
  • Dr. Adriana Briseno-Garzon: "Dr. Briseno's work examined the learning experiences of 20 family groups visiting a local science museum in the Mexican socio-cultural context. The outcomes of her study highlight the roles that visitors' socio-cultural identity play in shaping their learning outcomes, and suggest some novel revisions to our current perspectives on family learning in informal settings."

Doctor of Philosophy (Economics)

  • Dr. Abhay Gupta: "Dr. Gupta analyzed the growth surge in the Indian economy in the 1990s and explained the role of policy reforms. He showed that the industrial licensing policy in the presence of inflexible labour laws hampered productivity growth in India. His research also underscores the importance of raw materials and intermediate goods in the manufacturing sector."
  • Dr. Kelly Foley: "Dr. Foley studied how socioeconomic status affects educational attainment among Canadian youth. She found that the value parents place on education is an important channel through which socioeconomic status operates. She also demonstrated that skilled but socioeconomically disadvantaged youth attend university more often if they live in highly educated neighbourhoods."

Doctor of Philosophy (Educational Studies)

  • Dr. Peter Froese: "Dr. Froese examined the socially constructed strategies of consensus employed by the Federation of Independent School Associations of British Columbia to determine how this diverse group has consistently reached agreement on issues of policy and political action in support of independent schools in British Columbia."
  • Dr. Moises (Mok) Escueta: "Dr. Escueta explored the contribution that popular education makes to collective recovery and reconstruction from trauma. This participatory action-research project illustrates new psychoeducational approaches to addressing not just individual but also systemic and structural sources of trauma through united action."
  • Dr. Wendy Royal: "Dr. Royal explored student response to an innovative teaching approach that transformed her multicultural postsecondary ESL classroom into a place of dialogue and critical engagement. Her students found the pedagogy meaningful since it taught them practical language skills and prepared them to become active and equal participants in Canadian society."
  • Dr. Erica Mohan: "Dr. Mohan examined the influence of K-12 schooling experiences on the racial and ethnic identity development of multiethnic students. She found that the formal aspects of schooling shape all students' racial and ethnic understandings, which, in turn, within the schooling context, most directly influence multiethnic students' experiences and identities."
  • Dr. Maria Adamuti-Trache: "Dr. Adamuti-Trache developed a life course agency model describing how highly-educated immigrants respond to obstacles in the segmented Canadian labour market. Adult knowledge workers, regardless of the origin of their credentials, engage in further education to upgrade their human capital; for highly-educated immigrants, however, Canadian credentials also represent symbolic capital."
  • Dr. Anish Sayani: "Dr. Sayani studied the schooling experiences of disaffected South Asian male students. His work provides all educators and educational leaders with new ways to understand the schooling experiences of South Asian students and to mitigate the schooling factors that may exacerbate the disaffection of all minoritized students."

Doctor of Philosophy (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

  • Dr. Liwei Wang: "Dr. Wang has developed advanced models of electrical machines for the next generation of electromagnetic transient simulation tools. The new models significantly improve accuracy and efficiency, and as a part of tools widely used in the power industry, will enable development of the future smart electric grid."
  • Dr. Ali Baghani: "Dr. Baghani developed a high frame rate ultrasound medical imaging system which produces images of tissue stiffness. Such images help clinicians in the diagnosis and treatment of pathology such as cancer which changes the stiffness of tissue."
  • Dr. Reynald Hoskinson: "Dr. Hoskinson developed a method to triple the peak brightness, contrast and dynamic range of projection displays. The projector's light is reallocated and directed away from dark regions towards bright regions of the image being displayed by using a custom-designed array of steerable micromirrors and novel image-processing algorithms."
  • Dr. Tom de Rybel: "Dr. De Rybel developed a new method for computing transmission-line matrix simulations. These computations are used in many fields to study, for example, acoustic, electro-magnetic, and thermal propagation and diffusion problems. The new method allows for significant computational speed gains while maintaining accuracy."
  • Dr. Mohammad Mamunur Rashid: "Dr. Rashid developed novel resource allocation schemes based on advanced analytical models to improve quality of service in high speed wireless systems. He subsequently applied these schemes in a number of emerging broadband wireless access networks."
  • Dr. Anthony Tang: "Dr. Tang studied the dynamics of collaboration and interaction with large, interactive, wall displays. Although many applications have been designed for these displays, Dr Tang's work helped to lay the groundwork for an entirely new way of designing these applications with a specific focus on how users transition between different modes of work."
  • Dr. Kaan Ersahin: "Dr. Ersahin developed new techniques for segmentation and classification of polarimetric synthetic aperture radar data. These techniques are based on perceptual organization and spectral graph partitioning, and automate the Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar data interpretation utilizing both polarimetric and visual information cues."
  • Dr. Ko-Kai Albert Huang: "Dr. Huang developed robust three-dimensional statistical and geometric models to analyze brain tissues from magnetic resonance images. He subsequently applied his methods to study both normal tissues and white matter lesions in patients with multiple sclerosis pathology, thus enabling fully automated quantitative brain volumetric analyses using conventional structural MRI."
  • Dr. Orcun Goksel: "Dr. Goksel developed a computational framework for the simulation of medical procedures, enabling the rapid generation of anatomical models and the simulation of medical images. For procedures such as biopsies and prostate brachytherapy, Dr. Goksel's techniques will allow physicians to train in a virtual environment in which they can practice the insertion of needles under ultrasound guidance."
  • Dr. Harry Zhi Bing Chen: "Dr. Chen investigated signal design for wireless communication systems with multiple transmit and multiple receive antennas. He developed several novel low-complexity methods for enhancing the data rate and reliability of these systems by exploiting different forms of channel state information at the transmitter."
  • Dr. Ali Al Shidhani: "Dr. Ali designed novel authentication protocols that perform remarkably well compared to existing protocols while preserving high-security qualities. His work solves the problem of achieving fast and secure Internet connections for mobile users."
  • Dr. Hossein Darbandi: "Dr. Darbandi developed a new technique in the field of computer vision to describe and recognize three-dimensional objects with high accuracy. The proposed technique has interesting geometric properties, and its effectiveness is primarily due to its descriptive power and the size of the descriptors it creates."
  • Dr. Tissaphern Mirfakhrai: "Dr. Mirfakhrai showed that twisted yarns of carbon nanotubes contract and expand like natural muscle when electrically stimulated. Through extensive experiments, he showed that these novel artificial muscles generate 800 times the force per cross-sectional area that natural skeletal muscle can produce. Applications range from medical prostheses to robotics and toys."
  • Dr. Reza Zahiri-Azar: "Dr. Zahiri developed fast and accurate methods for the estimation of tissue movement in ultrasound images, enabling many novel techniques to estimate tissue elasticity. His methods, which he implemented on commercial ultrasound machines, have been used on hundreds of patients at several clinical sites to detect and classify cancerous tissue."

Doctor of Philosophy (English)

  • Dr. Leni Robinson: "Dr. Robinson explored Margaret Cavendish's seventeenth-century vitalist natural philosophy in relation to her theory of discourse. This research contributes to our understanding of natural philosophies that, during the Scientific Revolution, ran counter to the dominant trend towards an increasingly mechanistic world view."
  • Dr. Colleen Derkatch: "Dr. Derkatch studied articles in medical journals and the popular press to examine how such articles persuade us about what does and does not count as legitimate medicine. Her study provides new insight into how language shapes medicine as a profession, and shapes roles for practitioners and patients within it."
  • Dr. Terri Tomsky: "Dr. Tomsky examined cultural memory, trauma, and affect in literature that focused on the 1947 partition of India and the 1991 break-up of Yugoslavia. Her findings show how this body of literature initiates an antipartitionist consciousness and attempts a transformation of political communities through the creation of new institutions."

Doctor of Philosophy (Experimental Medicine)

  • Dr. Shauna Dauphinee: "Dr. Dauphinee studied the innate immune response to bacterial infection. Her research described the function of a novel protein important in regulating the cellular events that control inflammation. Her work will ultimately assist in developing therapeutics that can be used to decrease the severity of the inflammatory response during infection."
  • Dr. Maziar Riazy: "One out of every five deaths in Canada is caused by heart attacks. Dr. Riazy studied the molecular mechanisms by which the bad cholesterol and its oxidized form contribute to this process. His results can be used to identify prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for heart attacks and other chronic inflammatory diseases."
  • Dr. Michelle Tang: "Dr. Tang studied the role of a protein named SPARC in cancer. More specifically, she studied cell death mechanisms that allowed chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells to respond to chemotherapy and decrease tumor size. Results from her studies contribute to a novel approach in the treatment of advanced cancer cases."
  • Dr. JianQing He: "Dr. He investigated the genetic basis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. He showed that variations in the interleukin 6 gene are associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He has also strongly implicated a Th2-polarizing cytokine gene, thymic stromal lymphopoietin, as an asthma gene. His results have implications in new personalized treatment for these conditions."

Doctor of Philosophy (Food Science)

  • Dr. Anusha Samaranayaka: "Using various chemical and cell-based methods, Dr. Samaranayaka studied the potential of fish protein-derived peptides to act as antioxidative agents and their structure activity relationships. Findings from this work will aid development of functional foods that target reducing oxidative stress and various free radical-induced diseases in the human body."

Doctor of Philosophy (Forestry)

  • Dr. Anteneh Tekleyohannes: "Dr. Tekleyohannes developed artificial neural networks and four physical models that use chemical and structural attributes for the prediction of water vapour uptake, loss and retention by wood. His models contribute to the creation of a decision support system that allows predicting wood properties and processing characteristics based on chemical and structural attributes."
  • Dr. Natalia Vidal: "Dr. Vidal studied how the processes of diffusion, adoption, and implementation of corporate responsibility practices occur in forest companies in Canada, Brazil, and the United States. Her research provides a framework for such processes and recommends how companies can better manage their portfolio of responsible activities."
  • Dr. Wellington Spetic: "Dr. Spetic studied the interrelationships between competitiveness and sustainability of two natural resources industries in British Columbia, New Zealand, Chile, and Brazil. With pressing demands for improved environmental and social business practices in natural resource sectors, his study contributes to theory development of competition by situating sustainability as a fundamental requirement."
  • Dr. Sinclair Tedder: "Dr. Tedder investigated common pool resources and how rules and customs emerge to coordinate their consumption. The research sought to understand why, when and how intervention in this market is necessary to overcome a "Tragedy of the Commons" outcome. The resulting intervention framework is novel in the way it links theory with practice."
  • Dr. Ravi Hegde: "Dr. Hegde evaluated the contribution of the miombo woodlands to household economy in Mozambique. He investigated whether economic incentives to smallholder farmers, provided under a Payments-for-Ecosystem Services (PES) based model, result in improved ecosystem services provision and improved household welfare measured by household cash income earnings and consumption."
  • Dr. Emmanuel Kuuku Sackey: "Dr. Sackey studied the strength properties of contemporary particleboard panels used for ready-to-assemble furniture components. He subsequently developed a novel particle mixture that increased the core bonding strength while reducing panel density to create a lighter, stronger panel. His results have the potential of reducing production cost for the particleboard industry."
  • Dr. Jocelyn Campbell: "Cyanolichens are a symbiotic relationship that nutritionally benefits both fungal- and cyanobacterial-partners. Dr. Campbell's research suggests that exogenous-sugar, secreted by overstorey poplar trees, facilitates rare cyanolichen communities in interior BC. Her research on the ecological interaction between poplar and cyanolichens indicates that lichen-partners are not always faithful to their relationship."
  • Dr. Cristian D. Palma: "Dr. Palma applied a new method of robust optimization to different problems in forest resources management characterized by high levels of uncertainty. He showed that this method can help decision-makers to make robust decisions and avoid irreversible consequences when facing uncertainties and long time horizons typical of forest resource management."
  • Dr. Julie Deslippe: "Dr. Deslippe showed that climate warming changes soil fungal and bacterial communities in ways that facilitate shrub expansion onto Arctic tundra. Her studies help us to understand how species interactions determine the response of an ecosystem to climate change factors."
  • Dr. Cheng Zhou: "Dr. Zhou developed a computer model to simulate the formation process of engineered wood products. His model improves understanding of the wood product manufacturing process and may be useful for optimizing manufacturing operations in industry."
  • Dr. Yazhen Gong: "Dr. Gong sought to understand investment decisions of farmers in rural China, related to afforestation. She found that much of the land remained unforested as a result of constrained contractual rules, property rights allocation disputes, and low levels of social capital in some villages."
  • Dr. Craig Farnden: "Dr. Farnden investigated the long term growth of forests as influenced by the abundance and spatial pattern of young trees. He subsequently developed planning tools to help forest managers ensure that reforestation activities effectively contribute to a desired future forest condition."

Doctor of Philosophy (Geography)

  • Dr. Joseph Shea: "Dr. Shea developed new approaches for estimating weather variables that are required to model glacier melt. Using data collected in the southern Coast Mountains, he demonstrated that simple melt models may not be suitable for long-term simulations of glacier dynamics and evaluating the effects of climatic change on glacier-fed streams."
  • Dr. Jamie Doucette: "Dr. Doucette examined the intersection of democratization and economic reform in South Korea. He revised existing research to show how political conflicts informed the democratic transition, but also hindered the creation of more participatory and egalitarian economic policies."

Doctor of Philosophy (Geological Sciences)

  • Dr. Siobhan Alexandra Wilson: "Dr. Wilson studied a natural phenomenon by which the mineral waste from some mines traps and stores atmospheric carbon dioxide. She developed a protocol that allows trapping of carbon dioxide in mine tailings to be verified and quantified so that mines can better account for their greenhouse-gas emissions."

Doctor of Philosophy (Geophysics)

  • Dr. Laurens Beran: "Dr. Beran developed techniques for discrimination of unexploded ordnance from metallic clutter using geophysical data. He showed how parameters of a physical model can be estimated from observed electromagnetic data, and how these parameters can be used to make discrimination decisions. These methods improved the efficacy and reduced the costs of environmental remediation of military munitions."

Doctor of Philosophy (History)

  • Dr. Avram Agov: "Dr. Agov studied the international political economy of North Korea. His research reveals that North Korea's economic integration into the socialist system was greater than its ideology and politics of "self reliance" indicated. North Korea's external ties, though curtailed at times, made its unreformed domestic system more resilient than scholarship has previously indicated."
  • Dr. Miguel Aviles-Galan: "Dr. Aviles identified and examined a long-overdue topic in modern Mexican history: the exceptional case of the manufacture of steam engines by a local firm during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This case study of technological translation overturned dominant understandings of mechanization premised upon the idea of the "transfer" of technology into Mexico while making an argument for the centrality of steam engines to modern Mexico."

Doctor of Philosophy (Human Development, Learning, and Culture)

  • Dr. Chiaki Konishi: "Dr. Konishi investigated how adolescents' ongoing attachments to their parents predict their feelings of anger and how they express anger. Adolescents who experienced insecure attachment to parents reported more intense feelings of anger and unhealthy expressions of anger. This provides a strong reminder of the significant role of caregivers on adolescents' well-being and social-emotional functioning."
  • Dr. Talino Bruno: "Dr. Bruno examined the association of specific cognitive distortions to depression/anxiety and antisocial problems among adolescents. Results of the study indicate that certain specific cognitive distortions predict problem behaviours more so than other distortions. This work contributes to a better understanding of adolescent psychopathology by informing both treatment and prevention approaches."

Doctor of Philosophy (Human Kinetics)

  • Dr. Valerie Hadd: "Dr. Hadd studied the effects of personality, socio-demographics, cancer-related characteristics and physical activity on stress and well-being of breast cancer survivors. Results of her research will be used to guide the design of interventions aimed at increasing physical and mental health in breast cancer survivors."
  • Dr. Jordan Guenette: "Dr. Guenette has shown that women are more susceptible to respiratory limitations during exercise than men. Despite this, he found that women have respiratory muscles that are highly resistant to fatigue. Dr. Guenette also became the first to successfully measure blood flow to the respiratory muscles in conscious humans."

Doctor of Philosophy (Human Nutrition)

  • Dr. Jennifer Bedford: "Dr. Bedford explored whether negative eating/body attitudes are associated with detrimental health outcomes in young women. She examined relationships between eating/body attitudes, the stress hormone cortisol, blood pressure, menstrual cycle disturbances and bone density over two years. She also validated a method for long-term monitoring of menstrual cycle characteristics."

Doctor of Philosophy (Interdisciplinary Oncology)

  • Dr. Jennifer Baker: "Dr. Baker examined the effects of anti-cancer drugs in solid tumours. She investigated the activity of a hypoxic cytotoxin that has anti-vascular effects, illustrating the importance of assessing the effects of drugs in the context of the tumour microenvironment. This research will have an impact in evaluation of anti-cancer drug activity."

Doctor of Philosophy (Interdisciplinary Studies)

  • Dr. William Small: "Dr. Small examined the influence of the setting where drugs are injected upon drug-related harm among injection drug users in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He found that social and environmental forces specific to particular drug use settings play a key role in shaping injection-related risks, highlighting the importance of environmental and structural interventions for efforts to prevent HIV and reduce drug-related harm."

Doctor of Philosophy (Language and Literacy Education)

  • Dr. Vincent White: "Dr. White examined how organizational dynamics within a school community can impact the way in which it responds to problem behaviour and promotes social responsibility within its student population. His research illustrated how staff and student empowerment increases the likelihood of administrators, teachers and students working collaboratively to establish and maintain a safe and caring learning community."
  • Dr. Kimberly Lenters: "Dr. Lenters conducted a case study of literacy instruction in an elementary classroom, using a new approach to social and cultural studies of literacy. Her research considers the ways material objects, such as books, forms and student publications, play a role in the literacy practices of students and their teachers."
  • Dr. Marianne McTavish: "Dr. McTavish examined school and out-of-school contexts in the ways they afforded and constrained opportunities for children to engage in and recontextualize information literacy practices. Offering new knowledge of how school literacy impacts children's out-of-school literacies, Dr. McTavish argues for contexts that support children's information literacy practices for more global use."
  • Dr. Vetta Vratulis: "Dr. Vratulis explored pre-service teachers' experiences using digital technologies in the context of a 12-month teacher education program. This study helps reveal the importance of integrating digital technologies in ways that disrupt pre-service teachers' existing conceptions of literacy pedagogy."
  • Dr. Ahava Shira: "Dr. Shira documented her practice of Loving Inquiry on Butterstone Farm. Through poetry, narrative and photography, she communicates a transformative vision of loving relationship as an ongoing artful and heartful practice of opening to the generative and joyful possibilities of moment to moment engagement with self, other and the world."
  • Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters: "Dr. Winters' research investigates how children and adults construct meaning In various contexts. Meaning can be designed or represented through media like print, drama, illustrations, or songs. She proposes that the process of authorship is not a linear phenomenon because it is always bound up with other semiotic and social meanings that interanimate each other."

Doctor of Philosophy (Law)

  • Dr. David Milward: "Dr. Milward's research explored ways to resolve tensions between Aboriginal methods of justice and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This research may be of valuable guidance if and when Aboriginal communities are able to design their own justice systems, and will have to address how to accommodate both Aboriginal collective goals and individual rights."
  • Dr. Ibironke Odumosu: "Dr. Odumosu analyzed Third World peoples' participation in settling foreign investment disputes, using the World Bank's Investment Dispute Settlement Centre as a framework for study. She found that the incorporation of these peoples in the process and the substance of investment dispute settlement contributes to re-constructing foreign investment law."

Doctor of Philosophy (Library, Archival and Information Studies)

  • Dr. Heejin Park: "Dr. Kim explored how the social communication technology, folksonomy, is changing the way people organize Web resources. This empirical study proposes a conceptual framework to recast a folksonomy as a Web classification, and to better understand users' perception and use of folksonomy in organizing Web resources."

Doctor of Philosophy (Linguistics)

  • Dr. Calisto Mudzingwa: "Dr. Mudzingwa examined the sound patterns of Karanga and Zezuru, the principal dialects of Shona, a Bantu language of Zimbabwe. He demonstrated how Shona uses several interrelated strategies to achieve structures that are generally preferred in the world's languages: consonant-vowel (CV) syllables and a minimum word length of two syllables."
  • Dr. Tyler Peterson: "Dr. Peterson examined how speakers of Gitksan, an indigenous language in northern BC, linguistically encode the knowledge they have for the statements they make, and their attitude towards that knowledge. This research contributes to the documentation of an endangered language, and contributes to our theoretical understanding of evidentiality and modality."

Doctor of Philosophy (Materials Engineering)

  • Dr. Feng Xie: "Dr. Xie examined fundamental aspects of solvent extraction of copper and cyanide from cyanide solution with guanidine and mixture of quaternary amine and alkylphenol. The research results provide an economic way of recovery of valuable metals and cyanide from cyanide effluent in gold mining industry."
  • Dr. Carolyne Albert: "Dr. Albert examined the roles of surgical and morphological parameters on problematic implant migration after hip replacement. She showed that the extent of bone cement penetration into the graft has a larger effect on displacement than does the degree of graft compaction, and that excessive migration is attributed primarily to slippage between the graft and the host bone."
  • Dr. Jason Mitchell: "Dr. Mitchell developed a new and innovative experiment which promotes the casting defect known as hot tearing in aluminium alloys. Using this experiment and applying the optical technique of digital image correlation, he was able to evaluate the evolution of strain during localisation of hot tears in several commercial alloys."

Doctor of Philosophy (Mathematics)

  • Dr. Mariana Carrasco-Teja: "Dr. Carrasco-Teja studied displacement flows of viscoplastic fluids in narrow, horizontal, eccentric annuli. The main application was the primary cementing of horizontal oil and gas wells. Using different mathematical methods, she characterised the process, providing rules to improve the process."
  • Dr. Warren J. Code: "Dr. Code's new analysis and careful proofs will help experts working with time-varying processes involving abrupt changes--some spontaneous and some by design--to analyze, regulate, and optimize their behaviour. Potential applications of his work include robotics, pest control, finance and space navigation."
  • Dr. Liang Zhu: "Dr. Zhu developed an effective approach to obtain robust a-posteriori error estimates for discontinuous Galerkin methods for convection-diffusion problems. He applied this technique to derive a robust h-adaptive and hp-adaptive algorithm on isotropically and anisotropically refined meshes."
  • Dr. Ali Duman: "Dr. Duman studied the modular data of finite groups. He calculated specific examples for this data which has an important role in string theory. Moreover, he calculated the cohomology invariants of some geometric spaces which are called toroidal orbifolds."
  • Dr. Alberto Molina-Escobar: "Dr. Molina developed three multi-factor models for describing the random evolution of electricity prices, and developed methods for assessing them relative to market data. His work makes a significant contribution to the state of knowledge in this important area, since it presents models of increasing complexity, and sophisticated estimation techniques."
  • Dr. Sandra Merchant: "Dr. Merchant developed and applied new mathematical methods for determining spatiotemporal patterns associated with predator invasions. This work furthered the conceptual foundations of selection and stability of patterns following invasion, and the influence of non-local prey competition on pattern formation behind predator invasions."
  • Dr. Adam Clay: "Dr. Clay applied the concept of ordering generalized symmetries to study the shape of three-dimensional space. His work built upon the known interaction between orderings and topology, by studying how orderings change when the shape of space is changed by a classical geometric operation called Dehn surgery."
  • Dr. Alexandra Jilkine: "Dr. Jilkine studied how animal cells are able to initiate movement. She developed and analyzed a mathematical model of how cells develop a "front" and "rear" in response to their external environment."
  • Dr. Matthew Morin: "Dr. Morin studied symmetric mathematical functions and their relationships. He discovered a family of staircase diagrams he could use to predict precisely when subtraction produces a positive sum of Schur functions. His findings will be used in the fields of representation theory and algebraic geometry."

Doctor of Philosophy (Measurement, Evaluation and Research Methodology)

  • Dr. Anne M. Gadermann: "Dr. Gadermann used interviews and large-scale surveys to identify which contextual factors are most important for children's well-being. The well-being measure that she validated is now widely used in British Columbia to inform practices in schools and communities that support children's well-being."
  • Dr. Zhen Li: "Dr. Li examined when, how, and how much items that function differently for individuals from different groups affect statistical conclusions. She found such items, if present, might affect both internal and external validity of a research study."
  • Dr. Shayna Rusticus: "Dr. Rusticus developed a multidimensional measure of male body image to assess body concerns in men. This new measure has the capacity to fill a gap in the current male body image literature, which has predominantly focused on muscularity, by allowing researchers to expand their understanding of this multi-faceted construct."

Doctor of Philosophy (Mechanical Engineering)

  • Dr. Mahdi Eynian: "Dr. Mahdi Eynian developed an experimental identification of models that predict forces that arise due to the tool's vibration during machining. Based on these models, he developed analytical vibration stability prediction methods for turning and milling operations."
  • Dr. Ali Vakil: "Dr. Vakil studied the three-dimensional flow of water and pulp fibres through forming fabric. The deposition of fibres on the fabric is the essential first stage of papermaking. Papermakers have benefitted from this study as it provides insight that helps guide fabric design improvements."
  • Dr. Mohamed Salah Senousy Youssef: "Dr. Senousy numerically and experimentally studied the characteristics of an electromechanically coupled material, namely piezoelectric actuators, to be employed in the next generation of fuel injection systems. His developed models provide an invaluable tool for designing piezoelectric actuators for fuel injectors."

Doctor of Philosophy (Medical Genetics)

  • Dr. Malachi Griffith: "Dr. Griffith developed bioinformatic methods that utilize microarrays and massively parallel sequencing to discover novel isoforms and measure alternative expression of human genes. He subsequently applied these methods to identify candidate predictors of chemotherapy resistance in colon cancer."
  • Dr. Meaghan Jones: "Dr. Jones characterized a mouse line which expresses a fluorescent protein only when inherited from the female parent. This tool will be useful for studying diseases caused by a specific type of genes, called imprinted genes, which function differently depending on whether they are inherited from the mother or the father."
  • Dr. Trevor Pugh: "Dr. Pugh investigated relationships between the outcome of cancer treatment with variations in human genome sequences. He has pioneered methods for applying DNA sequencing technologies to primary cancer patient specimens. His work has helped pave the way for using genomics to better understand human cancer."
  • Dr. Bibiana Ka Yan Wong: "Dr. Wong studied the NR2E1 gene, which has been linked to bipolar disorder. She discovered that different levels of this gene lead to brain, eye, and behavioural alterations in mice. These results further our understanding of the role of this gene in human psychiatric and ocular diseases."

Doctor of Philosophy (Microbiology and Immunology)

  • Dr. Martin Richer: "Dr. Richer studied how certain viral infections can cause autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes. His work identified a subset of cells that is important for both the immune response to viral infection and the development of autoimmunity. He further demonstrated that these cells can be manipulated into actively inducing protective mechanisms that prevent onset of type 1 diabetes."
  • Dr. Judith Maxwell (Max) Silverman: "Dr. Silverman investigated the deadly protozon parasite Leishmania donovani, identifying novel secreted molecules, discovering a secretion system, and presenting the first description of leishmania exosomes and their immune-suppressing properties. Her work has significantly advanced the current knowledge of leishmania biology, with implications for other protozoan pathogens, and development of new therapeutics and vaccines."
  • Dr. Molly Mo-Yin Leung: "Dr. Leung found interactions between two systems that regulate gene transfer in bacteria. She also identified growth conditions that affect the expression of these regulatory systems and gene transfer. These studies contribute to our understanding of how bacteria respond to changes in environmental conditions with appropriate modifications to gene expression."

Doctor of Philosophy (Mining Engineering)

  • Dr. Douglas Elliott Sweeney: "Dr. Sweeney has developed an innovative model to analyze industrial events in the mine workplace by profiling cognitive error. He subsequently applied this methodology to case studies of historical mine disasters, as well as to a contemporary operating mine, revealing that cognitive profiling is both descriptive and predictive of human error."

Doctor of Philosophy (Music)

  • Dr. Gloria Ngar-Yan Wong: "Dr. Wong examined the poetry and music of traditional dialogue songs sung by the Hani nationality of southwest China. She also examined the social significance of these songs as they are performed in varied contexts. This study shows how oral songs help to maintain kinship relationships in village cultures."

Doctor of Philosophy (Neuroscience)

  • Dr. Samantha Palmer: "Dr. Palmer used functional imaging methods to study the compensatory mechanisms used by the brain in Parkinson's Disease. She identified a compensatory switch to alternative motor networks including the cerebellum. Understanding these mechanisms is important for development of new drug targets and better therapies."
  • Dr. Oana Cristina Vasuta: "Dr. Vasuta examined how the function of a major receptor in the brain is regulated. This receptor mediates excitation in the nervous system, and is linked to learning and memory formation. She proved that exercise influences synaptic phenomena that may be the basis of memory acquisition and consolidation.."
  • Dr. Jennifer M. Barker: "Dr. Barker showed that new neurons in the adult rat brain respond to the presence of estradiol in females but not in males. This research highlights the importance of studying both sexes when developing basic descriptions of biological phenomena and potential therapies for neurodegenerative diseases."
  • Dr. Jennifer Wong: "Dr. Wong identified the first natural marine compound that can enhance axon outgrowth in the adult central nervous system. Using motile cells to model the neuronal growth cone, the basic machinery underlying axon outgrowth, she designed a high-throughput screen to identify the first cyclic dipeptide that promoted axon regeneration in vitro, as well as axon sprouting and behavioural improvements in vivo."
  • Dr. Yuan Ge: "Dr. Ge studied the role of synaptic plasticity in spatial memory, and how synaptic plasticity is modulated by AMPA receptor trafficking. Her work provides a better understanding of how different forms of synaptic plasticity contribute to the process of spatial memory formation."

Doctor of Philosophy (Nursing)

  • Dr. Amanda Howard: "Dr. Howard examined how women at high risk for hereditary cancer make risk management decisions. She drew attention to the diverse trajectories of decision making and highlighted the role of personal and social contexts in shaping decisions. This research provides a theoretical foundation for the provision of decision support."
  • Dr. Martha Mackay: "Dr. Mackay studied whether there are gender differences in symptoms of heart attacks. She found that although women report more throat and neck discomfort, they report chest discomfort as frequently as do men. These findings will inform both patients and health professionals about women's symptoms of heart attack."

Doctor of Philosophy (Oceanography)

  • Dr. Caixia Sarah Wang: "Dr. Wang developed and tested a novel observational method, combining aerial photography and water-column measurements, for studying internal features in the coastal ocean. She subsequently applied the method to study large nonlinear internal solitary waves, including their mathematical description, how they interact with other waves, and their generation mechanisms."

Doctor of Philosophy (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine)

  • Dr. Dong Lin: "Dr. Lin identified a new prostate cancer metastasis-related gene, ASAP1. He showed that increased expression of this gene is associated with prostate cancer metastasis in animal model systems and in clinical cases. This study assists us in the understanding of metastasis mechanisms and provides a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for the disease."
  • Dr. Kenneth Liu: "Dr. Liu studied the role of chemokines in the migration of immune cells across the monolayer of endothelial cells that line the cerebral blood vessels. He showed that unique chemokine-receptor interactions mediate the binding and migration of specific immune cell subsets across activated endothelium to initiate central nervous system inflammation."
  • Dr. Peyman Tavassoli: "Dr. Tavassoli found a new co-activator protein that binds to and differentially enhances androgen receptor activity. He also developed cell-based screening assays for agents that modulate growth, death and androgen receptor activation in prostate cancer cells. He subsequently applied his method to find more potent drugs against receptor activity."
  • Dr. Ashleen Shadeo: "Dr. Shadeo's work in the genomic evaluation of precancerous lesions of breast and cervix has lead to the identification of aberrant genes and gene networks not previously implicated in cancer progression. These comparative studies revealed that multiple components of a key biological gene network can be altered in disease development."
  • Dr. Yevgeniya Le: "Dr. Le studied the biophysical mechanisms responsible for the immunocamouflage of transplanted cells by the covalent attachment of non-immunogenic and non-toxic polymer chains. This research is imperative in designing safe and efficient technology for the prevention of donor tissue rejection in transfusion and transplantation medicine."
  • Dr. Natalie Prystajecky: "Dr. Prystajecky's research focused on developing molecular epidemiological tools to assess the health risk potential of waterborne protozoa. These tools were successfully integrated into routine water testing and contributed to knowledge regarding pathogen dynamics in watersheds. Her work will have significant impact on drinking water surveillance and public health policy."

Doctor of Philosophy (Pharmaceutical Sciences)

  • Dr. Chiming Yang: "Dr. Yang examined the regulatory effects of parathyroid hormone treatments on mesenchymal stem cells and developed localized, biodegradable polymer scaffold-based delivery systems for parathyroid hormone and mesenchymal stem-cells for bone regeneration applications in orthopedic medicine."
  • Dr. Min-Suk Kim: "Dr. Kim determined control of cardiomyocyte lipoprotein lipase secretion following diabetes. These studies will assist us in understanding the mechanisms by which excessive lethal fatty acids are delivered to hearts in diabetic patients."
  • Dr. Harish Vasudevan: "Dr. Vasudevan investigated the effects of testosterone on the development of insulin resistance and hypertension. His identification of two key testosterone-dependent biochemical pathways furthers our understanding of the role of sex hormones in regulating the actions of insulin and the resultant changes in blood pressure."
  • Dr. Tony Kiang: "Dr. Kiang used a variety of experimental models to study liver toxicity associated with valproic acid, a popular anti-epileptic drug. His results help us understand the roles of metabolism, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction in valproic acid-induced liver toxicity."
  • Dr. Ryan Takahashi: "Dr. Takahashi examined how known genetic changes affect the function of a human enzyme that is responsible for deactivating androgen steroids. The findings of these studies are being used as a basis to investigate the links between genetics, the concentrations of androgen steroids, and a man's risk for developing prostate cancer."

Doctor of Philosophy (Philosophy)

  • Dr. Rana Ahmad: "Dr. Ahmad investigated the way risks motivate action in a way that is similar to morality. She argues that risks are more than mere descriptors and are better understood as having normative force. This research provides a new way of understanding the choices we make when faced with new and potentially risky technologies or processes."

Doctor of Philosophy (Physics)

  • Dr. JunLiang Song: "Dr. Song showed how the fluctuations in ultracold atomic gases lead to a new class of spin correlations and coherent dynamics. His studies improve our understanding of the fluctuation-driven phenomena in a wide variety of physical systems."
  • Dr. Hassan Saadaoui: "Dr. Saadaoui studied magnetism at the surface of cuprate superconductors using depth-controlled nuclear magnetic resonance (Beta-NMR) technique. These studies have detected the existence of small disordered magnetic fields a few nanometers above the surface of these superconductors, and have also shown the effect of disorder on the arrangement of magnetic flux lines inside the superconductor."
  • Dr. Bruno Mundim: "Dr. Mundim simulated the gravitational interaction of two boson stars, whose gravitational properties are similar to those of neutron stars, but which are easier to model. His results represent an important contribution to the field of numerical relativity, which will be a key enabler for gravitational wave astronomy."
  • Dr. Muhammed Asfak Hossain: "Dr. Hossain developed novel ways to control electronic and magnetic properties of several strongly correlated electron systems via impurities. He measured, for the first time, the true Fermi surface of the high-temperature superconductor YBCO and used impurities to measure unconventional magnetism in ruthenium oxides."
  • Dr. Michael Whitwick: "Dr. Whitwick conducted a comprehensive study of the surface morphology of gallium arsenide grown with Molecular Beam Epitaxy. In this study he successfully linked the micro-scale surface morphology to atomic-scale processes. This work provides a guide for the fabrication of opto-electrical devices."
  • Dr. James Bueno: "Dr. Bueno carried out a high precision test of the Standard Model of particle physics. Using the TRIUMF facility on UBC campus he measured the decay properties of the muon, a subatomic particle which is just a heavy electron. The final result allows the physics community to rule out new particle processes at an unprecedented level."

Doctor of Philosophy (Plant Science)

  • Dr. Yingchao Nie: "Dr. Nie investigated protein-protein interactions of the major regulatory proteins, IE0 and IE1, of the baculovirus AcMNPV. She identified a domain required for binding viral proteins that were shown to play a critical role in the production of virus particles by enabling the rapid start of viral gene expression."
  • Dr. Tara Moreau: "Dr. Moreau explored manipulation of insect behaviour as an alternative to pesticides for management of greenhouse whiteflies on sweet pepper crops. She found that whiteflies can be diverted away from the crop using combinations of traps and reduced risk sprays. Her work provides greenhouse growers with whitefly management options that have lower environmental impacts and greater compatibility with biological control programs."

Doctor of Philosophy (Population and Public Health)

  • Dr. Bohdan Nosyk: "Dr. Nosyk analyzed a collection of administrative and patient-level datasets to reveal decision-making behaviour of illicit drug users, lifetime patterns of substance abuse treatment and methods of treatment evaluation at the individual and aggregate level. This research has direct implications for the reform of policy in illicit drug control and treatment."
  • Dr. Angela Kaida: "Dr. Kaida investigated the impact of expanding access to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on sexual and reproductive health of HIV-affected women in South Africa and Uganda. She showed that women receiving HAART were more likely to use hormonal and barrier contraception, but were no different in their level of sexual activity or intention to conceive."

Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology)

  • Dr. Krista Byers-Heinlein: "Dr. Byers-Heinlein investigated language development in infants growing up bilingually. Her research demonstrated that although monolingual and bilingual development are not identical, even very young bilinguals have capacities that support the learning of two languages simultaneously. These studies can help parents make informed choices about their infants' early language environment."
  • Dr. Lorena Hsu: "Dr. Hsu examined sociocultural factors to understand why East Asians in North America report greater social anxiety compared to their Western counterparts. She found that social anxiety was related to experiencing conflict between East Asian culture and Western norms. This research highlights the need for culturally-sensitive treatment of social anxiety."
  • Dr. Kathryn Dewar: "Dr. Dewar examined how the labels of infants' earliest objects are represented. She found that infants expect labels to refer to distinct object categories and she identified a learning mechanism through which infants' expectations of labeled objects may be acquired. This research illuminates the relationship between language and cognitive development."
  • Dr. Amanda K. LaMarre: "Dr. LaMarre investigated the relationship between impulsive personality traits and higher level cognitive ability, such as decision making. Results suggest that impulsive traits have a negative effect on these types of thinking abilities. The results have broader implications with respect to understanding the interplay between brain function and personality."

Doctor of Philosophy (Rehabilitation Sciences)

  • Dr. Michael Bodner: "Dr. Bodner examined the role of health promotion in physical therapy practice and professional education with special reference to smoking cessation counseling. His work has major implications for change at the levels of the physical therapy associations and education as well as practice."
  • Dr. Marie Westby: "Dr. Westby synthesized research evidence and brought together patients, professionals and researchers from Canada and the US to reach consensus on best-practice recommendations for rehabilitation after hip and knee replacement surgery. Her findings have potential to improve care and outcomes for thousands of people receiving joint replacements secondary to osteoarthritis of the hip and knee."
  • Dr. Jill Zwicker: "Through functional magnetic resonance imaging, Dr. Zwicker showed that children with developmental coordination disorder use different brain areas from typical children to perform a motor task. Her work is one of the first studies to show that children with this common childhood disorder are neurobiologically different from their peers."

Doctor of Philosophy (Resource Management and Environmental Studies)

  • Dr. Sarah Jane Foster: "Dr. Foster analysed the damage that shrimp trawling inflicts on the many many small fish species that are caught by accident in the nets. Her use of biological and social research techniques suggests that our best bet will be to close areas of the ocean to such destructive fishing practices."
  • Dr. David Boyd: "Dr. Boyd studied the effects of recognizing the constitutional right to live in a healthy environment. In a comprehensive examination of 86 nations, he found that this constitutional right empowers citizens, strengthens environmental laws, enhances the judicial role in environmental protection, and contributes to improved environmental performance."
  • Dr. Arne Elias: "Dr. Elias found that achieving energy and transportation sustainability requires a comprehensive understanding of the problem and possible solutions. Building on behavioural, social, technological and planning criteria and data, Dr. Elias outlined a pragmatic and achievable migration path to sustainability that includes political realities and new research capability."
  • Dr. Gakushi Ishimura: "Dr. Ishimura developed an economic model of transboundary fishery resources affected by climate change, and analyzed the stability of cooperative management among multiple countries. His research suggests policy strategies for robust cooperative management for shared fishery resources given climate change."
  • Dr. Veronica Wahl: "Dr. Wahl investigated the motivations and barriers for environmental stewardship volunteering. After determining that these volunteers are motivated by variables that are not well reflected in the volunteering literature, she proposed a unique set of reasons that people have for stewardship volunteering. Her research lays groundwork for a model for volunteering motivations in an environmental context."
  • Dr. Eric Mazzi: "Dr. Mazzi conducted interdisciplinary, policy research on how CO2 emission rates from passenger cars can be reduced while simultaneously managing public health risks due to local air quality and traffic collisions."

Doctor of Philosophy (School Psychology)

  • Dr. Natalie Rocke Henderson: "Responding to growing concerns about school bullying, Dr. Rocke Henderson investigated the processes underlying children's willingness to intervene when they witness bullying. Bystander intervention was more likely for friends than nonfriends but especially when their anger was aroused. This new understanding of bystander motivation will contribute to the design and implementation of new bullying prevention efforts."

Doctor of Philosophy (Sociology)

  • Dr. Jackie Schoemaker-Holmes: "Dr. Schoemaker Holmes investigated urban online dating practices in order to study the role of such new media in producing gendered selves. This research illuminates gendered dating inequalities and broadens feminist theories of love by illustrating how gender remains an organizing and oppressive force in everyday life."
  • Dr. Rosa Maria Sevy Fua: "Dr. Sevy examined how participation in a memorial exhibit based on photographic images of deceased relatives proved therapeutic for Holocaust survivors and their children. Her research illuminates the role that community-based settings can play as forums in helping those who have undergone psychosocial trauma to deal with their losses."

Doctor of Philosophy (Soil Science)

  • Dr. Prabha Padmavathiamma: "Dr. Padmavathiamma developed a cost effective and environmentally friendly technology to limit the dispersal of metal contaminants from highway traffic in the soil to the surrounding natural environment. The best management practices (BMP) developed from the study have direct applicability to the environment of BC as a risk management activity, reducing long-term associated risks."

Doctor of Philosophy (Special Education)

  • Dr. Maureen McQuarrie: "Dr. MacKinnon McQuarrie used cortisol levels in saliva as a physiological index to measure children's reactivity to stress while completing tasks believed to underlie Math Disability. Higher levels of reactivity predicted poorer performance on working memory and math tasks, processes that are impaired in children with Math Disability."

Doctor of Philosophy (Statistics)

  • Dr. Mohamadreza Hosseini: "Dr. Hosseini developed statistical models predicting precipitation, temperature and associated extreme weather events such as drought, toward managing agricultural climate risks. He also developed a way to approximate large datasets. To assess such approximations, he introduced a novel performance metric that is invariant under re-scaling of the data."

Doctor of Philosophy (Zoology)

  • Dr. Laura White: "Dr. White researched the diversity and invasibility of intertidal communities. She showed reciprocal relationships between native diversity and invasion with competitive and facilitative effects operating in both directions, and that exotic and native macroalgae were grazed and chemically defended similarly. Understanding mechanisms that facilitate invasions enables us to identify and mitigate effects."
  • Dr. Erin Rechisky: "Dr. Rechisky used a large-scale fish tracking array to track very small salmon during their migration to the Fraser River in British Columbia. Using new technology, she found that the Pacific Ocean can be a dangerous place for young salmon, as survival for some species is very low during the first month at sea."
  • Dr. Michelle Franklin: "Dr. Franklin showed that the genetic structure of a migratory insect, the cabbage looper, has been modified by the expansion of greenhouse production of vegetables in British Columbia. This provides an over-wintering environment for the previously transitory insect and strong genetic selection through the extensive use of a microbial insecticide."
  • Dr. Michael Melnychuk: "Dr. Melnychuk used acoustic tags to monitor the movements of migrating juvenile salmon and to estimate survival rates of populations. He showed that high mortality occurred during the downstream migration and shortly after entering the Georgia Strait ecosystem. This research allows us to better understand causes for declines in salmon abundance."
  • Dr. Jeremy Goldbogen: "Dr. Goldbogen studied functional morphology and physiological ecology of lunge feeding in rorqual whales. He integrated data from high-resolution digital tags with morphological data of the skull to elucidate the mechanism of this unique filter feeding method employed by some of the largest animals of all-time."
  • Dr. Michael Sheriff: "Dr. Sheriff examined the signature of fear in prey with respect to being attacked and/or killed by their predators. His research showed the fear of being killed varies with predation risk, and how it causes a decline in female reproduction and is passed onto offspring. Ultimately this may result in the inability of a population to recover even after a stressor has been removed."
  • Dr. Robert Ahrens: "Dr. Ahrens studied the depletion of tuna and billfish stocks globally using more suitable methods than had previously been used. He concluded that the losses were less severe than commonly believed, although many stocks are overexploited. A combination of fishing effort reduction and large spatial closures would maintain stocks at optimal levels and improve fishery value."
  • Dr. Jabus Tyerman: "Dr. Tyerman demonstrated that competition for resources caused experimental populations of bacteria to diversify. His work provides direct evidence that ecological interactions, like competition, can drive adaptive diversification. Subsequently he investigated how trade-offs, mutational constraints and ecological opportunities impact the origin and maintenance of bacterial diversity."