A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.
| Year | Citation | Program |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Dr. Ahmed showed the mechanistic pathway by which the growth factor myostatin increases the invasion of human placenta into the mother's womb to support the developing baby. Her study illustrates a role for myostatin in pregnancy. It also helps in understanding the effects of its dysregulation in several pregnancy complications. | Doctor of Philosophy in Reproductive and Developmental Sciences (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Syed studied the acute effects of air pollution on lung function and exercise responses in individuals with & without COPD. He found that air pollution negatively affected exercise responses more in healthy individuals compared to COPD. This work has implications for physical activity guidelines during periods of increased air pollution. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Kuyuk investigated cooling systems used in deep underground mines. His research offered renewable alternatives to energy-intensive conventional approaches. He also explored numerical and experimental methods to model these systems for better performance. His work has implications that will advance and improve current mine cooling practices. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mining Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Gatz-Miller investigated the biogeochemical and physical relationship between soil, water, and plants using reactive transport numerical modelling. Dr. Gatz-Miller's work highlights the benefit of strategic complexity in numerical modelling to explore these nonlinear, interrelated, and diverse processes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Diabo studied the politics of listening in Mohawk and other First Peoples' literatures. Taking the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace as a blueprint, their research theorizes what it means to listen politically in both First Peoples and settler-colonial contexts. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Gemaliel Vimala's research using food prices in India showed that when people use physical cash for transactions, prices are usually set in round digits and they change less often. In an online setting, such bunching reduces and prices change more frequently. This brings out the policy implication of increased flexibility of prices in a cashless world. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Xu studied how plant fungal pathogens cause diseases. She innovatively established a fast gene discovery pipeline and identified many genes required for the full virulence of the fungal pathogen. In the future, these genes can be targeted to develop new fungicides and provide efficient and long-lasting plant protection. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Eremondi developed the theory of gradual dependently typed programming languages. Under this paradigm, programmers can use types to write correctness specifications, but can smoothly migrate the checking of those specifications between compile time and run time. This furthers the goal of making it easier to prove that software is free of errors. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. MacAldaz examined blood stem cells capable of life-long blood production. She identified a strategy to isolate these cells at high purity from fetal sources and discovered culture conditions that preserve their potent regenerative properties. This research will enable the development of ways to manipulate these cells for clinical applications. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Jeworrek advanced computational and statistical methods to make high-resolution precipitation forecasts more skillful, reliable, and efficient. Her work focused on BC's coastal and mountainous regions and can be used to improve water-resource management and flood risk mitigation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Atmospheric Science (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Dring studied how municipal governance of agricultural systems in Southwestern British Columbia, Canada contributes to social justice. Through exploration of the politics of conflict and dissent over land use, Dr. Dring argues for the importance of municipal roles in planning just food futures. | Doctor of Philosophy in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems (PhD) |
| 2023 | The ancestral territories of the Mapuche Nation were violently reduced to individual properties that today are in the hands of non-Mapuche people, including settlers and commercial companies. Dr. Arias-Bustamante's study showed how Mapuche communities navigate the system in their quest to land restitution in a constantly changing context. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Vappala developed cationic polymeric agents that are safe and effective in treating sepsis. They reduce thrombosis and hyperinflammation in sepsis by targeting polyanionic mediators. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ji characterized the unique proteomic and metabolomic landscapes of clear cell ovarian carcinoma. She subsequently identified a metabolic vulnerability as a potential therapeutic target in uncommon ovarian cancers. Her work provided further insight into this aggressive malignancy and rich resources for the ovarian cancer research community. | Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MDPhD) |
| 2023 | A family of viruses called dicistroviruses contains many copies of a protein, a rarity for viruses. Dr. Warsaba investigated the reasons for this and explored the conservation of this duplication. Reid found that these viruses duplicate this protein to produce the correct amounts of their viral proteins, revealing insights into virus evolution. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Lok studied whether people avoid talking to strangers because they underestimate other people's willingness to connect. Her work led to the development of an actionable framework that outlines the conditions that need to be met before strangers decide to engage with each other. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Egoriti developed new particle accelerator targets and diagnostics that improve the quality and quantity of radioisotopes produced at TRIUMF, Canada's particle accelerator center. This work has enabled new scientific experiments that previously failed, and improved key metrics allowing for quicker and more effective research activities. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Shin researched titanium-based oxide thin films, with distinct properties for advanced electronic devices. Using molecular beam epitaxy, he grew these films and analyzed their electrical and magnetic traits through electrical transport and x-ray spectroscopy. These findings enhance comprehension of oxide films in cutting-edge electronics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Aceves investigated the effects of non-invasive brain stimulation in healthy brains. Her research centered on the evaluation of neurotransmission and brain function, providing insights into the therapeutic applications of this brain-stimulation technique. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Could you think about a world where every object is connected to a wireless network? Dr. Rajendran Chandrika designed solutions to address relevant problems related to direct device-to-device communication and satellite connectivity for low-cost devices. These solutions will help us achieve seamless universal connectivity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Alafifi is interested in exploring the effects of innate water constituents on the performance of Advanced Oxidation Processes. She studied the removal of MC-LR toxin in the presence of relatively high levels of halide salts. Her findings provide insights for water utilities on the effects of water constituents on the success of such treatments | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Edgar developed methods for making immune cells from stem cells. This research contributes to efforts to create cell-based therapies for treating cancer and autoimmune disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Gupta's thesis presents ways to improve the physical robustness of fluorescent polymer nanoparticles or "Pdots". It contributes to a better understanding of how their fluorescence properties degrade, and demonstrates that the brightness of Pdots is ideal for enabling smartphone-based diagnostic technologies for prospective applications in health care. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Cirstea explored the role of gut microbiota in Parkinson's disease. Using human clinical studies and experimental models, he discovered several new connections between the bacteria in our guts and disease-relevant features. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Abdelhafez studied how to effectively harness the frequency configurability of heterogeneous platforms. He contributed towards variability-aware models that can estimate the impact of frequency configuration choice on performance and energy consumption. This allows for better decision making that reduces the energy footprint of the target applications. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |