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. Francis mapped the dynamics of antibiotic resistance gene carriage in the healthy newborn infant gut and characterized changes in response to severe acute malnutrition and HIV, in low-resource settings. His findings have major implications for antibiotic prophylaxis, therapy and stewardship practices in global neonatal and infant populations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Luo developed engineering approaches to apply a protective polymer coating onto the blood vessels of organs that interact with the immune system to improve organ quality and transplantation success. The protective immunomodulatory coating can be adapted for other immune functions, opening up possibilities for the development of novel therapies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Madhok conducted his doctoral studies in environmental and development economics. His work documents how economic activity shapes the environment in developing nations, with emphasis on biodiversity loss, air quality, and land use change. His findings inform the design of policies that balance economic growth and environmental conservation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Marroquin Madera studied the initial density dependence of plasma formation and properties of a Nitric Oxide molecular Rydberg gas, along with the effects of applying radiofrequencies and electric fields. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Desai revealed that despite better CF prognosis in recent years, people with CF still face substantial burden from lung impairment and other complications. Rising healthcare costs due to expensive medications pose additional challenges. These findings will help improve their service planning and resource allocation in the future. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Clayworth studied how glial cells in the nervous system wrap and protect neurons. She found a novel role for the dystroglycan protein, which is disrupted in muscular dystrophy, in glial wrapping of neurons. Her work improves our understanding of the mechanisms of glial protection of neurons and their potential involvement in muscular dystrophy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Huang explored the transition experiences of military veterans as they pursued post-secondary studies. The findings from the research are intended to nurture cultural awareness for the unique needs of this population, as well as to enhance practices and policies on Canadian campuses towards better supporting this student population. | Doctor of Philosophy in Counselling Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Dellazizzo Toth developed imaging techniques and technologies enabling rapid recording of all activity across a complete neural arbor in an awake animal and applied these tools to interrogate how individual neurons are modified by experience. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Hohenwarter developed a painkiller derived from an endogenous opioid peptide. He demonstrated the effectiveness of this novel compound in reducing pain and depression, without inducing dangerous opioid-related side effects. This new painkiller may be a safe alternative to opioids for persistent pain treatment and help fight the opioid crisis. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmaceutical Sciences (PhD) |
| 2023 | Millions of undiscovered viruses circulate in wildlife and many of them threaten to spillover into humans and livestock, causing outbreaks and pandemics. Dr. Kuchinski developed new genome sequencing techniques for discovering these threats and monitoring their spread. These tools will help protect our health and livelihoods from these viruses. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Courteau-Godmaire advanced simulations used in composites manufacturing. These structures begin as soft stacks of carbon fibre sheets. When heat and pressure are applied, they solidify, but can also wrinkle. His mechanistic model captures the slippery behavior of these layers, streamlining simulations for better design. | Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Soo examined the perception, recognition and encoding of pronunciation variants in an ongoing Cantonese sound change. Borrowing psycholinguistic paradigms from dialect/language variation, her work offers a contemporary perceptual account of the sound change, showing that listeners distinguish and flexibly map multiple pronunciations to a word. | Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Desideri reflects on a set of artistic practices which, rather than creating objects, create the conditions for collaborative thinking and making, that is called study. Her Studio Practice proposes a novel approach to artmaking as study and to study as artmaking. | Doctor of Philosophy in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Soltani examined the behavior of materials at the atomistic scale. He used computer simulation of atoms and machine learning algorithms to understand how the dynamic processes derive the evolution of micro-structure of materials and how these processes determine the properties of materials like glasses and metals. | Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. English developed new electrodes for use in the demanding conditions required for the electrochemical treatment of industrial wastewater. This contribution enriches our understanding of how such materials behave, providing insights into how to design more resilient technologies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Moynihan tested the theoretical framework of a nursing intervention designed to reconnect sexually exploited runaway adolescents to supportive family and school relationships. Findings suggest the intervention works as theorized. Promoting supportive relationships may improve health problems, such as emotional distress and substance misuse. | Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Roy examined Museum of Vancouver's reorientation to a public engagement focussed institution from 2006 to 2016. Despite resource limitations, museum staff developed new relationships with local community members and audiences. Dr. Roy reveals important insights into the challenges faced by city museums adopting participatory approaches. | Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Williams examined the effectiveness of folic acid supplementation in children with sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder. The findings from his clinical trial provide evidence to inform nutritional management and supplementation practices in Canadian children living with this disease | Doctor of Philosophy in Human Nutrition (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Morales Duran found that acidic environmental pH decreased the activity of antibiotics against the CF pathogen B. cenocepacia, and induced changes in the bacterium that are associated with host colonization and pathogenicity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Carlaw's research helped improve the efficacy of therapeutic CRISPR Cas9 base editing for the treatment of previously incurable childhood genetic diseases. Her research helped establish some of the first reporter models for studying base editors and paved the way for the next generation of lipid nanoparticle delivered gene editors. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Darwish developed, characterized, and applied brightly light-emitting, nanometer-sized particles toward simple and cost-effective detection and analysis of targeted cell types and molecules. Her research contributes new scientific knowledge, methods, and technologies to make healthcare more accessible, efficient, and inclusive. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Cyrus' work focused on the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 syndromes, where she expanded the clinical phenotype of the most recently described syndrome: SUZ-12 Related Overgrowth. She further used Drosophila melanogaster to develop assays that can tell us if human genetic variants of interest can cause these syndromes or not. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Yiting Tsai developed a Deep Learning model to extract latent features for clinical and bio-engineering problems. He applied the method to two cases involving COVID-19 and Scleroderma patients, which resulted in significantly improved diagnosis accuracy, as well as discovering key biomarkers associated with main disease pathways. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Lu studied the function of a major autism risk gene neurexin-1, showing that losing one copy of this molecule leads to significant synaptic deficits. He subsequently used gene-editing technology to rescue these impairments by altering how neurexin-1 RNA is processed, identifying a potential therapeutic strategy for neuropsychiatric patients. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Lorentzian examined the persistence of therapeutic targets through disease progression in pediatric leukemia using a genomic and proteomic approach. Her research revealed that therapeutic targets are often persistent to relapse and supports the early characterization of drug targets to prepare treatment options in case the child relapses. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |