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 | NID |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Dr. de Souza studied nonparametric regression, a statistical technique that allows for varying forms of data dependencies. She proposed a new methodology to study dependencies when crucial information is absent from the data. She applied her method to determine power usage in buildings when the status of cooling and heating devices is not recorded. | Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Emami studied an advanced wireless communication system for underground mines and tunnels. She used radio-frequency measurements and mathematical analyses to model the ways in which wireless signals behave. The design of the best antenna configurations for these environments will contribute to enhanced safety and productivity in underground mines. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Wiens studied the experiences of mothers living with the challenges and uncertainties associated with an adult child's mental illness. The findings of this research were best understood through the conceptual lens of nonfinite loss and have significant implications for theory, research, and counselling psychology practice. | Doctor of Philosophy in Counselling Psychology (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Parreira conducted research into haulage systems for open pit mining. She developed a simulation model to compare an Autonomous Haulage Truck System with a conventional manually-operated system. The work identified the degree of improvement achievable, including economic, safety, and environmental protection benefits. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mining Engineering (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Pena studied sepsis, which is the major infection-related cause of death worldwide. She demonstrated that most sepsis patients have a strong immuno-suppression profile known as endo-toxin tolerance. She also discovered valuable biomarkers that identify this profile, predict severity, and may enhance treatments to improve sepsis survival rates. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Jalalinejad studied electrostatics phenomena in gas-solid fluidized beds. Using a computational model, she showed that electrical charges play an important role in gas-solid flow. Her findings assist polymer industries to have a better understanding of this phenomenon and to improve reactor performance. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. L'Abbé studied ways in which Ronald Johnson, an American avant-garde poet, used botanical metaphors to represent the human mind and language. She argues that Johnson's poetry revives the horticultural metaphors in words such as cultivation and culture and shows how plant metaphors apply to the study of cognition, perception and poetic vision. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Abbott's research focused on contemporary policy issues in education and housing economics. Findings improve our understanding of the complex roles of financial barriers in common household decisions, such as whether or not to attend college or buy a house. Future academic and public policy work in these areas will benefit from these findings. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr.Yazdan-Panah studied the concentrations of gases in stored wood pellets. She quantified those gases and investigated the effectiveness of ventilating procedures to reduce the gas concentration. Her work will help in designing ventilation systems to maintain safe levels of gases in storage of wood pellets. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Timmerman explored how three respected university educators experience both conflict and coherence between their ecological ethics and day-to-day personal and professional lives. The stories she wrote and analyzed help to theorize the concept of ecological integrity, and offer opportunities for all educators to reflect upon how to work toward it. | Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Studies (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Kenyon investigated why some African HIV advocacy groups choose to use the language of human rights. She found this was due to leadership, organizational structure and the belief that rights-based advocacy changes health-seeking behaviour, improving access to care. This research will be useful to those living with and conducting advocacy on HIV. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Reaume studied the use of bio-diesel fuels. A process was developed for improving the cloud point of bio-diesel through the formation of an alkyl side chain on the biodiesel molecule. This helps us better understand the cold flow properties of bio-fuels and will provide insights into proper winter mixing of petroleum and bio-based fuels. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. An investigated state-of-the-art CT scanning technologies for sorting and grading logs in a sawmill. He developed a coarse-resolution CT scanning system which gained attention in academia and among industry partners. If successfully applied, Dr. An's work will help boost profits in the sawmill industry and add value to the forest products industry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Monroy developed an equation to predict lateral soil forces on pipelines buried in trenches. By conducting full-scale tests and numerical modeling, he simulated the development of soil forces. His research adds to our knowledge about the seismic design of buried pipelines, which will contribute to efforts to make pipelines safer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Talhouk developed algorithms to estimate the relationship between data measurements to improve the understanding of how they simultaneously change under different conditions. Modelling the heart rate of patients under anesthesia and modelling the daily return of stocks in a financial portfolio are examples of ways these algorithms can be used. | Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Uban demonstrated neuro-biological alterations in central dopamine-stress interactions following prenatal alcohol exposure. These novel neurobiological findings help explain the increased prevalence of substance use disorders observed among individuals with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Guang Dai studied how seniors make the decision of purchasing a long term care insurance policy. His work also explored why people's family names matter in rural China area. His research advances our understanding of an individual's economic behaviour and market outcome, under various cultural and institutional environments. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Haga studied how ice forms on particles in the atmosphere. She found that human-caused pollutant coatings on dust particles affect their ice forming properties, and also that ice formation on biological particles might change how they travel in air. These results have implications for climate processes and on the spread of biological diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Malek-Esmaeili has proposed copyright protection systems to detect illegally distributed content on multimedia sharing websites, such as YouTube. The systems can determine if a video, an image or a song contains any part of an original work, and are efficient in finding violations, even if illegal contents have been modified before distribution | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Hayashi examined the relationship between policing and the health of people who inject drugs in Bangkok, Thailand. Her research found that repressive policing did not suppress the illegal drug market and instead contributed to human rights abuses and health-related harm. Her findings support the call for more balanced approaches to drug control. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Wernicke examined the impact on BC French teachers of their study abroad experiences in France, and how those affected their sense of professional identity. She found that an overwhelming concern with being an "authentic" French speaker can diminish teachers' sense of expertise and shapes how they teach and engage in further teacher development | Doctor of Philosophy in Language and Literacy Education (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Chen conducted his research in the field of quantum gravity. He developed a model of gravitational field which hypothesized that although the space-time is continuous when viewed on a large scale, a closer view shows it is actually made up of discrete points. This work has provided a means to remove anomolies from quantum gravity calculations. . | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. McNeil studied access to health and harm reduction services for people who inject drugs. He examined how social, structural, and environmental forces affect access to these services. His work highlights the need to scale up harm reduction interventions, and expand these into hospitals, to improve health equity for people who inject drugs. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Erfan explored the healing potential of the planning profession while working with a small Indigenous community on Vancouver Island. Her dissertation, written largely as autobiographical fiction, tells the stories of her action research engagement, and proposes a path forward for a therapeutic orientation to planning. | Doctor of Philosophy in Planning (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Morrison investigated cold molecular plasmas formed from highly excited nitric oxide molecules. This exotic state of matter presents an experimentally accessible environment in which to gain further understanding of correlated plasma systems--such as those found in fusion reactors, and interstellar space. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |