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. MacDonald examined a series of nineteenth-century representations of biofluids and epidemics to argue that authors used contagion metaphors in surprising ways - to articulate unexpected sites of contact, connection, and community. Her study contributes to modern conversations about how contagion can put us in touch in the post-COVID era. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Lee explored how engaging in prosocial behavior, including acts of kindness and helping others, can help individuals restore their social connections. Her research suggests that an intervention promoting prosocial behavior is a promising approach to address loneliness and social isolation, particularly for individuals experiencing chronic loneliness. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Heard examined how the effectiveness of civilian harm response and compensation influences the ways in which the legitimacy of counterinsurgency operations are perceived by affected communities. This research illuminates the strategic role of survivor-centric approaches to harm mitigation and response in contemporary conflict. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Dramkin investigated how we map number words to perceptual magnitudes. Her work shows that by understanding the shared logic between number words and perceptual scales, young children can readily attach number words to their perception of number, length, and area, and even perform intuitive mathematic computations (e.g., division). | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Degner showed how natural hybrids between spruce species are closely adapted to climate. He also modeled how hybrids might have differed in the past and how they may need to change in the future. This research helps us understand how hybridization influences evolution, and will help land managers better match planted forests to future climates. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Qi examined associations of widely used classes of antihypertensive medications and their subclasses with overall and site-specific risks of colorectal cancer using advanced statistical methods. His research has addressed a gap in the evidence for safety of widely used antihypertensive medications with respect to colorectal cancer risk. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Thomas initiated a storefront art practice for art teachers to come together as a collective to contemplate the conditions for teaching. This study contributes to the field of teacher professional practices by offering experimental art and research approaches that permit teachers to deactivate the necessity to always be in a mode production. | Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum Studies (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Akinwumi investigated the concept of forgetting in postcolonial African and Caribbean literatures. He argues that forgetting is at once a tool of oppression and survival. To be sure, his analysis deepens our insight into the workings of forgetting and helps us to grasp more clearly how the equilibrium between memory and forgetting is achieved. | Doctor of Philosophy in French (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Gallagher examined the visual and musical features of pastoral landscapes (forests and fields) and anti-pastoral areas (ruins and caves) in the video games Final Fantasy X, XII, XIII, and XV. Her research shows that music significantly impacts players' perceptions of these areas, making them feel more relaxed and apprehensive, respectively. | Doctor of Philosophy in Music, Emphasis Musicology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Sutherland investigated the complex lived experiences of trans men, trans women, and nonbinary people, with a focus on intergroup dynamics, healthcare challenges, and strategies of resilience. His findings showcase how these populations are navigating stigma-related barriers and working to improve their health outcomes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Nitoslawski's research explored the role of technology in urban forestry, and tested new ways to collect data on urban ecosystems. This work revealed nuanced relationships between people, nature, and technology, informing both research and practice as we tackle critical environmental issues in this digital age. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Nelson's work focussed on the role of the carbonic anhydrase enzyme within the unique respiratory system responsible for the success of the teleost fishes. Her work advances our understanding of the function, development, and evolution of a respiratory system present in half of all vertebrate species. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Nepal's work provides unique information on overstory spatial patterns of tree vigor and regeneration in reference conditions, and highlights differences in spatial patterns of overstory conditions between reference and contemporary forests. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ebrahimi Kahou has developed methods to offer solutions to tackle high-dimensional dynamic models in economics, utilizing insights from economic theory. The methodology utilizes a symmetry commonly found in many heterogenous agent models in economics. This work can be used to study more realistic models of income and wealth distributions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Pan investigated new conditional inference and prediction methods after fitting a joint distribution based on vine copulas, including prediction of an arbitrary variable given others, prediction of a right-censored response, and prediction of an ordinal or continuous response when some explanatory variables are nominal categorical. | Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Jana rigorously investigated algebraic invariants of two spaces: Classifying space for commutativity and Unordered flag manifolds. Their research explored algebraic topology, employing algebraic methods to analyze shapes. The core of the research lies in the pursuit of simplification through decomposition, marking its fundamental significance. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Stewart's thesis investigates how the perception of mind in inanimate entities affects moral judgments. His studies suggest that perceiving the 'mind' of such objects, ideas, and emotions can shape our moral decisions and emotional regulations. These insights have implications for advancing our understanding of human moral psychology. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Schmalor's research shows that subjective SES and economic inequality influence self-centeredness. High inequality and high SES both make people more self-centered, and the gap in self-centeredness between high and low SES is bigger when inequality is high. This suggests that the selfishness of the rich depends on their economic environment. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Where do the chemical elements come from? Using the nuclear physics technique of mass spectrometry, Dr. Jacobs investigated potential astrophysical sites where some of these elements are produced. The findings point to binary neutron star mergers as a prime candidate for explaining a range of elemental abundances observed in stars. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Liu has shown the poetics of pidgin in Chinese literature. She challenges the stigmas associated with this language, emphasizing its aesthetics that embrace ambiguities and invite diverse interpretations. Through pidgin, her study reconfigures understandings of transcultural interaction and bridges Sinophone and Anglophone literatures. | Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Park's research focused on microbiome associated with seaweeds. He found that the ecological distribution of these host-associated microbes is linked to their positive impact on kelp growth and their ability to colonize kelp, as demonstrated through experimental tests. His work advances the application of ecological theory in probiotic discovery. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Yoon studied activity-regulated genes that are crucial in both the brain and pancreas for responding to the body's nutrient levels. Her findings showed the important role of a gene in the proper function of brain cells that control appetite and body weight, which highlighted new potential avenues of study for future obesity therapies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Liu studied how AI affects intermediary agents' decision making in insurance markets. He found that AI prediction on consumer demand improves insurance agents' sales productivity, but also reduces agents' efforts in assessing consumer risk. His research advanced our understanding of the impacts of AI on workforce in financial services industry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration in Finance (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Mercadante's research provides evidence to suggest that one reason why greedy people always want more and are never satisfied with what they own is because they feel a brief boost of pride upon acquisition, such that the act of acquiring something is a highly positive emotional experience, but owning the item afterward does not elicit pride. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Curtis examined the history of agriculture in the Alberni-Clayoquot region and provincial legislation related to supporting food production in British Columbia. Her work highlights the importance of farmer-government relations and the consequences of underlying values within our food system. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |