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. Pon composed a piece of orchestral music inspired by her early years with her child. Through the musical evocations and structure, she explored the mother-child-bond and related ideas like attachment, interconnection, awareness, time, and transience. Her work makes explicit a process of artistically realizing these human themes. | Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition (DMA) |
| 2023 | Dr. Pinsonneault-Marotte participated in the realisation of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment telescope and analysis, which resulted in a preliminary detection of hydrogen located nearly 11 billion light-years away. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Fomichev developed computational methods for predicting the properties of materials with strong electron-lattice interactions. Applying these methods to organic solar cell materials, he showed that lattice vibrations can break apart excitons to generate electricity, potentially explaining how this novel technology operates on an atomic scale. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Takeda examined the apparent similarities between the dispositions critical media literacy aims to cultivate and characteristics conspiracy theorists claim to embody. He proposed an approach to demarcate desirable from undesirable critical reading and writing that recognizes the significance of meanings and values in the act of reasoning. | Doctor of Philosophy in Language and Literacy Education (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Verma developed synthetic methods to access various pharmaceutically relevant building blocks. These developed one-pot methodologies can expedite the synthesis of a library of compounds thereby accelerating the early drug discovery programs and resulting in the rapid identification of new therapeutics for various diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Engstrom explored how someone's social class affects how much we trust them. She found people see lower-class people as more moral - but they also implicitly associate low social class with immorality, and believe lower-class people are more tempted by financial need to betray trust. This research shows the complexity of class stereotypes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Lu's investigation looked at oncogenic splice errors in the human MET receptor. This receptor acts like an engine that drives cancer metastasis, and his results uncovered functional dependencies that can be targeted to properly shut it down. These findings can be translated to improve treatments for those battling advanced stages of lung cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Girija explored the history of an Indian port city of Calicut to show that contrary to long held beliefs, the city remained a dynamic commercial hub outside of European colonial system. In fact her work shows that the notion of Calicut's supposed decline has been an artefact of Eurocentricism which continues to shape scholarship up to this day. | Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD) |
| 2023 | Immune responses are crucial for protection against diseases. Dr. Pournia's research showed an unconventional role for a protein in various cellular processes that are important for development and responses of one of the cells of our immune system. These findings could be important for development and fine tuning of novel therapeutic approaches. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ip studied the development of children assessed for autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Ip found that, regardless of diagnosis, these children all had developmental differences compared to neurotypical children. The findings stress the importance of moving towards needs and function-based funding and services in school and in the community. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Wafa advanced light field technology by improving spatial resolution in plenoptic cameras. Using epipolar image insights and deep-learning, she optimized image quality. She also developed methods to reduce light field data by creating virtual views. This work can revolutionize entertainment, VR/AR, and digital health sectors. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. MacNeil Sinclair studied teachers' learning through an approach called collaborative inquiry. She found that balancing supports, resources, and opportunities for teachers to make decisions for their own learning shows promise for enhancing student learning. Her research advances understanding about effective professional development. | Doctor of Philosophy in Special Education (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Cederberg interrogated the role of myeloid cells in the tumour microenvironment. Her dissertation work enhances our understanding of the interplay between innate and adaptive immune cells in solid tumours and identifies novel intervention points for the treatment of primary and metastatic disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Stirling Hill examined the relationship between literary and legal constructions of female voice in medieval England and France. Her research considers the intersection between history and fiction, and shows how the literal policing of women's voices became a literary trope that worked to devalue women's voices in society. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ghahramani developed new empirical and numerical methods for predicting the characteristics of tailings flows resulting from breaches of tailings dams. The findings of this study are useful for improving the accuracy of risk assessments and emergency response plans for tailings dam breaches. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Afreen investigated Bangla heritage language teachers' transcultural identities in greater Vancouver. Teachers' investment in promoting Bangla as a mother tongue was informed by children's transcultural identities in Canada. This research advances knowledge about the identity of heritage language teachers in multicultural communities worldwide. | Doctor of Philosophy in Teaching English as a Second Language (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Andrade-Rivas studies pollution in globalized food systems. Using systems thinking, planetary health, and geospatial sciences, he evaluated the nationwide risk of pesticide exposure and adverse birth outcomes in Ecuador. He also collaborated with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, co-leading a marine toxicology study of their traditional food systems. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Luo examined the underlying cognitive mechanisms of behavioural interventions. He developed a framework that organizes interventions according to cognitive principles and helps inform the design and development of future interventions based on cognitive insights. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Klein studied moral intuition's impact on experts' conceptualizations of international order via interviews, establishing that moral foundations influence their notions of change, progress, and threat. This substantiates the idea that moral intuition shapes both the scholars' theoretical leanings and the practitioners' foreign policy stances. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Thomson studied the mechanisms that regulate expression of the HTT gene that causes the neurodegenerative disorder Huntington's disease, and developed a method for improving the delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids to neurons. Her research informed the design of a new strategy for Huntington's disease treatment that targets its genetic origin. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Motivated by ship-ice interactions in the Arctic environment, Dr. Mao has developed novel methods and a unified mechanics framework to simulate the coupled dynamics between floating ice and moving ships. His research paves the way for accurate resistance and extreme loads analysis, which is crucial to the efficiency and safety of ice-going ships. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Schaffner studied the role of epigenetics in Parkinson's disease. She found that rare and common genetic variation, lifestyle, and pesticide exposure were associated with DNA modifications in blood and brain. Her work highlights how molecular pathways to Parkinson's disease may differ between individuals. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Dsouza's doctoral studies focused on designing representation learning methods for genomic datasets. The genomic representations he designed shed light on the structural and functional activities of the genome and are useful for studying the effect of genetic variants causing disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Saatchi examined outpatient antibiotic use in British Columbia and Ontario, Canada. Appropriate antibiotic use is integral to mitigate the impacts of antibacterial resistance. This epidemiological research elucidates new targets for antimicrobial stewardship efforts and offers the first interpretations of inter-provincial prescribing quality. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmaceutical Sciences (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Simpson examined the critical reception of video art in the 1970s. Focusing on a landmark and contentious essay diagnosing video as inherently narcissistic, he unpacked the stakes and consequences of this conclusion. The result is an argument for video as an instrument to critically examine expanded forms of clinical thinking and living. | Doctor of Philosophy in Art History (PhD) |