UNews - Mark Thom

Graduate student research award winners

trevor.kenney — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:29:04 +0000

Following are the 2010 Student Research Awards for graduate students. Please note that some awards might not be listed because the granting agency has not yet given the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ permission to publicly release the information.

SSHRC
(Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council)

Kent Aardse, English (literature, American – literary movements) $17,500
Jeffrey Doherty, Arts & Science (environmental history) $17,500
Deanna Forrester, Psychology & Neuroscience (sexology) $17,500
Michael Frank, Native American Studies (interdisciplinary studies) $17,500
Lindsey Garner-Knapp, Anthropology (interdisciplinary studies) $17,500
Vanessa Hanel, Management (marketing) $17,500
Ainslee Kimmel, Education (psychology) $17,500
Danille Lazzaretto-Green, Education (counselling) $17,500
Kasey-Leigh Martin, Management (management-business-administrative Studies) $17,500
Michelle Morris, History (natural resources geography) $17,500
Patrick O'Sullivan, Management (business ethics) $17,500
Kelly Pasolli, Political Science (political science) $17,500
James Stanger, Anthropology (cultural anthropology) $17,500
Lorraine Nicol, Geography (resource management) $35,000 (3 years)

AIF
(Alberta Ingenuity Fund)

Chad Laing, Chemistry & Biochemistry (molecular biology) $7,000 (3 years)
Cassandra Churchill, Chemistry & Biochemistry (physical chemistry) $7,000
Kimberley Dohm, Biological Sciences (biological sciences) $26,000 (3 years)

AIHS
(Alberta Innovates: Health Solutions)

Jenni Karl, Neuroscience (neuroscience) $20,000
Daniela Schwindel, Neuroscience (neuroscience) $20,000
Fraser Sparks, Neuroscience (neuroscience) $20,000

NSERC
(Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)

Jessica Erickson, Biological Sciences (genetics)
Andrew Hudson, Biological sciences (molecular biology) $17,500
Cassandra Churchill, Chemistry & Biochemistry (physical chemistry) $25,000
Benjamin Ireland, Chemistry & Biochemistry (inorganic chemistry) $35,000 (3 years)
Chad Laing, Chemistry & Biochemistry (molecular biology) $21,000 (3 years)
Evan Mercier, Chemistry & Biochemistry (biochemistry) $35,000 (2 years)
Jennifer Przybylski, Chemistry & Biochemistry (physical chemistry) $21,000 (3 years)
Anthony Schmieder, Mathematics & Computer Science (information technology) $17,500
Mark Thom, Mathematics & Computer Science (pure mathematics) $17,500
Gregory Christie, Neuroscience (cognitive science, fundamental) $17,500 (3 years)
Erin Zelinski, Neuroscience (neurophysiology) $21,000 (3 years)
April Dawn Takahashi, Psychology (psychology) $17,500

NSERC IPS

Will Warnock

Steinhauer

Cassandra Churchill, Chemistry & Biochemistry (physical chemistry) $15,000
Linda Lait, Biological Sciences (biological sciences) $15,000
Sandeep Mishra, Evolution & Behaviour (evolution and behaviour) $20,000
Douglas Vanderlaan, Evolution & Behaviour (evolution and behaviour) $20,000

2010 student research awards (graduate)

trevor.kenney — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:34:40 +0000

SSHRC
(Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council)

AIF
(Alberta Ingenuity Fund)

AIHS
(Alberta Innovates: Health Solutions)

Jenni Karl, Neuroscience (neuroscience) $20,000
Daniela Schwindel, Neuroscience (neuroscience) $20,000
Fraser Sparks, Neuroscience (neuroscience) $20,000

NSERC
(Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)

NSERC IPS

Will Warnock

Steinhauer

Thom makes most of his return to campus

trevor.kenney — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:12:04 +0000

Some students can't wait to get out into the workforce and apply the knowledge they've accrued while earning their university degree. Mark Thom (BASc '06), on the other hand, had a taste of the working world and couldn't wait to start learning again.

Armed with a computer science degree, Thom was quick to apply his knowledge in the private sector, but soon discovered the work he was doing was simply unfulfilling.

"Even while I was finishing off my degree, I really started to enjoy problem solving a lot more than the concrete aspects of developing software," Thom says. "After graduating and working for a year in software development, I decided I didn't like it so much and came back to do a degree in math."

If there were any doubts as to whether he made the right move, they were quickly dispelled when Thom applied for, and won, the prestigious CMS-NSERC Math in Moscow Scholarship. The scholarship allows him to spend the fall semester in Moscow, Russia to study advanced courses in mathematics as well as a Russian language course. With only three such scholarships awarded each year to an undergraduate student in a Canadian university, it's obvious Thom is one of the country's elite mathematicians.

The Lethbridge native and Winston Churchill High School graduate revels in the challenge of solving some of math's great mysteries. He's spent the summer working with Dr. Nathan Ng in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science as they research analytic number theory.

"It's essentially using the methods of calculus to answer questions about the integers," Thom says. "A lot of the questions we have concerning the integers have been around for several hundred years and we still have not really come close to answering them. It's a very challenging and interesting field."

The work he's been able to do with Ng has prepared him well for the rigors of his semester in Moscow; an experience he expects will be very demanding.

"The people who have recently come to the department are more or less in my field, and have built up a very strong number theory group in the province," Thom says. "They've been offering courses that hadn't really been offered previously, and developing a curriculum to areas that weren't covered unless you were involved in an independent study with a professor."

Thom is the second U of L student to win the Math in Moscow scholarship after Kyle Hambrook captured the award last year. He sees the opportunity as another step toward his ultimate goal, working in academia.

"This will be a really good opportunity to establish contacts in research," Thom says. "These are people who are interested in the same sorts of work, and the same sorts of problems and who I may potentially want to work with in the future."

UNews - Mark Thom

Graduate student research award winners

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2010 student research awards (graduate)

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Thom makes most of his return to campus

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