UNews - Miranda Leibel

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers awarded federal research grants worth more than $3 million

caroline.zentner — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 21:50:59 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers are among the successful applicants for federal grants announced by The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, and the Honourable Marjorie Michel, Minister of Health.

The more than $1.3 billion in funding supports over 9,700 researchers and research projects in Canada through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

“From brain plasticity and the mechanism of low-dose radiation to supporting newcomers through mentoring, these grants illustrate the diversity of research being done at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, vice-president of research. “This funding not only helps established researchers continue their work but also helps our early career researchers build their research programs. Ultimately, our students benefit with increased opportunities to engage in research throughout their post-secondary careers.”

In total, ULethbridge received funding from NSERC for nine Discovery Grants and two Discovery Development Grants. The Discovery Grants will bring in nearly $475,000 a year for the next five years. The research projects include the following:

Dr. Gerlinde Metz (Neuroscience) will receive $96,000 per year for a study looking at the social determinants of experience-dependent brain plasticity.
Dr. Stacey Wetmore (Chemistry & Biochemistry) will receive $89,000 per year for a project involving computer modelling of modified RNA.
Dr. Olga Kovalchuk (Biological Sciences) was awarded $55,000 annually to study the fundamental mechanisms of low-dose radiation.
Dr. Borries Demeler (Chemistry & Biochemistry) is set to receive $47,000 yearly for solution studies of interacting biopolymer systems.
Dr. Hadi Kharaghani (Mathematics & Computer Science) will receive $32,000 a year for his project on special orthogonal matrices.

The remainder of the NSERC recipients are four early career researchers, each of whom received a Discovery Launch Supplement of $12,500 in addition to their Discovery Grant.

Dr. Corina Birghila (Mathematics & Computer Science) was awarded a yearly amount of $31,000 for a project titled Optimal Decision under Uncertainty.
Dr. Jessica Willi (Chemistry & Biochemistry) will receive $44,000 annually for a project on ribosome functions through synthetic biology.
Dr. Vineet Rathod (Chemistry & Biochemistry) will receive $38,000 annually to examine the structure-function relationship of natural and engineered amyloid proteins.
Dr. Dylan Girodat (Chemistry & Biochemistry) will receive $42,000 per year for a project on the structural dynamics of ribosomes during translation.

In addition, Discovery Development Grants, worth $22,000 each, were awarded to Drs. Christopher Hopkinson (Geography & Environment) and Marc Bomhof (Kinesiology and Physical Education).

Hopkinson will use remote sensing to model vegetation and snowpack response to wildland fire in headwater basins.
Bomhof intends to look at the interplay between exercise and dietary factors on appetite regulation.

ULethbridge social science and humanities researchers were awarded $645,000 in SSHRC Insight Grants.

Dr. Daniel O'Donnell (English) will work on a project involving Research Data Management and Research Data Infrastructure by humanities researchers.
Dr. Scott Rathwell (Kinesiology) wants to enhance sport participation, promote physical activity and improve health outcomes for aging adults by establishing a framework for effective sport programming in middle-aged and older adults.

Several ULethbridge researchers are the recipients of Insight Development Grants totalling more than $291,000.

Dr. Toupey Luft (Education) has designed a project to address the gap in understanding how arts-based mentorship may enhance a sense of belonging for newcomer young adults.
Dr. Kenneth Holyoke’s (Geography & Environment) project investigates the nature and scope of climate impacts on the Wolastoqiyik and Wabanaki archaeological record in New Brunswick.
Dr. Justin Raycraft’s (Anthropology) objective in this project is to increase understanding of the social dimensions of human-carnivore coexistence in the Tarangire ecosystem of northern Tanzania.
Dr. Jeffrey MacCormack (Education) will develop a professional development intervention consisting of a community of practice for teachers and principals where they learn evidence-based practices to support students with profound and multiple disabilities.
Dr. Miranda Leibel (Liberal Education) will examine how the creation and maintenance of postal services are an important component of Canadian state- and nation-building.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge appoints first ever Evelyn Hamilton Chair in Liberal Education

caroline.zentner — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 21:25:01 +0000

The School of Liberal Education has appointed Miranda Leibel as the first Evelyn Hamilton Chair in Liberal Education at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

“We are so pleased to announce that Miranda will become the School of Liberal Education’s inaugural Evelyn Hamilton Chair,” says Dr. Shelly Wismath, dean of the school. “Her work on open and transparent government and social policy fits well with research and teaching in the School of Liberal Education and with the aims of the Evelyn Hamilton Chair.”

Photo by Sierra Duffey

The Chair was established a year ago following a $2-million donation from Art and Mary Jane Crooks. The position was named in honour of Art’s mother, Evelyn Hamilton, who had an expansive and inquisitive worldview and demonstrated lifelong learning.

“I’m excited to join the School of Liberal Education,” says Leibel. “There are lots of folks from all kinds of disciplines working together here and that’s really what energizes me — being around people who are doing completely different things and having the opportunity to learn from them and their work. I think there’s a lot of possibilities for collaboration.”

Leibel was born and raised in Edmonton and obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta. She began her studies in the political science department with a desire to focus on international relations.

“I took lots of different classes and just found that, actually, that wasn’t what I was most interested in,” says Leibel. “I started taking more classes on Canadian politics, specifically around social justice, feminism, race and settler colonialism.”

When it came time to pursue a doctoral degree, Leibel moved to Ottawa and attended Carleton ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. She defended her PhD thesis earlier this summer through Carleton’s Institute of Indigenous and Canadian Studies, after focusing her research on review processes for the deaths of children in care across Canada.

“Very quickly, I realized a lot of these inquiries were about Indigenous children in care,” she says. “Of course, that fits into a broader context where Indigenous children are vastly over-represented in child welfare systems across Canada. I wanted to think about why that was and how the conversations that come out of the review process could potentially bring the issue to a wider audience and increase awareness, but also have potential concerns when graphic details are shared and become a subject for public consumption.”

Leibel says important policy changes can result, but more often than not, government officials and the media are imagining their audience to be white settler Canadians.

“There are a lot of Indigenous-led organizations and activists doing really phenomenal work,” she says. “Ensuring that those are the voices given the space to take on those more prominent roles and say what the solutions would be is the right thing to do.”

The goal of the Evelyn Hamilton Chair is to instill among students the liberal education goals of rigorous inquiry, the pursuit of knowledge and critical thought grounded in evidence-based reasoning. The Chair will advance a culture that educates and promotes discussion among students, the public and decision makers on how to think clearly and carefully about issues and assess evidence and impact.

In keeping with that goal, Leibel will conduct research into data literacy and open government. Open government is a recent phenomenon that has gained traction with the ability to digitize records. The Canadian government has an open government portal which allows anyone to access data and digital records such as government contracts, maps and surveys.

“On one hand, it’s really exciting to be able to go in and see how the government is making decisions and how it’s reaching conclusions about different things,” she says. “But, on the other hand, when you go in and look at the statistics, unless you know a lot about statistics and have that data literacy, it’s not actually particularly helpful for a lot of people.”

Leibel’s interest is in how open government information could be used to address social justice demands and movements, such as advancing reconciliation and feminist goals. She also hopes to get students involved in the research. In addition to research, Leibel will begin her teaching duties next semester.

UNews - Miranda Leibel

��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers awarded federal research grants worth more than $3 million

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��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge appoints first ever Evelyn Hamilton Chair in Liberal Education

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��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers awarded federal research grants worth more than $3 million

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge appoints first ever Evelyn Hamilton Chair in Liberal Education