UNews - Locke Spencer

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ community comes together to support Buy a Student a Breakfast campaign

trevor.kenney — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 18:30:02 +0000

Breakfast — it’s often been called the most important meal of the day. And what if your day includes studying for or taking a final exam? It’s easy to see how a good breakfast can play a major role in ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students finding success during the most crucial time of their semester. So, let’s help them out!

The annual Buy a Student a Breakfast (BASAB) campaign begins today and as the final exam period approaches, it’s the perfect opportunity to support ULethbridge students — one breakfast at a time.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Alumni Association President Cyndi Crane (BMus ’95, MEd ’01) presents a coupon to first-year student Joshua Nilsson.

“As a community, it’s really the small things that we can do for each other that help build and develop unity,” says Dr. Locke Spencer (MSc '05, PhD ’09), Chair and associate professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. “So, when you consider what you can do to just show a student you care, this is one thing that is pretty easy for most people.”

How easy? A donation of $6 provides a student with a free breakfast coupon redeemable on campus — offering encouragement and a tangible reminder that their ULethbridge community is behind them.

The annual initiative that last year saw 1,560 breakfast coupons purchased, nearly $10,000 raised in donations, is eyeing doubling that support this year and doubling the positive impact it has for students. With alumni, faculty, staff and friends supporting the campaign, the effort sends a powerful message to students that their community is behind them.

“I was a student who received one of the coupons for Buy a Student a Breakfast during exams, and it really made me feel like I could do it and that there was a team behind me,” says Shanna Brown (BHSc ’16), coordinator of Campus Life Housing. “It means that the village is coming together. It’s our faculty, our community and our alumni who build this wonderful network of support that really wraps around our students.”

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s alumni community has long been a major supporter of BASAB and Cyndi Crane (BMus ’95, MEd ’01), president of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Alumni Association, says all alumni can relate to the pressures students face this time of the semester and how nutrition plays a part in fueling the mind and setting them up for success.

“My hope for this year’s campaign is that we reach every single ULethbridge alumni, all 55,000-plus, and I want them to go back to that moment, that moment where they were that student writing that test,” she says. “I want them to remember that time in their life when they needed support — and a breakfast like this is that warm hug that everybody deserves.”

First-year Dhillon School of Business student Joshua Nilsson is thankful to the donors who support the program.

“For sure it makes me feel supported,“ he says. “Just knowing there’s someone out there who cared enough to donate their money to help a broke student like me eat, have a good breakfast, it’s great.”

The BASAB campaign runs through Tuesday, Dec. 2, after which coupons will be available to be picked up and utilized by students during the exam period. Those looking to donate can visit: ulethbridge.ca/giving/buy-student-breakfast.

Lethbridge will see a partial solar eclipse on Monday, April 8

caroline.zentner — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:52:15 +0000

Around noon on Monday, April 8, residents of Lethbridge and the surrounding area will have the opportunity to witness a partial solar eclipse, an awe-inspiring event that will captivate observers of all ages.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon travels between an observer and the sun. In other words, an eclipse occurs when the Earth, moon and sun become aligned. Typically, a total solar eclipse is visible from somewhere on Earth every 18 months. For the upcoming April 8 event, the total solar eclipse is only visible along the eastern parts of North America. While Lethbridge will not experience a total solar eclipse, the partial phase is still an extraordinary event to see.

“We look forward to sharing this unforgettable experience with the community and fostering a deeper appreciation for the wonders of the cosmos,” says Dr. Locke Spencer, Chair of the Department of Physics & Astronomy at ULethbridge.

For observers in the Lethbridge area, the eclipse will start just after 11:45 a.m., reach its maximum at 12:43 p.m. and end at 1:41 p.m. At its peak, just over 30 per cent of the sun’s area will be blocked by the moon (that’s about four per cent more eclipse than Calgary), creating a breathtaking celestial display, says Spencer.

To celebrate this cosmic occurrence, the Lethbridge Astronomy Society is hosting an observing event for the public. Participation is free, but space is limited and advanced registration is required. If the sky is overcast, they will stream footage from somewhere with good viewing conditions. Details are available on the Lethbridge Astronomy Society website and Facebook pages.

Safety is of paramount importance when observing a solar eclipse. Looking directly at the sun without proper eye protection can cause permanent eye damage. Therefore, Spencer says their department emphasizes using approved solar viewing glasses and other safe viewing methods to ensure a memorable and secure experience for all attendees. Resources for safe eclipse viewing are available at NASA.

“Whether you're a seasoned stargazer or someone experiencing the wonders of the cosmos for the first time, we encourage you to make some time to witness this event,” says Spencer. “There are plenty of ways to safely observe an eclipse using supplies from your own home including making a pinhole projector or even using a spaghetti colander.”

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers secure support through Alberta’s Major Innovation Fund

caroline.zentner — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 17:13:11 +0000

From using robotic systems in health-care delivery and building on quantum technologies to adapting highly sensitive space instruments to space and defence applications, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers are involved in a host of projects receiving grants through Alberta’s Major Innovation Fund.

The Honourable Nate Glubish, Minister of Technology and Innovation, announced today an investment of $27.3 million into innovative research in Alberta’s post-secondary institutions. The funding is designed to accelerate research and commercialization in medical devices, electronic and mobile health, clean energy and space and defence technologies. The funding goes to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta (U of A) and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary (U of C) to lead four province-wide strategic initiatives. ULethbridge and Athabasca ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ are partners in the projects.

“Supporting fundamental research and initiatives that commercialize new technologies is critical to strengthening and diversifying the Alberta economy,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, ULethbridge vice-president (research). “This investment will encourage new and traditional sectors to grow, improving the economic prospects and quality of life for all Albertans.”

Led by the U of C under the Space and Defence Technologies theme, Drs. David Naylor and Locke Spencer, professors in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, will be involved in migrating the technologies developed by the Astronomical Instrumentation Group (AIG) at ULethbridge. Advances made by the AIG resulted in the most sensitive instruments to be deployed in space.

“The announcement of the Major Innovation Fund for the Space and Defence Technologies theme is reflective of our increasingly more complex world,” says Naylor. “The MIF funding will allow us to migrate the technologies in which we are recognized as world leaders and develop them to meet the broader needs of the space and defence community.”

Another project led by the U of C is centred on quantum technology innovations and ULethbridge’s Dr. Saurya Das, a professor in the physics and astronomy department, is one of nine principal investigators.

“The second quantum revolution is on, which will change the way one thinks of computers and computation and will revolutionize communication and commerce,” he says. “Alberta researchers are key players in this, and their research will help diversify Alberta’s economy, create jobs, develop made-in-Alberta quantum technology, and make it accessible to end users in Alberta and beyond. ULethbridge researchers have been working on problems in Quantum Computation and Quantum Sensing and have made significant contributions to the project. In the process, they have published papers in top-rated international journals and trained students and postdocs.”

Dr. Matthew Tata, a professor at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, is the ULethbridge lead for a U of A-led project. A-MEDICO is a pan-Alberta network of researchers, industry and health-care professionals working on medical technologies for broad applications, especially for underserved populations. Tata was previously involved in a MIF project that focused on medical robotics, image-guided surgery and machine intelligence-based solutions for medicine.

“In both of these projects, my team is focused on applying state-of-the-art machine learning techniques for audio processing,” says Tata. “We have been developing audio AI for human-robot interaction in health care and industrial scenarios.”

Lethbridge Regional Science Fair stays virtual for 2021

caroline.zentner — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 17:42:14 +0000

The Southern Alberta Technology Council (SATC), which has organized the Lethbridge Regional Science Fair and Science Olympics since 2002, is going ahead with a virtual platform for the 2021 Regional Science Fair event.

SATC is now accepting video submissions of student projects from kindergarten to Grade 12 until Monday, March 22 (see www.satclethbridge.ca). Virtual project judging will take place from March 23 to 30, and a live-streamed awards ceremony will take place on March 31. An online public showcase of the projects will be hosted following project evaluations.

This format allows students, judges, and the public to follow social restrictions while celebrating the work these students have done.

“We are excited to bring this event to the community this year within the current public health protocols,” says Dr. Locke Spencer, SATC President and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. “We had a very successful virtual event in 2020 and look forward to building on that in 2021.”

Top projects at our regional fair will go on to the national science fair. Youth Science Canada (YSC), the parent organization of the Canada-Wide Science Fair (CWSF), is hosting the virtual CWSF from May 17 to 21.

Kelly Oikawa, SATC Board member and Lethbridge College Instructor, was key in developing plans for our virtual event.

“For many of our participants, the science fair is something they look forward to each year,” says Oikawa, who represents Lethbridge College within SATC. “These young scientists are our future and we want to help set an example of how to move forward, adapt, and problem solve in an ever-changing and complex world. Today's youth could use a message of being positive, innovative, and dealing with challenges.”

To host the Lethbridge Regional Science Fair, SATC is sponsored by the City of Lethbridge, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Lethbridge College, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Quantum Alberta, and many other local and regional sponsors. Information about this year’s event, the SATC organization, and its sponsors is available at www.satclethbridge.ca.

U of L’s astrophysicists receive federal infrastructure grant

caroline.zentner — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 17:08:57 +0000

Thanks to a $250,000 grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation for research infrastructure, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge astrophysicists will develop a state-of-the-art cryogenic test facility to evaluate the performance of instruments destined for space exploration.

The Astronomical Instrumentation Group (AIG) at the U of L is poised to build a liquid-helium free cryostat and cryogenic translation stage that will be used to develop and test the world’s first cryogenic, far-Infrared, post-dispersed, polarizing Fourier transform spectrometer. This new type of spectrometer has been identified by the world’s leading space agencies (ESA, JAXA, NASA) as a necessary next step to explore both galaxy evolution in the farthest reaches of our universe and star and planet formation in our own galaxy.

“The large facility cryostat (LFC), as it will be known, will be housed in Science Commons, and extends the capabilities of our group, positioning us to become the partner of choice with leading space agencies and scientific consortia,” says Dr. David Naylor, a professor and Tier 1 Board of Governors’ Research Chair in the Department of Physics & Astronomy who leads the AIG.

More than half of the energy emitted by the universe falls in the far-infrared spectral region. Because the earth’s atmosphere blocks this energy, the instruments must be placed in space. Furthermore, they must be cooled to extremely low temperatures to achieve the required sensitivity. The LFC will allow scientists to evaluate the performance of novel instrument concepts at extreme cryogenic temperatures. One exciting application is its potential role in lunar exploration.

“Most people don’t think about how cold the surface of the Moon can get,” says Naylor. “With lunar night lasting a full 14 earth days, the temperature in some regions can plummet to 25 Kelvin, which is about –250 Celsius.”

With Canada a founding member of the international Lunar Gateway project, not only will Canadians set foot on the Moon, but Canadian industry will develop hardware for deployment on the lunar surface.

“Any hardware, regardless of its type or application, must be proven to survive lunar night with limited resources,” says Naylor. “The LFC will be a unique facility in Canada, capable of simulating the hostile environment of the coldest parts of the lunar surface.”

“Not only will this infrastructure elevate our research, it will help us prepare the next generation of astrophysicists,” says Dr. Locke Spencer, a professor and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in experimental astrophysics. “We will be able to offer our students, technicians and post-doctoral fellows highly specialized training in cryogenics, optics, electronics, mechanics, software development and project management.”

In addition to the $250,000 from the CFI, $360,000 has already been secured from four industrial partners, all active in the space exploration sector: ABB (Quebec City, Quebec), Blue Sky Spectroscopy (Lethbridge), QMC Instruments (Cardiff, UK) and the Space Research Organization of the Netherlands (Groningen, the Netherlands).

The research team will apply for matching funds from the provincial government later this year, bringing the total value of this project to $860,000. The support from four industrial partners, the enhanced training opportunities provided by this facility and the provincial and national economic impact were highlighted in the review process. Five former AIG-trained students now work in the space sector, three of them with NASA.

Lethbridge Regional Science Fair goes virtual

caroline.zentner — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 15:32:33 +0000

The Southern Alberta Technology Council (SATC), which has organized the Lethbridge Regional Science Fair and Science Olympics since 2002, has decided to virtualize the 2020 Regional Science Fair event.

Originally scheduled to take place on March 27 and 28, the science fair had to be postponed due to limitations on public gatherings put in place shortly before the event was scheduled.

SATC is now accepting video submissions of student projects from Grades 4 to 12 until Thursday, April 30. Virtual project judging will take place from Monday, May 4 to Monday, May 11. A public showcase of the projects and student awards will be held virtually following the project evaluation.

This format allows students, judges, and the public to follow social restrictions while celebrating the work these students have done.

“We have done our best to include aspects of the fair that are feasible during this time of uncertainty,” says Dr. Locke Spencer (MSc '05, PhD '09), SATC President and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. “While postponing until a time when we could run the full event would have been ideal, given the uncertain timeline, we wanted to have something in place that was possible within our current social restrictions. We are one of only a small few regions in Canada hosting a virtual Regional Science Fair this year.”

A few regions held their Regional Science Fair in advance of the public restrictions and many cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Youth Science Canada (YSC), the parent organization of the Canada-Wide Science Fair (CWSF), has cancelled the 2020 CWSF, which was scheduled to take place in Edmonton in May. YSC will be hosting a Youth Science Canada Online STEM Fair open to virtual project submissions from students across all of Canada.

Kelly Oikawa, SATC Board member and Lethbridge College instructor, was key in developing plans for this year’s virtual event.

“For many of our participants, the science fair is something they look forward to each year and many have already completed projects and had school science fairs,” says Oikawa, who also represents Lethbridge College within SATC. “These young scientists are our future and this could set an example of how to move forward, adapt, and problem solve in an ever-changing and complex world. I think today's youth could use a message of being positive, innovative, and dealing with challenge, as opposed to much of the negative press and noise on social media, and this could offer that opportunity.”

“I am glad to hear that the science fair will still occur amidst this uncertain time,” says Charlène Golsteyn, a Lethbridge Regional Science Fair alumna (2009-2015), two-time national science fair medalist, and a virtual judge for this year’s event. “I think it is important for students to have a chance to present and be rewarded for their hard work.”

To host the Lethbridge Regional Science Fair and Science Olympics, SATC is sponsored by the City of Lethbridge, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Lethbridge College, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Quantum Alberta, and many other local and regional sponsors. Information about this year’s event, the SATC organization, and its sponsors is available at www.satclethbridge.ca.

Undergraduate research helps students put theory into practice

caroline.zentner — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 22:52:46 +0000

How a star is born could be the subject of a Hollywood movie but for Geoffrey Sitwell, a master’s student at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, it’s a subject for intense research.

He was one of more than 40 undergraduate students who participated in the Undergraduate Research Showcase poster session held as part of Research Week.

Geoffrey Sitwell

Working under physics professor Dr. Locke Spencer, Sitwell, then an undergraduate, used observations from the Herschel space telescope and studied the infrared wavelength, which is beyond the visible spectrum.

“What I’ve been looking at are massive clouds of cold dust and gas that are going to collapse into stars,” he says. “They’re kind of nurseries of the stars or infant stars.”

The spectral analysis tells Sitwell the types of molecules that are present in the clouds and further analysis provides measures of temperature, density and distribution of matter.

“By taking the temperature and densities of dust and looking at the temperatures and densities of gas and combining these together we can form rudimentary models of what these stars look like in their infantile stages,” he says. “The ultimate goal is to use this to inform star formation theory because we still don’t actually know how stars are formed.”

Sitwell has found that conducting research has given him significant benefits and paved the way for his studies as a graduate student.

“It’s been a wonderful experience working here and I’ve gotten the chance to collaborate with scientists from NASA and all over the world,” says Sitwell. “For me, doing the research was really what grounded most of my studies and motivated me to learn more because you’re finally tying it into something real, rather than constantly working with abstractions and math. The theory we learn in lecture is grounded by the research applications.”

Clarissa Beke

Clarissa Beke, who’s currently in her third year of kinesiology studies at the U of L, has been working with Dr. Claudia Gonzalez, a professor in kinesiology and physical education. Beke’s research study in handedness—the short title is Watch What You’re Doing—compared grasping behaviours in subjects under two conditions. In one condition, the subjects were guided by vision and could watch themselves as they picked up a food item from a platform in front of them. In the other condition, the subjects performed the same action wearing a pair of goggles that prevented them from seeing the food item, thus making them rely on their visual memory.

Beke finds research work exciting and, in addition to taking two independent study courses with a research component, she’ll be working in Dr. Gonzalez’s lab over the summer.

“Research is one of the reasons I come to school. Sometimes I want to be in the lab more than I want to be in class,” she says.

Vera Lee, a fourth-year student studying math, neuroscience and psychology, has worked with Dr. Matthew Tata, a neuroscience professor, conducting research into how people are able to hear in a cocktail party setting.

“That’s when you’re in a crowded room and you have a bunch of people talking. We have this ability to focus on a single conversation and filter out all the background noise. We can do this but we really don’t know how we do it,” she says.

Lee looked at the ways people can localize where a sound is coming from. Lee tested people’s ability to localize sound when they turned their head and when their head was stationary.

Vera Lee

“The participants in our unrestricted head movements group outperformed the participants in the restricted head movements group,” says Lee. “We also found they were really good at resolving the scene up until about five talkers but after five talkers they performed much less accurately.”

Lee says conducting research as an undergraduate has changed her post-secondary education path. Her original goal was to pursue a degree in education.

“Now that I’ve been exposed to this opportunity and I’ve been able to do this research, I want to take my master’s,” she says.

PUBlic Professor Series spawns a spinoff

caroline.zentner — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 20:53:05 +0000

Although Faculty of Arts & Science professors could be labelled serious, scholarly types by day, the occasion of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s 50th anniversary has given them a reason to have a little fun while still imparting their knowledge.

The PUBlic Professor Series: 5-Minute Edition, is designed to showcase the diversity of research interests within the Faculty in an entertaining format. Each of 10 professors will have five minutes and a maximum of 15 PowerPoint slides to do a presentation on their research. The slides will automatically advance every 20 seconds, requiring the speaker to keep pace.

“After five minutes is over, I’m cutting them off,” says Dr. Kevin McGeough (BA ’96), a U of L geography professor and moderator of the event. “That makes it fun because there’s a kind of panicked element to the presentation. It’s especially fun for professors because we’re not known for being concise in our comments. That lightning-fast approach makes it interesting for people to watch.”

The professors who have agreed to participate include Dr. Jay Gamble (English), Dr. René Barendregt (Geography), Dr. Sergio Pellis (Neuroscience), Dr. Ute Kothe (Biochemistry), Dr. Omar Rodriguez (Modern Languages), Dr. Jennifer Copeland (Kinesiology), Dr. Janay Nugent (History), Dr. Locke Spencer (Physics), Dr. Maura Hanrahan (Native American Studies) and Dr. Hillary Rodrigues (Religious Studies).

“One of the things we’re looking for is that these research presentations be of interest to the public and to people who aren’t specialists in the area of expertise,” says McGeough. “That matches the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s liberal education approach where we have all sorts of different disciplinary backgrounds and we all contribute to a larger conversation.”

McGeough has some experience with the format from a session he participated in at an event hosted by the U of L Faculty Association. He has a few tips for his colleagues who’ll be participating.

“Talk quickly, have a sense of what you want to say before you get up there and pick your slides well. If you lose track of where you are, good slides can cue you to get back on track or find a new track to go down,” says McGeough.

The PUBlic Professor Series: 5-Minute Edition is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 13 at 2 p.m. in B756 ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Hall. McGeough says the event will be informal and people are welcome to drop in on the session even after it’s started.

“We especially hope that alumni will come and experience this event. This will be a fun way to spend the afternoon,” says McGeough, adding everyone is welcome to attend.

Physics students shine at CAP annual congress

trevor.kenney — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 19:55:22 +0000

A pair of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge physics students managed impressive results at the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) annual congress that took place in Edmonton in June. Matthew Robbins (BSc ’15) and Jeremy Scott (BSc ’15) each won second place in their categories for student oral presentation and student poster presentation respectively.

“Both students presented undergraduate research at the national level and managed to beat students, some of which were graduate students, from the country’s largest schools,” says U of L physics and astronomy professor Dr. Locke Spencer. “This speaks very highly both to the quality of the students, and to that of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s physics research programs.”

Jeremy Scott (BSc ’15, left) and Matthew Robbins (BSc ’15) each won second place in their categories for student poster presentation and student oral presentation respectively.

Robbins (a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Undergraduate Student Research Award winner studying under Drs. Saurya Das and Mark Walton) received second place in his division for his oral presentation, Modifications of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle Motivated by Quantum Gravity. He was competing in the Theoretical Physics Division against undergraduate and graduate students across Canada.

“As it is currently not possible to access the natural energy scale of quantum gravity (the Planck scale), it is important to look for low-energy effects,” says Robbins, summarizing his presentation. “One such avenue of approach is by studying the corrections to the Schrödinger equation via the Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP) proposed in various candidate theories of quantum gravity. After finding the GUP-modified wave function for the simple harmonic oscillator, I then determined a corresponding function (Wigner function) in phase space. The modifications induced by GUP to the simple harmonic oscillator were demonstrated by analyzing the perturbations, the probability distributions for the position and momentum, and the energy levels.”

Robbins plans on pursuing a Master of Science under the guidance of Das and Walton, beginning in Fall 2015.

Scott (also a former NSERC USRA student) began his Master of Science under Spencer in May 2015 and received second place in his category for his poster presentation, Prestellar Cores in the Aquila Rift. He was competing against undergraduate and graduate students from across Canada in the Atmospheric and Space Physics division.

Due to last-minute scheduling problems, Scott also had the opportunity to present a talk on behalf of Spencer about far-infrared astrophysics and the U of L's involvement in this field.

“My poster was comprised of some of the work I did during my last year as an undergraduate student, and it focused on analyzing starless and pre-stellar cores in the Aquila Rift, a region of active star formation,” says Scott. “This work combined photometric data from Herschel (both the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) and the Photoconductor Array Camera (PACS) instruments) with high resolution heterodyne spectroscopy of CO emission recorded with the instrumentation suite at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). I generated spectral energy distributions (SEDs) by employing four distinct photometry methods. These SEDs were then fit to a modified black body curve from which important parameters such as dust mass, temperature and emissivity were extracted. The CO emission spectra allowed the determination of the distribution and relative velocity of cold gas in these starless and pre-stellar cores. This work gives insight into the conditions and processes taking place in the early stages of star formation.”

Both Robbins and Scott are delighted to have received this recognition and are excited about the prospects of continuing their research through graduate studies in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge awarded record $3.9 million in NSERC funding

trevor.kenney — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 22:04:26 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge was awarded a record $3.9 million of funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) this year, with U of L researchers earning support for projects in neuroscience, biological sciences, psychology, chemistry & biochemistry, physics & astronomy, geography and mathematics & computer science.

This unprecedented level of support was announced earlier today by Canada’s Minister of State (Science and Technology), the Honourable Ed Holder, at a national funding announcement in Oshawa, Ont.

Dr. Robert McDonald’s base grant of $355,000 (over five years) is the largest NSERC grant awarded to the U of L this year.

“This latest round of NSERC funding clearly demonstrates the outstanding research our faculty and students are undertaking,” says Interim Vice-President (Research) Dr. Lesley Brown. “That our research portfolio continues to grow as it does is testament to the quality of the work being done and also speaks to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ striking the right balance as a comprehensive teaching and research institution.”

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers receiving NSERC Discovery Grant funding include: Dr. Gerlinde Metz (neuroscience); Dr. Aaron Gruber (neuroscience); Dr. Alice Hontela (biological sciences); Dr. Jean-Baptiste Leca (psychology); Dr. David Logue (psychology); Dr. Artur Luczak (neuroscience); Dr. Robert McDonald (neuroscience); Dr. Majid Mohajerani (neuroscience); Dr. Gregory Pyle (biological sciences); Dr. Masami Tatsuno (neuroscience); Dr. Paul Vasey (psychology); Dr. Robert Laird (biological sciences); Dr. René Boeré (chemistry & biochemistry); Dr. Paul Hayes (chemistry & biochemistry); Dr. Locke Spencer (physics & astronomy); Dr. Mark Walton (physics & astronomy); Dr. Christopher Hopkinson (geography); Dr. Robert Benkoczi (mathematics & computer science); Dr. Shahadat Hossain (mathematics & computer science); Dr. Habiba Kadiri (mathematics & computer science); Dr. Nathan Ng (mathematics & computer science).

In addition, Drs. John Zhang and Olga Kovalchuk were each awarded NSERC Discovery Development Grants.

Luczak and McDonald will also both receive an additional $120,000 in funds through the Discovery Accelerator Supplements program (over a three-year period), while McDonald’s base grant of $355,000 (over five years) is the largest NSERC grant awarded to the U of L this year. He is studying neural circuits and mechanisms of context-specific conditioned inhibition.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s doctoral students were extremely successful in the NSERC Doctoral Scholarship competitions, led by Katie Wilson (chemistry & biochemistry), who was named a Canada Vanier Scholar, demonstrating leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies. Jason Flindall (neuroscience) was awarded a Canadian Doctoral Scholarship, while Kayla Stone (neuroscience), Allonna Harker (neuroscience) and Stefan Lenz (chemistry & biochemistry) were awarded NSERC Postgraduate Doctoral Scholarships. Additionally, five masters students were awarded the NSERC Canadian Graduate Scholarship, including: Justin Lee (neuroscience), Serena Shandik (neuroscience), Matthew Robbins (physics & astronomy), Rhys Hakstol (chemistry & biochemistry) and Douglas Turnbull (chemistry & biochemistry).

“We are pleased with the amount of money invested in our researchers and what this could yield in terms of the results they will achieve and the benefits their work will bring to society,” adds Brown. “Our continuing success with the federal research funding agencies is testament to our researchers’ ability to compete on the national stage.”

NSERC grants aim to develop, attract and retain the world’s most talented researchers at Canadian universities who are working in a multitude of scientific and engineering disciplines.

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