$2 Million in Provincial Funding Awarded to Queen’s University

Published on: 2010/08/23 - in News

Sixteen Queen’s University researchers will receive a total of more than $2 million in funding from the Ontario government under the Ontario Research Fund-Research Infrastructure Awards program and the Early Researcher Awards program. The funding will support projects ranging from reducing carbon dioxide during the car manufacturing process to encouraging Canadians to be more physically active.

“I am extremely grateful for this funding from the Ontario government. It will help ensure that first-class researchers here at Queen’s have the resources they need to continue to make groundbreaking discoveries,” says Queen’s Vice-Principal (Research) Kerry Rowe.

Eight Queen’s researchers have received funding under the Ontario Research Fund-Research Infrastructure Awards program. The program helps ensure that Ontario researchers have the tools they need to lead in their fields on the world stage. The recipients are:

Dongmei Chen (Geography) – $100,883 to help establish a Queen’s Geo Computation and Analysis Laboratory (GCAL) for population health and disease modeling to help improve pandemic preparedness.

Meredith Chivers (Psychology) – $91,572 to study gender differences in sexuality to help develop treatments for reproductive issues.

Ryan Danby (Environmental Studies) – $104,000 to study forest-tundra dynamics in a changing climate to develop our understanding of how ecosystems respond to climate change.

Peter Davies (Biochemistry) – $49,130 to develop structure-based design and screening against calpain proteases, which will help to develop drugs to lessen damage done by heart attacks and strokes.

Philippe Di Stefano (Physics) – $185,102 to study discriminating detectors for dark matter and exploring the origins of the universe.

Albert Jin (Neurology) – $142,000 to further his work on targeting ischemic depolarization in acute stroke and devising new strategies for treating strokes.

John Smol (Environmental Studies) – $50,000 to explore new approaches to the problem of environmental sustainability.

Shetuan Zhang (Physiology) – $200,000 to study the control of cell surface channel density as a new strategy to fight disease.

Eight Queen’s research projects have received funding of up to $140,000 each under the Early Researcher Awards program, which encourages scientific breakthroughs while creating jobs for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and research assistants. The recipients are:

John Scott Allingham (Biochemistry) – new treatments for disease caused by certain fungi.

Gunnar Blohm (Physiology) – finding out how the brain computes sensory input to manage our behaviour.

Leon Boegman (Civil Engineering) – examining Great Lakes water movement and discovering better ways to protect it.

Il-Yong Kim (Mechanical and Materials Engineering) – computational analysis to redesign automotive manufacturing and knee replacement processes.

Amy Latimer (Kinesiology and Health Studies) – finding ways to encourage more Canadians to be more physically active.

Alan Edward Lomax (Physiology) – Finding out how the nervous system controls inflammation.

Douglas Spencer Moore (Kinesiology and Health Studies) – studying the links between socioeconomic status to cardiovascular disease risks.

Kyra Ellen Pyke (Kinesiology and Health Studies) – how blood flow affects the structure and function of arteries.

Ontario is supporting the work of 1,663 researchers at 21 institutions in 12 cities across the province through 80 Early Researcher Awards and 104 Ontario Research Fund–Research Infrastructure projects.

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Photo and article courtesy of the Queen’s University News Centre and reprinted with permission.

Photo caption: Award recipient Peter Davies talks to a member of the media after the funding announcement.