Monday, April 27, 2009
Sixty-eight Queen’s professors involved in research ranging from understanding our galaxy structure to next-generation wireless networks to audiovisual speech perception are receiving $2.8M through the Discovery Grants program of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
“These awards reflect the continued breadth, depth and excellence of the research being conducted at Queen’s,” says Vice-Principal (Research) Kerry Rowe.
Eighty per cent of the Queen’s applications submitted were accepted this year, compared to 63 per cent nationwide, and total funding to Queen’s researchers is up $200,000.
The NSERC Discovery Grants program supports long-term university-based research and has recently been subject to two external reviews. As a result, this year marked the introduction of an enhanced, two-step peer review process. Scientific merit is assessed first, and then a funding level is recommended in a second step of the process.
“The reviews and the resulting changes to the process are giving excellent researchers the opportunity to receive funding commensurate with their stature and quality of research as assessed by the peer review panels, and in many cases this has significantly increased their funding,” says Dr. Rowe.
“However, this is a zero-sum process,” he adds. “While many have gained at Queen’s, there are also some who have had reduced funding under this new system – and next year even more radical changes will be made to the system. We will work with researchers across campus to help them adjust to the new system to ensure Queen’s maximizes the opportunities available for funding research excellence.”
Martin Guay (Chemical Engineering): “Adaptive optimization and estimation of complex dynamical systems”
Tucker Carrington (Chemistry): “New computational methods for studying the quantum dynamics of systems with five and more atoms”
Mark Green(Civil Engineering): “Fire resistance of concrete structures containing advanced materials”
Hossam Hassanein(Computing): “Seamless service delivery in next generation wireless networks”
Steven Blostein(Electrical and Computer Engineering): “High rate wireless communications with cooperation”
Kurt Kyser(Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering): “Tracing element migration in the near-surface environment”
Fady Alajaji(Mathematics and Statistics): “Joint source-channel coding theory with applications to wireless communication networks”
Mark Daymond(Mechanical Engineering): “Influence of local crystallographic anisotropy on failure of metals”
Stephane Courteau (Physics): “Towards an understanding of galaxy structure”
Kevin Munhall(Psychology): “Audiovisual speech perception”