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Province Invests $1.7 Million in Ongoing Research at U of G
Funding will help scientists conduct world-class research that will benefit Ontario
The Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation is investing more than $1.7 million in ongoing research projects at Guelph. It's part of an $11-million investment to support 68 innovative projects at Ontario research institutions through the Ontario Research Fund.
“The Ministry of Research and Innovation is playing a key role in helping these researchers fulfil their aspirations and capability to conduct world-class research that will benefit Ontario,” says vice-president (research) Alan Wildeman.
The provincial support matches commitments made earlier this year by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Canada Research Chairs program. Funding is also being provided by the research institutions and private-sector partners.
Among other things, the provincial support will fund construction of Canada's first one-micron nuclear microprobe; Ontario's first single-unit microneurography facility; and new laboratories for studying nutraceutical encapsulation and tissue, cell and protein dynamics.
It is also supporting U of G projects that will advance knowledge in pest management, mathematics, cardiovascular health and disease, physics, food science, and food packaging and design.
- Funding recipients are:
- Prof. Madhur Anand, Environmental Biology, $122,095 for her work as a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Global Ecological Change and Forest Biodiversity.
- Prof. Leah Bent, Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, $86,529 for a microneurography facility to study sensory contributions to balance, posture and walking, work that will especially benefit the country's elderly population.
- Prof. Milena Corredig, Food Science, $98,911 to support her research as a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Food Nanostructures.
- Prof. Diane de Kerckhove, Physics, $145,795 to buy a complex lens system for the microprobe she's building to study semi-conducters and to fabricate microscopic light-emitting devices.
- Prof. John Dutcher, Physics, $134,379 to support his research as a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Soft Matter Physics. He co-ordinates the University's Centre for Food and Soft Materials and is a theme leader for Guelph's Advanced Foods and Materials Network.
- Profs. Doug Fudge and Todd Gillis, Integrative Biology, $252,319 to establish a world-class tissue, cell and protein dynamics laboratory that will advance research in human health, biotechnology, nanotechnology and materials science.
- Prof. Paul Garrett, Physics, $149,364 for technology to improve the high-efficiency gamma-ray spectrometer used for beta-decay experiments. The equipment will improve studies of neutron halos in light-mass systems and research on the evolution of nuclear shell structure.
- Prof. Ron Johnson, Biomedical Sciences, $126,828 for equipment to advance investigations of altered venous function in chronic heart failure and to support long-term research into cardiovascular health and disease.
- Prof. Peter Sikkema, Plant Agriculture, $380,282 for equipment that will support an extensive research program for sustainable pest management in field and horticultural crops at Ridgetown Campus.
- Prof. Loong-Tak Lim, Food Science, $84,418 to apply and develop innovative technologies to improve the performance of food packaging and to advance fundamental knowledge of how food interacts with packaging.
- Prof. Amanda Wright, Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, $126,045 to set up a nutraceutical laboratory to study how to encapsulate bioactive compounds.