Nearly 60 graduate students are among more than 100 researchers at Memorial University who have more than 13 million reasons to celebrate.
Studies ranging from Newfoundland and Labrador roadside memorials to flood modelling and risk assessment to the spawning migration of Atlantic salmon and more are receiving big-time support.
The Government of Canada is investing more than $13 million in funding at Memorial University as part of a significant $1.3-billion announcement for more than 9,700 researchers and research projects across Canada.
The funding was secured through highly competitive grant programs, with investments from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Impressive results
“The continuous support of the Government of Canada is a testament to Memorial’s reputation as an international research leader,” said Dr. Tana Allen, vice-president (research). “I am thrilled with these latest results and offer sincere congratulations to our talented research community.”
Dr. Amy Warren, associate vice-president (academic) and dean of the School of Graduate Studies, says federal scholarships and fellowships provide crucial support to emerging researchers.
“It is remarkable to see the success of our students, across our campuses, who have been awarded tri-council funding this round,” she said. “Graduate student researchers and their work is more important than ever, and through this outstanding support, they will face fewer barriers and, in turn, will be provided remarkable training opportunities that will benefit Memorial, our communities and the world.”
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Below is a listing of Memorial’s results from SSHRC’s Insight Grants and Insight Development Grants competitions.
Insight Grants
Faculty of Business Administration
Dr. Jianyun Tang, Superficial strategic decision making: The case of the Muskrat Falls Project and beyond, $86,887
Dr. Ashrafee T. Hossain, Stakeholder-centric corporate misconduct and financing frictions: International evidence, $96,966
Dr. Jennifer Jewer, Governance in the era of generative artificial intelligence, $95,763
Total: $279,616
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. Tony Fang, Department of Economics, Estimating the Labour Market Impacts of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program in Canada, $238,640
Dr. Mariya Lesiv, Department of Folklore, Trauma and Heritage: Ukrainian War Migrants in the Host-Region of Newfoundland, $86,433
Dr. Scott Matthews, Department of Political Science, Economic Inequality and Support for Collective Goods, $304,452
Total: $629,525
Insight Development Grants
Faculty of Business Administration
Dr. Chansoo Park, Global Market Exit: Investigating the Drivers, Processes, and Outcomes of De-Internationalization, $73,125
Total: $73,125
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. Vaughan Grimes, Department of Archaeology, Feeding Fortresses: Investigating Dietary Change and Social Transformation during the Incastellamento Process in Central Italy, $68,295
Dr. Daniel Kudla, Department of Sociology, Navigating Human Rights in Encampment Governance: A Comparative Study of Canada’s Federal Homelessness Strategy, $70,494
Dr. Blair Long, Department of Economics, Local Courts, Factor Flows, and Economic Development, $48,693
Dr. Aaron Tucker, Department of English, The New Past: A History of Canadian AI as Techno-National Project, $65,956
Total: $253,438
Faculty of Nursing
Dr. Jennifer Collins, Exploring the Lived Experience and the Influence of Gender for Women with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in Canada from a Critical Perspective, $73,420
Total: $73,420
Faculty of Science
Dr. Jonathan Fawcett, Department of Psychology, Weapon Focus in the Digital Age: Bridging Laboratory and Real-World Applications with Virtual Reality and ‘Living’ Meta-Analysis, $74,792
Dr. Christopher Quinn-Nilas, Department of Psychology, Mindfulness in Relationships After Sexual Assault: A Dyadic Investigation, $67,846
Total: $142,638
Grenfell Campus
School of Arts and Social Science, Business Administration
Dr. AKM Shahidullah, Economic Resilience of Fishing Community: Potentials of NGO-Cooperative Collaboration and Value Chain Intervention, $57,790
Total: $57,790
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Below is a listing of Memorial’s results from NSERC’s Discovery Grants Program, Discovery Launch Supplement and Research Tools and Instruments Grants competitions.
Discovery Grants Program
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Dr. Oscar De Silva, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Multi-Sensor Resilient Navigation and Control for Long-Range Vertical Take-off and Lift Drones, $215,000
Dr. Trung Q. Duong, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Connecting the Unconnected: Unlocking Potentials of 6G Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networks (SAGIN), $315,000
Dr. Kelly Hawboldt, Department of Process Engineering, Development of thermochemical processes to co-process biomass residues to value added products, $240,000
Dr. Syed Imtiaz, Department of Process Engineering, Generalized deep neural network (DNN) for process control and monitoring applications, $215,000
Dr. Cui Lin, Department of Process Engineering, Borehole Deformation Investigation for Advancing Innovative 3D Rock Stress Estimation, $190,000
Dr. Wei Qiu, Department of Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering, Ship Maneuvering in Waves, $275,000
Dr. Baiyu Zhang, Department of Civil Engineering, Mitigation of Marine Oil Spills in the North: Bioherding, Biodispersion, and Biodegradation, $375,000
Total: $1,825,000
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. Mahyar Masoudi, Department of Geography, Enhancing the ecological and environmental functioning of Canadian cities by utilizing green and blue infrastructure, $165,000
Total: $165,000
Faculty of Medicine
Dr. Diana De Carvalho, Division of Population Health and Applied Health Sciences, Exploring the impact of occupationally relevant durations of flexed postures on spine biomechanics and sitting tolerance in healthy adults, $220,000
Dr. Graham Fraser, Division of BioMedical Sciences, Application of quantitative microfluidic devices to study mechanisms of microvascular blood flow regulation in vivo, $195,000
Dr. Qutuba Karwi, Division of BioMedical Sciences, Uncoupling protein-2 as a regulator of cardiac energy metabolism, $245,000
Dr. Yanqing Yi, Division of Population Health and Applied Health Sciences, Efficient and robust statistical methods for sequential designs of clinical trials, $160,000
Dr. Qi Yuan, Division of BioMedical Sciences, Investigating Age-Dependent Neuronal Plasticity Mechanisms in Olfactory Learning, $245,000
Total: $1,065,000
Faculty of Science
Dr. Michael Babechuk, Department of Earth Sciences, Defining the hidden continental weathering flux, $180,000
Dr. Luke Beranek, Department of Earth Sciences, Tracking exhumation and source-to-sink responses of lithospheric breakup: implications for North Atlantic conjugate margin systems, $250,000
Dr. Valerie Booth, Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics of macromolecular interactions in complex systems, $220,000
Dr. Graham Cox, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Geometry and topology of spectral minimal partitions, $170,000
Dr. Blair Dube, Department of Psychology, The consequences of distraction for attention, memory, and behaviour, $210,000
Dr. Jonathan Fawcett, Department of Psychology, Virtual (Mnemonic) Insanity: The Mechanisms and Consequences of Forgetting in Laboratory and Virtual Environments, $245,000
Dr. Joseph Fitzgerald, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, A machine learning-informed geophysical turbulence theory for predicting abrupt climate shifts and ocean circulation dynamics, $175,000
Dr. Aphrodite-Daphne Indares, Department of Earth Sciences, Metamorphic processes and tectonic settings in Mesoproterozoic orogens, $225,000
Dr. Lizhi Liao, Department of Computer Science, AIPerf: Studying and Improving the Performance of AI-based Software, $180,000
Dr. Eduardo Martínez-Pedroza, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Aspects of the coarse geometry of discrete groups, $170,000
Dr. Duncan McIlroy, Department of Earth Sciences, New insights into the early evolution of complex life from the Ediacaran of Avalonia, $225,000
Dr. Hilding Neilson, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Exploring the time-domain sky: understanding stars, exoplanets and SETI through observation, theory and Indigenous Knowledges, $180,000
Dr. Lev Tarasov, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Quantifying uncertainty in last glacial cycle evolution, $180,000
Dr. Hamid Usefi, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Scientific machine learning for large data, $185,000
Dr. Kim Welford, Department of Earth Sciences, Quantitatively reconstructing the Pangean Wilson cycle of the North and South Atlantic oceans using geophysical constraints: From cartoons to consequences, $250,000
Dr. Murray Wilson, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Studying Topological Magnetic Spin Textures with Muon spin relaxation and X-ray scattering, $175,000
Dr. Anand Yethiraj, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Probing multi-scale structure and multi-temporal dynamics in non-equilibrium soft materials, $225,000
Dr. Xiaoqiang Zhao, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Dynamics of nonlinear systems with spatial and temporal heterogeneities, $250,000
Dr. Susan Ziegler, Department of Earth Sciences, Terrestrial dissolved organic matter transport, fate and response to climate change in the NW Atlantic boreal-subarctic coastal margin, $300,000
Dr. Sadri Znaidi, Department of Biology, Structural, functional and evolutionary insights into transcriptional regulatory networks through systematic genetic analysis of transcription factors in Candida albicans, $259,590
Total: $4,254,590
School of Human Kinetics and Recreation
Dr. Duane Button, A neuromechanical approach to understanding the development of upper body neuromuscular fatigue, $220,000
Total: $220,000
School of Pharmacy
Dr. Laleh Alisaraie, Microtubules, Cytoskeletal Motors and their Cargo Proteins, $220,000
Total: $220,000
Discovery Launch Supplement
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Dr. Cui Lin, Department of Process Engineering, Borehole Deformation Investigation for Advancing Innovative 3D Rock Stress Estimation, $12,500
Total: $12,500
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. Mahyar Masoudi, Department of Geography, Enhancing the ecological and environmental functioning of Canadian cities by utilizing green and blue infrastructure, $12,500
Total: $12,500
Faculty of Medicine
Dr. Qutuba Karwi, Division of BioMedical Sciences, Uncoupling protein-2 as a regulator of cardiac energy metabolism, $12,500
Total: $12,500
Faculty of Science
Dr. Blair Dube, Department of Psychology, The consequences of distraction for attention, memory, and behaviour, $12,500
Dr. Joseph Fitzgerald, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, A machine learning-informed geophysical turbulence theory for predicting abrupt climate shifts and ocean circulation dynamics, $12,500
Dr. Lizhi Liao, Department of Computer Science, AIPerf: Studying and Improving the Performance of AI-based Software, $12,500
Dr. Murray Wilson, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Studying Topological Magnetic Spin Textures with Muon spin relaxation and X-ray scattering, $12,500
Dr. Sadri Znaidi, Department of Biology, Structural, functional and evolutionary insights into transcriptional regulatory networks through systematic genetic analysis of transcription factors in Candida albicans, $12,500
Total: $62,500
Research Tools and Instruments Grant
Faculty of Science
Dr. Dawn Bignell, Department of Biology, An integrated system for studying pharmaceutically and agriculturally important microbial small molecules, $136,969
Dr. Sherri Christian, Department of Biochemistry, Nucleofector Transfection System for the study of cellular regulation and activation, $56,840
Dr. Hilary Corlett, Department of Earth Sciences, Field Vehicle System to Improve Access to Biogeochemical Research Sites, $129,217
Dr. Ian Fleming, Department of Ocean Sciences, Urgent need for Field Vehicle to sustain Ocean Science Research, $85,107
Total: $408,133
Scholarships and fellowships
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Read more here and here.
Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s
Faculty of Education
Courtney DeGiobbi – Rethinking Learning Modalities: Moving Beyond Binary Terms to a Digitally Mediated Scale – $27,000
Faculty of Science
Emma Duffett – The Role of Social Support in the Effectiveness of the Optimal Performance Program – $27,000
Kiara Duffett – Body Image and Eating Attitudes in Response to ‘What I Eat in A Day’ TikTok Videos – $27,000
Jenna Perry – Acne Stigma: A Predictor of Acne Dysmorphia? – $27,000
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Nicholas Dunphy – A Sociolinguistic Study of Preferences, Attitudes and Access among Youth-Aged Mi’kmaw Language Learners in Ktaqmkuk – $27,000
Leah Froud – Soldiers, Civilians and Sex: British Soldiers’ Morale Behind the Western Front During the First World War – $27,000
Samantha Noel – Revisiting Lovecraft From a Queer Perspective – $27,000
Aderinola Olamiju – Racialised Labour in Nova Scotia: Black miners’ experiences 1880-1960 – $27,000
Lauren Slade – Understanding the policy vs. practice of the education of justice involved youth in Newfoundland and Labrador – $27,000
Liberty Starkes – Victorian Sensational News: Narratives of Sex Worker Homicide – $27,000
Faculty of Medicine
Kieran Gill – Discrimination experiences, responses, factors associated with confidence responding adaptively, and barriers constraining responses among Chinese Canadians – $27,000
Alexandra McLean – Cartographies of Care in Harm Reduction Outreach: An Ethnographic Exploration of Community-driven Responses to the Overdose Crisis in St. John’s, NL – $27,000
School of Social Work
Alida Kelly – Mapping the Institutional Landscape of Harm Reduction – $27,000
Grenfell Campus
School of Science and the Environment
Valerie Levesque-Martin – Indigenous participation and cooperative management of the Torngat Mountains Caribou herd: A case study – $27,000
Labrador Campus
School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies
Oswald Michelin – How can Indigenous-led story mapping practices help mobilize memories of the downstream impacts of the Upper Churchill Hydroelectric Project? – $27,000
Total: $405,000
Canada Graduate Scholarships – Doctoral Program
Faculty of Science
Bridget Barry – Unacceptable Thought Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms Among Help-Seeking Clients of a Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program – $120,000
Molly Downey – Psychological distress, social support and coping motives for cannabis use in postsecondary students – $120,000
Brianna George – Promoting Healthy Exercise Habits while Preventing Disordered Eating Triggers among Young Adults: The Role of Motivations and Internalized Weight Stigma – $120,000
Courtney Loveless – The Longitudinal Impact of Mindfulness on the Romantic Relationships of Parents After Childhood Adversity – $120,000
Emily Rowe – Exploring the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on emotion regulation within romantic relationships: a novel ecological momentary assessment approach – $120,000
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Bradley Dart – The epistemic role of definitions in science – $40,000
Marine Institute
Marina Carbonnell – Life at Sea: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Seafarers in Canada – $80,000
School of Social Work
Devin Pollitt – Indigenous Children in Care: Developing Community-Driven Tools that Support the Cultural Connection and Identity Resilience of Indigenous Children and Youth in Care – $120,000
Interdisciplinary Program
Amie Richards – Beyond the Grave: Intersections of Grief Work, Performance and Gender Through Newfoundland and Labrador’s Roadside Memorials – $120,000
Grenfell Campus
School of Science and the Environment
Avery Velez – Netukulimkewe’l aqq kataq: Self-governance of the Mi’kmaw eel fishery in Ewipkek – $120,000
Total $1,080,000
Canada Graduate Scholarships – Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplements
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Natasha Farrell – Star-dust in Hollywood: Jan and Cora Gordon’s Multimedia Portraits of America’s Dream Factory – $6,000
School of Music
Edward Mansook – Mapping Sonic Acts Through Revival and Sustainability: The Masquerade Tradition in Guyana – $6,000
Total: $12,000
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s
Read more here.
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Paige Bodnar – The characterization of vessel monopole source levels through propagation loss modelling in the Arctic region – $27,000
Faculty of Science
Kate Hanrahan – Zirconium Catalysts for Sustainable Polyester and Polycarbonate Production – $27,000
Ava Hart – How Physical Traits Affect the Spawning Migration of Atlantic Salmon – $27,000
Claire Langille – Antimicrobial Peptide Selectivity for the Bacillus subtilis Membrane – $27,000
Madison LaSaga – Memory Control for Dynamic Visual Experiences – $27,000
Andrea McKee – Effects of environmental stressors on oyster (Crassostrea virginica) infection by marine pathogens – $27,000
Alexandra Offin – Changes in Oxygen isotope ratios and trace element geochemistry across the Challenger Deep Forearc Segment – $27,000
Alexander Pelley – Exploration of the Reactivity of 1-Chloroenones Via High Throughput Experimentation – $27,000
Nathaniel Wells – The Effect of Retrieval Suppression on the Probability and Fidelity of Recall – $27,000
Marine Institute
Logan Reid – Fisheries and Oceans Canada Structure and Function in Fisheries Management Decision in Fisheries Management Decision Making: A Regional and National Review Through Time – $27,000
Total: $270,000
Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral
Faculty of Science
Justine Bissonnette – Developing Novel Analytical Methods to Identify Microplastics and Plastic Additives in Vulnerable Populations by Pyrolysis – Gas Chromatography x Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry – $120,000
Laura Dawson – Puffin Perception: Neurobehavioural Insights Into Seabird Visual Ecology – $120,000
Nikita Harvey – Gas chromatography x cyclic ion mobility mass spectrometry: a novel platform for the discovery and quantification of micro- and nanoplastics in biological tissue – $120,000
Yvonne He – Studying and manipulating bacterial gene transfer agents – $120,000
William Kellough – Generalized Equitable Colourings of Designs – $120,000
Kerri Sparkes – Investigating the Role of Androgen Receptor Signaling via Immune Cells in the Sexual Differentiation of Brain and Behaviour – $120,000
Jedidah Whitridge – Is It the Same Old Song? The Role of Productive Variation in the Singing Superiority Effect – $120,000
Faculty of Medicine
Cameron Tobin – Characterizing the Role of Cell Membrane Asymmetry in Immune Regulation – $120,000
Grenfell Campus
School of Science and the Environment
Dylan Ruth – Innovative Approaches to Canadian Flood Vulnerability: Integrating Ecosystem Services – $120,000
Total: $1,080,000
Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement
Faculty of Science
Brooklyn Bolstad – Effects of ocean warming and acidification on rhodolith physiology across the Atlantic Ocean – $6,000
Total: $6,000
Canada Graduate Scholarship – Vanier
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Tinh Thanh Bu – Optimal Resource Allocation for 6G Integrated Satellite and Terrestrial Networks – $150,000
Total: $150,000
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s
School of Human Kinetics and Recreation
Kaitlyn Sutton – Antagonist Vibration Effects on Force Control – $27,000
Kyle T. Tuck – Achieving Expert Consensus for the Interventional Components of a Diabetes Mellitus in an Infertile Population – $27,000
Faculty of Medicine
Mark R. Bobbitt – Acid sensitivity of mGluR7 regulates somatostatin interneuron-mediated inhibition – $27,000
Colin Connors – Selective up-regulation of GLT-1 on astrocytes to reduce Alzheimer’s disease phenotype – $27,000
Valerie Dawe – The Impact of a Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax on Beverage Purchasing in Newfoundland and Labrador – $27,000
Carly Stevenson – Investigating the electrophysiological impact of chemotherapy on CA1 pyramidal neurons and the neuroprotective potential of Spirulina for chemobrain – $27,000
Total: $162,000
Canada Graduate Scholarships – Doctoral
Faculty of Science
Gillian Foley – A Network Analysis of Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Canadian Correctional Officers – $120,000
Grace Mercer – Investigating metabolic biomarkers and environmental enrichment in a novel mouse model of neurodegeneration – $120,000
Total: $240,000
Fellowships
Read more here.
Grenfell Campus
Christie Stilwell – Aging well in southern coastal Labrador: Identifying ways community and culture can promote age-friendliness and healthy aging in Sandwich Bay – $210,000
Total: $210,000
A number of other Memorial researchers are co-applicants, collaborators and partners on other projects that received support.
Learn more about research at Memorial and check out Research Strategy 2023-28 to learn how we’re moving ideas forward.
