Media Releases

$1,873,485 in Canada Foundation for Innovation funds awarded to U of T Researchers

January 22, 2015

TORONTO, ON — Eleven U of T researchers have been select­ed as recip­i­ents of the Cana­da Foun­da­tion for Innovation’s John R. Evans Lead­ers funds totalling $1,873,485.

The John R. Evans Lead­ers Fund was estab­lished to assist insti­tu­tions in attract­ing and retain­ing tal­ent­ed researchers.

Can­di­dates for fund­ing must be either rec­og­nized lead­ers or have demon­strat­ed the poten­tial for excel­lence in their field of research who are engaged in or embark­ing upon orig­i­nal, inter­na­tion­al­ly com­pet­i­tive and high qual­i­ty research or tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment. They must also be a cur­rent fac­ul­ty mem­ber with a full-time aca­d­e­m­ic posi­tion.

U of T researchers receiv­ing John R. Evans Lead­ers fund­ing are:

Joyce Poon, Applied Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing – Inte­grat­ed Quan­tum Pho­ton­ics for Secure Com­mu­ni­ca­tions

Dirk Bern­hardt-Walther, Psy­chol­o­gy – Neur­al mech­a­nisms of nat­ur­al scene per­cep­tion

Amy Bil­ton, Mechan­i­cal and Indus­tri­al Engi­neer­ing – Lab­o­ra­to­ry for Pro­to­typ­ing Ener­gy and Water Sys­tems

Eric Diller, Mechan­i­cal and Indus­tri­al Engi­neer­ing – Lab­o­ra­to­ry for Micro-Robot­ics Research

Mar­tin Krkosek, Ecol­o­gy and Evo­lu­tion­ary Biol­o­gy – Lab­o­ra­to­ry of Pop­u­la­tion Dynam­ics

Angela Schoel­lig, Applied Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing – Indoor/Outdoor Test­bed for Aer­i­al and Ground Mul­ti-Robot Research

Mar­tin Yaffe, Med­ical Bio­physics – An Expand­ed Inte­grat­ed Can­cer Research Bio­ma­trix

Gise­le Azi­mi, Mate­ri­als Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing – Extrac­tion, Pro­cess­ing, and Recy­cling of Strate­gic Mate­ri­als

Nicholas Man­drak, Ecol­o­gy and Evo­lu­tion­ary Biol­o­gy – Bio­di­ver­si­ty and Con­ser­va­tion of Fish­es Lab­o­ra­to­ry

Elodie Passe­port, Civ­il Engi­neer­ing – Sta­ble iso­tope facil­i­ty for improved under­stand­ing of the fate and removal of emerg­ing con­t­a­m­i­nants in water

Joel Watts, Bio­chem­istry – Infra­struc­ture for Study­ing Self-Prop­a­gat­ing Pro­tein Aggre­gates

“It is won­der­ful that so many of our researchers will ben­e­fit from the sup­port of the Cana­da Foun­da­tion for Inno­va­tion through the John R. Evans Lead­ers Fund,” said Dr. Peter Lewis, inter­im vice-pres­i­dent of Research and Inno­va­tion at U of T. “We can’t wait to learn about the dis­cov­er­ies that will sure­ly arise from the recip­i­ents’ research.”

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Jen­ny Hall
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Senior Research Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer
416–946-3643
jenny.hall@utoronto.ca