Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering

The University of Toronto's Frank Gu and David Wong are part of a research group that has been awarded the Brockhouse Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

The prize recognizes Canadian teams of researchers who combine their expertise to produce outstanding achievements in the natural sciences and engineering, and is accompanied by a team research grant of $250,000. The C20/20 Innovation Hub – led by scientific director Heather Sheardown, dean of the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University – was recognized for leading the development of novel treatment methods for eye diseases like glaucoma, retinal neovascular disease and myopia.

“To say that we are honoured would be an understatement. We are electrified, inspired and immensely grateful for this recognition,” said Gu, a professor in the department of chemical engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering whose research includes engineering nanomedicines to achieve long-lasting delivery of therapeutic agents used in eye drops to treat glaucoma.

Gu says the funding will enable his lab to deepen their understanding of nanostructured materials that can be customized for drug delivery applications. “The ultimate goal of my contribution to the team research is to lead to the development of novel therapeutics to delay or prevent irreversible blindness caused by glaucoma.”

Wong, ophthalmologist in chief at St. Michael’s Hospital at Unity Health Toronto and associate professor in the department of ophthalmology and vision sciences in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, said it was “a true honour” for the C20/20 Innovation Hub to be recognized by NSERC.

“I am very proud of our team led by Dr. Heather Sheardown,” said Wong. “The interdisciplinary approach has been key to building useful ocular biomaterials. It is the art of the possible: a need defined by clinicians with engineers and scientists determining what is possible to make.

“The trans-pollination of information between our disciplines gives us solutions, but also raises new questions and destinies to discover. More collaboration and less silos will further benefit mankind – and the Brockhouse award will help foster this.”

NSERC also recognized two �鶹��Ƶ researchers with Arthur B. McDonald Fellowships – Associate Professor Karen Maxwell from Temerty's department of biochemistry, and Assistant Professor Chelsea Rochman from the department of ecology & evolutionary biology in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

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CHIME radio telescope collaboration wins Brockhouse Canada Prize

lanthierj — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 17:03:43 +0000

CHIME radio telescope collaboration wins Brockhouse Canada Prize

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Tue, 10/25/2022 - 13:03

Faculty

St. George

NSERC

Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics

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A cross-Canada collaboration including the University of Toronto has won the prestigious Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering from the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) for its groundbreaking insight into astrophysical mysteries.

The award recognizes outstanding Canadian teams of researchers from different disciplines engaged in research that draws on their combined knowledge and skills – and has produced a record of excellent achievements in the natural sciences and engineering.

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is a groundbreaking radio telescope – one of the most novel and extraordinarily powerful in the world – located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in B.C. It is described by NSERC as “one of the biggest success stories in Canadian astrophysics.”

“CHIME’s success arose from thinking outside the box and innovating without constraints of convention,” says Ue-Li Pen, a professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics and a CHIME member. “The experiment leveraged leading Canadian expertise across the country to implement the novel cosmological intensity mapping concept pioneered in Toronto.”

“Building CHIME took a huge effort from the whole team, years of long nights for students, faculty and engineers across Canada,” says Keith Vanderlinde, a professor in the Faculty’s department of astronomy and astrophysics, Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics and a CHIME member. “It’s been amazing to watch the telescope come to life and start pouring out science.”

With files from NSERC

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�鶹��Ƶ researchers receive NSERC’s Brockhouse Prize

lanthierj — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 18:07:08 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ researchers receive NSERC’s Brockhouse Prize

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Wed, 11/17/2021 - 13:07

Faculty

St. George

NSERC

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Faculty of Arts & Science

Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering

landscape

Top row from left: Miriam Diamond; Arthur Chan; Jim Wallace; Cheol-Heon Jeong; Jeff Brook. Bottom from left: Robert Healy of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment; Greg Evans; Marianne Hatzopoulou; Scott Weichenthal of McGill University; Chung-Wai Chow

A multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Toronto has been awarded the Brockhouse Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for developing innovative tools and strategies for studying air pollution and its effects.

The prize recognizes outstanding Canadian teams of researchers from different disciplines who combine their knowledge and skills to produce excellent achievements in natural sciences and engineering.

“It is very gratifying to see how research ideas that were seeded almost two decades ago have grown into such a supportive and energising collaborative community,” said Professor Greg Evans of the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “The research we have done together has led to real benefits. There’s a lot to be proud of.”

Working out of the Southern Ontario Centre for Atmospheric Aerosol Research (SOCAAR), the team includes researchers from �鶹��Ƶ’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Arts & Science, as well as from McGill University and the Ontario government. The �鶹��Ƶ members working with Evans are:

Jeff Brook, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Arthur Chan, department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Chung-Wai Chow, department of medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, UHN
Miriam Diamond, department of earth sciences, Faculty of Arts & Science
Marianne Hatzopoulou, department of civil and mineral engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Jim Wallace, department of mechanical and industrial engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Cheol-Heon Jeong, senior research associate, department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Jim Wallace, department of mechanical and industrial engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

“Those named on the award are just the tip of the iceberg,” says Evans. “There are many others at �鶹��Ƶ, in government, in industry and in NGOs or communities across Canada, not to mention more than 100 graduate and undergraduate students. I feel very fortunate to have been able to work with such great people.”

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�鶹��Ƶ researchers recognized with top awards from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

lanthierj — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 14:39:46 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ researchers recognized with top awards from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Research & Innovation

Teaching

Community

lanthierj Wed, 11/17/2021 - 09:39

Faculty

St. George

Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship

Faculty of Arts & Science

Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal

NSERC

Synergy Award for Innovation

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

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University of Toronto researchers are being recognized with the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, the Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering and the Synergy Award for Innovation – top honours from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

“The University of Toronto congratulates these remarkable leaders whose research is improving the lives of people across Canada and around the world,” says Professor Leah Cowen, �鶹��Ƶ’s associate vice-president of research. “Their work is transforming the worlds of theoretical physics and nanorobotics, and making an impact on everything from the air we breathe to our understanding of ecology and evolutionary biology.”

The prestigious Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering was awarded to Sajeev John, a University Professor in the department of physics in the Faculty of Arts & Science, for discoveries that have driven advances in physics, chemistry, engineering and medicine. Examples include his pioneering research that enables photons to be trapped and controlled in an optical microchip and the invention of Photonic Band Gap (PBG) materials, which allow confinement of photons to a microscopic region the size of the wavelength of light.

The Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering was awarded to a multidisciplinary team of researchers from �鶹��Ƶ’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Arts & Science, as well as from McGill University and the Ontario government for developing innovative tools and strategies for studying air pollution and its effects.

An E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship was awarded to Martin Krkošek, an associate professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the Faculty of Arts & Science, for his research into the disease dynamics between wild and farmed salmon on Canada’s west coast.

A Synergy Award for Innovation recognized Professors Yu Sun, Jane Howe, Tobin Filleter and Doug Perovic from the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering for their longstanding partnership with Hitachi High-Tech Canada (HTC) – a collaboration that has led to numerous scientific discoveries and commercialized products.

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NETCARE project receives Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering

lanthierj — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 11:24:44 +0000

NETCARE project receives Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Tue, 11/10/2020 - 06:24

Faculty

St. George

Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering

Department of Chemistry

Faculty of Arts & Science

NSERC

landscape

Professor Jonathan Abbatt of the department of chemistry is the lead for NETCARE (Photo by Sylvie Li/NSERC/CRSNG)

The Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering was awarded to the University of Toronto-based NETCARE project for its contribution to climate research in Canada’s Arctic.

Awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the prestigious prize recognizes outstanding Canadian teams of researchers from different disciplines whose work together produced a record of excellent achievements in the last six years.

NETCARE – the Network on Climate and Aerosols – was established in 2013 with the goal of understanding how aerosol particles are formed and travel through the atmosphere, and the effects they have on climate. Led by Professor Jonathan Abbatt in the department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science, the NETCARE collaboration includes Professor Jennifer Murphy, also of the department of chemistry, and more than 40 Earth science experts from universities and federal research labs across Canada.

“Abbatt and Murphy’s contributions to the fundamental understanding of aerosols, ultrafine particle growth, and atmospheric ammonia regulation provide insights into the molecular and microscopic factors that contribute and shape climate change in the arctic, a matter of global importance,” said Professor Robert Batey, chair of the department of chemistry. “Under their leadership, NETCARE has brought together researchers and graduate students from across Canada and internationally to study this important problem.”

The team distills massive amounts of field data and observations to improve climate models that predict environmental changes that are likely to take place in the Arctic over the coming decades. These predictions can help policymakers prepare for and mitigate the worst of the effects of climate change in the Arctic.

“The Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet – and the research done by Jonathan Abbatt, Jennifer Murphy and all the members of NETCARE is vital in helping us better understand the complete climate system,” said Scott Mabury, a professor of environmental chemistry and �鶹��Ƶ's vice-president, operations and real estate partnerships and vice-provost, academic operations. “The University of Toronto congratulates them on this important recognition of their outstanding contributions to climate research.”

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