Ultra-high magnetic fields to image human brain wiring
Baron is working to view the human brain as it’s never been seen before. Baron is advancing diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI), a new imaging tool with unparalleled resolution and image quality that could help identify current undetected brain abnormalities in patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders such as epilepsy and depression.

Making our drinking water safer
Boyd is exploring the world of water, specifically nitrosamines--disinfection byproducts that are produced during the water treatment process. Boyd will examine how nitrosamines adversely impact our health and how nitrosamine concentrations can be reduced in our treated drinking water.

If you build it, they will come
Cameron is researching what role the ‘human’ landscape plays in spreading invasive species in Alberta’s boreal forest. She will investigate how birds, earthworms, and plants migrate along linear feature networks, such as roads and pipelines, and how changes in industrial, agricultural and recreational practices could minimize the spread of non-native species.

Christian missionaries in China and Japan as precursors of feminism in modern Asia
Chen plans to shed new light on the recent origins of East Asian feminisms and their place in modernizing China and Japan. Her research will analyze the work and ideas of both white and Asian Protestant missionary women in China and Japan from the 1880s to the 1940s, exploring how their sex, citizenship and skin color impacted their missionary work, and how they influenced Chinese and Japanese state-building and the role of women in modern-day China and Japan.

Removing environmental pollution with bacteria and fungi
Kapoor’s research will focus on bacteria and toluene, a commonly used solvent utilized in various industrial processes such as oil upgrading. By exploring the biodynamic responses of bacterial cells to toluene, Kapoor hopes to find news ways to reduce and mitigate the impact of this environmental pollutant, yielding more cost-effective and efficient bio-remediation processes.

Writing a tour book for protein travel in the cell
The cell may be the basic building block of life, but Mast is exploring its complexity. His research seeks to better understand the intricacies of cells and to identify the ways in which proteins are trafficked through cells. Mast hopes to enhance fundamental knowledge of how proteins are transported to their site of action in normal cell physiology, and how new therapies could be devised to avoid altered protein trafficking that can lead to disease. 

Bringing distributed communication into real life
Noori aims to design better wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that have improved throughput, longer guaranteed lifetimes and lower design costs. By first analyzing the network, and then developing a distributed network coding scheme, Noori’s results could lead to stronger, more energy-efficient WSNs, improving sensory devices used for remote wildlife study, pervasive health assessment or pipeline monitoring in the oil industry.

Creating healthy school nutrition environments
Olstad’s research will assess the impact of the Alberta Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Youth on school nutrition. Olstad will question how the newly-adopted guidelines are affecting students’ knowledge about healthy eating, how school nutrition policies address problems such as obesity and whether the guidelines are leading to improved diet quality and better overall health among school-aged children.

Disabling sporting divides
As a wheelchair basketball Paralympic Bronze medalist, Peers has a keen interest in athletes attempting to cross the boundary between able-bodied and disability sport. Her doctoral research will analyze cases where athletes have challenged the divide of able/disabled sport, examining those athletes’ choices and the associated media coverage, public debate and policy changes. Peers aims to open a dialogue about re-imagining and re-configuring elite sport to better accommodate, encourage and celebrate a wider variety of athletes.

Satie intermedial: (Re-)discovering culture through music and performance
Reiswich-Dapp will examine the unique works of French composer and pianist Erik Satie. Reiswich-Dapp’s research will include both a theoretical analysis of Satie, plus a practical performance coupled with actors, dancers and various forms of media and computer technology. The production will be recorded in DVD and toured in North America and Europe, inviting the audience to gain a new awareness of its own socio-political environment as expressed through Satie’s works.

Volume is weird!
Taschuk will further knowledge in pure mathematics, applied mathematics, and theoretical statistics by investigating how volume is distributed in high-dimensional convex sets. His research relates to two major unsolved geometric questions of the 20th century: the Hyperplane Conjecture and the Illumination Conjecture.

Harnessing solar energy with flexible plastic films
Thomas’ research focuses on the fabrication of nano-scale structures in organic materials for use in plastic films of solar cells. Working with fullerenes and polymers, Thomas hopes to improve the light absorption, creating more efficient, affordable solar energy with wide-reaching applications, including enhanced roof-top panels and new methods of power generation for consumer electronics.