WCVM scientists among CFI grant recipients

The successful applicants, who are both faculty members in the WCVM's Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, are Drs. Baljit Singh and Suraj Unniappan.

Singh, a professor and the college's associate dean of reseach, received $400,000 for his project, "Transmission electron microscope for the nanomedicine research team at the U of S: creating and characterizing nanoparticles for biomedical and therapeutic applications."

Unniappan, an associate professor who joined the college in 2012, received $174,000 to support a metabolism and endocrinology laboratory at the WCVM.

"This major federal investment will provide essential tools for our faculty and students to make discoveries that will benefit our health and nutrition, the environment, and the economy through  innovative science and technologies that will help keep Canada  globally competitive, " said U of S Vice-President Research Karen Chad.



"The investments being announced today will further enhance our country's reputation as a destination of choice for outstanding researchers," said CFI President and CEO Gilles Patry. "They will make our universities even more competitive when it comes to attracting the best and brightest researchers from around the world."

The 10 other successful U of S research team leaders are:

• Sven Achenbach (electrical and computer engineering, College of Engineering and SyLMAND, Canadian Light Source) was awarded $215,000 for his project, "Direct Write UV Lithography System for Mask Fabrication and MEMS Applications."

• Li Chen (electrical and computer engineering, College of Engineering) was awarded $103,000 for his project, "A Laboratory for Studying Single-Event Effects in Microelectronics."

• Grant Ferguson (civil and geological engineering, College of Engineering) was awarded $29,000 for his project, "Infrared Imaging to Support Hydrogeological Modeling and Characterization."

• Supratim Ghosh (food and bioproduct sciences, College of Agriculture and Bioresources) was awarded $91,000 for his project, "Food Nanotechnology Laboratory: Developing Foods with Novel Structure for Replacement of Saturated/Trans Fats and Controlled Release and Targeted Delivery of Functionality."

• Timothy Jardine (Toxicology Centre) was awarded $62,000 for his project,"Infrastructure to Investigate the Sensitivity of Aquatic Ecosystems to Trace Element Bioaccumulation."

• Marcia McKenzie (educational foundations, College of Education) was awarded $101,000 for her project, "the Sustainability Education Research Institute (SER Institute)."

• Ha Nguyen (electrical and computer engineering, College of Engineering) was awarded $71,000 for his project, "Research Laboratory for Developing Communications Systems."

• Howard Wheater (Global Institute for Water Security, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Water Security) was awarded $800,000 for his project, "Saskatchewan River Basin: a large-scale observatory for new interdisciplinary water science."

• Yuliang Wu (biochemistry, College of Medicine) was awarded $51,000 for his project, "Infrastructure to Study DNA Repair Proteins."

The grants are provided through CFI's Leaders Opportunity Fund, which provides infrastructure support to Canadian institutions.

For a complete list of the projects awarded, visit www.innovation.ca.