TRU researchers awarded $355,000 in grants

Oct 9, 2018 | 1:45 PM

KAMLOOPS — Three researches at Thompson Rivers University have received $355,000 in federal grants to go toward innovations in science.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s Discovery Grants program funds innovations in chemistry, physics, life sciences, mathematics, computer science, geoscience and the different branches of engineering according to a news release by TRU.

Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport, announced today, Oct. 9, more than $558 million in discovery research funding as part of the federal government’s plan to attract global talent, promote diversity and provide nearly 4,300 researchers and students with the means to pursue discovery work, the release states.

Including the three newly-funded researchers, a total of 18 TRU faculty are currently being supported by the Discovery Grant program which is valued at more than $2.17 million.

“TRU is thrilled with today’s announcement as it builds on TRU’s research capacity and supports the important work of our faculty and students,” Christine Bovis-Cnossen, TRU’s interim president and vice-chancellor says in the release.

This is the largest investment in research from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada this year, and it includes $70 million in new funding announced for this year’s budget.

“The Discovery Grant program is an invaluable resource for scientists in Canada engaged in fundamental research. With the increase in NSERC funding from the Federal Government in this most recent competition, I am already supporting even more students working on important questions in evolution, behaviour, and conservation,” Dr. Matt Reudink, associate professor of biology, says. “I’m incredibly excited about the research my students and I will undertake over the next five years – unravelling connections across seasons and between continents in migratory birds, reconstructing the evolution of fundamental life history traits and behaviours, and understanding how these phenomena interact to shape the lives of birds.”

Grant recipients include Reudink, Dr. Mateen Shaikh, and Dr. Thomas Pypker.

Reudink’s will be used toward examining movement, colour and behaviour. Shaikh’s will look into statistical learning algorithms for high-dimensional non-normally distributed data, and Pypker’s will focus on understanding the feedbacks between canopy structure and hydrologic flow paths.