Ingenuity supports star researchers
Novemver 6, 2007 — Alberta Ingenuity will invest nearly $4 million this year in some of Alberta’s most inventive researchers through its New Faculty Award program.
These academic leaders of tomorrow are focusing on strategic areas of importance to the province, from water research management and oil industry innovation, to drug therapies for treating diseases with global impacts.
“These researchers have proven they are good at asking questions and chasing answers that will ensure the sustainability and diversity of Alberta’s future,” said Dr. Peter Hackett, President and CEO of Alberta Ingenuity. “This program gives new faculty outstanding start-up opportunities to set up their labs with the best tools and to recruit the best people.”
By supporting some of the most promising new faculty in all three of Alberta’s universities, Ingenuity is helping them transform Alberta through their knowledge and ongoing discoveries. This targeted support provides up to $100,000 per year, for three years, and recognizes new faculty members who have demonstrated balanced excellence in research and mentoring young researchers. The funding is being used to recruit top graduate students who are fast becoming the leaders in their fields and to buy state-of-the-art equipment.
Ingenuity has invested in 45 researchers to date, providing more than $7.2 million in funding since 2003. The researchers are working in nearly every area of science and engineering research. The Alberta Ingenuity Fund supports science and engineering research and innovation of the highest calibre to create a strong and prosperous future for the province. It draws funding from a $1-billion endowment established by the Government of Alberta to build the capacity for innovation in areas with enduring social and economic impact.
-30-
Note to editors: Backgrounders attached. Interviews and photo opportunities available
For a complete list of New Faculty award recipients, visit the Programs link at www.albertaingenuity.ca
Sandy Robertson
Alberta Ingenuity
(780) 994-7907
sandra.robertson@albertaingenuity.ca
BACKGROUNDER: U of L researcher eavesdrops on life’s smallest cellular machines — to discover new ways of managing problems like disease and pollution
Hans-Joachim Wieden
Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Lethbridge
Dr. Hans-Joachim Wieden came to the University of Lethbridge from Germany in 2005 because he was eager to do research and build multidisciplinary teams of researchers who could speak more than just the dialects of their areas of science. These integrated researchers, from diverse fields such as computer science, chemistry, biology and physics will allow his team to find more complete answers to the questions he’s chasing.
Since coming to Canada, Wieden has been focused on creating value from his time in the lab and in getting some serious work done with his collaborative teams of students. With support from Alberta Ingenuity’s New Faculty program, Wieden is developing insightful ways to eavesdrop on complex cellular machines through four-dimensional computational models that can be prodded into action to reveal the secrets of things like antibiotic reactions in cells.
His intelligence on cellular machines is also spilling over into a new project he’s undertaken that includes six undergrad science students who competed in iGEM, the International Genetically Engineered Machines competition in Cambridge Massachusetts at MIT. Wieden is helping the students develop a bio-prospector that uses genetic engineering tools. These bio-prospectors can be programmed to track down commercially valuable compounds and subsequently make them available for humans. These well-trained bacteria could also be used for detecting things like toxins in water.
The competition is allowing local students to compete in an international arena, to build bridges between disciplines, while working with senior scientists. The students are also gaining valuable understanding of the complexities of goal-driven research.
Wieden says he’s amazed at how quickly these young students have come up to speed and how they help each other fill in the gaps of understanding between their discreet disciplines.
BACKGROUNDER: Hello industry? U of A researcher is shopping for problems
Mohammad Salavatipour
Computing Science, University of Alberta
Mohammad Salavatipour is a mathematical architect who is building some pretty cool projects that could improve your neighborhood – from fine-tuning garbage collection, to hospital wait times for surgery – to curing cancer.
Salavatipour has received an Alberta Ingenuity New Faculty award to support his work that is defining the infinitely small steps that mathematicians and computer scientists interpret to show how processes work, when they’re done to their optimum capability.
One of the many areas that Salavatipour and his collaborators are working in is the new multidisciplinary field of bioinformatics, which combines biology and computer science. Their understanding of small processes is allowing them to understand important data like the patterns emerging from shared genetic information from cancer patients around the world. The insights these mathematical architects are interpreting allow health researchers to sift through almost infinite sets of data to show how genes affect people’s chances of being afflicted with diseases like cancer and what the outcomes of available therapies are likely to be.
Crunching mathematical algorithms can also be used in a wide range of other applications, including the micro-delivery of cancer treatments to improve the accuracy of radiation therapy, as well as minimizing the cost of transportation, improving the quality of cell phone service and minimizing wait times in hospitals.
Salavatipour began his career in the science of efficiencies and algorithms at the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto but chose Edmonton because “everything’s going on here and growing - making it easier to attract the best researchers to join this project.” Being able to recruit the best graduate students is critical to the success of his research because it takes a lot of dedicated and highly skilled researchers to interpret the waves of information that allow them to create the solutions that are shaping health and industry practices.
BACKGROUNDER: The Fossil’s Journey: Making Alberta’s oil pipelines more efficient as they carry oil across thousands of rugged kilometres
Vahid Garousi
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary
While very few people stop to consider the incredible journey that takes place every day to bring Alberta’s rich energy resources into our lives, Vahid Garousi of the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering and his collaborator, Nesa Ilich of Optimal Solutions Ltd., a Calgary-based consulting firm, spend their time thinking about little else.
Garousi has received funding from Alberta Ingenuity’s New Faculty program to help build his multi-disciplinary team that is dedicated to improving efficiencies in the oil industry. One of the questions Garousi and his team of software engineers, applied mathematicians and petroleum engineers are addressing in collaboration with industry partners like Enbridge, is to find ways of minimizing the energy consumption required to pump oil across the thousands of kilometres that Alberta oil travels every day.
As of 2003, there were about 43,126 kilometres of oil pipelines in Canada, and it takes a lot of energy to move oil along those pipelines. The cargo is given a boost through pumps that are located in pumping stations, about the size of a house, every 50 – 100 kilometres. Just one of those pumping stations can use as much electricity as a small community. A rough estimate of the annual world-wide oil transportation costs is about $400 billion per year. By analyzing the detailed information from sensors located along the pipeline, these researchers are finding ways to cut down on the consumption of energy, cutting costs and making the process more sustainable. No small task since every kilometre along the way is unique to the one before, making the variables like temperature, geography and the nature of the oil, extremely difficult to manage.
The team is sharing their findings and knowledge with software engineers, government leaders, universities and industry groups in Alberta through collaborative workshops, bringing better practices to emerging questions.