Five University of Western Ontario students have been selected as Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship winners – Canada’s most prestigious scholarship for doctoral students.
Vanier scholars receive $50,000 annually for up to three years, and each was chosen as a result of their demonstrated leadership skills and high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and health research.
The program is administered jointly by Canada’s three research granting agencies: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Receiving scholarship at Western are:
• Claudia Caxaj (Nursing, CIHR) –The role of self-determination in promoting health among indigenous communities in the context of on-site mining.
• Lindsay Mathew (Medical Biophysics, CIHR) – Intra- and multi-modality image registration: tool development for pulmonary hyperpolarized helium-3 magnetic resonance imaging.
• Federico Berruti (Chemical Engineering, NSERC) – Bio-oil and bio-char production – feedstock preparation, feeding system optimization, and novel condensation and fractionation techniques for mobile and stationary fast Pyrolysis Reactors.
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Haley Sapers (Earth Science, NSERC) – Meteorite impact craters as potential habitats for early life on Earth and beyond.
• Dolleen Manning (English – Literary Theory, SSHRC) – Encountering the other: subjectivity, poststructuralism and Anishinaabe thought.
“By helping our universities attract and retain the world’s top doctoral students, the program is helping us develop and apply leading-edge knowledge, grow a world-class workforce, and position Canada as a true destination of choice for the world’s top students and researchers,” says Minister of Industry Tony Clement.
Vanier scholars are first nominated by a Canadian university and the nominations are evaluated by selection committees struck by Canada’s three research granting agencies. An international, blue ribbon selection board then selects Vanier scholarship recipients and recommends them for funding.
“With the combined Vanier scholars of 2009 and 2010, we now have 340 of the world’s finest doctoral students who have chosen a Canadian university. This proves just what a valuable program this is,” says Suzanne Fortier, NSERC President. “We need to compete with the world for the most promising discoverers and innovators, and the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program makes this more possible than ever.”
View a complete list of the 2010 Vanier scholarship recipients.