Western’s newest Canada Research Chairs (CRC) focus on resilience in a changing world, exploring how living systems and engineering materials must adapt to environmental changes.
Both chairs, held by biology professor Alice Boyle and physics and astronomy professor Amir Mirzaei, reside in the Faculty of Science.
CRC funding allows researchers working across health, natural sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities disciplines to advance their expertise in areas such as sustainability management, educational psychology, neurodegeneration and environmental geography.
The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions said the investment “strengthens Canada’s position as a global leader in research and innovation in an increasingly competitive world.”
“By backing top talent and bold ideas, we are driving economic growth, attracting the best minds and turning Canadian discoveries into real-world solutions that will shape our future,” Joly said.
Professor Alice Boyle’s breakthrough findings as a postdoctoral fellow at Western in 2010 laid the groundwork for her return to campus as CRC in Global Animal Movement Ecology.
Her postdoctoral work, supervised by biology professor Chris Guglielmo, overturned conventional wisdom about why tropical birds migrate up and down mountain slopes. While most assumed it was driven by food availability, Boyle’s research showed that wasn’t the case.
“The data we collected was consistent with the idea that rain drives those movements and there’s a cost to leaving in terms of reproduction,” Boyle said.
“Birds use a substantial amount of energy to maintain internal temperature when they’re wet. And for birds incubating eggs, options are limited. They have to sit there and just endure it. If that means getting wet, the cost of keeping those eggs warm just got much higher. And they can’t go out and get more food to produce fuel because they’re sitting on the nest.”
As a CRC working in Western’s Centre for Animals on the Move, directed by Guglielmo, Boyle is advancing her work studying where, when and why birds respond negatively to rainfall.
“Rainfall is changing and we don’t know a lot about how animals respond,” said Boyle. “At a population level, we know there are negative responses, but what is going on at an individual level?”
By attaching sensors to birds and using advanced equipment in controlled aviaries, her team will observe how much birds are moving, where they’re going and how much they’re eating during rainfalls of different intensities and durations.
Boyle will also study birds’ feathers as “raincoats.”
“We’re going to massage water into their feathers and measure how much energy they burn to compensate for getting wet,” Boyle said. She then hopes to validate those findings under natural conditions in the wild.
Understanding bird behaviour and their responses to rainfall has a direct link to climate change, the costs of which Boyle’s witnessed firsthand, tracking the movement of grassland birds to understand why conservation efforts aren’t working as expected.
“With grassland birds, it hits me every time, because I’ve seen declines over the past ten years. It’s awful,” the Winnipeg native said, “It keeps me up at night.”
Boyle said a better understanding of how weather affects movement patterns will go a long way in helping to better conserve tropical and grassland animals, and that she is excited to have access to world-class facilities, including the Advanced Facility for Avian Research.
“I’m so delighted to return to Western,” she said. “There’s an incredible community of people studying animal movements and birds. I pinch myself all the time to have the resources to do this work, but most importantly, it’s the people.”
The natural degradation of materials leads to substantial economic losses and poses significant risks to health, safety and the environment. Corrosion alone damages critical infrastructure and is estimated to cost three to four per cent of global GDP.
Material degradation is further intensified in technologies that operate under severe conditions, known as process-induced degradation.
Developing advanced materials and protective coatings with improved durability and performance is essential to overcoming these challenges and advancing reliable renewable energy and environmental systems. Hydrogen technologies provide a clear example: materials used in hydrogen production, storage and transport must function under extreme conditions. That can include high pressures, corrosive media and intense electrical loads, all of which accelerate deterioration. As a result, advances in materials science are critical to creating reliable and scalable hydrogen-based energy technologies.
Professor Amir Mirzaei’s research focuses on developing next-generation protective coatings and functional thin films that can operate efficiently while withstanding harsh operating conditions.
Using advanced fabrication techniques, he aims to design and fabricate durable materials that protect underlying surfaces while enhancing performance. These materials are broadly applicable across disciplines, with potential uses in renewable energy systems, environmental technologies, industrial infrastructure and biomedical coatings.
“This Canada Research Chair will provide sustained support and resources to pursue high-reward research directions in advanced materials and surface engineering,” Mirzaei said. “It will allow my team to develop and integrate advanced fabrication, characterization and design strategies for protective coatings and functional thin films, while strengthening interdisciplinary collaborations across energy, environmental and biomedical materials research.”
Mirzaei said the funding will also help to recruit, train and mentor highly qualified personnel who will translate thin-film innovations into durable, real-world technologies with broad societal and industrial impact.
Alice Boyle
Tier 1 CRC in Global Animal Movement EcologyAlice Boyle (Division of Communications and Marketing/Kansas State University)
Amir Mirzaei
Tier 2 CRC in Protective Coatings and Functional Thin FilmsAmir Mirzaei (Submitted)