>THE GREAT ‘GETS’
These star researchers could have gone anywhere in the world, but chose to work in Canada
Other star researchers who have brought their talents to Canadian universities,
University of Alberta (Edmonton)
Who: Graham Pearson Where: Came from Durham University in U.K.; previously a Carnegie Fellow in U.S. What: The Canada Excellence Research Chair in Arctic Resources studies diamond formation and the deep roots of continents. He is working to create a detailed picture of the diamond resources in the Arctic and develop new technologies for diamond exploration. He also created novel geochemical tools aimed at developing a fingerprinting technology that can determine the geographic origin of minerals — of impact in the issue of “conflict diamonds.”
University of Calgary
Who: Steven Bryant Where: Was Bank of America Centennial Professor at University of Texas at Austin. What: Bryant, a nanotechnology researcher, was hired away from Texas as another Canada Excellence Research Chair. His work at the University of Calgary combines nanotechnology, materials science, chemical engineering and geoscience to make oil recovery more efficient and less environmentally damaging.
University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon)
Who: Howard Wheater Where: Cambridge-educated Wheater was professor of hydrology and director of the Environment Forum at Imperial College London. What: Yet another Canada Excellence Research Chair, Wheater is an international expert in sustainable water management. He leads the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Water Security, working with a multidisciplinary team on issues such as climate change and socio-hydrology, to develop tools to assess environmental risk and to develop better water policies.
University of Manitoba (Winnipeg)
Who: Samar Safi-Harb Where: Studied at American University of Beirut and the University of WisconsinMadison; held NASA postdoctoral fellowship before coming to University of Manitoba as NSERC University Faculty Award Fellow. What: The astrophysicist studies the remnants of supernovas to help understand some of the mysteries of the universe, such as the acceleration of cosmic rays to extraordinary energies and the formation of the most magnetized and exotic compact stars. She is a Canada Research Chair in supernova remnants astrophysics.
Western University (London, Ont.)
Who: Stan Metchev Where: Hired away from SUNY Stony Brook; degrees from Harvard and Caltech. What: Metchev holds a Canada Research Chair in extrasolar planets; he studies the atmospheres of exoplanets (planets around stars other than our own), and leads the “Weather on Other Worlds” program that uses NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to discover storms on distant brown dwarves.
University of Waterloo
Who: David Cory Where: Professor of nuclear engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology before moving to Waterloo. What: Cory moved here to accept the Canada Excellence Research Chair in quantum information. He works on tools that will form the underpinning of quantum computers, a type of machine that, if created, would be revolutionary because they work so much faster than classic computers.
University of Guelph
Who: Mark Fenske Where: Jointly appointed at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital before coming to Guelph. What: Fenske, a neuroscientist and psychology professor, uses neuroimaging techniques and behavioural experiments to study factors that are crucial for healthy cognitive and emotional functioning; some of his research has focused on how attention, emotion and previous experiences affect recognition of faces and objects. He co-authored the bestselling The Winner’s Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Success.
York University
Who: Jianhong Wu Where: To quote a previous Star story, “Wu Jianhong was born a genius, admitted to China’s Hunan University at age 15 and earned his doctoral degree in dynamical systems and math eight years later.” What: The title of Wu’s Canada Research Chair position — industrial and applied mathematics — sounds a lot drier than it should, since Wu uses math to model the spread of infectious diseases, among other applications. Recent research, for example, suggested media coverage can affect when a disease outbreak peaks.
Ryerson University
Who: Candice Monson Where: Professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine and deputy director of Women’s Health Sciences Division of National Center for PTSD at Boston VA Healthcare System. What: Monson’s IMPACT lab focuses on why individuals respond to trauma recovery differently and what therapies could be more effective in treating disorders like PTSD. She is director of clinical training at the lab, teaching students to become successful psychologists.
University of Toronto
Who: Yu-Ling Cheng Where: Born in Taiwan; degrees from MIT, Stanford. What: Cheng has received grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada to pursue her research goals: developing safe, affordable sanitation technologies for the developing world. She directs U of T’s Centre for Global Engineering, a multi-disciplinary hub that promotes creative thinking about global problems.
McMaster University (Hamilton)
Who: Salim Yusuf Where: Native of India, Rhodes Scholar, and doctor with a degree from Oxford; Yusuf worked at U.S. National Institutes of Health before coming to Ontario. What: Yusuf, a cardiologist and epidemiologist, was inducted into the Canadi-an Medical Hall of Fame last year for his interna-tionally ally recognized leadership in the study of population health, particularly cardiovascular disease: his research has spanned 83 countries.
University of Ottawa
Who: Shana Poplack Where: U.S.-born Poplack earned degrees from New York University and the University of Pennsylvania before moving to Ottawa in 1981. What: Poplack has won a panoply of prizes for her research on sociolinguistics. The Canada Research Chair studies natural speech in its social context, and is a world expert on bilingualism: her research has particularly focused on the dynamics of Cana-dian French and the interaction of Canada’s two official languages.
McGill University (Montreal)
Who: Vicky Kaspi Where: Kaspi got her PhD at Princeton under supervision of a Nobel Prizewinning astrophysicist, then worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech before being ap-pointed ted professor at MIT. Came to McGill two years later. What: Kaspi, another scientist with a clutch of awards to her name including the Herzberg Medal and the Steacie Prize, studies neutron stars and pulsars. She was awarded one of the first Canada Research Chairs to study these exotic cosmic objects, which help reveal facts about the funda-mental physics of the universe.
Dalhousie University (Halifax)
Who: Doug Wallace Where: Originally from U.K.; spent most of career in U.S. and Germany. What: Wallace, the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ocean Science and Technology, studies the chang-ing chemistry of the world’s oceans — particularly acidification and the carbon cycle, both signif-icantly affected by climate change.