A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.
| Year | Citation | NID |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Dr. Park studied the return experience of Indonesian migrant women workers who worked as domestic workers in Asian urban centres. By gathering and working with stories told by the Indonesian returnee women, Dr. Park uncovered and highlighted their contribution to the understanding of transnational migrant lives and women's life in cities. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies (PhD) |
| 2018 | A quarter of the oxygen we breathe is produced by oceanic algae called diatoms. Using physiological and proteomic approaches, Dr. Hippmann identified the diverse response of diatoms to trace metal limitations. Her work highlights the importance of using a multi-facetted approach to increase our ability to predict population dynamics on a global scale. | Doctor of Philosophy in Oceanography (PhD) |
| 2018 | Circulating tumour cells are important targets for cancer research. Dr. Park developed a technology to enrich circulating tumor cells and then isolate them for genome sequencing. She then applied this technology to sequence single circulating tumor cells from patients with prostate cancer. This work will aid with early diagnosis. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Chen's investigations demonstrated that musculoskeletal conditions are the most common cause of pain in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Some trunk pain is caused by arthritis of the spine and fractures related to brittle bones. Her research provides a foundation for better pain management in this chronic respiratory disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Wilson studied modifications made to DNA in placentas to identify which pregnancies were at risk for complications such as preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction. She found that changes in the placental DNA could be used to classify some complications or used to identify new protein biomarkers in maternal blood during pregnancy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Kuo completed her DMA degree in music composition. She wrote a large orchestral work, titled Urban Suite, and several pieces of chamber music during her study. Her thesis, Fantasies, is a sixteen-minute suite for a chamber ensemble. | Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition (DMA) |
| 2018 | Dr. Grant explored the extent to which violence is used against environmental defenders in Cambodia. Her findings demonstrate that the threat of violence undermines the effectiveness of forest conservation projects but people continue to participate as an act of political resistance. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Fraser studied harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory. He considered questions involving packing families of surfaces into zero-volume sets and locating patterns of points in these sets. This research connects the study of fractal sets in Euclidean spaces with the study of fractal sets in other spaces. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Steif developed state of the art approaches to detect changes in the genomes of individual cancer cells. She then used these methods to decipher how distinct populations of cancer cells evolve over time. These approaches will enable future studies that examine how tumours respond to treatment and what leads to cancer relapses in patients. | Doctor of Philosophy in Genome Science and Technology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Aprem developed a set of mathematical tools to detect change behaviour from online search data, to analyze the influence of meta-data on the popularity of YouTube videos, and to determine the most effective timing to run advertisements in live social media. His work has important implications on extracting intelligence and monetizing online social media. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Su studied end-to-end computational imaging systems using numerical optimization and machine learning. By introducing time-resolved image formation models for color and depth cameras, his algorithms tackled some of the challenges in machine perception. Dr. Su's research opens the door to many exciting directions in computational photography research. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Molgat-Seon examined how aging affects sex-differences in the mechanics of breathing and the perception of breathlessness during exercise in healthy adults. His work contributes to advancing our understanding of human physiology, particularly as it pertains to the functional impact of sex-differences in the structure of the respiratory system. | Doctor of Philosophy in Kinesiology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Qu's study focussed on currently incurable advanced prostate cancer. Using a state-of-the-art cancer model he showed that anticancer activity of first line chemotherapy can be markedly boosted with the drug Aneustat without increasing toxicity. This drug combination may lead to improved clinical treatment of advanced prostate cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Suzuki studied how entanglement among internal degrees of freedom of a composite object can affect its interaction with the other physical objects. This study has applications to the fundamental questions of the transition from quantum to classical physics, quantum gravity, quantum computing, quantum chemistry and condensed matter physics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. McGregor has characterised a new family of enzymes unique to plants and has shown how an enzyme system produced by a gut bacterium breaks down complex plant carbohydrates. These studies contribute to our understanding of both the production and digestion of plant polysaccharides. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2018 | Glial cells perform diverse roles in the development and function of the nervous system. Using the fruit fly, Dr. Das identified and characterized the role of certain proteins in glia-glia communication. This study proposes models for glial cell communication that will help direct future work in other animals. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Koerner examined how concepts of place and resilience contribute to understanding interactions between charitable development programs and social enterprise initiatives in the world's largest NGO, BRAC Bangladesh. Her research offers insights into this complex and integrated approach in pursuit of long-term pathways toward lives of dignity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Wang studied the role of the cytoskeleton in B lymphocytes, which are the antibody-producing cells of the immune system. Using advanced imaging tools, her research showed that the dynamic organization of actin and microtubules controls B cell activation. Her findings illustrate how the cytoskeleton is essential for B cell function. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Sheykhjaberi studied the semi-solid behaviours of two commercial alloys to understand hot tearing - or cracks that start during solidification of a material. She demonstrated that the strength of the material is fraction solid and cooling rate dependent. Results of this project could be used to improve the casting process of automotive parts. | Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Engineering (PhD) |
| 2018 | Informed by the theory of curriculum-currere and ancient Chinese philosophical thought, Dr. Wang described how subjectivity has been reconstructed through writing autobiographically and academic studies. Findings propose that learning not only happens in classroom but also within the subjective sense of intellectual labour in a person's life. | Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum Studies (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Hendry examined models of sport expertise and the related behavioral and psychological outcomes. His research findings showed expert male and female soccer players followed an early majority engagement pathway. This pathway facilitates skill acquisition and the emergence of self-determined motivation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Kinesiology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Ding studied immune signalling pathways in plants. Part of her work represents a major breakthrough in the understanding of the perception and molecular signaling of salicylic acid, one of the most important plant immune-related phytohormones. Findings from this and other work will contribute to our better understanding of plant immune systems. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Chara studied the impacts of agriculture on freshwater ecosystems. Her experiments demonstrated that insecticide toxicity may be amplified or mitigated by other agricultural disturbances, such as fertilizer and sediment inputs. Her research will inform the development of effective strategies to protect aquatic life in agricultural landscapes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Legare studied the many privacy concerns associated with using modern cloud services. He has developed novel application design methods to improve the privacy of user data. His methods allow for cloud services that offer verifiable guarantees that user data will, in the long term, remain available, confidential, or anonymous. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Piggot examined how organizations determine which strategies they should adopt in response to new climate change policies. Her work demonstrates that if the right support structures are in place, organizations can quickly come to terms with new requirements to address climate change. | Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology (PhD) |