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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Dr. Sheth investigated the neural correlates of two distinct types of dynamic patterns freely-moving and goal-driven present in the stream of thought. Her findings offer new insights into the functions of the default and executive networks of brain and have implications for mental health, spontaneous thought, mind-wandering, and creativity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Soo examined the perception, recognition and encoding of pronunciation variants in an ongoing Cantonese sound change. Borrowing psycholinguistic paradigms from dialect/language variation, her work offers a contemporary perceptual account of the sound change, showing that listeners distinguish and flexibly map multiple pronunciations to a word. | Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Lapointe extensively employed various DNA sequencing technologies to gain deeper insights into anti-viral drug resistance and the molecular epidemiology of HIV, HCV, and SARS-CoV-2. His research has significantly advanced our understanding of viral public health dynamics, and heloed shape the local and national clinical management guidelines. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Radisavljevic investigated the role of gut bacteria in Parkinson's disease using a mouse model. This work helps with an understanding of which gut bacterial members may play a role in modulating non-motor symptoms of this disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Masjoudi demonstrated the potential of vacuum-UV advanced oxidation processes as a viable treatment for elimination of micropollutants in potable water reuse. Her research enhances the quality of recycled water, making the reuse strategy more feasible for water-scarce communities. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Pon composed a piece of orchestral music inspired by her early years with her child. Through the musical evocations and structure, she explored the mother-child-bond and related ideas like attachment, interconnection, awareness, time, and transience. Her work makes explicit a process of artistically realizing these human themes. | Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition (DMA) |
| 2023 | Dr. Nisingizwe investigated access to Hepatitis C testing and treatment in Rwanda and internationally. Her dissertation described HCV cascade of care, and patients' barriers to HCV care in Rwanda. Globally, she highlighted countries and regions with high and low access to HCV medicines and the effect of COVID-19 on HCV drug utilization. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Yiting Tsai developed a Deep Learning model to extract latent features for clinical and bio-engineering problems. He applied the method to two cases involving COVID-19 and Scleroderma patients, which resulted in significantly improved diagnosis accuracy, as well as discovering key biomarkers associated with main disease pathways. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Kellett examined how small changes to the chemical structure of molecules impact the rate of electron transfer reactions. These results help us understand how transient attractions between adjacent molecules can act as a conduit for electric charge and demonstrate how careful molecular design can control the electronic properties of a material. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Badawy developed a smart fabric made by growing Zinc oxide nano-wires on yarns. This smart fabric can record in real-time applied deformation and identify its location and magnitude. It can be used in the health care system to improve the diagnosis process, create treatment plans, and monitor patients' health conditions during a hospital stay. | Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Booker developed novel analyses to better understand how rivers respond to flooding. Using these methods, he demonstrated how river boundaries influence erosion and deposition in the river during floods. This work will help minimise human-related disturbance to riverine ecosystems. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Rufenach studied the biophysical interactions and three-dimensional structures of protein complexes involved in calcium signaling pathways. Her research has contributed to understanding the mechanisms of skeletal muscle contraction and rare neuromuscular diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ip studied the development of children assessed for autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Ip found that, regardless of diagnosis, these children all had developmental differences compared to neurotypical children. The findings stress the importance of moving towards needs and function-based funding and services in school and in the community. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Sutherland researched historical changes in the ecosystem services provided by forests of BC. His work advanced theory and methods for studying coupled social-ecological systems and moves forward an understanding of ecosystem services as part of dynamic systems. His work also leaves a legacy of data showing ecosystem services change in BC. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Wierts examined factors that contribute to the well-being and exercise behaviour, and demonstrated the importance of identity in predicting exercise behaviour. He further examined key antecedents of exercise identity and the feasibility of a group-based exercise program for promoting exercise identity and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. | Doctor of Philosophy in Kinesiology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Emry examined how the distribution of marine species across environmental gradients mediates response to climate change. She found that species often respond to abiotic stress in ways that correlate with their environmental conditions, and that the indirect effects of this stress can have significant impacts on the structure of communities. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Williams' thesis oratorio, Sprinkle Coal Dust on my Grave, is based on the West Virginia Mine Wars. Using a mixture of classical and Appalachian musical styles, Williams depicts a violent period of U.S. labor history, employing texts taken from witness testimony as well as songs and poems of the era. | Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition (DMA) |
| 2023 | Dr. Munk studied scientific simulators, probabilistic models, and their stochastic inversion via probabilistic programming. His research has led to novel contributions to the field of probabilistic programming. These contributions may impact diverse disciplines, ranging from physics to finance. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Roy examined Museum of Vancouver's reorientation to a public engagement focussed institution from 2006 to 2016. Despite resource limitations, museum staff developed new relationships with local community members and audiences. Dr. Roy reveals important insights into the challenges faced by city museums adopting participatory approaches. | Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Afreen investigated Bangla heritage language teachers' transcultural identities in greater Vancouver. Teachers' investment in promoting Bangla as a mother tongue was informed by children's transcultural identities in Canada. This research advances knowledge about the identity of heritage language teachers in multicultural communities worldwide. | Doctor of Philosophy in Teaching English as a Second Language (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Liang studied how harmful bacteria in the gut exploit our body's natural defenses to reproduce and cause infections. Her work informs future therapeutics beyond antibiotics to treat bacterial infections by targeting pathogen metabolism. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Dsouza's doctoral studies focused on designing representation learning methods for genomic datasets. The genomic representations he designed shed light on the structural and functional activities of the genome and are useful for studying the effect of genetic variants causing disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Johnson examined the political history of evolutionary biology in England, Europe, and Russia in the nineteenth century. While Social Darwinism has been analyzed as a political application of evolutionary thought, Dr. Johnson argues that this perspective arose in opposition to what he identifies as Socialist Darwinism. | Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Yin developed new methods to improve mass spectrometry based proteomic research. His work enabled more comprehensive and accurate measurement of proteins, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of the state of biological systems studied. The methods he developed has potential future applications in advancing disease diagnosis and therapeutics discovery. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Mehrabifard's research has addressed the problem of human-induced earthquakes resulting from the shift towards cleaner, lower carbon energy resources. By developing a deep understanding of the physics underlying these earthquakes, he has created effective predictive models and identified appropriate mitigation strategies to minimize their occurrence. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Engineering (PhD) |