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. 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. Branch examined the impact that severe drought has on the plant species, scarlet monkeyflower. Her research found that different populations evolve in different ways but maintain growth and improve water efficiency. Her work highlights that stress can be inherited across generations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Yu's work focuses on addressing challenges in training models with limited annotation, unveiling strategies to optimize weakly labeled data use. This work plays a crucial role in refining and developing more accurate and efficient multi-label image analysis models, marking a notable advancement in the domain. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Bolduc investigated and developed new synthetic applications for two sulfur-fluorine gases as reagents in synthetic organic chemistry. His work surveyed these two reagents in the context of four chemically distinct applications and has enabled the expedited synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant fluorinated organic motifs. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Chen unravelled relationships between diabetes medications and breast, colorectal, and pancreatic cancer risk, suggesting potential risk variations with common diabetes medications. Her study underscores the significance of understanding the long-term health impacts of prescription medications, advocating more research. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Shojaei innovated a camera-based system for the automated detection of indoor fall incidents. Her design balances privacy, accuracy, and real-time performance and accommodates diverse home configurations. Dr. Shojaei's research contributes to home wellness and aging in place by facilitating prompt assistance for fall incidents. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Yan investigated the production of waxy layer on fruit surfaces that protects fruits against environmental stresses such as UV Light and dehydration. Her work revealed the critical roles of wax compounds in improving fruit quality and shelf life. Her work will have significant implications on agriculture and horticulture crop development. | Doctor of Philosophy in Plant Science (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Mercadante's research provides evidence to suggest that one reason why greedy people always want more and are never satisfied with what they own is because they feel a brief boost of pride upon acquisition, such that the act of acquiring something is a highly positive emotional experience, but owning the item afterward does not elicit pride. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. English developed new electrodes for use in the demanding conditions required for the electrochemical treatment of industrial wastewater. This contribution enriches our understanding of how such materials behave, providing insights into how to design more resilient technologies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Lan identified three genes that regulate an important signal molecule NHP in systemic acquired resistance in plants. The three genes function together and negatively regulate defence-related genes in epigenetic level. These findings assist us in understanding plant defence mechanism and plant disease control. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2023 | Nikolai Medtner was a Russian composer whose large contribution to the art song genre has gone mostly unnoticed. Dr. Stanyer looks at how Medtner set complex Russian and German poetry to music, and how he communicated text and meaning through music. This research will be beneficial to future performers of these wonderful art songs to aid in interpretation. | Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano (DMA) |
| 2023 | Dr. Fomichev developed computational methods for predicting the properties of materials with strong electron-lattice interactions. Applying these methods to organic solar cell materials, he showed that lattice vibrations can break apart excitons to generate electricity, potentially explaining how this novel technology operates on an atomic scale. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2023 | There are many unsolvable debates in the world. How do we use the Internet to make sense of them? Dr. Novin researched how biases on the Internet influenced student inquiries, search strategies, and decisions. He documented the cognitive methods participants used to counter biases. This will help educators with teaching critical thinking skills. | Doctor of Philosophy in Library, Archival and Information Studies (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Engstrom explored how someone's social class affects how much we trust them. She found people see lower-class people as more moral - but they also implicitly associate low social class with immorality, and believe lower-class people are more tempted by financial need to betray trust. This research shows the complexity of class stereotypes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Li explored the dynamics of ocean extreme temperature events, Marine Heatwaves, and their ecological impacts. Her work improves our understanding of the historical and future changes in multiple novel heat stress characteristics globally, and also demonstrates the protective impacts of "training" heat stress conditions on global coral reefs. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Gallagher examined the visual and musical features of pastoral landscapes (forests and fields) and anti-pastoral areas (ruins and caves) in the video games Final Fantasy X, XII, XIII, and XV. Her research shows that music significantly impacts players' perceptions of these areas, making them feel more relaxed and apprehensive, respectively. | Doctor of Philosophy in Music, Emphasis Musicology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Motivated by ship-ice interactions in the Arctic environment, Dr. Mao has developed novel methods and a unified mechanics framework to simulate the coupled dynamics between floating ice and moving ships. His research paves the way for accurate resistance and extreme loads analysis, which is crucial to the efficiency and safety of ice-going ships. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Morse worked on how a common intestinal virus infection influences the immune system and the gut microbiome to trigger the onset of type 1 diabetes. His research shows how environmental stressors engage in cross-communication with the host to impact development of autoimmune diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Akinlaja adapted proteomics methods towards understanding the infectious processes of a pathogen of the honey bee midgut. Her work provides new insight into how host protein expression and interactions are altered by pathogen infection, and identifies candidate proteins that could be potential therapeutic targets in the resulting disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Guzman studied the behavior of monetary and fiscal policy during economic crises. He showed how fiscal expansions can affect the ability of central banks to use monetary policy against recessions. His work contributes to the understanding of monetary and fiscal policy interactions, and why these policies can exhibit lack of coordination in a crisis. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Aneurysms are localized bulges of arteries and they can rupture with fatal consequences. The rupture risk of an aneurysm is related to its mechanical deformations. Dr. Hejazi's work addresses this intriguing behavior by combining experiments, simulations, and clinical studies. The findings of this study can improve the clinical management of aneurysms. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Where do the chemical elements come from? Using the nuclear physics technique of mass spectrometry, Dr. Jacobs investigated potential astrophysical sites where some of these elements are produced. The findings point to binary neutron star mergers as a prime candidate for explaining a range of elemental abundances observed in stars. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Akinwumi investigated the concept of forgetting in postcolonial African and Caribbean literatures. He argues that forgetting is at once a tool of oppression and survival. To be sure, his analysis deepens our insight into the workings of forgetting and helps us to grasp more clearly how the equilibrium between memory and forgetting is achieved. | Doctor of Philosophy in French (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. King studied the experiences of youth returning to high school and re-engaging in their education after sustaining a mild traumatic brain injury/concussion. This research helps us understand the barriers these students face, what is helpful to them in this time, and what can be improved to better support their transition back to school. | Doctor of Philosophy in School and Applied Child Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Jelsing examined Indigenous and settler colonial visions of the future as they were articulated through prophecy in two nineteenth-century North American "northwests". He showed how these prophecies expressed divergent modes of relationship that help us understand how settler colonialism unfolded in these two distinct places. | Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD) |