The University of British Columbia will receive three of seven awards — more than any other institution — at an Ottawa federal ceremony to be held today to honour innovation and successful partnerships between Canadian university researchers and leading Canadian companies.
The Synergy Awards for Innovation are given annually by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
“We’re very pleased that our research continues to contribute to the success of the Canadian economy, while improving lives of people within and beyond Canada,” says John Hepburn, UBC Vice-President, Research.
Investigators in each of the research partnerships will receive a $25,000 NSERC research grant. Their industry collaborators will receive the prestigious Synergy sculpture. The award recipients at UBC are:
- Assoc. Prof. James Olson, UBC Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, and Advanced Fiber Technologies (AFT) Inc., BC Hydro Power Smart and Canfor Pulp Limited Partnership, for a new energy-saving design for the rotors used to separate impurities from wood pulp.
- Martha Salcudean, UBC Prof. Emerita, Mechanical Engineering, and FPInnovations-Paprican, Weyerhaeuser Company and Process Simulations Ltd., for analysis of fluid dynamics in boilers at pulp mills that has led to reducing mill operating costs and greenhouse gases.
- Director Richard Tosdal, Mineral Deposit Research Unit, UBC Earth and Ocean Sciences, and Kennecott Canada Exploration Inc., Teck Cominco Limited, and Barrick Gold Corporation, for a decades-long collaboration that has made the Canadian mining industry a world leader in minerals exploration.
In the last year, UBC has received $44 million in NSERC research grants to support 962 science and engineering projects.
NSERC is Canada’s largest science and engineering granting agency. Over the past 10 years, NSERC has invested $6 billion in basic research, university-industry projects and the training of Canada’s next generation of scientists and engineers. NSERC supports some 23,000 university students and postdoctoral fellows in their advanced studies. NSERC promotes discovery by funding more than 11,000 university professors every year and helps make innovation happen by encouraging about 1,300 Canadian companies to invest in university research and training.
– 30 –
