Seventeen UBC doctoral students are among recipients of the inaugural Vanier Canada Scholarships, the Canadian equivalent of the Rhodes scholarships in the U.K. and the Fulbright scholarships in the U.S.
The winners will receive $50,000 a year for up to three years to support their graduate studies. UBC has the second highest number of scholars, after the University of Toronto.
“Graduate students play a vital role in the research enterprise here at UBC and around the world,” says UBC President Stephen Toope. “Their contribution to the generation of new knowledge – both driven by innate curiosity and real-world applications – helps us better understand our world while providing important economic and social benefits.”
Launched last year, the Vanier Canada Scholarships program is administered by the country’s three federal research granting agencies – the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. At full capacity, the program will support up to 500 doctoral students from Canada and abroad annually.
The first cohort of 166 recipients were announced on April 30 in Ottawa. Nominees were evaluated through peer-review and selected by a board of world-renowned Canadian and international experts that includes former UBC President Martha Piper and Bombardier board chair Laurent Beaudoin.
The UBC Vanier scholars come from Canada, the U.S., Europe, Mexico, New Zealand and Trinidad and Tobago and will carry out studies in a wide range of areas including poetry, mental health, drug abuse, infectious diseases and nuclear physics.
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