Hatem S. Zurob: Developing stronger, affordable steels for Ontario industry

Ontario's manufacturing and automotive sectors currently use bainitic steels – strong types of steel that can be stretched or molded without breaking. Zurob is focusing on a new generation of bainitic steels that would have the same attractive malleability of traditional baintic steels but a much higher strength level, and that are easy to weld.

Michael Tait: Protecting buildings and saving lives during an earthquake

Tait is using reduced-scale model testing and advanced numerical modelling to evaluate innovative devices to protect buildings and their occupants during earthquakes. This research could result in low-cost, reliable, and environmentally-friendly devices that will prevent building damage and save lives.

P. Ravi Selvaganapathy: Speeding up the screening process for new drugs

The genomic and proteomic revolutions have unleashed vast amounts of information on the molecular working of diseases. This knowledge can be translated into cures through screening millions of potential drug candidates against cells and small animals, an expensive and laborious screening process. Selvaganapathy and his team are developing low-cost, automated techniques that hold the potential to speed up this screening process by performing these experiments simultaneously.

Shirya Rashid: Reducing “bad cholesterol” levels in obese people to prevent cardiovascular disease

Rashid is investigating whether altered levels of two proteins – resistin and adiponectin – secreted by the fat tissue of obese people increase their livers' production of very-low-density lipoprotein or “bad cholesterol”. If these proteins have such an effect, new drugs can be developed to reduce levels in obese people, potentially saving millions of lives.

Peter Kavsak: Reducing the time to diagnose a heart attack

It can take a health care team up to nine hours and sometimes longer to identify a heart attack. Kavsak is investigating how to diagnose it within the first 90 minutes, giving heart attack victims the care they need faster.

Todd Ryan Hoare: Biodegradable nano-engineered hydrogels for prolonged and targeted drug delivery

Embedding drugs in hydrogels, water-swollen polymer networks, has unique potential to deliver specific doses of medications to specific areas of our bodies. But they cannot effectively deliver drugs for prolonged periods of time, and they can only deliver relatively water-soluble drugs. Hoare and his team are using nanoengineering to create new types of hydrogels that address these challenges and could eventually become the foundation of effective and adaptable medications that would enhance clinical outcomes and quality of life for Ontarians.

Katholiki Georgiades: Helping immigrant youth stay mentally healthy and academically successful

Georgiades is conducting a study of 165 immigrant and non-immigrant Hamilton youth in Grade 4 to Grade 8. She will compare the mental health and academic achievement of the two groups, and identify both the risk and protective factors. These findings will inform the development of policies and programs for immigrant youth.

Wael El-Dakhakhni: Developing Sustainable Concrete Masonry Building Systems

The Canadian construction industry currently uses millions of tons of cement and natural aggregate every year. El-Dakhakhni is researching the aspects of utilizing industrial byproducts and construction waste to reduce the ecological footprint of concrete block building.

Sung-Sik Lee: Strongly interacting electrons in low dimensional system

Traditional theories based on the assumption of weak correlations between particles have drastically failed in describing the emergent phenomena in many recently discovered materials where interactions between electrons are strong. Lee is developing an alternative theory to help researchers understand the physical properties of these strongly correlated materials.

Jun Chen: Developing better technologies for networked services

In wireless communication, the simultaneous delivery of many different types of data in real time – known as multicasting – is integral to many current and emerging networked services, including audio and video conferencing, multi-party games, and collaborative multimedia distance learning. Chen plans to develop information theories that can lead to better, more efficient multicast technologies.