[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/WalterCraig09.jpg” caption=”McMaster professor Walter Craig, a Canada Research Chair of Mathematics Analysis and its Applications, was awarded a Killam Research Fellowship. Photo by Matt Terry.”]McMaster professor Walter Craig, a Canada Research Chair of Mathematics Analysis and its Applications, is one of nine outstanding Canadian researchers to be awarded a Killam Research Fellowship. Awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the fellowship holds a value of $140,000 over two years and will enable Craig to devote two-years to full-time research.

“I feel honoured and absolutely ecstatic about receiving this research fellowship,” said Craig. “I look forward to a very productive couple of years focusing on my research pursuits.”

Upholding the importance of research is a key reason why Craig joined McMaster's Department of Mathematics and Statistics in 2000.

“I originally came to McMaster because the position offered prime research opportunities. I was drawn by the possibility of working with post-doctoral fellows, the collaborative research teams, the opportunity to help build the graduate program, and the fact that McMaster's post-doctoral program in mathematics is unparalleled in Canada.”

Over the next two years, Craig will continue to work on his four major research projects. One of his main areas of interest is studying wavelike phenomenon; basically the mathematical physics of waves.

A recent collaborative project found Craig studying predictions on tsunami behaviour. It's hard to measure and calculate tsunami behaviour because scientists can't leave their instruments out in the ocean for hundreds of years – the amount of time that passes between expected tsunami events.

That's why Craig and his colleagues investigated the reasons in model discrepancy for predicting these tsunamis. Current models are not able to accurately calculate the precise arrival time and other characteristics of a tsunami. Craig's research helped explain the reasons behind this discrepancy, providing theoretical confirmation that early warning systems must allow for errors when predicting tsunamis and planning emergency response.

The Killam Research Fellows for 2009 were chosen from 79 applications by the Killam Selection Committee. The fellowship is made possible by a bequest from Mrs. Dorothy J. Killam and a gift she made before her death in 1965. The awards support scholars engaged in research projects of outstanding merit in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences, engineering and interdisciplinary studies within these fields.