The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program has awarded more than $11 million to the University of Waterloo.

The Honourable Bardish Chagger, Minister of Small Business and Tourism, and member of parliament for Waterloo, announced today on behalf of the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, that NSERC has awarded $5.5 million to Waterloo as part of the NSERC Strategic Partnership Grants for Networks (SPG-N). Chagger also announced that six researchers at Waterloo have been named new or renewing Canada Research Chairs. Bettina Hamelin, vice-president, research partnerships, NSERC also attended the event.

The CRC announcement is an award of $5.7 million for Waterloo in the key research areas of hydrologic modelling and analysis, insurance risk processes, bioinformatics, quantum molecular dynamics, number theory, and philosophy and cognitive science.

“Both the CRC program and SPG-N are valued at Waterloo,” said D. George Dixon, vice-president, university research at Waterloo. “With 65 CRCs we are appreciative that six of our researchers have been awarded new or renewing chairs to support research excellence across a variety of disciplines while training a future generation of researchers. Likewise, strategic partnerships and research networks help leverage strengths and resources which can have a significant impact on research.”

The researchers named in today’s announcement are:

David Blowes (Earth and Environmental Sciences) – leading the SPG-N entitled Toward Environmentally Responsible Resource Extraction Network (NSERC-TERRE-NET), a national team of experts in developing sustainable strategies for dealing with hazardous mine wastes.

James Craig (Civil and Environmental Engineering) – new Tier 2 CRC in Hydrologic Modelling and Analysis – $500,000 over five years



David Landriault (Statistics and Actuarial Science) – renewed Tier 2 CRC in Insurance Risk Processes – $500,000 over five years



Ming Li (School of Computer Science) – renewed Tier 1 CRC in Bioinformatics – $1.4 million over seven years



Pierre-Nicholas Roy (Chemistry) – new Tier 1 CRC in Quantum Molecular Dynamics – $1.4 million over seven years



Cameron L. Stewart (Pure Mathematics) – renewed Tier 1 CRC in Number Theory – $1.4 million over seven years



John Turri (Philosophy) – new Tier 2 CRC in Philosophy and Cognitive Science – $500,000 over five years

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