Funding will go toward funding a research team.

Six Carleton University researchers are being awarded funding from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development's Job Creation and Trade through the Early Researcher Awards (ERA) program, which gives funding to new researchers working at publicly funded Ontario research institutions.

Researchers will get $100,000 from the ministry and $50,000 in matching funds from Carleton to cover expenses related putting together research teams of undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research assistants, associates and technicians. Research will cover various subjects like transgender films, skull evolution and high-speed X-rays to autonomous spacecraft, health service planning and comic books.

"We are grateful to the Ontario government for this funding and their recognition of our early-career researchers as leaders in these diverse and vital areas of study," says Rafik Goubran, Carleton's vice-president.



This year's ERA recipients are Professors Laura Horak, Hillary Maddin, Oren Petel, Paul Peters, Steve Ulrich and Benjamin Woo.

Horak, a professor in the Film Studies program, studies American and Scandinavian cinema, gender and sexuality. The movie-buff plans to use her funding to support the emerging field of transgender film and media studies. Horak's project investigates the films, web series and film festivals created by Canadian and American transgender artists from the 1990s through today.

Maddin, a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, leads a research program investigating the development, the evolution of the skull and understanding how it has changed over time.

Petel, a professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is applying his research to health care but more specifically to concussions. This funding will allow him to use a high-speed X-ray imaging system he created, to investigate brain and skull impacts to design better helmets.

Peters, a professor in the Department of Health Sciences, works on connecting health data to problems found in urban neighbourhoods and rural villages. The results will relate to health service planning and understanding health inequities in rural Ontario communities.

Ulrich, a professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is the founding director of the Spacecraft Robotics and Control Laboratory. His current research addresses the problem of space debris (large fragments hinder access to space). The professor plans to develop a way to enable robotic spacecraft to autonomously and safely interact with space debris.

Woo, a professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies, is a leading researcher in the field of comics studies and director of the Comic Cons Research Project. His research examines the comic book industry and its audiences. His funding will go toward several projects exploring comic book reading in fan cultures, as well as comic conventions, festivals and other fan events.

For more information on this year's recipients, visit www.newsroom.carleton.ca