Canada Research Chairs & Endowed Sponsored Chairs

The Faculty of Science Research Chair awards recognize and support researchers in the Faculty of Science who are conducting outstanding fundamental research in physical sciences, life sciences, and mathematical/computational sciences.

Life Sciences Research Chairs 

Gail Davoren – Professor, Biological Sciences
Dr. Davoren’s research focuses on investigating the biology and behavior of important forage fish species in marine ecosystems and how this shapes the biology of top predators, primarily marine birds, and whales. Forage species lie at the core of complex marine food webs, providing essential linkages among trophic levels. The research aims to increase our ability to maintain the long-term productivity of northern marine ecosystems to sustain fisheries yields and conserve marine biodiversity.

Margaret Docker – Professor, Biological Sciences
Dr. Docker conducts research on the evolution, systematics, and population genetics and genomics of lampreys, an ancient group of jawless fishes. Her recent interests include the evolution of alternative life history types in lampreys (i.e., closely related species that are indistinguishable as larvae but, following metamorphosis, adopt dramatically different feeding and migratory habits), and the genetic basis of sex determination and sex differentiation in lampreys. She is also developing and applying environmental DNA techniques for detecting the presence of lampreys and other aquatic species based on the DNA they leave behind in the water. Her research has applications to the control of invasive sea lamprey in the Great Lakes, and to the conservation of threatened native lamprey species.

Mathematical and Computational Sciences Research Chairs 

Julien Arino – Professor, Mathematics
Dr. Arino’s research deals primarily with mathematical population dynamics in epidemiology and ecology, with a focus on modeling population movement. Dr. Arino studies the spatio-temporal spread of infectious diseases, with a focus on the relationship between modern commercial aviation and the fast-global spread of infectious pathogens. Dr. Arino uses modeling and graph analysis to consider the risk of importation of disease to various public health entities. Other areas of interest include the stress imposed on public health systems by the variety of health practices used around the world, for example, the treatment of infections or vaccination schedules and other problems concerning population dynamics in ecology and biology.

Yang Wang – Associate Professor, Computer Science
Dr. Wang works on computer vision and machine learning. His research involves developing algorithms that automatically understand images and videos, including image classification, object detection, human action recognition and image segmentation. The general methodology of his research is to leverage techniques in machine learning to solve problems in computer vision. His research has potential applications in many real-world domains, including surveillance, entertainment, image/video search, health care and assistive technology.

Physical Sciences Research Chairs 

David Herbert – Associate Professor, Chemistry
Dr. Herbert is a synthetic inorganic chemist, and leads a research team probing the ability of chemistry to answer critical questions in energy and sustainability, all through the lens of fundamental bonding and reactivity at a molecular level. This includes designing novel molecules and materials for solar energy capture and conversion, and molecular battery materials for off-grid energy storage, in addition to applying electrochemistry and catalysis in the pursuit of environmentally friendly alternative routes for the production of value-added chemicals.

Georg Schreckenbach – Professor, Chemistry
Dr. Schreckenbach’s research interests fall in the general area of theoretical and computational chemistry. More specifically, developing and applying state-of-the-art quantum chemical methods to study molecules, materials, and their properties. Such quantum chemical simulations are computationally rather demanding, and powerful modern computer systems are required.