Researchers honoured
Six of Concordia’s most promising and innovative researchers were recently recognized at a reception hosted by Concordia’s Vice-President of Research and Graduate Studies Louise Dandurand.
Four individuals received research awards of $5,000 each while two received Petro-Canada Young Innovator Awards of $10,000 each. The annual awards recognize and promote excellence in research and creative activity at Concordia University.
“It is very important because it is recognition from my own peers at the university,” said Ted Stathopoulos, professor in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering. He received a university research award for his ongoing work in the area of wind engineering and building aerodynamics. “Research is one of my two passions,” added the prolific researcher, who has more than 350 publications in refereed journals and conference proceedings. “The other is teaching.”
Marguerite Mendell from the School of Community and Public Affairs expressed similar sentiments: “To have this sort of recognition from your colleagues is extremely rewarding.” She said the funds will help accelerate her research into social finance and impact investing.
Researchers Dave Secko from the Department of Journalism and Alexandre Champagne from the Department of Physics were also honoured. Secko’s research interests include journalistic and social ethics, and public engagement. He has secured more than $1.3 million in research funding from both social science and health science granting agencies. One of his ongoing science journalism projects at Concordia is the online public engagement portal.
Since joining the Department of Physics in 2008, Champagne has commanded attention and secured funding. So far his research in nanoelectronics and quantum materials has attracted more than $1 million in funding. Last year he was named a Petro-Canada Young Innovator.
Young innovators
Denis Bilodeau from Suncor Energy Company, which merged with Petro-Canada in 2009, presented the Petro-Canada Young Innovator Awards to Zeynep Arsel from the Department of Marketing in the John Molson School of Business, and to Zhigang Tian from the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering.
Arsel was pleased to receive the award. “Since I am at an early stage in my career, it means a lot to be acknowledged.” Arsel said she will use the $10,000 research grant, which comes with the award, to support her ongoing project on the collaborative redistribution of consumer goods. “My long-term research goal is to understand sustainable consumption, and develop better marketplace practices to encourage reuse, recycling and redistribution.”
Tian received a Petro-Canada Award as a result of his research group’s efforts and achievements in systems reliability, equipment condition monitoring, maintenance optimization and renewable energy systems. “It’s a great honour to receive this award,” he said. “The support from this award will help our study on reliability analysis and the optimization of hybrid energy systems.”
Related links:
• List of Research Awards Recipients
• Office of Research
• Office of the Vice-President Research and Graduate Studies
• “Researchers Recognized for Originality, Impact” — NOW, May 30, 2011