Office of Public Affairs Acadia University Wolfville, Nova Scotia B0P 1X0 (902) 585-1362 Fax (902) 585-1072 News Release For Release: May 8, 2000

Acadia receives half-million in research funding

 (Wolfville, NS) - Scientists at Acadia University have recently been awarded almost $500,000 in funding form the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

"Acadia University is delighted with the success of its faculty members
in the rigorous competition for funding from the federal research councils.  The
success of new faculty members in obtaining their first grants is especially encouraging," says Vice President Academic Dr. Michael Leiter.

With the ever-increasing costs of running a post-secondary institution, financial support for research is increasingly scarce.  Each year, thousands of Canadian researchers apply to the NSERC to compete for federal funding. Only a select few scientists are fortunate enough to receive governmental support.

Acadia’s 10 science grant recipients make the university one of the best-funded research schools in the region.

Grant recipients included faculty members from the Department of Biology, School of Engineering, Department of Psychology, Department of Math & Statistics, Department of Physics, and School of Computer Science.

Dr. Andrew Mitchell of the Ivan Curry School of Engineering has received a grant for $12,360 over a period of two years.  Dr. Mitchell is interested in exploring the possibilities of producing lightweight and highly flexible structures that are expected to
play an important role in the future of space-based radar and telecommunications systems.

Dr. Derrick Bourassa won funding for $13,000 a year over duration of 4 years.  He will be researching the difficulties encountered by some young children who struggle with the complexities of written language once they have already learned how to read.

Dr. Glenys Gibson of the Department of Biology received the largest grant overall.  She is receiving $23, 220 a year over a four-year period that allows her to pursue research in the development of marine invertebrates.  Dr. Gibson will be investigating apoptosis, or programmed cell death in the larvae of marine invertebrates, which is currently of major interest in the development of new cancer treatments.

The distribution of NSERC funds coupled with several recent grants from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) demonstrate Acadia’s active role in promoting new scientific research that finds solutions to everyday problems.  According to Dr. Robert Perrins Co-Director of the Division of Research and Graduate Studies, "Although Acadia is hailed as a small teaching school, we’re still doing cutting-edge research."

Acadia is a leader in the application of innovative technology in both the classroom and research environment.  Students and professors have access to a multitude of electronic resources and reference tools through notebook computers that connect users to educational materials around the world via the Internet.
 

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Published by: The Office of Public Affairs Last revised: June 2,  2000 URL: http://www.acadiau.ca/whatsnew/newsrelease/nsercrelease.htm