Canada Research Chairs

As a Tier 2 CRC in Freshwater Restoration Ecology, CatherineFebria will take a multidisciplinary approach to building an internationally-recognized research program focused on the conservation and restoration of freshwater ecosystems.  Dr. Febria's lab and team - the Healthy Headwaters Lab - is partnering with local farming and First Nation communities to co-design research to address species-at-risk, freshwater and farming sustainability challenges. Her discovery-based research on the structure and functioning of headwater ecosystems is also directly applicable to conservation, restoration and management challenges of our time.  Understanding ecological processes and biodiversity in intermittent streams, wetlands and riparian zones is critically important for ecosystem health issues in the Great Lakes basin.  Thus this diverse research team co-designs research with collaborative partners to ensure that science can inform decision-making at multiple scales. Febria’s research approach includes the establishment Indigenous Allyship Program to recruit and train a minimum of five indigenous scientists in freshwater restoration research on territorial lands, and, the creation of a local Farmers Research Network to advise and advance solutions-focused research across farms and freshwater ecosystems.

Learn more about Catherine Febria

Learn more about the Healthy Headwaters Lab

All animals must eat. The availability of edible food, however, is profoundly influenced by nature’s rhythms pressing up against increasing consumptive demands and man’s impact on the environment.

All animals, including humans, are embedded in food webs. An organism’s position within a food web is central in determining the amount of energy and nutrients available to it. Strategic positioning is key to survival. Global change can profoundly alter the structure and links within food webs, ultimately changing the types and abundance of organisms able to survive in an ecosystem. Our ability to sustain healthy ecosystems and feed burgeoning populations depends on understanding how nature and humans interact with the structure and function of ecosystems.

As a Tier 2 CRC in Tropic Ecology, Aaron Fisk’s research will simultaneously examine the structure, function and flow of nutrients in aquatic food webs, using a suite of naturally-occurring and anthropogenically-introduced chemical tracers. In controlled laboratory studies he will calibrate the tracers for aquatic organisms (e.g., walleye) and in detailed field studies he will apply study results to questions on the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems. These tracers are also important for the health of humans and wildlife. The right combination of essential fatty acids, for example, promotes human health and fish growth, but often results in simultaneous exposure to toxic mercury and PCBs.

Characterizing and understanding the influence of natural variation and anthropogenic stress on food webs is essential for effective conservation and management and ultimately for healthy and sustainable ecosystems. Dr. Fisk’s research will develop tools for studying ecosystem structure and provide new information on how ecosystems function and how they react to environmental stressors.

Learn more about Dr. Aaron Fisk

Major challenges the global automotive industry faces today related to mass adaptation of electrified vehicles (EVs) include purchasing cost; driving range; performance; charging infrastructure, and charging time. These are key technical barriers and challenges for advancing EV technologies and ensuring their consumer friendliness, says Narayan Kar. Under Dr. Kar's leadership, this Tier 1 CRC program will address these challenges through research in vehicle powertrain component and system areas. Research will be conducted in areas of electric machines, power converters, controls, energy storage, and battery charging and management through innovative multidisciplinary industry, academia, and government collaborations. Its ultimate goal is to create consumer friendly EVs.

Learn more about the CHARGE Lab.

Jennifer Willet is an internationally recognized artist and researcher in the field of bioart. Bioart is a contemporary art form that uses biological media—such as living cells, bacteria and plants—rather than paint or clay to create art.

Dr. Willet’s focus is on creative biotech research and teaching biotech skills to the next generation of artists interested in science and technology. Her creative artworks also promotes critical thinking in science and technology literacy in general.

She has worked in laboratories globally researching tissue culture, microbiology, and molecular biology from an arts perspective, with an emphasis on subjective experience and bioethics. Her research has resulted in artworks like “The Great Lakes Algae Organ”—a bicycle-pulled street organ that grows and displays a large algae colony and plays organ music—and “Windsor Yeast,” where live yeast colonies sampled from the City of Windsor post-industrial ecology are grown in petri dishes over photographs of the city.

Ultimately, As a Tier 2 CRC, Willet’s goal is to encourage non-specialists and researchers across disciplines to work with scientists, industry and policy-makers in co-determining our shared biotech future.

Learn more about the INCUBATOR Art Lab.

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is a wireless network used to exchange information between vehicles, infrastructure and pedestrians using smart devices and sensors inside and outside of vehicles. By providing information to support decision-making, the IoV can improve road safety and efficiency. But to work properly, it depends on timely data acquisition and processing.

As the Tier 1 Canada Rsearch Chair in Edge Computing and Internet of Vehicles, Ning Zhang is investigating mobile edge computing, in which roadside edge servers cache data contents and execute different computational tasks for vehicles. This can reduce latency in content delivery and data processing. Dr. Zhang and his research team are also developing intelligent systems for caching and delivering content, scheduling computational tasks, and managing AI-aided resources to ensure vehicles can access the data needed to complete computational tasks in real time.