Research at University of Regina gets $2 million federal boost

By Dale Johnson Posted: September 11, 2017 1:00 p.m.

(l-r) Dr. Pierre Charest, VP, Research Grants and Scholarships for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC); Dr. Orland Hoeber, Associate Professor of Computer Science in the University's Faculty of Science and Discovery Grant recipient; Honourable Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness; Dr. David Malloy, University of Regina VP Research.
(l-r) Dr. Pierre Charest, VP, Research Grants and Scholarships for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC); Dr. Orland Hoeber, Associate Professor of Computer Science in the University's Faculty of Science and Discovery Grant recipient; Honourable Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness; Dr. David Malloy, University of Regina VP Research. Photo: U of R Photography

The Honourable Ralph Goodale, speaking on behalf of the Minister of Science, Kristy Duncan, at the University on Sept. 8, announced more than $2 million in Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) funding for 16 University of Regina researchers.

Goodale, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Member of Parliament for Regina-Wascana, and U of R alumnus, went on to share with the packed house that, “It’s incredible to witness the promise of the next generation of Canada’s scientists, doctors, researchers, and innovators. Our government is proud to be able to support the recipients recognized today. And the Government of Canada is proud to partner with the University of Regina.”

The researchers receiving Discovery Grants this year are Mark Brigham and Kerri Finlay, Biology; Allan East, Chemistry; Cory Butz, Orland Hoeber, Jing Tao Yao, Yiyu Yao, and Sandra Zilles, Computer Science; Yee-Chung Jin, Mehran Mehrandezh, Farshid Torabi, and Peng Wu, Engineering and Applied Science; Allen Herman and Andrei Volodin, Mathematics; and, Chris Oriet, Psychology. Renata Raina-Fulton in Chemistry is receiving a Discovery Development Grant.

Hoeber, speaking at the event, discussed his primary research interest as being at the intersection of interactive information retrieval and information visualization, focusing on the design, development, and study of novel search interfaces that support complex search tasks.

"The NSERC Discovery Program is critical to the pursuit of a long-term research agenda that seeks to develop an understanding of and novel solutions to important problems. It allows researchers to not only support graduate students in developing knowledge, skills, and solutions to these problems, but also guide them in becoming the next generation of thinkers, problem solvers, and researchers," said Hoeber.

Dr. David Malloy, Vice-President of Research and emcee for the announcement event, said the U of R is conducting world-class research – and it’s being noticed internationally.

“The 2017 Essential Science Indicators report, from Thomson Reuters’s InCites analytics tool, tracks highly cited academic papers all over the world. The statistics are gathered from the previous ten years of data. In the fields of physics, environment/ecology, engineering, psychiatry/psychology, and social sciences, the U of R is ranked in the top one per cent in the world.”