Last week, Gary Goodyear, minister of State (Science and Technology) and Suzanne Fortier, Natural Science and Research Council of Canada (NSERC) president, announced the awarding of $55 million to more than 120 research teams across Canada as part of NSERC’s Strategic Project Grants program – seven of which will be McGill research teams.

These McGill teams will be awarded grants totaling more than $3 million over the next three years towards developing tools, models and mechanisms in fields of engineering and the environment.

The program brings together some of “the world’s top researchers to work with industry on promising new projects that will help strengthen our economy, create jobs and bring other benefits for communities,” said Goodyear.

These projects will be done in collaboration with industry and other governmental partners, and will address topics, such as solar energy, laser technology, IT efficiency, and healthy environment and ecosystems.

“As ever, we are proud that McGill researchers can make such broad and important contributions to the development of knowledge in Canada as well as the economic development that flows from moving this knowledge from the laboratory to industry and to society at large,” said Rose Goldstein, McGill’s VP of Research and International Relations.

Below is a list of the principal McGill researchers and a brief of their projects:

Professor Lawrence Chen – Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Project description: All-fibre infrared lasers and components for chemical detection applications.

Professor Elena Bennett – Department of Natural Resource Sciences and McGill School of Environment. Project description: Ecosystem services, biodiversity, and landscape connectivity.

Professor Zeljko Zilic – Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Project description: NSC (NASA Standard Computer)-quality-driven integrated system design.

Professor Roderick Guthrie – Department of Mining & Materials Engineering. Project description: Horizontal single-belt casting for the competitive manufacturing of ferrous and light metal alloy sheet material.

Professor George Demopoulos – Department of Mining & Materials Engineering. Project description: Engineering nanostructured titania thin film electrodes for highly efficient solar energy conversion and storage systems.

Professor Ghyslaine McClure – Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics. Project description: Post-earthquake functionality of schools and hospitals in Eastern Canada.

Professor Nathalie Tufenkji – Department of Chemical Engineering (Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Biocolloids and Surfaces and Associate Director, Brace Center for Water Resources Management). Project description: Toxicity, transformations and transport of engineered nanoparticles in soils: New approaches to detect and characterize environmental risks.