Associate Professor of Economics Philip DeCicca will be using his Tier II Canada Research Chair in Public Economics to study the effectiveness of cigarette tax policy. DeCicca’s research will use novel data from U.S. and Canadian sources to directly examine casual smuggling behaviour.

David Meyre Tier II Canada Research Chair in Genetic Epidemiology, comes to McMaster from the Institut de Biologie de Lille in France. The associate professor in the department of clinical epidemiology & biostatistics studies the genetic determinants of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. His research is focused on the interaction of genes and ethnicity, and genes and the environment, with the goal of better genetic prediction of high risk individuals.

Stephen McBride’s Tier I Canada Research Chair in Public Policy and Globalization will investigate just how, why and with what effect public policy changes in a globalizing world canimpact and influence the economy, the environment and the political landscape. The political scientist comes to McMaster from Simon Fraser University.

 

Parminder Raina will add a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Geroscience to his considerable list of achievements while at McMaster. The professor from the department ofclinical epidemiology & biostatistics is also the Raymond and Margaret Labarge Chair in Research and Knowledge Application for Optimal Aging, Director of McMaster’s Evidence-based Practice Center and Co-Director of the R. Samuel McLaughlin Centre for Research and Education in Aging and Health. Raina is leading the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) to bring together the capacity, knowledge and expertise of experts in the physical, psychological and social health domains to unlock some of the greatest mysteries of aging that have the most impact on the health of Canadians over time.

Michael Surette came to McMaster this fall from the University of Calgary. His Tier I Canada Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Microbiome Research will study the relationshipsbetween microbes and humans in health and disease. This research has the potential to transform the ways we understand human health and prevent, diagnose and treat a wide range of conditions.

 

 

McMaster`s Canada Research Chair Renewals

Michael Boyle’s Tier I Canada Research Chair in the Social Determinants of Child Health provided the research that delivered the first epidemiological study of child health in Canada. His research efforts are key to child and mental health advocacy and impact government’s decisions on the policies and programs that ultimately improve the mental health of youth. The professor of psychiatry & behavioural neurosciences will continue his work by developing and implementing a proposed national study of child and adolescent mental disorders which will be used for future advocacy, planning and resource allocation, health service evaluation and research capacity.

 

Engineering Physicist Qiyin Fang, a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Biophotonics, has focused the first five years of his Chair on the research and development of fluorescence based minimally-invasive diagnostic technologies for clinical applications. Fang’s multi-disciplinary research program has developed new innovations in optical technologies that have provided a clearer understanding of the technological challenges underlying biomedical and clinical applications. Fang’s next 5 years will be focussed on three themes: identifying problems in patients undergoing procedures to prevent strokes; fluorescence imaging techniques; and incorporating emerging technologies into fluorescence-based medical instrumentation.

 
For the next 7 years of his Tier I Canada Research Chair in Management of Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance, Rick Hackett plans to pursue a multi-disciplinary and inter-institutional research program, focused on four primary streams.  The professor of  human resources management will be collaborating with researchers in Health Sciences to evaluate the “multi-mini interview”(MMI) that was developed to assess the large numbers of candidates for McMaster’s medical school; studying the core virtues associated with leadership in clinical and non-clinical settings; exploring the cross-cultural  potential of Western theories of leadership with colleagues in Hong Kong; and designing a wellness tool for use by a variety of Canadian health professionals.


Physicist Catherine Kallin’s research as a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Quantum Materials Theory contributed to our fundamental understanding of high temperature superconductivity, time-reversal symmetry breaking in superconductors and electronic correlations in reduced dimensions. Kallin will be continuing her work in the area of strongly correlated electron systems and will explore the possibility of chiral p-wave superconductivity in strontium ruthenate.

 

Radiobiologist Carmel Mothersill renewed Canada Research Chair in Radiobiology will afford the professor of med medical physics and applied radiation sciences with the opportunity to further explore the effects of low-dose radiation on humans and non-human species. The first 7 years of her Tier I Chair resulted in the clarification of a number of issues concerning the exact way ionizing radiation interacts with cell membranes to produce a stress response.  Her research has moved from in vitro to in vivo studies using fish species and mammals of relevance in the Canadian aquatic and terrestrial environments.


Respirologist Parameswaran Nair contributed new research that resulted in significant improvement in the management of severe asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder(COPD) during the first term of his Tier II Canada Research Chair in Airway Inflammometry. The technologies he developed have been awarded with international patents and have led to improved treatment outcomes. Over the next five years Nair will identify the mechanisms of severe asthma in non-allergic patients and in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis, applying proteomics and micro-RNA technologies to identify new biomarkers and treatment targets.