Backgrounder
August 14, 2008
STRENGTHENING ONTARIO’S INNOVATION ECONOMY
Funding world-class research is part of Ontario’s plan to build an innovation economy.
Ontario’s universities, colleges, hospitals and research institutes play a vital role in the government’s five-point plan to ensure Ontario remains at the forefront of the global knowledge-based economy by supporting cutting-edge research and developing world-class researchers.
The Early Researcher Awards program (ERA) helps promising, recently-appointed Ontario researchers build their research teams of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research assistants and associates. The goal of the program is to improve Ontario’s ability to attract and retain the best and brightest research talent from around the world.
Across the province, this investment will mean cutting-edge research opportunities for as many as 225 graduate students and post-doctorate researchers, and engage as many as 6,700 high school students each year, giving them an inside look at real research and inspiring them to consider a career in science and technology.
The ERA program is a key part of Ontario’s Innovation Agenda. Supported by close to $3 billion in spending over eight years, the Ontario Innovation Agenda is building Ontario’s innovation economy on the strength of our province’s creative environment, diverse culture, highly skilled workforce, world-class educational system and internationally recognized research community.
QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY EARLY RESEARCHER AWARDS RECIPIENTS
Dr. Hagit Shatkay
Translating Data into Knowledge for Disease Prediction and Prevention
The amount and diversity of biomedical data has been increasing at an astonishing pace since the sequencing of the human genome. However, dependable analytical tools that can help decipher the data are still in their infancy. Dr. Hagit Shatkay and her research team aim to join forces with physicians and biologists and develop the most fitting tools for computationally utilizing available data – including sequences, images and text – to model and understand biological and medical phenomena, and translate this knowledge into effective disease prediction and intervention
Dr. James Adam Howard Stotz
Controlling Particles for Quantum Information
When confined to very small scales, the physics of a single electrical charge, an electron, or a single piece of light, a photon, follows a different set of rules called quantum mechanics. Single electrons or photons can encode information allowing for fantastic new possibilities in quantum information processing. For example, quantum cryptography is the only completely secure method to transmit sensitive information over a network. Dr. Stotz and his research team will work to develop new ways to control these single electrons and photons for quantum information processing.
See also:
- News Release: Driving the Innovation Economy in Kingston
