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Contact: Neil Branda (Northshore resident), 604.291.5957, nbranda@sfu.ca
Jane Friesen, (Vancouver resident) 604.291.3403, jane_friesen@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Websites: http://www.sfu.ca/economics/faculty/jane_friesen.html
http://www.sfu.ca/chemistry/faculty/branda.html
December 5, 2006
Two large-scale research projects that could help revolutionize medical procedures in Canada and educational policies in B.C. are the first recipients of money from the Community Trust Endowment Fund (CTEF) at Simon Fraser University.
Created last November, the CTEF invests funds from the lease of land in UniverCity, SFU’s mountain top neighbourhood, in multidisciplinary research. Each grant recipient will receive up to half a million dollars annually for five years, with the option of renewed funding.
Neil Branda, an SFU chemist, a Canada Research Chair in Materials Science and a director of 4DLABS, leads one project called Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology for Medical Applications. It involves eight collaborators from mathematics, kinesiology, chemistry, applied sciences, business, and molecular biology and biochemistry.
The project will take novel molecules and nanomaterials from the chemistry lab into the clinical setting, to treat kidney stones and prostate cancer to start. The project’s team will manipulate molecules and marry them to designer agents to improve the accuracy, and reduce the bodily impact, of medical imaging, diagnostics, surgery and drug delivery.
Jane Friesen, an associate professor of economics at SFU, leads another project called Education Systems and Outcomes in Diverse Communities. It involves forming a network of 16 researchers from economics, education, public policy, psychology and biological sciences to work on education-related issues.
The network will measure how factors such as school and program choice, standardized assessments, and funding rules, affect the social attitudes and learning outcomes of students from distinct ethnic and linguistic groups.
Ultimately, the project seeks to advance understanding of how the rules for organizing B.C.’s school system may be building or undermining the cohesion of the province’s multicultural mosaic.
SFU’s CTEF fund supports multidisciplinary research that advances the university’s efforts to excel in five major areas: communication, computation and technology; culture, society and human behaviour; economic organization, public policy and global community; environment, and health.
The fund has earned has earned $3.5 million in its first year of operation.
Created last November, the CTEF invests funds from the lease of land in UniverCity, SFU’s mountain top neighbourhood, in multidisciplinary research. Each grant recipient will receive up to half a million dollars annually for five years, with the option of renewed funding.
Neil Branda, an SFU chemist, a Canada Research Chair in Materials Science and a director of 4DLABS, leads one project called Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology for Medical Applications. It involves eight collaborators from mathematics, kinesiology, chemistry, applied sciences, business, and molecular biology and biochemistry.
The project will take novel molecules and nanomaterials from the chemistry lab into the clinical setting, to treat kidney stones and prostate cancer to start. The project’s team will manipulate molecules and marry them to designer agents to improve the accuracy, and reduce the bodily impact, of medical imaging, diagnostics, surgery and drug delivery.
Jane Friesen, an associate professor of economics at SFU, leads another project called Education Systems and Outcomes in Diverse Communities. It involves forming a network of 16 researchers from economics, education, public policy, psychology and biological sciences to work on education-related issues.
The network will measure how factors such as school and program choice, standardized assessments, and funding rules, affect the social attitudes and learning outcomes of students from distinct ethnic and linguistic groups.
Ultimately, the project seeks to advance understanding of how the rules for organizing B.C.’s school system may be building or undermining the cohesion of the province’s multicultural mosaic.
SFU’s CTEF fund supports multidisciplinary research that advances the university’s efforts to excel in five major areas: communication, computation and technology; culture, society and human behaviour; economic organization, public policy and global community; environment, and health.
The fund has earned has earned $3.5 million in its first year of operation.