Congratulations to the 2025 recipients of the Faculty of Science Research Awards

November 24, 2025

Simon Fraser University Faculty of Science is proud to celebrate the achievements of outstanding researchers with the annual Faculty of Science Research Awards.

These awards recognize the excellence in research accomplishments in a broad range of areas, including, but not limited to: career achievement, recent breakthroughs, translational impact, innovation and societal impacts. Recipients are selected by members of the Faculty of Science Research Committee. 

Milestone Award

Erika Plettner
Chemistry

Dr. Plettner has discovered and developed a new miticide that shows great promise in managing infestations that cause honeybee colonies to collapse. She secured an NSERC Strategic Grant for toxicological testing in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada with field tests in 2021-2024.

In 2023 a US Patent was granted for her discovery and she signed a two-year option agreement with Véto-pharma, which has been renewed for two more years. Her discovery has been featured extensively in national and international media.

Mentorship and Supervision Award - Open

Byron Gates
Chemistry

Dr. Gates has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to training of students at all levels, and has supervised 97 undergraduates, 29 graduate students, 21 research associates and 12 postdoctoral fellows. He established the Centre for Soft Materials in 4D LABS, a hub for advanced microscopy and fuel; where he organized and hosted 12 free, hands-on workshops on a variety of techniques. Gates founded, organized and hosted the annual Nanolytica@SFU Conference for over ten years. This student-focused, interdisciplinary one-day conference has been attended by 150–250 participants annually.

Mentorship and Supervision Award - Early Career

Kero Lau
Physics

Dr. Lau is known for his strong and creative mentorship of graduate students, which has led to his students receiving numerous awards for poster and oral presentations. He has been a main driver in implementing Quantum BC training programs as part of a joint NSERC-CREATE grant between SFU, UBC and UVic, organizing several workshops, and creating a new seminar series to educate quantum students in BC. At SFU Physics he has rejuvenated the “Adopt-a-Physicist program” which gives first-year students hands-on experiences in physics labs.

Early Career Award

Lisa Julian
Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

Dr. Julian is a Tier II Canada Research Chair of the Developmental Origins of Stem Cell Fate. Her research program integrates stem cell biology, developmental neuroscience, and bioengineering to uncover how human neural stem cells build the brain and how rare genetic disorders disrupt this process. Her research output is remarkable for an early career researcher who started during the pandemic. Since 2020 she has delivered 27 invited talks and published 13 peer-reviewed papers and three book chapters, many of which are very highly cited, and she has received several awards including the 2024 Jordi-Folch Pi Award from the American Society for Neurochemistry, the 2024 Brain Canada Future Leaders in Canadia Brain Research Award.

Gopolang Mohlabeng
Physics

Dr. Mohlabeng’s theoretical work on boosted dark matter has garnered interest from major neutrino experiments such as Super-Kamiokande (Japan), KM3NeT and the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE), which have either published analyses based on his original works or are incorporating his ideas into their experimental search programs. His work on light dark matter processes has also drawn wide attention from both theorists and experimental collaborations, and he has received numerous invitations to present his work at seminars and international conferences.

Career Award

Gerhard Gries
Biological Sciences

Dr. Gries is an internationally recognized leader in the field of entomology with over 325 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He has supervised over 70 graduate students over his career.

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