We are celebrating and raising the profile of scholarly milestones and research impacts from across the SFU research community.
Examples of Scholarly Impacts can include:
- Publishing a paper in a high-impact journal;
- Patenting an invention;
- Debuting a new performance piece;
- Publishing a monograph or book and/or;
- Changing a government policy
We expect most of the publications that are featured to be recent impacts—however, we will also publish a transformative impact from the past, from time-to-time.
As part of SFU's Scholarly Impact of the Week, selected researchers will work with a member of the VP Research and Innovation Office's communications and marketing team for support. We will also work with researchers to discuss how we can mobilize knowledge on their work by submitting to The Conversation Canada—one of the world's most trusted independent sources of news and views from the academic and research community, delivered directly to the public.
Be sure to keep up-to-date on the latest published Scholarly Impact and other research news by following SFU Research on Twitter (X).
If you have any questions, please reach out directly by emailing vpri-communications@sfu.ca.
SFU's Scholarly Impact of the Week series does not reflect the opinions or viewpoints of the university, but those of the scholars. The timing of articles in the series is chosen weeks or months in advance, based on a published set of criteria. Any correspondence with university or world events at the time of publication is purely coincidental.
For more information, please see SFU's Code of Faculty Ethics and Responsibilities and the statement on academic freedom.
Testing FATE: Is AI fair in higher education?
Tenzin Doleck
Faculty of EducationBahar Memarian
Faculty of EducationEducation professor Tenzin Doleck and postdoctoral fellow Bahar Memarian studied the application of Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE) in the use of artificial intelligence in higher education. They encourage users to carefully consider why and how it is used in order to protect academic integrity.
Conscripted to care: Women’s experiences during COVID-19
Julia Smith
Faculty of Health SciencesSFU Health Sciences professor Julia Smith’s new book analyses Canada’s COVID-19 response from the perspective of those who staffed it. Conscripted to Care: Women on the Frontlines of the COVID-19 Response presents crucial lessons in public health and how it relates to gender and economic equality, as well as public policy.
Photograph-based storytelling connects the Holocaust and the Nakba
Nawal Musleh-Motut
Faculty of Communication, Art and TechnologyWill it ever be possible to end the longstanding, transgenerational conflict between Palestinians and Israelis? SFU scholar Nawal Musleh-Motut is exploring how problematic master narratives and collective memories of the Holocaust and the Nakba—which continue to sustain the conflict—can be challenged, complicated and disrupted.
When living cells malfunction, can science help?
Matthew Leighton
Faculty of ScienceDavid Sivak
Faculty of ScienceWithin every living cell on earth, countless microscopic “molecular machines” are at work carrying out cellular functions. They convert energy, transport materials and assemble complex structures. When these complex machines malfunction it can lead to disease, so SFU physicist Matthew Leighton and physics professor David Sivak are working to better understand molecular machines.
They recently published a paper outlining a new “theoretical microscope” for peering into the complex world of molecular machines.
Celebrating a milestone: 100th Scholarly Impact of the Week
Celebrating a milestone
Today is a special day marking the 100th installment of Simon Fraser University’s Scholarly Impact of the Week!
Launched in March 2021 to celebrate SFU researchers’ inspiring ideas and discoveries, the series has travelled to the far reaches of the universe, deep into the microscopic world—and many points in between.
Help wanted: the complexities of crowdfunding
Jeremy Snyder
Faculty of Health SciencesCrowdfunding can be a lifesaver, says SFU health sciences professor Jeremy Snyder, but it can also raise privacy concerns and reflect existing inequities in society. His new book, Appealing to the Crowd: The Ethical, Political, and Practical Dimensions of Donation-Based Crowdfunding, explores the wider historical and ethical context of giving practices.
Cree coding decolonizes computer programming
Jon Corbett
Faculty of Communication, Art and TechnologyImagine telling a story in an Indigenous language and having a computer interpret and produce digital images for the story. SFU School of Interactive Art and Technology professor Jon Corbett aims to make this happen by developing computer coding using nehiyawewin, the Plains Cree language.
TL;DR: the world’s shortest writing textbook
Joel Heng Hartse
Faculty of EducationHow should new university students approach their first essay? Do professors really expect students to do all the readings? What exactly is APA Style? SFU Education lecturer Joel Heng Hartse has answers to these questions. His short survival guide to university reading and writing can help new academic writers overcome their fear of long papers.
Illuminating viral protein offers clues to more effective COVID treatments
Mark Paetzel
Faculty of ScienceSFU microbiologist Mark Paetzel and his research team used the brightest light in Canada to study the atomic details of viral protein, work that sheds new light on potential treatments for COVID19.
The paper, X-ray crystallographic characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease polyprotein cleavage sites essential for viral processing and maturation was recently published in Nature Communications.
Award-winning project highlights colonization in Xinjiang, China
Darren Byler
Faculty of Arts and Social SciencesGuldana Salimjan
Faculty of Arts and Social SciencesSince 2017, the government of China has interned Uyghurs, Kazakhs and members of other Muslim groups indigenous to the Xinjiang region in northwest China. Researchers estimate that more than one-million people have passed through the state’s re-education camps.
Incoming SFU postdoctoral fellow Guldana Salimjan, international studies professor Darren Byler, and scholars at the University of British Columbia created the Xinjiang Documentation Project to provide a platform for documenting state crimes and the lived experiences of these minorities in China.