Project Overview
Water, energy and food security are some of the most pressing challenges to our global community. This project – funded through a prestigious Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships Advanced Scholars (QES-AS) Program – addresses these issues by providing opportunities to changemaking researchers. The program aims to strengthen and broaden existing partnerships with institutions in developing countries by enhancing their capacity around clean technologies that integrate water, energy and food security.
The project is co-led by Prof Majid Bahrami, Canada Research Chair in Alternative Energy Conversion Systems, and Dr Zafar Adeel, Executive Director of Pacific Water Research Centre.
The global impact of this program will be two-fold. Not only will the research provide sustainable solutions for millions of people worldwide, but the partnership will help build research capacity in the selected low- and middle-income countries.
The four-year program would support twelve (12) doctoral students and four (4) postdoctoral fellows recruited from lower- and middle-income countries to complete research-based projects in the School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering (MSE) and the School of Resource and Environmental Management (REM) at Simon Fraser University (SFU) with research placement partners.
Research Targets
Development of sustainable technology, leadership, and community are the focus of this collaborative, interdisciplinary project. It is comprised of training activities and research that will
- enhance the knowledge and leadership skills of selected QES-AS scholars
develop new approaches to sustainable clean energy-water management
develop an array of innovative, clean technologies that utilize solar-thermal energy or waste-heat to:
a) produce potable water,
b) store thermal energy; and
c) control the temperature and humidity in semi-closed greenhouses for optimal crop growth.
