UBC dominates NSERC Synergy Awards

Researchers at the Univ of British Columbia dominated the NSERC Synergy Awards for Innovation, picking up four of the seven 2007 awards. University researchers and their corporate partners received the awards and cash prizes on October 29th at a gala dinner in Ottawa. The event also honoured three graduate students with NSERC Innovation Challenge Awards for demonstrating the commercial potential of their thesis research.

The Synergy Awards — including a $25,000 research grant to the university researchers — were made to:

* Luis Seco, Univ of Toronto, and Algorithmics Inc, for new financial software to identify and manage risks associated with complex financial instruments;

* Jacques Beauvais, Univ of Sherbrooke, Sipro Lab and VoiceAge Corp, for the development of algorithms to digitally encode and compress voice and music;

* Andre Buret, Univ of Calgary, and Elanco Animal Health, for a new antibiotic to treat bovine respiratory diseases;

* Martha Salcudean, Univ of British Columbia, FP Innovations-Paprican, Weyerhaeuser Co and Process Simulations, for the analysis of fluid dynamics in pulp mill recovery boilers leading to reduced energy costs;

* James Olson, Univ of British Columbia, Advanced Fiber Technologies, BC Hydro Power Smart and Canfor Pulp Limited Partnership, for a new design in pulp screen rotors used in pulp and paper mills, resulting in higher productivity and lower energy consumption;

* Jean-Michel Poutissou, TRIUMF (located at the Univ of British Columbia), and D-Pace, for the development and commercialization of products used in cyclotrons and particle accelerators;

* Richard Todsol, Univ of British Columbia, Kennecott Canada Exploration Inc, Teck Cominco Ltd and Barrick Gold Corp, for a long-standing collaboration that has resulted in vastly improved mineral exploration techniques. All are part of UBC's Mineral Deposit Research Unit.

The three graduate student awards went to André Arsenault (chemistry/Univ of Toronto), Christopher Springate (pharma/Univ of British Columbia) and Andrew Marble (electrical engineering/ Univ of New Brunswick).

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