Alberta, Simon Fraser, Toronto, and Waterloo Universities Capture Canada's Top Science and Engineering PhD Prizes

Four doctoral grads to receive national honours and a cash award

(Ottawa, Ontario) NSERC (the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) today announced the winners of its annual prizes for top graduating doctoral researchers in science or engineering.

A national jury selected the medalists from the best PhD graduates nominated by universities across Canada. Each winner receives a $5,000 cash prize and a silver medal from NSERC.

The winners are:

• Dr. Cameron Currie (University of Toronto);
• Dr. Eldon Emberly (Simon Fraser University);
• Dr. Yuri Leontiev (University of Alberta);
• Dr. Vien Van (University of Waterloo).

Any ants looking for a talent agent? They couldn't do better than Cameron Currie who captured not only the scientific but also the popular imagination. The research resulted in more than two dozen media interviews, and a story on the front of the New York Times science section. Dr. Currie is now the recipient of a 2001 NSERC Doctoral Prize for his discovery of a fascinating four-way relationship involving an ant, a fungus that it 'cultivates' and feeds on, a second fungus that attacks the first, and an antibiotic bacterium that the ant harbours to destroy the harmful fungus. As a result of the media exposure, Dr. Currie's ants have become entomological celebrities in their own right. One colony has appeared in a music video. Another colony is on display at a Chapters bookstore in Toronto. He completed his doctoral thesis at the University of Toronto's Department of Botany. Dr. Currie grew up in Edmonton, Alberta.

Albert Einstein called it "spooky action." Eldon Emberly calls it something to be observed, measured, and explained. They're talking about the quantum mechanical effects of matter. Until the last 20 years, these atomic-level effects – first identified by Einstein and others in the early 1900s – have remained in the realm of theory. Dr. Emberly, a recipient of a 2001 NSERC Doctoral Prize, is exploring the practical dimensions of this quantum universe in the form of molecular wires and transistors, including resistors. "The amazing thing is that these 'molecular resistors' behave nothing like a conventional resistor that you might buy at an electronics store," says Dr. Emberly. He received his doctorate from the Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC. Dr. Emberly spent his childhood in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The title of the Yuri Leontiev's doctoral thesis is: A type system for an object-oriented database programming language. In it he designed a consistent type system that would allow for thorough automatic checking of logical semantic associations. What's remarkable is that he created a new way to make computers clearly understand that while books can get wet, they don't drink. How did the University of Alberta student create the basis for a powerful new computer language when others had tried and failed? "Maybe just luck," says the 2001 NSERC Doctoral Prize recipient, with a laugh. Luck, years of high-powered cerebral processing, excellent professors, and no preconceptions. Dr. Leontiev notes that he wasn't affiliated with any of the groups that had previously tried to create a unified object-oriented database programming language. This meant that he didn't initially realize the enormous scope of the challenge. While benefiting from others' attempts, he was able to trace a new route to scale this computer science pinnacle. Dr. Leontiev received his PhD from the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta. He is a native of Moscow, Russia.

Vien Van is turning theory into practice when it comes to non-linear materials. The unique optical effects of non-linear materials were first noted in the early 20th century but, until recently, have remained in the domain of theoretical physics. Dr. Van's 2001 NSERC doctoral prize-winning PhD research, set the mathematical groundwork for applying these theoretical concepts to increasing the speed of telecommunications and logic devices. "The next step is to actually build so-called all-optical systems," says Dr. Van. He completed his doctorate at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Van was born in Vietnam and moved to Vancouver while still young.

NSERC President Dr. Tom Brzustowski congratulated the four successful prize winners: "This signals a great start to a promising career."

Today, NSERC also announced the six Steacie Fellowship winners:
Dr. Simaan AbouRizk (University of Alberta); Dr. Peter Grütter (McGill University); Dr. Ben Koop (University of Victoria); Dr. Arokia Nathan (University of Waterloo); Dr. Sarah Otto (University of British Columbia); and Dr. Warren Piers (University of Calgary).

The NSERC Steacie Fellowships and Doctoral Prizes will be presented in Ottawa at the end of the year.

For more information, contact:

Francis Lionnet, NSERC, at (613) 992-9001, fzl@nserc.ca.