2015 Vanier Scholars

What are your research plans for the next three years?
I am currently based in Iquitos, Peru supervising the data collection for my thesis research. This includes field supervision, daily review of questionnaire and study data and ongoing training of research assistants and laboratory technologists. Data collection is scheduled to be completed in July 2016 at which point I will perform the data analysis for my research and summarize my results in at least three manuscripts that I will submit for publication. I would like to return to Peru to present the results of my research to local and national decision makers so that my research may be used to plan and implement appropriate health intervention strategies. I plan to finish and submit my PhD thesis by May, 2018.

How do you feel about winning a Vanier Graduate Scholarship – what difference will this make to your research path or your contribution to the global community?
Winning a Vanier Graduate Scholarship has given me the freedom and flexibility to focus entirely on my thesis research for three years. It has allowed me to be present, in Peru, during the data collection for my thesis which is an incredible experience in which I am continuously expanding my skillset in primary data collection in an international setting. Furthermore, this experience has given me greater appreciation and understanding of my data and has allowed me to build global linkages with Peruvian colleagues and investigators. The Vanier scholarship will undoubtedly have a very significant impact on my training as a PhD candidate, for which I am very grateful.

What are your research plans for the next three years?
The remainder of my research will focus on elucidating how the DICER1 mutations change the pattern of miRNAs within the cells, and how the altered patterns contribute to the development of the tumours. The desired long-term outcome of this research is to gather sufficient knowledge, which may then be used to discover new therapies to target the specific changes that occur in tumours where DICER1 function is compromised.

How do you feel about winning a Vanier Graduate Scholarship – what difference will this make to your research path or your contribution to the global community?
I feel very honoured and humbled to be among the recipients of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. I must convey my sincere thanks to my supervisor, mentors and McGill’s Dept. of Human Genetics who encouraged and supported my application from the start. Winning the Vanier CGS has afforded me financial security for the remainder of my PhD and in so doing, has allowed me to focus more fully on my research. The prestige of the award has also motivated me to persevere and work towards achieving my research goals. Ultimately, I hope that my research will contribute to the fundamental knowledge on the molecular cause of DICER1-related tumours and will aid in identifying potential therapies for these paediatric and adolescent-onset tumours.

What are your research plans for the next three years?
After completing my comprehensive examination and defending my thesis proposal, I plan on developing, modeling and analyzing various prototypes of reinforced concrete buildings representative of current Canadian building practices. The prototype models will be analyzed utilizing state-of-the-art structural analysis software with and without consideration of soil-structure interaction effects to assess the differences. The parametric study will consider buildings with different number of stories above and below grade and in various cities to capture the effects of different zones of seismicity in Canada. In addition to writing my dissertation, I also plan on disseminating my research findings by publishing in peer-reviewed journals and presenting at conferences. Last but not least, it is my intent to collaborate and work with the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) Standing Committee on Earthquake Design (SCED) and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Technical Committee on Design of Concrete Structures to translate my research findings into design provisions that realistically capture the effects of soil-structure interaction for the seismic design of buildings.

How do you feel about winning a Vanier Graduate Scholarship – what difference will this make to your research path or your contribution to the global community?
I feel truly honoured, privileged and proud to receive this prestigious award. The Vanier Graduate Scholarship provides me with the opportunity to pursue and focus on my research goals without the burden of financial pressures. I am profoundly hopeful that the results of my research will yield refinements in seismic design and permit Canadian engineers in the future to more efficiently design earthquake-resistant buildings across our country.

What are your research plans for the next three years?
My research plan for the next three years will focus on conducting studies to address questions related to the working mechanism of NS5B polymerase of the Hepatitis C virus. I hope to provide a better understanding of the molecular underpinning of this virus which may enable the design of better treatments for hepatitis C.

How do you feel about winning a Vanier Graduate Scholarship – what difference will this make to your research path or your contribution to the global community?
It is a great honor to be a Vanier holder. As a Vanier recipient, I will be able to focus fully on my research without having to worry about securing other sources of funding. I feel that it will allow me to go further with my project than I could have originally hoped when I started my PhD.

What are your research plans for the next three years?
Over the next three years I plan to further my research into the cellular mechanisms of circuit development. This will eventually lead to the completion of my dissertation and ultimately the continuation into future research in understanding the observations of neural function and processes.

How do you feel about winning a Vanier Graduate Scholarship – what difference will this make to your research path or your contribution to the global community?
Receiving the Vanier Graduate Scholarship is a high honour and will definitely aid me in my goals of scientific research that can potentially lead to new therapeutic approaches to developmental disorders.

What are your research plans for the next three years?
Having completed my first round of field work, I now hope to expand use of the integrated pest management models within farming communities. While nearly all farmers that I have seen are quite eager to use less pesticides, oftentimes the only "extension agent" in the field is an agricultural input company salesperson, which means that farmers often don't have access to information on integrated pest management or biocontrol. I hope to orient my future research towards assessing the potential for the use of such integrated pest management models as rapid tools to spread and gather knowledge on what works and doesn't in biological control. I also plan on researching how these models can be used to also gather field information from farmers themselves in order to improve the model, allowing for implicit information transfer and communication between users. On the socioeconomics side, I hope to expand the scope of the models we have built to more communities and develop frameworks to allow for the collaboration of different communities and different levels of government in developing socioeconomic system dynamics models for the same problem in different regions.

How do you feel about winning a Vanier Graduate Scholarship – what difference will this make to your research path or your contribution to the global community?
The Vanier Graduate Scholarship has had a profound impact on my research and future plans. Firstly, it removed all concerns regarding funding in the short term, allowing me to worry exclusively about my research (which is often more than enough)! The fieldwork component of the research has also been very intensive, with two branches (socioeconomics and environmental) occurring simultaneously in two different case study villages. The funding has allowed me to grow our research team, hiring two Guatemalan field research assistants as well as providing support for McGill undergraduate students to complete internships while working on the project. Over the summer of 2015, we had a team of six undergraduate students working in Guatemala, and several of these (and some new faces) will be returning in 2016. This guaranteed support has also allowed me to be more flexible in my research schedule, including spending three months in India over the summer of 2015 to develop contacts there and compare the rather advanced biocontrol industry there with the Guatemalan context.

What are your research plans for the next three years?
For the next three years I will be investigating pediatric-onset MS, which could provide clues of early disease targets and the specific immune cells that cause the damage. A pediatric cohort allows us to examine a unique patient population because they present with the earliest episodes of MS. My project’s aim is to characterize the disease targets and injury mechanisms in this young population. We hope to provide insights into the immunological abnormalities responsible for MS development. The ultimate goal of my proposed studies is to help with early detection of the disease and the development of more selective treatments. The results would be beneficial not only to the young population, which presents with the first attack but through detection of early pathogenic events, we could potentially target and prevent disease progression in adults.

How do you feel about winning a Vanier Graduate Scholarship – what difference will this make to your research path or your contribution to the global community?
I am humbled to be a recipient of the prestigious Vanier Graduate Scholarship. Receiving this award motivates and challenges me to push even further in my future endeavors. I believe the Vanier will allow me to bridge my professional and personal passions as it is of utmost importance to me to go beyond my personal development and give back to others. Aside from helping me complete my degree and thus my growth as a scientist, this esteemed award opens doors to countless professional development and community involvement opportunities. Having the chance to invest my time in more pursuits, will further develop my leadership skills and allow me to become a contributing citizen of the global community. Moreover, this award allows me to attend more conferences and training opportunities that will help me foster more collaborations and expand my networking circle, leading to more interdisciplinary projects. I feel extremely privileged that Vanier will be part of my story and help me write the next chapter of my career.

What are your research plans for the next three years?
My research project in the next three years involves interviewing UN employees at the New York and Geneva headquarters and beyond, as well as fieldwork in Haiti in the winter/spring of 2017 to conduct participant observation of the UN peacekeeping mission there, MINUSTAH. The UN has a long story of engagement in Haiti and it provides an ideal case for studying the interaction and relations between UN interveners and local people.

How do you feel about winning a Vanier Graduate Scholarship – what difference will this make to your research path or your contribution to the global community?
Receiving the Vanier CGS gives me confidence that my research is relevant to a broad audience and can have significant policy implications. With the support from the Vanier CGS, I will be able to conduct fieldwork and to travel to carry out interviews with the people who are on the frontline of today’s global governance but whose voices are rarely heard in either policy or academic debates.

What are your research plans for the next three years?
My next years will be years of reading, and I’m really excited about it: philosophy and literature theory, but also a lot of contemporary literature is on my menu. I chose three authors (Marguerite Duras, Violette Leduc and Richard Millet), but I have to see more largely what it is done in contemporary literature. I can’t believe that this is my job – I love my studies very much. I am also writing fiction, which is another way to understand my research questions, to experiment language and his boundaries: I just published a novel, Je n’ai jamais embrassé Laure (Leméac), and I have another project for the next years.

How do you feel about winning a Vanier Graduate Scholarship – what difference will this make to your research path or your contribution to the global community?
To win a Vanier Scholarship is an incredible recognition of my work, and a big cheer up for the years to come. It gives me time, which is very precious: time to think, to write, to create and invest in other projects – the perfect conditions to think and to have a fulfilling experience.

What are your research plans for the next three years?
After finishing my comprehensive exams and defending my proposal, I will dive into the theoretical and archival research that make up the core of my project. I plan to spend a year to 18 months collecting and analyzing my research materials, and 18 months to two years drafting my dissertation. As I complete my research, I plan on writing a number of public-facing articles to share my research with communities outside the academy.

How do you feel about winning a Vanier Graduate Scholarship – what difference will this make to your research path or your contribution to the global community?
I'm honored, grateful, and proud to be named a Vanier Scholar. The scholarship allows me to focus on research and writing full time, and to share my research with a broad audience outside the academy. Working in public and ensuring that my work is accessible has always been important to me. This scholarship gives me the means to travel, and speak to and work with populations that might otherwise be difficult to reach.

What are your research plans for the next three years?
I aim to complete my PhD under the supervision of Dr. Morag Park within the next three years. In addition to completing my projects, I plan on disseminating our findings at national and international conferences. During this time, I would also like to expand on a biobanking effort we have set up in developing patient-derived mouse models of breast tumors which have been an invaluable research tool to my research and others. After completing my PhD, I will be returning to medical school as part of McGill’s MD/PhD program, with the long-term goal of becoming a physician-scientist.

How do you feel about winning a Vanier Graduate Scholarship – what difference will this make to your research path or your contribution to the global community?
I am sincerely honored to have been awarded the Vanier Graduate Scholarship. This undoubtedly reflects a culmination of strong mentorship throughout my training, for which I am thankful. The weight of this scholarship will be an asset as I embark in the next steps of my training and hopefully open some doors.