In its latest round of Discovery Grant research funding, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) awarded more than $3.27 million to 14 researchers at Trent University.
Protecting freshwater ecosystems, understanding how climate change is reshaping bird migration, developing technologies to remove PFAS "forever chemicals," and advancing adaptive cybersecurity for critical infrastructure are among the Trent-led research initiatives supported. The investment recognizes the University's research excellence while helping researchers generate new knowledge, train future leaders, and develop solutions to some of Canada's most pressing challenges.
Read the full list of funded Trent projects below.
NSERC Discovery Grants & Supplements
Total awarded: $2,930,000 over five years, plus $75,000 in Discovery Launch Supplements
- Dr. Carolyn Baer, Psychology: Uncovering the Structure of Confidence Representations in Childhood
- Dr. Katharine Clark, Mathematics: Robust Model-Based Clustering Methods for Complex Data
- Dr. Huy Dang, Trent School of the Environment: The Ecological and Climate Implications of Rare Earth Elements as Critical Elements
- Dr. Paul Frost, Biology: Lake Stoichiometry in a Changing World
- Dr. Robert Huber, Biology: Lysosomal Enzyme Trafficking in Dictyostelium discoideum
- Dr. Maggie MacPherson, Biology: Quantifying and Explaining Loss of Bird Migration with Global Change
- Dr. Joseph Northrup, Environmental and Life Sciences Graduate Program: Drivers and Consequences of Habitat Selection
- Dr. Makhdumabanu Farukali Saiyed, Computing & Information Systems: An Intelligent Framework for Adaptive Cyber Defense and Decision Support in Mission-Critical IoT Networks
- Dr. Peter Sues, Chemistry: Controlling the Secondary Coordination Sphere in Calixpyrrole Systems: Uncovering the Effects of Catalyst Microenvironment on Small Molecule Activation
- Dr. Andrew Vreugdenhil, Chemistry: Developing Sustainable Systems for Adsorption, Isolation and Destruction of PFAS
- Dr. Autumn Watkinson, Trent School of the Environment: Ecological Theory for Predictable Restoration: Stress, Facilitation, and Coexistence in Plant Communities
- Dr. Marguerite Xenopoulos, Biology: Patterns and Drivers of Ecosystem Metabolism in Freshwater Ecosystems
- Dr. Janet Yee, Biology: Gene Expression in Giardia lamblia
NSERC Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) Grants Program
Total awarded: $274,352
- Dr. Huy Dang, Trent School of the Environment: On-site High-Resolution Greenhouse Gas Emissions Monitoring Station for Environmental and Climate Research
- Dr. Cheryl McKenna Neuman, Trent School of the Environment: Malvern Laser Particle Size Analyzer (LPSA) for Materials Characterization
