Published: June 15, 2021 By: Mary Taws
MIRA members Marla Beauchamp, Tohid Didar, Kathryn Grandfield and Rong Zheng have been named new Canada Research Chairs, a prestigious honour created to promote Canada’s world class research and development.
Six other McMaster researchers have also been named.
“Congratulations to McMaster’s Canada Research Chairs for this important recognition of their ground-breaking and innovative work,” says Karen Mossman, vice-president, research. “The Canada Research Chairs program is vitally important to our research enterprise as it ensures we’re able to recruit and retain world-class scholars and, more broadly, bolsters Canada’s reputation as a global leader of research and innovation.”
MIRA members who have been named new Canada Research Chairs are:
Marla Beauchamp, assistant professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science, is the new Canada Research Chair in Mobility, Aging and Chronic Disease (Tier 2). Beauchamp’s research program explores mobility limitations, such as difficulty walking or climbing stairs, and seeks to develop strategies to keep older adults healthy and mobile in their community for as long as possible.
Tohid Didar, assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering, is the new Canada Research Chair in Nano-biomaterials (Tier 2). Didar’s research is focused on the interactions of living and synthetic matter to solutions with real-life impact. The objective of his research is to develop smart nano-biomaterials to address global challenges in human health such as infectious diseases, diagnostics and food safety.
Kathryn Grandfield, associate professor in the department of materials science and engineering, is the new Canada Research Chair in Microscopy of Biomaterials and Biointerfaces (Tier 2). Focused on improving our understanding and diagnosis of bone disorders and implants, Grandfield’s research will develop cutting edge microscopy approaches to characterize bone, its natural interfaces and its interface with implant materials across all lengths.
Rong Zheng, professor in the department of computing software, is the new Canada Research Chair in Mobile Computing (Tier 1). With the prevalence of wireless technologies and broadband access, untethered mobile and wearable devices have become an essential part of everyday life. Zheng’s research aims to develop efficient on-device solutions to human activity recognition, monitoring and assessment with applications to improving mobility of older adults.
This article was first published on Brighter World. Read the original article.
