Following on the heels of a $643,000 funding to research aging and dementia care, environmental contaminants, and medical innovation, Trent University yesterday announced a $16 million funding for research into community resilience and sustainable chemistry.
It was awarded two prestigious Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs. Two internationally renowned researchers are joining Trent University to tackle pressing environmental and societal challenges facing Canada.
Dr. Don Lafreniere, chair in Community Geography, and Dr. Ryan Sullivan, chair in Environmental and Sustainable Chemistry, will return home to Canada from universities in the U.S. to establish transformative research programs in the Trent School of the Environment and Department of Chemistry focused on community resilience and sustainable chemistry, respectively.
Dr. Lafreniere and Dr. Sullivan each receive $8 million over eight years from the Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs program as an investment in Canadian research talent development. The researchers will use the funding to build research teams of highly-skilled students, post-doctoral fellows, and research staff to support community collaborations that help translate their discoveries into industry, policy, and public impact.
Through the chair, Dr. Lafreniere will develop a national program that employs and trains disadvantaged youth in geospatial technologies and research to work with communities to strengthen sustainability, resilience, and civic participation. As a researcher in the Trent School of the Environment, Dr. Lafreniere’s work will advance teaching and experiential learning in a variety of programs in the school, such as Geography, and Environmental Science & Studies, as well as graduate programs in the Frost Centre for Canadian and Indigenous Studies.
Dr. Sullivan will bring new opportunities for cutting-edge research at Trent through investments in advanced instrumentation, talent development and innovation, and new green tech development further strengthening the University’s capacity for sophisticated chemical analysis of contaminants that affect the environment and evaluation of new remediation methods to remove them. Dr. Sullivan will contribute expertise in environmental chemical transformations and atmospheric chemistry, and expand opportunities for undergraduate and graduate research across programs including Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, Master of Instrumental Chemical Analysis, Master of Science in Materials Science, Environmental and Life Sciences M.Sc. and Environmental & Life Sciences Ph.D.
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