Dr. Rose Goldstein
Vice-President (Research)Welcome from the Vice-President (Research)

Welcome to the Office of Research web pages of the University of Calgary!  Having recently started my tenure as Vice-President (Research) on July 1, 2007, it gives me special pleasure to welcome you, whether you are student, staff, faculty or visitor, and to invite you to be an active participant in research at the University of Calgary. 

The U of C is a young and innovative university, one which has grown in just four decades from a few pioneering faculty to its present status as a thriving research university, one of the top research universities in Canada.  An amazing accomplishment indeed!

Thanks to the sustained efforts of U of C faculty, students, postdoctoral researchers, and staff, the U of C has significantly increased its research funding to $252.5 million, which ranks seventh in Canada, and is moving ahead as you read these words. The excellence of U of C scholarship attracts even more top research faculty and students and we intend to take our place among the best universities in the world. 

As U of C's Vice President (Research) and on behalf of the Office of Research, I commit to the service of the U of C research community, in the first instance, and to the local, provincial, national and global community. Our goal is to advance research at U of C in alignment with our values, the core principles of our Academic Plan and our strategic research goals.

This website aims to give you an overview of research activities at U of C and to celebrate the successes of our accomplished group of engaged scholars. The research pages also aim to guide and support you in your research initiatives so that you can be even more successful. Special attention will be paid to junior faculty starting their research careers and making sure these rising stars have all the information and support needed to get off to a great start!

My personal goals as the new Vice-President (Research) are to meet and learn from you, the research community of the University of Calgary.  To this end, I will be meeting with students, faculty, staff, volunteers and community members in the next few months and I hope you will accept these invitations. Also stay tuned for new opportunities to interact with me and members of the Office of Research. We want your participation and feedback so that we can be of service in the support of our research goals.  I welcome comments, suggestions and feedback, whether positive or if you have suggestions for improvement.  Please don't hesitate to get in touch with me at: vpr@ucalgary. I give you my word that your words will be heard and are important to me.

Again, welcome to the world of research at the University of Calgary!

"Raising our Sights" - Principles of the Academic Plan

A learning-centred University: A fundamental role of the university is to educate students.  How does research relate to students and vice versa? This is a fundamental question for U of C. A key part of the vision for research at U of C, and a priority for this office, is to grow a greater role for students at all levels in research, including undergraduate students. Concurrently, we need to ensure a growing and productive role for research and researchers in the education of students. This will enrich the education of our students, and also elevate our academic environment to greater excellence.  U of C aims to provide the best learning experience for every student, informed and based on the best research.

A research University:  We support, recognize, evaluate and celebrate scholarship and creativity in all its forms. This includes traditional fundamental research as well as applied research; and the scholarships of education, integration and service. With support for a broad definition of scholarship, U of C is positioned to take off to the greatest heights in interdisciplinary research and academic programs.

Multidisciplinary inquiry:  Today's important and complex issues demand that we succeed in multidisciplinary and particularly interdisciplinary study and inquiry. Our strategic research plan sets an ambitious set of priorities, each of which embraces interdisciplinarity.  I invite you to read the Academic Plan  to read more about U of C's strategic priorities for multidisciplinary research.

Return to community:  U of C is responsive to societal needs and recognizes that truly reciprocal relationships strengthen all of the partners involved. Locally, research at U of C plays a very important role in the Calgary community by bringing research results, products and technology to the community and by being involved and making a difference in the community on many levels. The Calgary community is also very engaged in the life of U of C and its research. We extend this responsiveness and involvement provincially, nationally and on the international stage.

Key research areas at U of C:

Research Highlights (News Stories)

Here's some links to illustrate the research priority areas:

Leading innovation in energy and the environment

• Change how you think about global warming: Shaping Canada’s approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and demonstrating how we can dramatically—and pragmatically—reduce our nation’s global warming impact. 
• Heating to cooling:Carbon dioxide may be the cause of global warming, but sticky sulphur-based gases could be the solution. Researchers at the University of Calgary are testing the waters. 
• Waste to energy: When the City of Calgary begins its “biocell” collaboration with University of Calgary researchers later this year, it will be combing through garbage to find just the right junk to create the most cultivated methane-producing landfill in the world. 
• The Alberta Ingenuity Centre for In Situ Energy is set to transform the oil sands industry.
• Melting away: When Dr. Shawn Marshall started researching glaciers 15 years ago, it took years to see visible changes to these vast sheets of ice and snow. Today, glaciers in the Canadian Rockies are visibly retreating each year.
   

Understanding human behaviour, institutions and culture

• Change a life:  University of Calgary are helping a group of Calgary preschoolers gain confidence and trust—one game of musical chairs at a time. 
• Devastation to education: Researchers and students from the University of Calgary's Faculty of Education are earning a global reputation as the go-to people for education reform in conflict-ridden countries.
• Professors “punk” their business students and win awards: At the Haskayne School of Business, Professors Daphne Taras and Piers Steel lied to their students and won multiple awards for doing so.The purpose of the learning tactic was to use deception to create an environment where students would become more sensitive to the conditions that create labour unions.
• Urban dance pilot puts new spring in older adults' steps:  Scholarly research shows dancing is good for older adults, but the only evidence you really need are the smiles on the faces of the seniors taking part in a University of Calgary-led pilot project.
• American buffalo doomed by international trade: It’s not often that thoughts inspired by Hollywood western movies germinate into full-blown academic theories that gain international attention, but that’s exactly what happened when U of C economist M. Scott Taylor decided to look into the near extinction of North America’s once vast buffalo herds.
• School of Policy Studies:  The pan-university School of Policy Studies will be an international centre of expertise in policy studies, including government, defence, health, economics, and energy and the environment.
   

Creating technologies and managing information for the knowledge society

• Micronanotechnology facility unveiled at U of C:  An advanced micro- and nanosystems integration facility on the University of Calgary campus is part of building the province’s expertise in nanotechnology devices.
• CAVEman unveiled: U of C scientists unveil the virtual human: Scientists at the U of C have created the world’s first complete object-oriented computer model of a human body. The 4D human atlas allows scientists to literally get inside their experiments by translating medical and genomic data into 4D images.
• The Virus Guy: Researcher gains notoriety for approach to computer security:  Catching spam and computer viruses has always been a cat-and-mouse game. John Aycock is conducting research that anticipates, rather than follows, the tricksters' next moves.
• Flipping the Switch: U of C researchers hope to ‘ turn off' cancer: Imagine if the cure for cancer was as simple as turning off a switch. Recent breakthroughs in genetic research suggest doctors may one day be able to treat cancer patients by doing just that-effectively turning off the cells that cause the disease.

• Technology takes health care to the masses: Researchers with the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Community Health Sciences devised a new way of getting health care to the masses—through their Telehealth Program.
   

Advancing Health and Wellness

• Improving recovery from minor strokes: The after-effects of a medically-termed ‘minor stroke’ often result in hidden disabilities that significantly impair a stroke patient’s full recovery.
• U of Calgary team finds "switch" that sparks cancer cells to travel: For the first time, a research team at the University of Calgary has identified the “switch” that enables brain cancer cells to journey outwards from the primary tumour and aggressively infiltrate the brain.
• Change how a country delivers nursing education: When the students of University of Calgary-Qatar (UC-Q) hit the books this fall, they will mark an historic first. For the first time ever, Qataris will have access to an internationally accredited nursing education program.
• neuroArm: World’s first image-guided surgical robot to enhance accuracy and safety of brain surgery
• U of C team publishes first-ever portion control study: A University of Calgary specialist has published her findings of a clinical study focusing on weight loss for people with diabetes