Montreal, July 6, 2012 Securing the funds to pursue passions in academic research is every doctoral student's dream. Thanks to the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships, four new Concordia PhD candidates are getting to do exactly that.
Brigitte Desharnais, Matthew Keough, Kiran Kumar and David Szanto will begin their doctoral studies at Concordia with guaranteed funding of $50,000 a year over three years, thanks to the Vanier CGS.
Designed to help Canadian universities attract and retain world-class doctoral students, these scholarships provide invaluable support for students as they pursue research projects that touch on subjects ranging from natural sciences to engineering, to the humanities and social sciences.
"Our new cohort of Vanier recipients have great leadership potential and are high achievers in their respective academic fields," says Graham Carr, Concordia's Dean of Graduate Studies. "Concordia's ability to attract students of this caliber is a further demonstration of the university's strong research, creative and training environment, and their success will inevitably bring greater recognition to our meaningful contributions to knowledge, innovation and society."
The students echo Carr's enthusiasm.
Brigitte Desharnais is looking forward to pursuing PhD in chemistry collaboration with Quebec's only forensic science laboratory. Her goal is look at metabolizing enzymes in the liver, post-mortem, in order to determine the cause of drug-adverse reactions.
Explains Desharnais: "This could significantly help forensic pathologists and toxicologists to better define the cause and circumstances of death in cases involving drug use, which can definitely have a positive impact on grieving families."
For Matthew Keough, receiving a Vanier scholarship for his PhD in psychology will be life changing in many ways. Not only will he be able to conduct groundbreaking empirical work on the complex re
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| Contact: Clea Desjardins clea.desjardins@concordia.ca 514-848-2424 x5068 Concordia University Source:Eurekalert |