Living wall in FSS building

Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

The Vanier CGS program aims to attract and retain world-class doctoral students by supporting students who demonstrate both leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the natural sciences and engineering, social sciences and humanities, or health sciences.

Criteria for selecting applications

Applications will be reviewed against the following three equally weighted selection criteria, and ranked:

  • Academic excellence, as demonstrated by past academic results and by transcripts, awards and distinctions;
  • Research potential, as demonstrated by the candidate's research history, his/her interest in discovery, the proposed research and its potential contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the field, and any anticipated outcomes;
  • Leadership (potential and demonstrated ability), as demonstrated by the candidate’s personal statement, leadership reference letters, referees assessments and CCV.

For more information, please refer to the selection criteria and detailed guidelines as presented on the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship website.

Vanier Award winners

Aidan Kirkham, 2023-2024 Vanier Scholar

Aidan Kirkham

About 10% of Canadians over 65 years old have peripheral artery disease (PAD). Management of PAD patients is costly and resource intensive. The proposed research aims to develop an evidence-informed implementation intervention to improve prescription of guideline-recommended medications to Ontarians with PAD.

If the intervention is feasible in Ontario clinical practices, it may inform a province-wide randomized clinical trial to verify its efficacy on a large scale. Ultimately, increased prescription of these medications may reduce health-care resource use and adverse event rates.

Nicholas Goulet, 2023-2024 Vanier Scholar

Nicholas Goulet

Disrupted cellular oxygen balance can threaten cell survival. The main objective of this research is to provide insight into how cells survive hypoxic stress by characterizing the regulation of autophagy during intermittent hypoxemia. Intermittent hypoxemia can occur in various situations, such as high-altitude travel, in certain occupations like diving or mining, and as part of medical conditions like obstructive sleep apnea.

Findings will enhance our understanding of human responses to intermittent hypoxemia, shedding light on mechanisms with an impact on severe health outcomes like obstructive sleep apnea.

Yaryna Mamchur, 2023-2024 Vanier Scholar

Yaryna Mamchur

Quantum technologies are transforming the development of diverse fields, making an impact on the way Canadians live, communicate and understand our world.

This project will develop nanoscale structures capable of applying highly concentrated electromagnetic fields to the quantum emitters, thus influencing how and when they release a photon. Incorporating magnetic materials will allow us to control a single photon source’s behaviour by either internal or externally applied magnetic fields. This work will enable control over the brightness, lifetime and dynamics of these single photon sources, creating opportunities for significant advancements in microscopy, medical imaging and communication.

Michelle Yang, 2023-2024 Vanier Scholar

Michelle Yang

The purpose of this project is to strengthen disability-inclusivity by proposing actions to support resilience in all phases of disaster management and disaster risk reduction, and implementing capacity-building strategies, for an all-hazards approach. This project will use an integrated approach consistent with an Accessible Canada Act guiding principle, “Nothing Without Us,” emphasizing the genuine inclusion from the outset of people with disability in disaster-related policy, decision-making, and research and development.

Delphine Gauthier-Boiteau, 2023-2024 Vanier Graduate Scholar

Delphine Gauthier-Boiteau

This research project aims in part to shine light on the knowledge and experiences of mothers currently or formerly at the intersection of the criminal justice system, mental health law and youth protection. It also aims to look at certain aspects of social relations, control mechanisms and the discourse of these judicial institutions.

More broadly, the project will allow for a critical understanding of the institutions and legal authorities studied, which will ultimately be useful to all.

Julie Godin, 2023-2024 Vanier Scholar

Julie Godin

According to widely-held fatphobic, heterosexist beliefs, it is improbable that fat women be victims of sexual violence. However, they report a higher level of such violence than thin women. The consequences of such violence affect all aspects of their life, include their relationship to their body. That’s why this project seeks to answer this question: How does sexual violence experienced in fatphobic, heterosexist contexts affect fat women’s relationship to their body in Quebec?

In academic terms, this project will contribute to the fields of gender studies, “fat studies,” body studies, social work and psychology. On the social level, it will offer a new look at the experiences of these women and the support they require, by highlighting the fatphobic dimension of certain assaults.

Raliat Abioye

Raliat Abioye

Islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) is a naturally occurring peptide hormone that regulates blood glucose levels. However, IAPP commonly self-interacts, which results in the formation of aggregates that are toxic to pancreatic β-cells and implicated in type 2 diabetes (T2D) progression. Thus, the use of inhibitors to discourage IAPP aggregation is a promising avenue for managing T2D, and the focus on natural disease treatment methods finds food-derived peptides an excellent source for natural inhibitors. The objective of my research is two-fold: (1) to identify aggregation inhibiting food-derived peptides and evaluate their effects towards preventing β-cell death, and (2) to evaluate the effect of peptide structure on inhibitor function. Findings from this study will significantly advance the field in developing targeted natural peptide inhibitors as novel T2D treatment methods.

Alex W. Castro

Alex W. Castro

My research focuses on the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of memory and the cholinergic system across the lifespan and, by extension, contribute to the development of biomarkers in both healthy and diseased populations. A secondary focus of my research program is to examine the impact of biological sex/sex hormones on cholinergic brain activity and memory.

Maxine Visotzky-Charlebois.jpg

Maxine Visotzky-Charlebois

This research lies within the field of studies dealing with the effectiveness of the law, specifically, of Quebec workplace health and safety law. Our research goal is make a qualitative evaluation of the role of unions and to analyze the strategies they favour in return to work situations after a work-related injury. We seek to further reflection on the role unions are asked to play, including in the context of workplace change, but also on the means to encourage a sustainable return to work following a work-related injury.

Karianne Dion

Karianne Dion

Sleep disturbance is present in around 80% to 90% of cases of depression, and is associated with poorer clinical prognoses. Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line treatment recommended for chronic insomnia. One of the main CBT-I treatments relies on the ability of individuals to correctly estimate their sleep, yet this ability is seriously affected in those living with depression. Thus, my project seeks to compare the use of subjective and objective measurements of sleep to guide CBC-I treatment in situations of comorbid depression. Integration of new devices that measure sleep objectively is a unique opportunity to adapt CBT-I to those with depression, to improve treatment accuracy and effectiveness and to observe physiological changes occurring during treatment.

Issa Fowai

Issa Fowai

The premature deterioration of public infrastructure is a common engineering challenge that presents an exorbitant financial burden to the government (and their taxpayers) and poses a threat to human safety. Selecting remedial actions requires a comprehensive understanding of the causes and extent of the problems and the prediction of further deterioration. My research uses a holistic approach to correlate material behaviour and deterioration, visual inspection, NDT, and a wide range of traditional and novel test methods to evaluate the bond performance of CFRP-retrofitted concrete diaphragms from the Champlain Bridge. This will enable a deeper understanding of the damage progression in bond-critical applications to improve the design and service life of CFRP-strengthened concrete structures.

Monire Jamalkhah

Monire Jamalkhah

Oncolytic viruses are exciting therapeutic agents for cancer treatment as they specifically infect and kill cancer cells, ignite anti-tumor immunity, and in some cases, induce the tumor cell expression of multiple therapeutic payloads, including microRNAs. miRNAs can be used to revert the resistance to therapies that breast tumors develop as a result of their genomic instability and heterogeneity. In this project, I propose to generate a multi-modal oncolytic virus-based therapy capable of the direct induction of oncolysis, the induction of host anti-tumor immunity, the delivery of therapeutic microRNAs that can be disseminated within the tumor microenvironment by exosomal delivery, and the re-sensitization of target cells to drugs irrespective to their genomic signature. The result of this study will present a one-of-a-kind novel combinational therapy modality for breast cancer.

Sommer Knight

Sommer Knight

Many Black people report feeling mentally and physically drained from experiencing anti-Black racism across various life domains (e.g., in the workplace, education, interacting with police, within cross-racial friendship networks). This suffering has recently been referred to as "Black fatigue". More than simply a metaphor for frustration or exasperation, Black fatigue describes a chronic feeling of exhaustion that has the potential to add further burden to the Black experience. The objectives of the proposed research are to: (1) develop and validate a measure of Black fatigue in Black Canadian families, and (2) assess the impact of Black fatigue on family well-being outcomes (i.e., family functioning, family cohesion, parenting practices).

Catherine Larocque

Catherine Larocque

Historical and recent events concerning Indigenous people in Canada have highlighted the ubiquitous and forced integration of western settler knowledge and values into all spheres of Indigenous peoples’ lives and societies, and the knowledge produced and translated from health research is no exception. Considering this knowledge is typically developed through western “scientific” methods predicated on rational choice liberalism, responding to the Calls to Action set out in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada necessitates a transformation in how we conceptualize knowledge and its translation with Indigenous peoples. Using a Foucauldian genealogical approach, my doctoral research will examine how the historical roots of “scientific” knowledge are incommensurable with Indigenous ways of knowing, suggesting a fundamental contradiction at the core of knowledge translation: that of knowledge creation. Findings from my research will invite current and future generations of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and students to explore different conceptualizations of knowledge development and translation founded on Indigenous values, practices, and harmonious transactional ways of being and interacting with the land.

Michelle Liu

Michelle Liu

Current engineering practices and standards do not accurately reflect Canadian society’s increasing attention to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). The proposed doctoral project, supervised by engineering professor Beatriz Martin-Perez and law professor Jena McGill, addresses this gap by evaluating Canadian building standards and policies through an EDI lens and examining the opportunities and challenges facing the engineering profession’s urgent need for cultural change. This interdisciplinary research is expected to be ground-breaking in the Canadian engineering context, and its broad dissemination could spark an overhaul on how the profession views the inclusion of differently-identified individuals in the profession, the meaning of public interest, and the role that engineers can play in contributing to social justice.

Michael Verret

Michael Verret

Working with patient partners and decision-makers, my research program will include reviews of all available published literature on studies that assessed drug alternatives to opioids during surgery. These studies will provide us with an overview of which drugs are used during surgery and how they can benefit patients in their recovery, their satisfaction, their quality of life, their functional capacities after surgery as well as long-term use of opioids after surgery. This critical work will help inform a large clinical trial of opioid-minimizing interventions during surgery in adult patients. Our program will help address the burden from the opioid crisis across Canada by reducing potential unnecessary use of opioids during surgery and finding effective alternatives that benefit outcomes important to patients.