The University of Northern British Columbia is one of Canada’s most research-intensive small universities and the President of the Canada Foundation for Innovation will be attending a research celebration on campus today and recognizing three new projects.

CFI President Eliot Phillipson is visiting UNBC from Ottawa and will be speaking at the research celebration, which is taking place in the Atrium of the Administration Building, starting at 2pm. CFI provides funding for research equipment and infrastructure and since 1999, UNBC has received just over $4 million in funding for 20 research labs and projects. All of this funding has been matched by the Government of British Columbia through the BC Knowledge Development Fund.

Dr Phillipson will be recognizing the three most recent recipients of CFI funding:

Jianbing Li (Environmental Engineering) has received $212,000 to develop a research laboratory used to simulate the breakdown of petroleum contamination in cold climates.

Youmin Tang (Canada Research Chair in Climate Prediction) is receiving $75,000 to enhance the computing power of UNBC’s high-performance computing centre to develop mathematical models that can be used to predict climate change.

Hanh Huynh (Northern Medical Program) is the project leader of a new Computer Assisted Telephone Interview Laboratory that is being used by researchers to gauge health-care access issues in rural and northern communities. CFI is providing $81,000.

“For a young and relatively small university like UNBC, the CFI funding has provided our researchers critically important opportunity to access equipment that is as good as any across Canada,” says Max Blouw, Vice-President of Research at UNBC. “While faculty, students, and communities supply the research questions and the brainpower, CFI provides tremendous assistance in giving researchers the tools to seek answers to the diverse economic, environmental, and social issues of the North.”

Rob van Adrichem, Director of Media and Public Relations, UNBC – 250-960-5622