Article

Parliamentarians celebrate new generation of Canadian researchers

OTTAWA, ONTARIO – Whether developing better tools for emergency responders, inventing an app that allows diabetes patients to monitor their health or…

OTTAWA, ONTARIO – Whether developing better tools for emergency responders, inventing an app that allows diabetes patients to monitor their health or promoting the use of indigenous language, young scholars from across Canada are making important contributions to the country’s research enterprise. The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), which helps make sure the next generation of researchers has what it needs to realize its potential, welcomed a talented group of young scholars to Ottawa on February 13 to celebrate their achievements.

More than 100 guests attended the event on Parliament Hill. Among them were students and post-doctoral fellows from universities and colleges across the country, along with their mentors, community members, Senators, Members of Parliament, political staff and research funding leaders.

Browse our photo gallery

IAmInnovation - JeSuisInnovation

The young scholars in attendance included:

Emmanuel Alabi, University of Waterloo

Watch: A better way to measure pain in children

Shabnam Jabari, University of New Brunswick

Read: Helping rescuers save more lives

Jaqueline Anaquod, University of Victoria / First Nations University

Watch: Giving back to her Cree community

Austin Lee, Simon Fraser University

Read: A better quality of life for people with diabetes

Daniella Niyonkuru, Carleton University

Watch: Helping more young women choose engineering and computer science

Luis Alejandro Coy, University of Calgary           

Read: Greener fuels for a better future

Catherine Girard, Université de Montréal

Listen: Dealing with mercury in food

Nathan Knapp-Blezius, Niagara College

Watch: Reinventing the Grocery Aisle

Winners of the CFI’s #IAmInnovation Twitter contest were also at the event to showcase how their work in CFI-funded labs is helping them and their research:

Arinjay Banerjee of the Department of Veterinary Microbiology at the University of Saskatchewan is researching the potentially high impact of emerging viruses on humans;

Krysta Coyle of the Department of Pathology at Dalhousie University is exploring new drug treatments for cancer; and,

Connor Stone of the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy at Queen’s University is striving to improve our understanding of the universe’s dark matter.

To find out more about how the CFI supports students and post-docs, visit:

At Issue - Training the next generation

#IAmInnovation story collection