Laurier researchers awarded $3.9 million in NSERC Discovery Grant funding

July 7, 2026

In its latest round of Discovery Grant research funding, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) awarded more than $3.9 million to researchers at Wilfrid Laurier University. Their findings will have applications in machine learning, climate change adaptation, finance, supply chain management and immunology.

Funding recipients include:

NSERC Discovery Grants

Total awarded: $3,518,500 over five years, plus $87,500 in Discovery Launch Supplements

• Azam Asilian Bidgoli, assistant professor, Computer Science: “Toward efficient, accurate, and robust evolutionary machine learning”
• Stephanie DeWitte-Orr, professor, Health Sciences: “Long dsRNA, RNA interference and the interferon threshold: A comparative approach”
• Holly Fruehwald, assistant professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry: “Probing the chemical and mechanical interactions of electrode interfaces for clean energy applications”
• Shohini Ghose, professor, Physics: “Exploring quantum chaos and correlations in multipartite systems through theory and applications”
• Steven Maley, assistant professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry: “From mechanism to machine learning: Accelerating first-row metal catalyst discovery”
• Kenneth Maly, associate professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry: “Synthesis and self-assembly of new conjugated polycyclic compounds”
• Samuel Okegbile, assistant professor, Physics and Computer Science: “Adaptive and self-evolving artificial intelligence-driven security framework for dynamic digital twin networks”
• Michael Palmer, adjunct research professor, Geography and Environmental Studies: “Climate change disruptions to the biogeochemical cycling of metal(loid)s in northern aquatic environments”
• William Quinton, professor, Geography and Environmental Studies: “Understanding the impacts of permafrost thaw on surface water resources in northwestern Canada” (also awarded NSERC Northern Research Supplement)
• R. Mark Reesor, professor, Mathematics: “Studies in quantitative finance, simulation, and policy-related financial risks”
• Sukhjit Sehra, assistant professor, Computer Science: “Development of robust federated learning strategies to mitigate heterogeneity and resource constraints in dynamic transportation networks”
• Chunming (Victor) Shi, professor, Operations and Decision Sciences: “Building resilient mineral supply chains for Canada under trade barriers: Modeling and optimization approaches”
• Michael Wilkie, professor, Biology: “Strategies of ion regulation and ammonia excretion in phylogenetically ancient lampreys”
• Jonathan Mark Wilson, professor, Biology: “Gills to guts of ion regulation”
• Xinyuan Zhang, assistant professor, Operations and Decision Sciences: “Statistical learning and stochastic optimization under information frictions”
• Kaiming Zhao, professor, Mathematics: “Simple smooth representations of some Lie algebras”

NSERC Discovery Development Grants

Total awarded: $132,000 over two years

• Stephen Perry, professor, Kinesiology and Physical Education: “Neuromechanics of foot function during dynamic balance reactions and gait”
• Jason Venkiteswaran, associate professor, Geography and Environmental Studies: “Investigating sulfate declines in the context of catchments, lakes, climate change, and algal blooms in the decades after acid rain”
• Xu (Sunny) Wang, professor, Mathematics: “Modeling human dynamics and approximation theory in deep learning”

NSERC Research Tools and Instruments Grant

Total awarded: $65,550

• Jennifer Baltzer, professor, Biology: “Characterizing the impacts of short-interval reburns using remotely piloted aircraft systems”