Laurentian University will receive $508,765 in federal infrastructure funding for a pair of projects expected to produce ground-breaking results in the fields of mine waste-management and forensics. The funding, from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund, was announced by Federal Minister for Science Kirsty Duncan during a visit to the Laurentian University campus in Sudbury. Minister Duncan announced more than $52-million in research innovation projects at 51 universities across Canada.
Projects at Laurentian University
Mining
One of the projects funded by this announcement is a new field and lab analysis facility that will help Nadia Mykytczuk and her team find solutions to the high financial and environmental costs of mining. Dr. Mykytczuk’s work, which focuses on developing alternative mine waste management technologies, especially for a colder northern climate, contributes to making the mining industry cleaner, safer and more efficient.
Forensics and Metabolomics
The federal investment will also fund an advanced mass spectrometry facility that will help define the potential and the limits of what can be concluded in toxicological analysis of skeletal remains and to explore the fundamentals of metabolism. The facility will be used to identify selected chemical compounds, such as toxins and their metabolic by-products in decomposed remains, animal tissues and environmental samples (water, soil, etc), and to measure the concentrations of those compounds. The facility will also be used to explore how metabolism changes with disease, exercise, and even working deep underground.
It was great touring @HSNRI this morning with @KirstyDuncanMP @ScienceMin . @MarcSerreMP @Dominic_Giroux Thanks for having us! pic.twitter.com/uvVT2oJuXx
— Paul Lefebvre (@LefebvrePaul) August 15, 2017
The importance of federal infrastructure investment
Laurentian University remains a research leader in Northern Ontario, thanks in large part to investment from our federal partners. Previous CFI investment has funded projects such as the lab shared by Dr. James Watterson and Dr. Thomas Merritt. Among other applications, Dr. Watterson’s research is developing and characterizing methods for analysis of micro samples of blood that are stored as dried spots to assist in forensic investigations of drivers suspected to be impaired by drugs.