U of S Awarded $2.8 M for Three New Research Chairs and Lab Equipment

Posted March 28, 2002


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Thursday, March 28, 2002 2002-03-23-OTHER

U of S Awarded $2.8 M for Three New Research Chairs and Lab Equipment

Today the University of Saskatchewan was awarded $2.4 million over the next
five to seven years to create three Canada Research Chairs, as well as
$390,210 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for related
laboratory equipment.

"This is great news for U of S," said U of S President Peter MacKinnon.
"These Chairs will increase our research capacity in leading-edge areas of
materials science, helping us to attract and retain excellent faculty and
students. As well, these Chairs will greatly enrich the classroom experience
for our students."

The announcement was made by Industry Minister Allan Rock in Ottawa as part
of a $94.6-million investment to support 88 new Canada Research Chairs at 33
universities across the country.

"The Canada Research Chairs Program supports the Government of Canada's
efforts to promote higher education, research and innovation," said Rock.
"Making our economy more innovative will reap significant social and
economic benefits for all Canadians."

The three new Chairs are among 32 allotted to U of S under the $900-million
Chairs Program. With today's announcement, the U of S has received a total
of $10 million to support 11 Chairs, as well as $1.1 million in
infrastructure funding from the CFI. For profiles of all U of S Chairholders
awarded to date, visit: www.chairs.gc.ca/english/profile/index.cfm.

The three new Chairholders are world-class researchers who share a common
research interest in development of new advanced materials:

- Canada Research Chair in Electronic Materials and Devices:
Safa Kasap, professor of electrical engineering, will receive $1.4 million
over seven years, as well as $125,000 from CFI for a laboratory. His work
could make it more affordable, convenient and efficient for doctors to take
X-rays digitally. Instead of having to view original films, doctors will be
able to process digital images with computers, leading to improved diagnosis
and cost savings for mammography and other imaging applications.

Kasap is one of the world's leading researchers in photoconductors
(materials which change their conductivity when irradiated with light or
X-rays). His work has contributed to their use in a new type of X-ray image
detector (direct conversion) that is poised to revolutionize medical
imaging. Kasap's research will aim to develop even more efficient detectors.


- Canada Research Chair in Materials Science with Synchrotron Radiation:
Alexander Moewes, associate professor of physics, has been awarded $500,000
over five years, as well was $120,000 from CFI for equipment. Moewes aims to
answer key questions about the electronic structure of new designer-made
materials with specific electrical and thermal properties. This work holds
enormous potential for developing various types of sensors and electronic
devices.

He uses synchrotron light extensively in his work and currently leads a
proposal to establish one of the world's few high-brilliance XES (X-ray
Emission Spectroscopy) beamlines at the Canadian Light Source
(www.cls.usask.ca).

- Canada Research Chair in Biomaterials:
Heinz-Bernhard Kraatz, associate professor of chemistry, has been awarded
$500,000 over five years, as well as $145,210 from CFI for equipment. Kraatz
will focus on the properties of new biomaterials (materials created in the
lab from molecules designed from scratch) to improve their design.

One application is medical implants, such as artificial heart valves, where
new biocompatible materials can help increase resistance to infection. Other
applications include bio-sensors to monitor blood-glucose levels, find
mutations and detect disease such as HIV or heart disease.

Nominations for the Chairs are submitted by universities to the Chairs
Program and are reviewed by a team of academic peers who choose only the
most outstanding. U of S research priority areas for the Chairs are
biotechnology, environmental sciences, health sciences, identity and
diversity, materials science, and technology and change.

Two types of chairs are offered by the Chairs Program:

-A seven-year renewable Tier I Chair, filled by outstanding experienced
researchers who are recognized by their peers as world leaders in their
fields -- $200,000
-A five-year, once renewable, Tier II Chair, awarded to exceptional
individuals acknowledged as having potential to lead in their research
fields -- $100,000.

The Chairs Program was created to enhance universities as centres of
world-class research excellence by attracting and retaining excellent
researchers in Canadian universities. By 2005, Canadian universities will
have 2,000 new Canada Research Chairs (www.chairs.gc.ca).

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For more information or to arrange interviews, contact:

Kathryn Warden
Research Communications
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-2506
kathryn.warden@usask.ca

Backgrounder: New U of S Chairs

Safa Kasap
Chair in Electronic Materials and Devices (appointment effective July
1/2002)
Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-5390
kasap@engr.usask.ca

Taking X-rays Digitally: Common X-ray imaging, invented 40 years ago using
photographic silver halide film, is inefficient and expensive. Digital
radiology (similar to using a digital camera) offers cost and time
efficiency. Digital images can be processed and viewed by doctors on
computers, as opposed to on original film, leading to improved diagnoses.
Economical technology will improve availability in smaller, rural hospitals.


- Chair Focus: Kasap will study properties of new photoconductor films and
look to develop new and better alloys for digital X-ray detection.
- Research Interests: In addition to experimental and theoretical work on
photoconductors for medical imaging applications, he investigates materials
for new and improved photonic devices which, for example, can be used in
light wave communications over fibre optic cables.
- Achievements: He is the author of two books used as texts by major
universities and more than 100 journal papers, as well as a Fellow of the
Institution of Electrical Engineers, Institute of Materials, and the
Institute of Physics. He is the Reviews Editor for the Journal of Materials
Science: Materials in Electronics.
- Partners: He collaborates with researchers at the Sunnybrook Health
Sciences Centre and Women's College (University of Toronto), Anrad
Corporation (Montreal) and Waterloo University. He collaborates in photonics
research with scientists at TRLabs and the University of Alberta.

Alexander Moewes
Chair in Materials Science with Synchrotron Radiation (effective Jan.
1/2002)
Associate Professor
Department of Physics and Engineering Physics
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-6431
moewes@usask.ca

Focusing Brilliance: The study of condensed matter holds significant
interest for scientists in the 21st century as they seek to discover the
true potential for these materials that exist on the nanoscale (a nanometre
is one-billionth of a metre). One method proven successful in exploring the
properties of these structures is synchrotron-based soft X-ray emission
spectroscopy (XES). Spectroscopy is the science that measures the emission
and absorption spectra of light and other forms of electromagnetic
radiation.

- Chair Focus: Moewes aims to answer key questions about the electronic
structure of advanced materials, work which could lead to new sensors and
"smart" microelectronic devices. As team leader for development of the XES
beamline at the Canadian Light Source (www.cls.usask.ca), Moewes is working
to establish the beamline as a powerful diagnostic tool for the Canadian and
international materials research community. Moewes has done a lot of work
with the XES at the Advanced Light Source at the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, expanding techniques in many fields such as organic and
inorganic superconductors and semiconductors.
- Research Interests: Moewes' research involves study of the electronic
structure of complex materials -- where the electrons are located and how
they bind to other atoms. The ultimate goal is to make materials with new
properties of conductivity, electrical behavior or rigidity.
- Achievements: He has more than 60 publications on complex materials and
soft X-ray emission spectroscopy. He received a post-doctoral fellowship at
Tulane University, New Orleans.
- Partners: He collaborates with internationally known scientists from
universities and labs in Canada, Russia, Germany, Japan, Korea and the U.S.

Heinz-Bernhard Kraatz
Chair in Biomaterials (appointment effective Jan. 1/2002)
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-4660
kraatz@skyway.usask.ca

Living in the Biomaterial World: Biomaterials (materials created in the lab
from biological molecules designed from scratch) have important applications
in medical science. They play a major role in the fabrication of implants
which, when treated with biomolecules, are compatible with bodily tissues
and therefore have an increased resistance to infection. Vascular
prostheses, artificial heart valves and other implant devices are part of a
$50-billion-a-year industry. Another significant application for
biomaterials is biosensing to detect toxins in the body.

- Chair Focus: Kraatz will synthesize new biomaterials using spectroscopy
and other techniques to study their properties and improve their design.
Producing biosensors that are cheap, efficient and biodegradable is one of
Kraatz's objectives. There are also applications in bioelectronics,
nanotechnology and catalysis.
- Research Interests: Kraatz is interested in designing new biological
molecules for potential use in plastics, bioelectronic devices such as
biosensors, and other advanced materials. He has developed a new,
environmentally friendly biocatalyst for transforming compounds widely used
in the production of oil-based plastics, chemicals and drugs. This
bio-catalyst is environmentally friendly because it's based on naturally
occurring amino acids and there are fewer waste products.
- Achievements: Kraatz is the author of 48 articles and book contributions
on inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry. He has post-doctoral fellowships at
University of Maryland and the Weizmann Institute. He is the U of S
recipient of the 2001 PetroCanada Young Innovator Award.
- Partners: He will collaborate with the Canadian Light Source
(www.cls.usask.ca), the Saskatchewan Structural Sciences Centre and the
Saskatchewan Facilities for Biomolecular Research. His research has strong
ties to other initiatives in biotechnology, environmental science and health
that will require work with researchers at the University of Alberta and
researchers at universities in Poland, Australia, Germany and Japan.

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