New U of S $1.4-M Research Chair to Explore Behaviour of High-Pressure Materials

Posted April 05, 2004


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Monday, April 5, 2004, 11:30 a.m. 2004-04-03-OTHER

New $1.4-M Research Chair to Explore Behaviour of High-Pressure Materials

Today the University of Saskatchewan was awarded $1.4 million over the next
seven years for a new NSERC Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Materials
Science, as well as $160,000 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
to buy related laboratory equipment

John Tse, recruited from the National Research Council's Steacie Institute
for Molecular Sciences in Ottawa, will join the U of S department of physics
and engineering physics in July.

"We're delighted to welcome Dr. Tse to the U of S," said President Peter
MacKinnon. "His expertise and research acumen will capitalize on some of our
major assets and create powerful collaborations with faculty on campus. It
will also yield exciting opportunities for graduate student research and
training in materials science."

Tse will use the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron and the
Saskatchewan Structural Sciences Centre (SSSC) at the U of S to explore the
strange behaviour of materials under high pressures and temperatures -- new
knowledge that could lead to advanced alloys and electronics as well as
better understanding of the chemistry and dynamics of Earth's molten iron
core.

Tse will also collaborate with staff scientists at the CLS to develop a
world-class laboratory for the study of high-pressure phenomenon, featuring
a diamond anvil cell on one of the X-ray beamlines. This and other tools
will allow examination of materials under conditions normally found only
deep inside the Earth.

With the addition of Tse's Chair, the U of S has now been awarded $18.5
million to support 19 Chairs, as well as more than $2.23 million in related
CFI and partner infrastructure funding.

"The work our Chairholders are doing in universities throughout the country
plays a key role in making Canada a better place to live," Industry Minister
Lucienne Robillard said today in Calgary where the new chairs were awarded.
"Congratulations to all the new Canada Research Chairs."

Nominations for Canada Research Chairs are evaluated by a team of academic
peers who choose the most outstanding candidates from those submitted to the
program by universities. U of S research priority areas for the Chairs are
biotechnology, environmental sciences, health sciences, identity and
diversity, materials science, and technology and change.

The $900-million Canada Research Chairs Program was created to enhance
universities as centers of world-class research excellence by attracting and
retaining excellent researchers in Canadian universities. For profiles of U
of S Chair holders, visit http://www.usask.ca/crc or the national Canada
Research Chairs Web site at http://www.chairs.gc.ca.

NSERC, now also known as Science and Engineering Research Canada, is a key
federal agency investing in people, discovery, and innovation. It supports
both basic university research through research grants, and project research
through partnerships among postsecondary institutions, government and the
private sector, as well as the advanced training of highly qualified people.

The CFI (www.innovation.ca) is an independent, federally funded corporation
that fosters research and technology development by funding infrastructure
at Canadian post-secondary institutions, hospitals and non-profit
institutions.

The CLS is one of the country's largest science projects of the last 30
years. Due to open this fall, the U of S-owned national research facility
will be used by researchers in industry, government and academia. For more
information, visit: www.lightsource.ca

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For more information, contact:

John Tse
Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences
National Research Council
Ottawa, Ontario
(613) 991-1237
John.tse@nrc.ca
http://steacie.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Michael Robin
Communications Officer
Office of the Vice-President Research
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-2427
michael.robin@usask.ca
http://www.usask.ca/research/