Researchers win for sustainable science
Christopher Wilds, seen above in a photo from Concordia’s Thursday Report in 2004, is one of three researchers given $10,000 awards for their work and its implications for sustainability. Paula Wood-Adams and Zhi Chen, both of the Engineering Faculty, also won Petro-Canada Young Innovator Awards.
Paula Wood-Adams, Zhi Chen and Christopher Wilds have been awarded $10,000 each as recipients of the Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award, whose theme this year was sustainable development.
Wood-Adams, joined the De-partment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in 2001 from McGill.
Her research is in the field of rheology, the science of the deformation of materials. It looks at the properties of fluid and semisolid materials such as clays, concrete, oils, inks and polymers.
An expert in polyethlene, she won her Petro-Canada award for a project on the development of foaming technology for polylactide, an environmentally benign plastic.
Wilds, who is in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is doing a project on “the synthesis of interstrand cross-linked DNA by an environmentally conscious solid-phase methodology.”
His research involves organic chemistry, specifically, synthesizing DNA to help understand the behaviour of cancer cells.
In the process of his research, many litres of solvents are used in the purification of the compound. This produces a substantial quantity of waste byproducts.
With the award, he can hire a graduate student to help him develop the methodology to work on a smaller scale, thereby producing much less waste.
Chen is a professor in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is working on long-term risk assessment using an IT-supported spatial modelling approach for the management of produced water discharges.
The Petro-Canaada Young Innovator Awards Program is open to full-time faculty members from faculties of business, engineering and science who have completed their doctoral degree within the last eight years.