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UNBC to receive more than $1.5 million in research grants

The eight projects receiving funding centre on topics like number theory, wildfires, wildlife and cyberattacks
Citizen Staff
pgc-2025-07-09-unbc
University of Northern BC natural resources and environmental studies student Alexa Wiebe conducts field research in northern BC as part of professor Ken Otter’s study on how birds respond to changes in forest environments.UNBC handout

More than $1.5 million is earmarked for the University of Northern BC for research projects being carried out by eight faculty members, the school announced on Wednesday, July 9.

A media release said $1,562,500 has been secured from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s Discovery Grant program.

UNBC’s vice-president of research and innovation, Paula Wood-Adams, said the program “fosters the type of curiosity-driven research that lays the groundwork for major breakthroughs.

“It enables our faculty to pursue bold ideas while mentoring the next generation of scholars.”

The projects receiving funding are:

  • $195,000 for biology professor Eduardo Martins to study the response of freshwater fish to climate-driven temperature changes and whether access to cool water can help fish recover from thermal stress,
  • $187,500 for ecosystem science and management assistant professor Diogo Spinola to research the impact of wildfires on carbon storage in temperate and boreal forest soils,
  • $202,500 for engineering associate professor Mohab El-Makim to create a pavement engineering research group at the university, which will research pavement systems for northern climates and heavy industrial traffic,
  • $187,500 for geography senior research scientist Raquel DeCastro to study the effects of wildfires on soil erosion and carbon loss as well as their impacts on forest recovery, water quality and salmon habitats,
  • $187,500 for mathematics assistant professor Chunyi Gai to research modelling on how patterns like those found in plant clusters and tissue structures form and persist in natural systems,
  • $195,000 for ecosystem science and management professor Ken Otter to study how birds adapt to disturbances caused by human beings like logging and urban development,
  • $225,500 for computer science assistant professor Sajal Saha to develop a system driven by artificial intelligence designed to discover and respond to cyber attacks and
  • $185,000 for mathematics and statistics associate professor Alia Hamieh to explore the “the value distribution and asymptotic behaviour of automorphic L-functions.”

Also in the release, UNBC research project officer Jacqueline Dockray said these projects “demonstrate how northern perspectives continue to contribute meaningfully to national and international discovery.””