Queen’s researchers awarded over $14 million for natural sciences and engineering research

Researchers at Queen’s University have secured over $14 million in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through the 2026 Discovery Research Program, NSERC’s largest annual investment. The announcement included a total of $630 million invested in research across the country.

NSERC Discovery funding supports excellence in discovery research and equips researchers with the long-term resources needed to advance scientific knowledge, develop innovative solutions to complex challenges, and train the next generation of researchers and highly qualified personnel.

Queen’s projects received 49 individual Discovery Grants, nine Research Tools and Instruments Grants, five Discovery Launch Supplements, three Northern Research Supplements, and one Subatomic Physics Project Grant. Queen’s researcher Samuel Dahan (Law) also received funding through NSERC’s Discovery Horizons grant for the project Courtroom Intelligence: Co-Designing AI for Courts, awarded $498,885 over five years.

“Discovery-driven research is the foundation of innovation and societal progress,” says Nancy Ross, Vice-Principal Research. “This significant investment from NSERC recognizes the excellence of Queen’s researchers and will support transformative work across a wide range of disciplines while creating valuable opportunities for student training and mentorship.”

The federal funding will support a wide range of research initiatives, helping Canadian researchers pursue new discoveries while strengthening Canada’s research capacity and innovation ecosystem.

“Canada’s greatest competitive advantage is our people. By investing in our world-class researchers and innovators right here at home, we are helping turn Canadian discoveries into new technologies, growing companies, and good jobs,” said the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions. “At a time of rapid global change we are backing Canadian talent, strengthening our economy, and ensuring Canada remains a global leader in innovation, competitiveness, and resilience.”

See the full list of funded Queen’s projects below. For more information, read the NSERC announcement.

 Discovery Horizons ProgramSamuel Dahan (Law): Courtroom Intelligence: Co-Designing AI for Courts – $498,885 Discovery Grants (Individual) ProgramCathleen Crudden (Chemistry): Nanoclusters to nanoparticles to supported liquid metal catalysts—Engineering stability, catalytic activity and photo physical properties in nanomaterials – $575,000John Smol (Biology): Lakes in the “Anthropocene”: ecosystem changes across broad spatial and temporal scales – $465,000Douglas Munoz (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Understanding saccade, pupil, and blink components of orienting behaviour – $315,000Il Yong Kim (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): Multi-Physics Topology Optimization for Automotive and Aerospace Crashworthiness Design – $310,000Robin Hutchinson (Chemical Engineering): Applying Reaction Fundamentals to Enable the Sustainable Development of Next Generation Polymer Processes and Products – $310,000Kevin Mumford (Civil Engineering): Thermal remediation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in soil and groundwater: Understanding byproduct fate and transport – $305,000Tamas Linder (Mathematics and Statistics): Adaptive and Task-Aware Source Coding under Constraints – $305,000William Take (Civil Engineering): Engineering a Future with Safe and Sustainable Mine Waste Solutions – $305,000Parvin Mousavi (Computing): Robust Machine Learning for Decision Support in Computer-Assisted Interventions with Large and Heterogeneous Data – $300,000Gang Wu (Chemistry): New nuclear magnetic resonance methods for detecting quadrupolar nuclei in biological systems in their native aqueous environment – $295,000Shetuan Zhang (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Molecular mechanisms underlying reactive oxygen species-mediated regulation of Kv1.5 potassium channels – $270,000Christian Muise (Computing): Neuro-symbolic Planning: Bridging Natural Language and Formal Action Models – $265,000Heidi-Lynn Ploeg (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): Dynamic Mechanical Loading for Long Lasting Implant-Bone Interfaces – $260,000Neil Hoult (Civil Engineering): Rapid Enhanced Assessment of Linear (REAL) Infrastructure – $260,000Qingguo Li (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): Inter-Limb Cross-Joint Exoskeletons: Enhancing Mobility via Energy Harvesting and Active Assistance – $260,000Peir Pufahl (Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering): Phanerozoic ironstone and Earth system evolution: critical element source and concentration in sedimentary systems – $245,000Anita Tusche (Psychology): Modeling Social Regulation: A Neurocomputational Approach to Socially Embedded Self-Control – $240,000Ryan Danby (Geography): Forest-Tundra Dynamics in Canada’s Changing North: The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors – $240,000Sebastien Talbot (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Nociceptor neurons control T cells behavior – $240,000Brian Amsden (Chemical Engineering): Polycarbonate-based biomaterials for biomedical applications – $235,000Juergen Dingel (Computing): Reimaging Software Project Templating: Foundations, Extensions, and Applications – $235,000Laurent Karim Béland (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): Machine-Learned Potentials and Atomistic Simulations for Siliceous Materials: From Photonics to Infrastructure – $235,000Salimur Choudhury (Computing): Optimizing Network Resource Management – $235,000Suraj Persaud (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): Uncovering Mechanisms of Stress Corrosion Cracking at the Micro-to-Nanoscale – $235,000Alan Lomax (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Mechanisms of sex-dependent differences in vagal afferent neuronal activity – $220,000Emily Oby (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Neural population mechanisms of learning – $220,000Jannice Friedman (Biology): Evolutionary constraints in plant reproductive strategies – $220,000Marc Dignam (Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy): Generation and manipulation of quantum states of light in nanophotonic systems – $220,000Neal Scott (Geography): Regulation of net greenhouse gas fluxes to the atmosphere in High Arctic ecosystems: implications for future climate change – $220,000Patrick Stroman (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Development of structural and physiological modeling of functional MRI data in order to understand the functions of interconnected regions across the central nervous system – $220,000Georgia Fotopoulos (Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering): Integration of space geodetic observations for large-scale site characterization and monitoring – $215,000Ian Karlin (Electrical and Computer Engineering): Heterogenous Computing Systems for Post Moore’s Law Progress – $215,000Jordan Morelli (Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy): Applied Magnetics – Nuclear Fusion – $215,000Scott Yam (Electrical and Computer Engineering): Merging Optics, Digital Signal Processing and Artificial Intelligence for Fiber Sensing Solutions – $215,000Warren Mabee (Geography): Evaluating methodologies to improve forest carbon sequestration in harvested wood products – $215,000Hoang Dang (Chemical Engineering): From Solar Panels to Energy Storage: Silicon Recovery for Battery Anode Innovation – $210,000Yuanzhu Chen (Computing): Building intelligent and resilient data transportation infrastructure for tomorrow – $210,000Christian Seiler (Environmental Studies): Discovering Climate Tipping Dynamics through AI-Guided Model Reduction – $200,000Greg van Anders (Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy): Physics Frameworks for Engineering Emergence – $200,000Gregory Smith (Mathematics and Statistics): Combinatorial Insights into Algebraic Geometry – $200,000Laurent Godin (Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering): Influence of structural inheritance on orogenesis and seismicity: A multi-orogen approach – $200,000Paul Grogan (Biology): Summer warming and deepened snow manipulations of a tundra plant community: Do long-term (~25 year) responses differ from short-term (~8 year), and if so, what do those differences reveal about the fundamental principles underlying terrestrial ecosystems? – $200,000Ram Murty (Mathematics and Statistics): Multivariable Arithmetical Functions and Dirichlet series – $200,000Francesco Ambrogi (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): Large-eddy simulations of unsteady separation in complex turbulent flows – $190,000Bradley Rodgers (Mathematics and Statistics): Random matrix theory and other probabilistic structures in number theory – $185,000Bas Vriens (Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering): Integrated biogeochemical and hydrological investigations to protect future water quality in the Great Lakes – $180,000Taleana Huff (Chemistry): Tailoring Carbon-Based Coatings – NHCs and High-Symmetry Tetragem Molecules – $175,000Ivan Dimitrov (Mathematics and Statistics): Associative algebras and generalizations of root systems – $170,000Andrew Lewis (Mathematics and Statistics): Lie groupoids in geometry and mechanics – $160,000 Discovery Launch Supplement (for early career researchers)Emily Oby (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Neural population mechanisms of learning – $12,500Francesco Ambrogi (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): Large-eddy simulations of unsteady separation in complex turbulent flows – $12,500Hoang Dang (Chemical Engineering): From Solar Panels to Energy Storage: Silicon Recovery for Battery Anode Innovation – $12,500Ian Karlin (Electrical and Computer Engineering): Heterogenous Computing Systems for Post Moore’s Law Progress – $12,500Taleana Huff (Chemistry): Tailoring Carbon-Based Coatings – NHCs and High-Symmetry Tetragem Molecules – $12,500 Northern Research SupplementsJohn Smol (Biology): Lakes in the “Anthropocene”: ecosystem changes across broad spatial and temporal scales – $100,000Ryan Danby (Geography): Forest-Tundra Dynamics in Canada’s Changing North: The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors – $100,000Neal Scott (Geography): Regulation of net greenhouse gas fluxes to the atmosphere in High Arctic ecosystems: implications for future climate change – $87,500 Subatomic Physics Discovery Grants (Project)Stephen Sekula (Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy): Analysis of HALO burst data and R&D for detector upgrade – $134,000 Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) Grants ProgramNeil Hoult (Civil Engineering): Distributed sensing and advanced assessment techniques for climate resilient infrastructure – $149,825Zhe She (Chemistry): Acquisition of Critical Infrastructure for High-Throughput Electrochemical Characterization of the Metal-Carbene Bio-Interface – $149,807Cathleen Crudden (Chemistry): Purification System for NHC-Stabilized Atomically Precise Heterometallic Nanoclusters – $145,644Parvin Mousavi (Computing): Ultrasound-enabled Next Generation Multi-modal Learning – $141,466Mark Daymond (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): Observing crystal level defects in the Scanning Electron Microscope – $134,433Stephen Lougheed (Biology): High throughput genotyping & sequencing workstation for training and research in ecology and evolution – $99,717Dominik Barz (Chemical Engineering): Advanced Characterization for Next-Generation Electrochemical Systems – $91,654Jessica Selinger (Kinesiology and Health Studies): Electromyography for investigating the neuromechanics of human movement and improving the control of assistive robotics – $80,633Levente Balogh (Mechanical and Materials Engineering): High-precision XY stage for mapping residual stress and microstructure in metallic alloys using X-ray diffraction – $35,473