Six researchers at St. Francis Xavier University received over $1 million in funding through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grants program, supporting innovative research that addresses some of today’s most significant scientific and environmental challenges.
Three researchers also received NSERC’s Discovery Launch Supplement, providing an additional one-time award of $12,500 to help establish their research programs.
Dr. Heather Penney, with Aquatic Resources , received $38,000 annually for five years for her project, Impacts of habitat loss and multiple stressors on the distribution and reproductive ecology of ribbed mussels. Dr. Penney also received a $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement. Her research investigates how climate change and salt marsh degradation affect ribbed mussels, a key ecosystem engineer in Atlantic Canada’s coastal marshes.
Dr. Russell Wyeth, Department of Biology received $48,000 annually for five years for Neuroethology of Chemical and Flow-based Navigation in Aquatic Gastropods . Dr. Wyeth’s research explores how aquatic snails and sea slugs navigate using chemical cues and changing water currents.
Photo: Dr. Brendan Murphy (top left), Dr. Robert van den Hoogen, Dr. Celeste Cunningham. Dr. Jesse McNichol (bottom left), Dr. Heather Penney, Dr. Russell Wyeth (St. FX University photo)
Dr. Jesse McNichol, Department of Biology received $38,000 annually for five years for Quantifying Resilience of Microbial Sulfur Detoxification to Water Column Overturning in a Coastal Euxinic Basin. He also received a $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement. His research focuses on microorganisms that naturally detoxify hydrogen sulfide in oxygen-depleted marine environments.
Dr. Celeste Cunningham, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences , received $35,000 annually for five years for Transport and Depositional Dynamics of Marine Organic-Rich Sediments and Their Role in Oceanic Carbon Cycling, along with a Northern Research Supplement of $17,335 annually for five years and a $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement.
Her research examines how organic carbon is transported and preserved in marine sediments, improving understanding of Earth’s long-term carbon cycle and the geological processes that influence climate over millions of years.
Dr. Brendan Murphy, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences , received $44,000 annually for five years for Origin and Emplacement of Trans-crustal Batholiths: Implications for Crustal Growth. Dr. Murphy’s project investigates how continents formed through ancient geological processes.
Dr. Robert van den Hoogen , Department of Mathematics and Statistics , received a Discovery Development Grant of $22,000 annually for two years for Symmetries in Alternative Theories of Gravity; Working towards an Averaged Theory of Gravity .
Dr. van den Hoogen’s research program examines fundamental questions in theoretical physics, including the development of new approaches to gravity that could help explain the “Hubble tension”—one of modern cosmology’s most significant unresolved problems.
