In the wake of the Paris meeting on global climate change in December of 2015 (COP21), commitments to drive down greenhouse gas emissions have escalated around the world. Man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are accepted as the largest contributor to climate change. Promising next-generation technologies for decreasing CO2 emissions are being investigated at the lab scale. Unfortunately, the technology developers often lack next-step projects and connections with industrial end-users to allow the technology to advance and become commercialized.

Nearly 70% of all drug candidates are not pursued for pharmaceutical development because they cannot be dissolved into solutions appropriate for human use. Cuprous Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CPI) recently discovered that some of these drugs could be dissolved in the presence of certain metal ions. Furthermore, a number of metal-drug complexes are more therapeutically active than their metalfree counterpart.

Canadian northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) market pulps set standards worldwide for fibre strength, length, fineness and uniformity. These characteristics add unmatched strength and durability to finished goods, and this drives a high international demand for NBSK pulp. However, competition has increased the price-performance pressure on Canadian suppliers.

Currently, no Canadian-based companies are involved in the manufacturing of state-of-the-art research tools for atomic layer deposition (ALD). Angstrom Engineering is a leading manufacturer of similar technologies – physical vapour deposition and chemical vapour deposition – and have identified an opportunity to produce the first ALD research tool manufactured entirely in Canada. ALD is a vapour phase technique that offers sequential, self-limiting surface reactions to deposit thin films with exceptional control over thickness and composition, as well as conformality and uniformity.

My work will provide an important insight of the newly developed S1229. Cyclodextrins (S1229) are cyclic molecule composed of 7-sugars, with a unique structure. S1229 forms a hydrophobic core, which interacts with cholesterol and phospholipid by-products and removing them from the membrane. SolAeroMed has shown that S1229 was able to repair lung surfactant function. Lung surfactant is protein-lipid mixture covering the air-water interphase in the lung. Surfactant is an essential component of healthy lung function and without it, breathing would be near impossible.

Within a hydrogen fuel cell, the cathode catalyst layer (CCL) is generally considered a limiting component in overall performance due to sluggish oxygen reduction reaction kinetics. The proposed internship is comprised of two projects, each characterizing the materials used in the CCL.

We propose a novel approach that will provide researchers with an improved method to study multiple molecules, simultaneously in the same tissue section. Our strategy is to use novel nanoparticles that each emit unique multispectral signature and can be used simultaneously. We aim to develop a novel method to detect 15 breast cancer and immunotherapy-related biomarkers at the same time. The capability to detect a multitude of biomarkers simultaneously on the same tissue section would provide unprecedented headways in the field of cancer research and particularly on tumor profiling.

The purpose of this research will be to analyze microbial volatile organic compounds for the purpose of the development of an analytical method for the detection and speciation of moulds in an indoor environment.

The aim of this project is to develop and characterize metal matrix composite materials for applications in the field of power electronics and automotive. The material under study are constituted by a copper or aluminum matrix, reinforced by carbon (fibers or platelets) and it is known that the composite properties depend on the orientation of the reinforcements. The objective of this research is to study and to evaluate the effect of a deformation (e.g extrusion) of the material on its thermal, electrical and mechanical properties.

Through the Mitacs internship program, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is partnering with Western University researchers to build confidence in the lifetime of copper-coated steel containers, proposed as one of several barriers that will keep nuclear waste contained and isolated from the environment. The intern, Ms. Thalia Standish, will simulate the corrosion of copper-coated steel materials in a variety of conditions, followed by three-dimensional imaging using X-ray microtomography. Together with her supervisor, Dr. David Shoesmith, Ms.