Jess McIver appointed Canada Research Chair in Gravitational Wave Astrophysics

January 17, 2022

Congratulations to PHAS Assistant Professor Dr. Jess McIver, who is appointed Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Gravitational Wave Astrophysics. Twenty-two UBC researchers were appointed as new and renewed Canada Research Chairs in the latest round of appointments announced on January 12, 2022. The new and renewed UBC chairholders being announced represent an investment of $19.5 million through the Canada Research Chairs program.

Jess' research involves working with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in measuring the ripples in spacetime produced by gravitational waves. She recently received funding from the federal New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) 2020 Exploration Stream to employ a novel machine learning approach to leverage information reported by LIGO-Virgo to identify kilonovae events, and from the BC Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) to provide critical infrastructure to support scientific collaboration in gravitational waves detection.

About the Canada Research Chairs Program

This year, the Canada Research Chairs Program is investing more than $151 million to support 188 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs at 43 institutions. The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), a partner with the Canada Research Chairs Program, will invest more than $9.5 million to support 43 chairholders at 19 institutions across the country through its John R. Evans Leaders Fund for the cutting-edge labs and equipment they need to pursue their important work.

The Canada Research Chairs Program enables Canadian universities to achieve the highest levels of research excellence and become world-class research centres. Chairholders improve our depth of knowledge and quality of life, strengthen Canada's international competitiveness, and help train the next generation of highly skilled people through student supervision, teaching and the coordination of other researchers' work.

“The Canada Research Chairs announced this week comprise the full diversity of Canada, both in terms of their backgrounds and training, as well as the broad range of disciplines they represent,” says Ted Hewitt, Chair of the Canada Research Chairs Program Steering Committee. “This, in turn, helps to drive the research excellence we have come to expect from these outstanding scholars, as well as their contributions to the well-being and prosperity of Canadians.”

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