A new Canada Research Chair (CRC), as well as the renewal of two CRCs, have been appointed at the University of Northern BC.
Dr. Sarah de Leeuw is the new face, signing on as the CRC in Humanities and Health Inequities. She is an associate professor in Geography and the Northern Medical Program (NMP). She will investigate how the arts and humanities can help address health inequities and encourage medical professionals to go into different geographies of practice such as rural areas and working with Indigenous people.
“I would like to explore whether the influence of the humanities can increase levels of empathy in health professionals and thus increase response to complex health issues,” said Dr. de Leeuw in a statement.
“I also want to examine how those who live with health inequities might be able to better describe their needs through methods that include the arts in informed practices.”
Dr. Sarah Gray, first appointed in 2012, and Dr. Brian Menounos, first appointed in 2013, are the two renewed CRCs.
Dr. Gray, an associate professor in the NMP, is back on as CRC of Integrative Physiology of Diabetes. She will continue exploring links between obesity and diabetes.
“I am interested in the physiology of metabolism; what goes wrong in the body when people develop diabetes and why obesity increases the risk of diabetes,” explained Dr. Gray in a statement.
“This is all motivated by a desire to better prevent or reduce complications of obesity.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Menounos will use his second term as CRC in Glacier Change to focus on the development of useful tools for research in the field. This is part of his ongoing work to study climate change on glaciers. In a statement, he said, “to be able to examine the future of glaciers on our planet well, you need to have good observational data, so a key goal will be to continue the development of high-quality data sets that can be used to update future models of change.”
Each researcher was appointed as Tier 2 CRCs, which are awarded to exceptional emerging researchers, acknowledged by their peers as having the potential to lead in their field. Each award is funded for $500,000 over five years. UNBC currently has seven CRCs.
Three #UNBC faculty members have been appointed as Canada Research Chairs. Dr Sarah de Leeuw is the new CRC in Humanities and Health Inequities. Dr Sarah Gray (Integrative Physiology of Diabetes) & Dr Brian Menounos (Glacier Change) have been reappointed. https://t.co/wAfynevbg9 pic.twitter.com/NPCWznI6cp
— UNBC (@UNBC) November 13, 2018