Five Canada Research Chairs announced at UCalgary

Recently, $3.4 million was announced on behalf of the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Industry to support five Canada Research Chairs (CRC) at the University of Calgary. This includes one new CRC and four CRC renewals with UCalgary receiving the most funding amongst post-secondary institutions in Alberta.

The CRC program recognizes world-class researchers to reinforce academic research and training excellence in Canadian post-secondary institutions.

"Our scholars are pushing the boundaries of research to generate knowledge and create impact," says Dr. William Ghali, vice-president (research). "Congratulations to this group of Canada Research Chairs whose leadership plays a vital role in shaping our community and national dialogue."

New Canada Research Chair

Dr. Caroline Tait, PhD | Tier I CRC in Indigenous Health Equity and Inclusion
Professor, Faculty of Social Work; Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine (CSM)

Caroline Tait is a nationally recognized Indigenous thought leader, medical anthropologist, and citizen of the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan. Tait’s community-driven social justice research is aimed at eliminating inequities, racism, and oppression experienced by First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples. Her applied community-based research is critical of historic and present-day discrimination and oppression. 

She is well known for her work on health-care inequities, most recently focusing on end-stage organ failure, organ donation and transplantation research, policy and patient advocacy and Indigenous Peoples. Tait has dedicated her career to increasing research capacity in Indigenous community contexts, particularly through supporting and promoting the careers and scholarship of trainees and new investigators. Her CRC will serve as an "on the ground, in the community" resource for Indigenous nations.

Tait is a member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute.

Canada Research Chair renewals

Dr. Jennifer D. Adams, PhD | Tier II CRC in Creativity, Equity and STEMM
Professor, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science 

Jennifer D. Adams is an internationally recognized scholar in creativity and equity-oriented research in science education. Her research is disrupting established views of creativity’s role in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) to create transformational pathways to innovation and discovery. These pathways present ways forward to dismantle systemic barriers to STEMM that have long prevented under-represented groups from Black, Indigenous, and other communities of colour. 

She has advanced knowledge in the areas of science teacher learning and identity, youth identity and participation in informal science contexts, and participation, and equity, creativity and transdisciplinarity in post-secondary STEMM education.

Dr. Cheryl Barnabe, MD, MSc’11 | Tier II CRC in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Autoimmune Diseases
Professor, Departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences, CSM

Cheryl Barnabe is a rheumatologist, health services researcher and Otipemisiwak Métis Government member (formerly Métis Nation of Alberta) committed to ensuring patients experience high-quality, equitable health care. She conducts research primarily with Indigenous communities to advance equity in rheumatology specialty care systems, with a strong commitment to implementing appropriate solutions to identified care gaps. 

Her research has gained international recognition and she is one of top academic rheumatology scholars in Canada. Her current research explores avoidable acute care service use by patients with inflammatory arthritis to address health system challenges and social determinant drivers experienced by populations facing health inequities.

Barnabe is director of the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health and a member the O’Brien Institute for Public Health.

Dr. Catherine Lebel, PhD | Tier II CRC in Paediatric Neuroimaging
Professor, Department of Radiology, CSM

Catherine Lebel is an internationally recognized researcher in the fields of paediatric neuroimaging and neuroscience. Her research uses magnetic resonance imaging to characterize how brain structure and function change with age in typically developing children and those with neurodevelopmental disorders. 

She has made significant contributions to our understanding of normative brain changes across childhood, as well as the impact of early environmental factors on brain development, learning, and behaviour. 

Lebel is a member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute and Hotchkiss Brain Institute.

Dr. Anup Srivastava, PhD, MBA | Tier II CRC in Accounting, Decision-Making and Capital Markets
Professor, Haskayne School of Business

Anup Srivastava is one of the world’s leading scholars, writers, and speakers on the accounting, valuation, strategy, governance, and executive compensation issues of modern, knowledge-based companies. His research explores the ongoing shift in the world’s most valuable corporations from physical- and infrastructure-intensive to knowledge- and intangible-intensive ones. 

He is a prolific contributor to, and holds editor positions at, the world’s foremost journals in management and accounting. He proposes new paradigms for job creation, entrepreneurship, immigration, college education, social welfare, tax collection, capital allocation, and social equality.