Media releases

• New Brock scholarship opens a door for Middle East women

  Thursday, June 30, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: R00141 – 28 June 2016

  The gifted daughter of an impoverished street-sweeper in Morocco could some day be attending Brock University, thanks to a new partnership between Brock and the Daughters for Life Foundation.

  On Tuesday, June 28 the University formally partnered with the foundation to create a full scholarship for young women from the Middle East and regional countries.

  Daughters for Life is a charity led by Nobel Prize nominee Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian physician and renowned peace activist who created the organization after three of his daughters were killed by tank shells in Gaza in 2009.

  The foundation seeks opportunities to help young women of all religions from Middle East and regional countries pursue studies otherwise inaccessible to them, in the belief that lasting peace in the region depends on empowering girls and young women through education. It is aimed at young women whose financial situation prevent them from pursuing a post-secondary education.

  Daughters for Life works to develop scholarship support and opportunities for post-secondary study in Canada, the US and the UK.

  On Tuesday, Abuelaish and Brock President Jack Lightstone signed the memorandum of understanding. Under the agreement, Brock will provide a full four-year undergraduate scholarship, including accommodation and meal plan, and commits to work with Daughters for Life to secure funding for additional full or partial scholarships for undergraduate or graduate students. Daughters for Life covers any transportation costs and visa fees.

  The agreement comes three weeks after Abuelaish received an honourary doctorate degree from Brock during Spring Convocation. The scholarship resulted directly from discussions that took place between Abuelaish and Lightstone during that visit.

  At the signing ceremony, Abuelaish spoke of a phone call he received this week from a friend in Morocco, telling about a young woman who has just graduated with the highest high school grades in that country. Her impoverished family could never afford to have her attend university.

  No individual has been selected to attend Brock on the Daughters for Life scholarship yet, but Abuelaish said the Moroccan woman is typical of the kind of student his charity seeks to help in life-changing ways.

  “To see this young woman who has nothing, who comes from financial hardship, this is how we can make a difference with good deeds,” he said. “This kind of partnership is what gives her hope, and gives others hope.

  “Young women like her have the right to get the best education according to their academic success, not according to heir socio-economic needs. If there is a will, there is a way, and that is what we are doing here today. Working together, nothing is impossible.”

  Lightstone said Brock is honoured to be a partner in the Daughters for Life program.

  “Contributing to the development of young women in Middle East for whom any higher education, let alone higher education abroad, is beyond their means, makes Brock a partner in positive change and the impetus for peace in that geo-political sphere,” said Lightstone.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock researchers receive $2.4 million in federal science funding

  Thursday, June 30, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: R00140 – 28 June 2016

  How do we recognize faces of all ages, so that we can tell if two photographs are of the same person or two different people?

  It’s easier said than done, and yet extremely important for border security officials and others whose job is to identify people.

  What exactly happens when “mast cells” — a type of cell in our immune system — are produced from stem cells living in our bone marrow? This is vital to know, as mast cells protect our body’s tissues from infection and disease and are a driving force in allergic responses and wound healing.

  These are two examples of the 2016 science research that the federal government is funding at Brock University totaling $2.4 million.

  The federal granting agency Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) announced the results of the 2016 Discovery Grants, scholarships and fellowships competitions for universities across the country June 23.

  Members of Parliament Vance Badawey (Niagara Centre) and Chris Bittle (St. Catharines) toured labs at Brock University Tuesday, June 28 to see first-hand the impact of Brock’s research on the Niagara community and beyond and to discuss how the University and the Canadian government are working together.

  “Brock’s researchers did extremely well in this year’s NSERC competition,” says Associate Vice-president Research (Natural and Health Sciences) Joffre Mercier. “We are very proud of the outstanding work our researchers are doing at Brock.”

  The $2.4 million funding includes studies being done under the Discovery Grant and the Discovery Development Grant programs.

  Subject areas of some of these grants include: how experience influences expert face recognition; how mast cells form from bone marrow; documenting climate-induced changes to the landscape and water in Old Crow Flats, Yukon; and examining the Plio-Pleistocene paleoceanography of the northern and western Pacific.

  Also included is $262,500 funding in graduate student scholarships. The research ranges from the role of hormones in sleep loss to how West Nile is spread in Ontario to examining the eastern carpenter bee.

  “NSERC funding provides our graduate students with much needed financial support to continue with projects that are pushing the boundaries of research in exciting directions,” says Mike Plyley, Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

  “The scholarships are true recognition to graduate students that the scope and calibre of their work hold great promise in contributing to discovery and innovation in Canada.”

  During their June 28 tour, Bittle and Badawey visited Professor of Psychology Catherine Mondloch, whose research aims to understand the mechanisms underlying the development of expert face recognition across the lifespan.

  Understanding how we recognize faces can help caregivers or the public look for older adults who may have wandered away from home, or assist teachers in recognizing grandparents who come to pick children up from school. Eyewitness testimonies can also be given a boost with more knowledge on face recognition.

  As well, the MPs called on Assistant Professor of Health Sciences Adam MacNeil, whose research team identified the activation of several enzymes in the formation of mast cells and is now working to better understand the cell-signaling mechanism in this process.

  Given the breadth of important roles mast cells play in defending us from bacteria, viruses and parasites, as well as their driving role in pathologies like allergy and asthma, the results obtained could have broad biological applications.

  “I am pleased to be on campus again today to continue the already well established relationship between Brock and the Government of Canada,” says Bittle. “I am excited to see this investment of $2.4 million in NSERC grants to support a number of the key researchers who call Brock home,” he says. “The ability of our local post-secondary institutions to attract and help foster key researchers who continue to conduct some of the most cutting-edge research in their fields, highlights the strength of our University. I congratulate all those receiving funds on a job well done, you continue to make Brock and Niagara proud.”

  “This money will help fund 22 cutting-edge projects at Brock University,” says Badawey. “Investments such as these ensure that our community will continue to develop the next generation of researchers and innovators who will help grow the Niagara Region and create jobs in new and emerging sectors.”  

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:
   
  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970
   
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  Categories: Media releases