The 2017 Killam Postdoctoral Fellowships Announced

The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies congratulates the four 2017 Killam postdoctoral fellows joining the faculties of arts and science this year.

Dr. Waldan Kwong (PhD, Yale University) will join the botany department this spring under the supervision of Professor Patrick Keeling. His research uses high-throughput DNA sequencing to explore biodiverse systems like reef corals. “This work will help us determine which microbes are potentially beneficial to coral health, and which may be parasitic.”

Dr. Sara Nelson (PhD, University of Minnesota) will work with Professor Jessica Dempsey in the geography department starting next spring to investigate the politics of value in natural resource conservation. Her research explores the theme of current ‘ecosystem services’ through a study of watershed conservation programs within the Latin American Water Funds Partnership.

In the fall, Dr. Sara Pavan (PhD, Queen’s University) will join the political science department. Her postdoctoral research will focus on the psychological underpinning of immigrants’ political voice. It will examine how different policy approaches in immigrant-receiving alter immigrants’ perceived political competence, raising or lowering the bar for their political participation. Sara will work with Professor Richard Johnston.

Dr. William Peveler (PhD, University College London) aims to develop a diagnostic smartphone tool for monitoring transplant health, post-operation. His point-of-care testing research as a postdoctoral fellow will address the challenges of disease diagnosis for rural patients. William will join the chemistry department this fall, under the supervision of Professor Russ Algar.

Dr. Carla Suarez, (PhD, Dalhousie University) Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship recipient, joined the School of Public Policy & Global Affairs in January 2018 under the supervision of Dr. Erin Baines. Her research will examine the role that social ties - family, friends, and community members - play in  influencing combatants to demobilize and return to their communities in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This project will develop new analytical insights into the complex intersections between peace negotiations and settlements, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DOR) processes, and community-based approaches to peacebuilding.

The Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellowships are part of the scholarship and prize programmes established in memory of Izaak Walton Killam through the will of his wife, Dorothy Johnston Killam, and through gifts made during her lifetime. These annual fellowships, available for most fields of research, provide an annual stipend for a maximum of two years, plus an additional travel research allowance.