Recognizing research excellence at Queen’s

At this year’s Spring Convocation, Queen’s University is bestowing its highest form of recognition for research excellence to five faculty members. Margaret Moore (Political Studies), Tucker Carrington (Chemistry; Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy), Mark Daymond (Mechanical and Materials Engineering; Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy), Robert Ross (Kinesiology and Health Studies), and Nancy van Deusen (History) are the recipients of the 2019 Prizes for Excellence in Research (PER). Valued at $5,000 each, the PER are awarded to outstanding Queen’s researchers and celebrate major research contributions either completed or recognized in recent years. Recipients are nominated by members of the Queen’s community and represent one of five categories: humanities; social sciences; natural sciences; health sciences; and engineering.

This year’s PER recipients demonstrate the breadth and scope of research excellence across the disciplines at Queen’s. Since the program’s development in 1980, the PER have been Queen’s signature internal research honour and represent an important investment by the university in recognizing its top scholars.

Margaret Moore

Dr. Moore (Political Studies) is the director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Diversity, and holds a cross-appointment as a courtesy in philosophy where she teaches in the Master’s in Political and Legal Theory program. Her research focuses on justice, nationalism, and the territorial rights of peoples and states. She is the author of A Political Theory of Territory, which won the Canadian Philosophical Association’s biannual book prize for 2017, and the forthcoming Who Should Own Natural Resources?

Tucker Carrington, Canada Research Chair in Computational Quantum Dynamics

Dr. Carrington (Chemistry; Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy) and his group pioneered the development of iterative methods for computing vibrational and ro-vibrational spectra. These methods are now widely recognized as methods of choice for molecules and reacting systems with more than three atoms. Iterative methods make it possible to study, at a detailed level, systems of real chemical interest. Recently he used these ideas to study CH5+, which has 120 equivalent minima separated by small barriers and is recognized as a bizarre and intriguing molecule. Established approaches for computing and analysing spectra fail completely for CH5+.

Mark Daymond, Canada Research Chair in Mechanics of Materials

Dr. Daymond (Mechanical and Materials Engineering; Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy) is the NSERC/UNENE Industrial Research Chair in Nuclear Materials and the lead investigator of the Reactor Materials Testing Laboratory. His major scientific contributions have provided new insights into the mechanical behavior of, and phase transformations in, metals by the application of advanced neutron, synchrotron X–ray and electron diffraction techniques, coupled with the extensive use of numerical models to analyze and interpret the diffraction data. In addition to advancing the understanding of several life-limiting issues associated with current and future nuclear reactor designs, Dr. Daymond’s research has contributed significantly to the broader fields of materials science and mechanics of materials.

Robert Ross

Dr. Ross (Kinesiology and Health Studies) has had a major impact on the advancement of knowledge about the effectiveness of physical activity interventions for managing chronic, life-style based disease. He is the principal investigator of the Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Research Unit at Queen’s and holds a cross-appointment in the Endocrinology and Metabolism Department of the School of Medicine. Dr. Ross has led the scientific writing of consensus statements from prestigious medical and health organizations recognizing the overwhelming evidence that cardiorespiratory fitness and physical activity should be a vital sign in clinical practice.

Nancy van Deusen

Dr. van Deusen (History) is a historian of colonial Latin America and the Atlantic world who has made outstanding contributions to research in gender history, religious history, and most recently Indigenous history. Her scholarship illuminates the spiritual and material worlds of people whose voices have been left out of the historical record. Her work blends meticulous research and careful, critical reading of her sources with methodological sophistication and innovation. She is the author of four books and is currently working on a SSHRC funded project entitled “The Disappearance of the Past: Native American Slavery and the Making of the Early Modern World.”

For more information about the Prizes for Excellence in Research, see the Office of the Vice-Principal (Research) website. 

Note: This article originally appeared in the Queen's Gazette.