Early Researcher Award for Sarah Dickson

August 20 , 2009

New funding from the Ontario Early Researcher Award program is helping Sarah Dickson, assistant professor of civil engineering, pull together a team to further her research in groundwater contamination.

The award was one of six announced by John Milloy, Minister of Research and Innovation and Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities for Ontario, at an event held August 17 at McMaster. Each researcher receives $140,000 to hire students, post-doctoral fellows, research assistants, associates or technicians needed to support their research project. The University matches each award with another $50,000.

Prof. Dickson's research initiative is titled "Understanding the Risk of Microbiological Contamination of Groundwater Posed by the Presence of Fractures." She is working with four researchers to combine field and laboratory scale experiments with computer modeling to identify those situations that might cause water sources to become vulnerable to pathogens. The results will provide government regulators with better science to guide water protection legislation. This will ultimately protect the public health of Ontarians who rely on groundwater for their drinking water supply.

Ontario is providing $11.5 million to support 82 emerging researchers and their teams at 21 institutions across Ontario. Read more HERE »

The Early Researcher Award program helps promising, recently-appointed Ontario researchers build their research teams of undergraduates, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research assistants, associates, and technicians. The goal of the program is to improve Ontario’s ability to attract and retain the best and brightest research talent.