Article

#IAmInnovation Twitter contest winners announced

OTTAWA, ONTARIO — Canada’s young researchers are curious, ambitious, innovative and collaborative problem solvers. Today, the Canada Foundation for…

OTTAWA, ONTARIO — Canada’s young researchers are curious, ambitious, innovative and collaborative problem solvers. Today, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) announced that three of these talented young researchers have won its #IAmInnovation Twitter contest, which aimed to showcase how their work in CFI-funded labs is helping them and their research.

The three winners are:

  • PhD candidate Arinjay Banerjee of the Department of Veterinary Microbiology at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, who is researching the potentially high impact of emerging viruses on humans;
  • PhD candidate Krysta Coyle of the Department of Pathology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, who is exploring new drug treatments for cancer; and,
  • Master’s student Connor Stone of the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., who is striving to improve our understanding of the universe’s dark matter.

For the contest, the CFI invited student and post-doc researchers nationwide to tweet an image or video demonstrating their work in state-of-the-art facilities and with cutting-edge equipment funded by the CFI.

“We wanted young researchers to tell all Canadians just how important it is to equip this country’s bright minds with the tools they need to think big and innovate,” says Roseann O’Reilly Runte, President and CEO of the CFI. “The CFI knows that tomorrow’s research is being shaped by this new generation of great minds, and we want to highlight their contributions by celebrating and sharing their vision of a better future for Canada.”

The contest ran from October 2 to December 1 and drew submissions from across the country. Winners will have a chance to take over the CFI’s @InnovationCA Twitter feed in the coming weeks, and will be the CFI’s guests at a special event in Ottawa, where they will have an opportunity to discuss their research with MPs, Senators and senior government officials.

The CFI wishes to acknowledge and thank postsecondary institutions for their help in promoting the contest to their students, as well as a number of individuals for producing videos promoting the contest on social media, including the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science.