Ottawa, February 22, 2013—The Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), today announced the appointment of three new members to NSERC.
"I am pleased that Dr. Bozena Kaminska, Dr. Hossein Rahnama and Mr. Raymond E. Ivany will be joining the Council,
" said Minister Paradis. "Their combined experience in the areas of technology, business and academia will help strengthen NSERC in its support of university research.
"
Dr. Kaminska is currently a professor at Simon Fraser University's School of Engineering Science and the Canada Research Chair in Wireless Sensor Networks. She also serves as Chief Scientific Officer for NanoTech Security Corp. and is Chair of the Board of Directors of CMC Microsystems. Dr. Kaminska holds multiple patents and has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications in top scientific journals. She was named Innovator of the Year in 1997 by EDN magazine and was the recipient of the British Columbia Innovation Council's Entrepreneurship Fellow Award in 2010.
Dr. Rahnama is the Research and Innovation Director of Ryerson University's Digital Media Zone and co-founder of its Ubiquitous and Pervasive Computing Lab. He is also Founder and CEO of Flybits Inc., a spinoff company that has brought the concept of context-aware computing to market. Dr. Rahnama has received numerous honours, including Motorola Solutions' Golden iDea Innovation Award and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Global TR35, its annual list of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35. He was selected by the Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science as one of the country's top 25 scientists in 2012 and 2009.
Mr. Ivany serves as President and Vice-Chancellor of Acadia University. Prior to this, he was Chair of the Worker's Compensation Board of Nova Scotia and Founder and Principal of the consulting firm Ivany and Associates. From 1994 to 1998, he was Executive Vice-President of the University College of Cape Breton, after which he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Nova Scotia Community College until 2005. Mr. Ivany has received several awards of distinction for his achievements, including Honorary Doctor of Letters from St. Thomas University in 2006, Maclean's Honour Roll of Top Ten Canadians Who Made a Difference in 2004 and the Halifax Chamber of Commerce Business Person of the Year in 2004. In 2011, he was inducted into Atlantic Business Magazine's Top 50 CEO Hall of Fame.
NSERC is a federal agency that helps make Canada a country of discoverers and innovators for all Canadians. The agency supports some 30,000 post-secondary students and post-doctoral fellows in their advanced studies. NSERC promotes discovery by funding more than 12,000 professors every year and fosters innovation by encouraging about 2,000 Canadian companies to participate and invest in post-secondary research projects. For more information, visit the NSERC website.
For further information (media only), please contact:
Margaux Stastny
Director of Communications
Office of the Honourable Christian Paradis
Minister of Industry
613-995-9001
Martin Leroux
Media and Public Affairs Officer
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
613-943-7618
media@nserc-crsng.gc.ca
Media Relations
Industry Canada
613-943-2502
