April 15, 2014
Photo credit: Luther Caverly
Celebrating Our Killam Awards
Shocked, delighted, and honoured.
This was how Dr. Fraser Taylor and Dr. Manuella Vincter felt after recently receiving two highly prestigious awards – the Killam Prize and the Killam Research Fellowship, respectively.
“I think it’s amazing we were able to get two awards for the same institution,” says Vincter, a professor in the Department of Physics. “And they give away so few of them. It’s just amazing, and speaks to the calibre of Carleton’s researchers and their endeavours.”
Five outstanding Canadian scholars are chosen to receive the Killam Prize every year – coming from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences and engineering fields. Valued at $100,000, the Killam Prize is awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Taylor, a distinguished research professor and director of the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre at Carleton, earned the Killam Prize in the social sciences category this year for his work in cartography – the study of maps and map making.
But instead of using maps in a typical way, he is working on a new way of using and designing maps called cybercartography – blending online digital maps with interactive tools like audio recordings and photographs.
It’s clearly recognition of the quality of research here. This is very positive for Carleton University.
He has produced these interactive atlases from around the world, but also in Canada’s north.
“I use maps in a different sense,” he says. “I’m applying cartography as a method of geographical analysis to a wide range of topics.”
Taylor has also received many other awards for his work, most recently, the Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal for outstanding work in cartography.
He says that he is delighted to receive the Killam Prize this year, and that it is great to see the award recognize cartography as a social science.
But, he also says it is great news for Carleton University and its research.
“It’s clearly recognition of the quality of research here,” Taylor says. “This is very positive for Carleton.”
Vincter, who was one of five researchers who received the Killam Research Fellowship, is currently working on the ATLAS Experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland.
While in Switzerland, Vincter says she worked with a team of scientists in trying to re-create the early universe shortly after the Big Bang.
We made this new type of matter which is great…but is it really what we think we see? This Fellowship will help me study for the next two years.
She was part of the team involved in solving the puzzle of the Higgs boson particle, and when two theorists who hypothesized the existence of the Higgs mechanism won the Nobel Prize last year, the ATLAS team was mentioned in the prize’s citation.
The two-year fellowship is valued at $70,000 per year, and Vincter will be able to use it to further her research.
“We made this new type of matter which is great. We hope we know what it is, but is it really the particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics? Is it really what we think we see? When we start taking data again next year, we’ll gather a lot more information, and we need to be prepared to answer those questions. (This fellowship) will help me study for the next two years,” she says.
Vincter didn’t expect to receive the fellowship – especially since it awards individuals, and she works in a large team.
But she says the fact that Carleton researchers received these two different awards speaks volumes to the university’s accomplishments.
“This says a lot about Carleton’s real push for research,” Vincter says, adding she especially thanks the team that she works with at the university.
“I have to say, I’m well supported by a large research team – four faculty members, four research associates and six students now. It’s a strong team, and we all kind of work in areas related to the Higgs boson. I really have a nice support base of other scientists.”
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