Innovation Anthology #163: Gold Medal Winner 2016 iGEM Competition, and PhD Candidate, Biological and Moledular Sciences
It’s the recent discovery of the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico and its link to the extinction of dinosaurs that turned Dr. John Spray into a crater man.
A petrologist by training, Dr. Spray now specializes in impact geology and shock metamorphism at the University of New Brunswick. This means he studies the affect asteroids and meteorites have on the geology of earth and other heavenly bodies.
On one day Dr. Spray could be tramping the nickel mines of the Sudbury Basin. The next, he could be planning a space mission to Mars. And there’s more.
DR. JOHN SPRAY: The subject of impact is I think is highly relevant to everday life because travel in cars that go at relatively high speed. And we also have various defense applications where high speed impact needs to be mitigated by the development for example of armour and shielding technologies.
So one of our research developments of our group is to transform our knowledge of natural impact by the high speed impact of meteorites and comets into trying to understand how to design materials that are impact resistant.
Today’s Innovation Anthology was sponsored by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Learn more at InnovationAnthology.com
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Taylor Sheahan,
University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada,
Sponsor
Canada Foundation for Innovation
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is an independent corporation created by the Government of Canada to fund research infrastructure—state-of-the-art equipment, laboratories, databases, and the buildings necessary to conduct research. The CFI’s mandate is to strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development that benefits Canadians.
Since its creation in 1997, CFI investments in research infrastructure have lead to breakthroughs in areas such as health, natural resources, information and communications technology, energy, and the environment.
La Fondation canadienne pour l’innovation (FCI) est un organisme autonome créé par le gouvernement du Canada pour financer l’infrastructure de recherche—l’équipement de pointe, les laboratoires, les bases de données de même que les bâtiments nécessaires pour mener des travaux de recherche. Le mandat de la FCI est de renforcer la capacité des universités, des collèges et des hôpitaux de recherche, de même que des établissements de recherche à but non lucratif du Canada de mener des projets de recherche et de développement technologique de calibre mondial qui produisent des retombées pour les Canadiens.
Depuis la création de la FCI en 1997, les investissements qu’elle a faits dans l’infrastructure ont mené à des percées dans des domaines tels que la santé, les ressources naturelles, les technologies de l’information et des communications, l’énergie et l’environnement.
Program Date: 2008-08-26