A huge congratulations to our post-doctoral fellow, Paul Sheppard, on winning a Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award. The aim of the award is to “help attract and retain bright young minds at Canadian Universities, colleges and major research institutes and to help young researchers launch their scholarly careers and enable them to carry their research forward.” Paul will be starting a new area of research (in the lab) by studying the role of astrocytes on social behaviour. It is the hope that this small research project will help Paul land a tenure-track position at a competitive institution, and launch his own, independent, research program.

Note that the adjudication committee had the following position feedback to his application: “A strong applicant with an established track record of publication and presentations. The research proposal and budget were well developed and written for a lay audience.”

We are thrilled to be able to help support Paul on the development and implementation of his research ideas. We can’t wait to see how this funding will act as a stepping stone on his bright career trajectory!