The Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) is delighted to announce the recipients of the 2018 CAGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award.
The CAGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award has been recognizing outstanding Canadian doctoral dissertations for more than twenty years. The initiative seeks to showcase original research that makes significant contributions, both to their respective academic communities and to Canadian society at large. There are two awards presented annually: one for engineering, medical sciences and natural sciences; and one for fine arts, humanities and social sciences. Winners of this year’s award will receive a $1,500 cash prize, a Citation Certificate, and an invitation to attend a special ceremony held at the CAGS Annual Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Winner – Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences:
Dr. Ashley Whillans, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia.
Dr. Ashley Whillans, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia.
Dr. Whillans completed her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of British Columbia in 2017. Broadly, her research focusses on the decisions people make about time and money, and the ways in which trade-offs between these two precious resources are navigated on a daily basis. Her dissertation project is titled “Exchanging Cents for Seconds: The Happiness Benefits of Choosing Time Over Money,” and was conducted under the supervision of Professor Elizabeth Dunn.
Dr. Whillans’ research has already made a worldwide impact. Several chapters of her dissertation were published in leading journals, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and her innovative research was profiled in The New York Times, Scientific American, The Atlantic, the CBC, and many other news outlets around the world.
Dr. Whillans is currently an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations, and Markets Unit at the Harvard Business School. Prior to joining Harvard, she was a visiting scholar and guest lecturer at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Winner – Engineering, Medical Sciences and Natural Sciences:
Dr. Christian Reimer, Department of Physics, National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS)
Dr. Christian Reimer, Department of Physics, National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS)
Dr. Reimer completed his Ph.D. in Physics at the National Institute of Scientific Research (INRS) in 2017. Broadly, his research focusses on quantum and nonlinear photonics, specifically as they relate to nanofabrication and on-chip optical frequency combs. His dissertation is titled “Optical Quantum State Generation with Integrated Frequency Comb Sources,” and was conducted under the supervision of Professor Roberto Morandotti.
Dr. Reimer’s innovative research project broke new ground in the field of quantum physics. His dissertation resulted in the discovery of a fundamentally new platform for quantum state generation, and he has since developed a suit of new research methods, experiments, and inventions related to quantum optics. Several aspects of his dissertation project have been published in leading journals, including Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Photonics, Science, and Optics Express, and his research findings have resulted in six patent applications.
Dr. Christian Reimer is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Applied Physics at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Prior to joining Harvard, Dr. Reimer conducted graduate studies and research fellowships at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), Heriot-Watt University (Scotland), the University of Sydney (Australia), Surrey University (UK), and the University of St Andrews (Scotland).
