Top research stories of 2016

Fueled by innate curiosity and the determination to pursue innovation, University of Manitoba researchers decipher the inner workings of our natural environment on all scales, from identifying the biological and chemical workings of life to imaging the outer reaches of our universe. For their great work our researchers receive national and global recognition, and it was hard to choose just 15 stories to tell, which is why you can also find some research stories sprinkled throughout the other year-in-review lists we’re posting on UM Today.

Research snapshot, 2016

• Antibiotic resistance is posing a huge threat. But instead of relying on new drugs to beat the bugs’ defences, what if we took away their defence?
• U of M alumnus contributes to major discovery in physics by detecting a gravitational wave. Einstein would be proud.
• We find black holes hiding behind their own exhaust.
• A grad student in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation management won an award for his thesis on transgender policies in sport.
• Hematology research got major boost in 2016 when a $2M professorship was announced.
• U of M researchers got global attention after reporting that artificially sweetened beverages consumed in pregnancy is linked to increased weight gain in infants.
• Distinguished Professor Frank Plummer was recognized for groundbreaking research with 2016 Canada Gairdner Wightman Award.
• We opened a new kind of research lab this spring at the Grace General Hospital. It focuses on enhancing students’ and clinicians’ empathic communication skills with patients, families and caregivers.
• Childhood mental illness is a serious and widespread problem in Manitoba that is now getting attention thanks to a study by the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy.
• Professors Ryan Cardwell and Chad Lawley were awarded the John Vanderkamp Prize by the Canadian Economics Association for writing the best paper in the journal Canadian Public Policy, which is still making waves in policy circles.
• Bees got better homes thanks to the University of Manitoba’s open international bee house design competition.
• Faculty of Education’s Graham Lea is working with veterans in new ways by helping them to share their stories through theatre.

Longer reads to tuck into

• Here’s a story about what happens when you’re team is too talented and bold. How hundreds of students built a satellite that was too ambitious for a competition, resulting in them to come in second place. But that doesn’t matter becasue it will still go into orbit.
• This facility will change everything, including ramen noodles. We opened the most advanced material research institute full of technology so new we were the first to purchase it.
• No one thought it was possible, yet they did it. U of M alumni develop a brain laser that is saving people who’d otherwise have a death sentence.