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By Sara Elliott

Five WE-SPARK Health Institute members are receiving funding from the Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation to advance research focused on cancer prevention, cancer risk, survivorship and youth engagement in cancer care.

The investment, provided through the Dr. Hakam Abu-Zahra Research Fund, is part of a $150,000 commitment to support locally led projects selected through WE-SPARK Health Institute's 2026 Igniting Discovery Grants competition.

By Kate Hargreaves 

On a muggy September morning, Dayna Pidhoresky (BSc ’09, BA ’10) lined up with more than 1,500 runners on Windsor’s Riverside Drive, awaiting the start of the second annual Windsor Waterfront Half-Marathon. 

Just over 71 minutes later, she broke the tape at the finish line, at the same time taking down a personal best (PB) that had stood for 15 years. 

“It did feel very humid warming up, and we were unsure if a PB would be possible on a day like that,” Pidhoresky recalls.  

By Sara Elliott

This summer, science student Kitti Keller learned a lesson on how melding biology and physics could one day help identify bacterial pathogens that threaten human health.

“We're hoping to develop a technology so one day you can go to the clinic, give a tiny blood or urine sample and get immediate results showing what's making you sick,” says the third-year biology student.

By Sara Elliott

In Iqaluit, Nunavut, University of Windsor researchers are helping young people turn the birds around their homes into a gateway to Arctic science, conservation training and community-based wildlife monitoring.

The team received a $172,200 three-year grant for the project through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) PromoScience program.

By Sara Elliott

Catherine Febria’s research begins in the smallest streams, where land, water and people meet. Its impact is now being recognized nationally.

From microbes and mushrooms to watersheds across the Great Lakes Basin, the University of Windsor ecologist uses science to understand and restore freshwater ecosystems while building relationships with the communities that depend on them.

By Sara Elliott

For more than two decades, University of Windsor researcher Dr. Aaron T. Fisk has helped change how scientists understand freshwater ecosystems – from how contaminants move through aquatic food webs to where fish travel, feed and spawn across the Great Lakes and the Arctic.

That body of work has now earned Fisk one of Canada’s highest academic honours.

From tracking fish across the Great Lakes to restoring the streams that connect land, water and communities, University of Windsor researchers Dr. Aaron T. Fisk and Dr. Catherine Febria are advancing understanding of how freshwater ecosystems are understood, managed and protected.

Their work has now earned national recognition from the Royal Society of Canada.

Fisk, professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Changing Great Lakes Ecosystems, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in recognition of his contributions to aquatic research and leadership.

Lindsay Charlton

If you build it, they will come.

And so they did.

More than 100 cyclists from across Canada and the United States met at the University of Windsor last month to experience the newest addition to the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail.

University of Windsor students shared applied research in materials chemistry and engineering with scientists and industry professionals Aug. 13 at the third annual MCEcon Conference.

Hosted by the Master’s in Material Chemistry and Engineering program (MMCE), the conference gave students an opportunity to share their research, connect with industry professionals and build their professional networks.

By Sara Elliott

The glittering gold and red image titled Nanoscale signaling is in striking contrast to the research behind it.

What appears to be a thing of beauty is, in fact, lung cancer cells studded with gold nanoparticles.

By Sara Elliott

For Victoria Lessard, being a part of the University of Windsor campus for a week was an eye-opening experience. 

The Grade 11 student from St. Anne's Catholic High School, along with 59 other students from across Windsor-Essex, learned about a wide range of science career paths at the 13th annual Science Academy. 

By Kate Hargreaves

With smoke from fires hundreds of kilometres away blanketing the region and wreaking havoc on air quality, Ontario's fire season has become increasingly relevant in the lives of Windsorites.

At the same time, a UWindsor statistician has been crunching the numbers to help Ontario better prepare. 

UWindsor alumna Sarah Mitton (BSc '18) has taken home her second straight gold in the Commonwealth Games, boosting Canada toward a third-place finish out of 74 Commonwealth nations and territories. 

The former Lancer shot put phenom, who also represented Canada at both the 2020 and 2024 summer Olympics, is a U Sports title holder and was U Sports female athlete of the year in 2018.  

By Sara Elliott 

Isabelle Hinch’s ability to explain her research on how childbirth affects breast cancer risk in three minutes has earned her a spot in a national pitch competition. 

Her talk, Breastfeeding helps reduce the risk of breast cancer…but, explores the complicated truths surrounding breast cancer risk after childbirth. 

By Sara Elliott 

Simon Rondeau-Gagné is developing a new generation of smart, flexible polymer materials that could transform how technology interacts with the human body. 

In the not-so-distant future, those materials could contribute to medical breakthroughs ranging from wearable biosensors that detect disease earlier to implantable devices that help restore vision. 

By Victor Romao

For Harshkumar Nayanbhai Patel (MAC '26), a co-op placement at RBC became more than a learning opportunity. By the end of his work term, he had helped develop AI-powered solutions that were saving thousands of engineering hours annually and earned a full-time software engineering position with the company.

Ten University of Windsor researchers are turning their work into ventures as members of the inaugural Innovation Fellowship cohort. 

The fellows aim to bring research-based business ideas to market, from a cybersecurity training program to a low-cost magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device. 

By Sara Elliott 

A future where vehicles communicate directly with one another is not so distant — but is the technology safe enough to deploy?  

That question was at the centre of the inaugural OmniAir Hackathon held at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where three University of Windsor graduate students earned first place for their research. 

By Sara Elliott

His mother may not fully grasp what he does for a living, but theoretical condensed matter physicist Dr. Jeffrey G. Rau (BSc ‘08) is in global demand for his expertise in quantum magnetism.

The University of Windsor researcher does not run experiments in a lab. Instead, he builds mathematical and computational models to understand and predict how magnetic materials behave at the atomic level.

By Sara Elliott 

Drug-resistant infections are silently spreading through water, soil, food systems and healthcare settings — often undetected until they become a public health emergency. 

At the University of Windsor, environmental microbiologist Dr. Opeyemi Lawal is developing new ways to spot these threats early, understand why they persist, and stop them before they spread.