Impact of Giving

Photo: Dr. Amy Scott with a member of the UNB Bioarchaeology Field School in Louisbourg, NS.

Ten outstanding young faculty members at UNB have greater support for research, publishing and teaching, thanks to the Harrison McCain Young Scholars Awards. Supported by funding from the Harrison McCain Foundation, the awards have supported more than 100 young scholars at UNB since their inception in 2006.

The Harrison McCain Young Scholars Awards provide up to $25,000 to support new or recently hired faculty who have received their highest degree within the last 10 years. The Young Scholars Awards are designed to provide special support to tenure or tenure-track faculty members who received their PhD less than 10 years ago and who have been employed by UNB for fewer than six years. The awards may be used for research projects, additional study, travel, equipment, stipends to provide release time for increased research activity, the hiring of a laboratory assistant, or other initiatives deemed to be supportive of establishing an academic career at UNB.

The 2022-2023 Harrison McCain Young Scholars

Murshed Chowdhury (Economics, Fredericton campus) researches income insecurity, vulnerability, migration, and open economy macroeconomics. Grounded in various theories, Dr. Chowdhury’s empirical work extensively uses various datasets from Statistics Canada and other international agencies to craft policies to overcome contemporary provincial, national, and global socio-economic issues.

Kim Davies (Biological Sciences, Saint John campus) is a biological oceanographer who studies how variation in pelagic ocean productivity impacts marine predators.  Dr. Davies makes applied contributions to conservation, climate change research, ocean management and policy.

Rosann Edwards (Nursing and Health Sciences, Saint John campus) researches motherhood, maternal role transition, and breastfeeding. Dr. Edwards's research and community work focuses on breastfeeding, m/othering under the external influences of systems, and exploring how nurses can empower vulnerable populations of women and their children while improving health outcomes.

Hadi Eslami (formerly Business, Saint John campus) studies marketing strategies, innovation and management of New Product Development (NPD), and interorganizational research. Dr. Eslami conducts empirical research at the interface of innovation strategies and interorganizational research—with a focus on small firms’ new product performance having managed their interfirm relationships with various partners along the process of product development process.

Yang Qu (Chemistry, Fredericton campus) studies the biosynthesis of medical natural products. The research group works on finding enzymes that make analgesic and anticancer compounds from nature and applying the discoveries for manufacturing pharmaceuticals by microbial fermentation and biotechnology.

Sean Roach (Psychology, Saint John campus) studies animal behaviour, as well as how contact with nature influences wellbeing. The research associated with this award will build on evidence that nature exposure enhances cognitive abilities such as memory and attention, testing whether such effects translate into improved academic performance among undergraduate students.

Amy Scott (Anthropology, Fredericton campus) is a bioarchaeologist who specializes in studies of stress and health in ancient populations. She is also the project director of the UNB Bioarchaeology Field School in partnership with Parks Canada. Prompted by ongoing coastal erosion, Dr. Scott’s work at the Fortress of Louisbourg, NS, aims to protect the Rochefort Point cemetery site and learn more about those who lived and died in 18th century Atlantic Canada. 

Azam Shamsi Zamenjani (Management, Fredericton campus) mixes financial theory, econometric techniques, and data to investigate the behaviour of prices and expectations in financial markets. Dr. Shamsi Zamenjani’s current project is concerned with detecting unobserved common factors that drive a large portion of the movements of financial assets and portfolios.

David Speed (Psychology, Saint John campus) researches nonreligion and health. Dr. Speed’s current project examines the relationship between nonreligion and health in Canadian atheists.

Angela Tozer (History, Fredericton campus) researches in Canadian history with a focus on the 19th century. Her research explores the relationship between capitalism and settler colonialism. Dr. Tozer’s current project, The Lifeworlds of Eels: Global Capital and the Development of Mi’kmaw and Settler Fisheries, 1850-1928, will be the first comprehensive study in Canadian history on the history of eel 'fisheries.’

Apply for a Harrison McCain Young Scholars Award for 2023.