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On March 13, 2024, the Government of Canada announced new and renewed Canada Research Chairs (CRC) as part of a a more than $1.7 billion research funding announcement including nearly $5.5 million for UNB. The University of New Brunswick’s (UNB) Dr. Ali Ghorbani, Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity, is among those chairs awarded a second term. CRCs are awarded to outstanding researchers acknowledged by their peers as world leaders in their fields. Ghorbani’s term will continue through April 2030.

“UNB’s leadership in cybersecurity research is well established and well known, in large part thanks to the ongoing efforts of scholars like Dr. Ghorbani,” said Dr. David MaGee, vice-president (research). “This renewal as Canada Research Chair will allow him to maintain his focus on growing our institution’s excellence in cybersecurity research and training. It also recognizes and reflects his leading expertise as a scholar. Congratulations to Dr. Ghorbani on his reappointment.”

As well as holding a Tier 1 CRC, Ghorbani is a professor of computer science at UNB and director of its Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity. As director, he helped establish the National Cybersecurity Consortium. He also previously co-founded the Privacy, Security, Trust Network in Canada and its annual international conference.

Ghorbani has spent more than 25 years conducting fundamental and applied research in machine learning, cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection. With a career spanning four decades, he has authored a book and more than 300 peer-reviewed articles; supervised more than 250 research associates, postdoctoral fellows and students; co-invented technologies that resulted in four patents; and co-founded three startups. He has received numerous awards and honours over the years, including receiving the 2017 Startup Canada Senior Entrepreneur Award, being named one of Canadian Immigrant Magazine's RBC top 25 Canadian immigrants of 2019, and was named one of the 40 inspiring Canadians in the book in Mark Bulgutch’s 2022 book, Forty Brilliant Canadians and their Vision for the Nation.

The CRC program is part of a national strategy to make Canada one of the world's top countries in research and development. In addition to recognizing leadership, program funding enables chairholders to focus their efforts on their research programs over an extended term, allowing for sustained exploration and groundbreaking advances. The program offers UNB the opportunity to nominate a diverse cadre of outstanding researchers for professorships in areas that advance the institution’s strategic research plan and enables it to maximize contributions as a centre of research and research training.

The Government of Canada news release, including a complete list of recipients.

Related: UNB research in cybersecurity, healthcare, earth sciences and more receives new federal funding