UVic Gains New Canada Research Chair

Computers can store thousands of tunes but can they sense when you want to shuffle from hip hop to experimental jazz? Bringing computers to this next level is part of the research of University of Victoria’s latest Canada Research Chair, computer scientist George Tzanetakis.

The latest chairs in this program, designed to attract the best talent from Canada and around the world, were announced today in Toronto. The program, now in its 10th year, helps Canada’s universities achieve research excellence in natural sciences and engineering, health sciences, social sciences and humanities. UVic currently has 36 Canada Research Chairs.

As the Canada Research Chair in Computer Analysis of Audio and Music, Tzanetakis has been recognized as an exceptional emerging researcher and receives $100,000 for five years to conduct his research. The tier-two chair position is renewable once.

Three of UVic’s existing Canada Research Chairs have been renewed for a second term. They are: Brad Anholt, tier-one Canada Research Chair in Experimental and Applied Community Ecology; Ben Koop, tier-one Canada Research Chair in Genomics and Molecular Biology; and Kim Venn, tier-two Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics.

“The Canada Research Chair program allows us to attract and retain the best scholars in the world,” says Dr. Rachael Scarth, UVic’s acting associate vice-president research for planning and operations. “Through Canada Research Chairs, we’re building on our areas of national and international strength—such as information processing in this case—and our students get the opportunity to work with researchers who are leaders in their field.”
 

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