John Abbott College Students Awarded Prestigious FRQ Research Bursaries

Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue (Québec) – April 25, 2025 – John Abbott College is proud to announce that six of its students have been awarded highly competitive bursaries from the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ) [https://frq.gouv.qc.ca/] in support of their outstanding research projects.

Marco Bitzas, a second-year Science student, received a $5,000 bursary from the FRQNT program Bourse pour stage de recherche au niveau collégial (BSRC) 2024–2025 for his project titled “Ingénierie de Précision: Analyse Thermique et Spectrale de la Performance des Plantes en Temps Réel.“ Supervised by Adamchuk Viacheslav, Ph.D., P.Eng., P.E., Professor and Director of the Department of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University, Marco’s research focuses on developing real-time technologies for analyzing plant and soil properties to optimize nutrient management.

Kaiwen Chen, a first-year Science student, was also awarded a $5,000 FRQNT bursary for his project, “Optimisation des Observations d’Éclipses Exoplanétaires pour la Mission Ariel.“Working under the guidance of Dr. David Lafrenière, Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Montreal, Kaiwen’s project aims to identify planetary systems ideal for observing exoplanetary eclipses, thereby contributing to the scientific objectives of the Ariel space mission.

In addition, four JAC students received $3,500 bursaries from the FRQSC program Bourses d’initiation à la recherche au collégial. These students and their projects are as follows:

• Meriam Abd El Malak – “Étude d’intervention sur la mentalité de croissance pour soutenir la réussite éducative des personnes étudiantes du réseau collégial”
• Alexander Daigle – “Mentalité de croissance chez les étudiants de cégep au Québec”
• Érika Lytwynuk – “La mentalité de croissance chez les étudiants cégépiens du Québec”
• Maria Wnuk – “Étude d’intervention sur la mentalité de croissance pour soutenir la réussite éducative des personnes étudiantes du réseau collégial”

All four research projects will be supervised by Julie Caouette, Ph.D. and Julie Hanck, Ph.D, teachers of Psychology at John Abbott College.

Special thanks go to Beth Acton, Ph.D, Chair of the Biology Department, and Karim Jaffer, Physics Prof. and Chair of RASC National Education and Public Outreach committee, for their invaluable support in helping Marco and Kaiwen connect with their research supervisors.

These awards reflect the exceptional commitment, curiosity, and academic excellence of Abbott students. We extend our warmest congratulations to Marco, Kaiwen, Meriam, Alexander, Érika, and Maria, and wish them every success in their continued research journeys.