Schulich dominates the first week of the NSSE survey
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From Feb. 10 to March 31, thousands of first- and fourth-year York University students are taking part in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), or “Nessie”. Through NSSE, they’ll be able to contribute their insight and have input into York University’s future direction.
To add an element of fun to the survey and to encourage participation in the survey, NSSE organizers at York University challenged the individual Faculties (except the Faculty of Education and Osgoode Hall Law School) to compete for the NSSE Cup.
Faculty results published for the survey’s first week shows that students in the Schulich School of Business are leading the challenge, with the Faculties of Environmental Studies and Science in second and third place. (The NSSE Champion Cup was won in 2014 and 2017 by the Schulich School of Business.)
Above: A graph shows the progress of the NSSE Survey. The Champion Cup standings show the Schulich School of Business in first, the Faculty of Environmental Studies in second place and the Faculty of Science in third place
The Faculty with the highest participation rate will win the NSSE Champion Cup and bragging rights until the next survey.
The online survey, which takes about 15 minutes to complete, allows students in their first and final years of a four-year degree to offer their insight into what York University does well and what it could improve. It will be used to determine how much time and effort students put into educationally rewarding activities and to what degree York University facilitates this involvement.
Updates on the progress of the survey and the NSSE Champion Cup will be published every Monday in YFile.
Watch the Moon eclipse the planet Mars, Feb. 18
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Mars is featured adjacent to the Earth’s Moon
Mars will play peek-a-boo with the Moon in the early morning hours of Tuesday, Feb. 18, similar to an eclipse. Tune in online to York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory for the best views of the Moon moving in front of the red planet, called the occultation of Mars.
Mars is featured adjacent to the Earth’s Moon
The event happens every few years but is only visible from certain areas in the world. This time, the occultation will be visible from the Greater Toronto Area.
“If you’re up really early, from about 4:30 a.m. onward, you’ll see Mars low in the sky above the southeastern horizon to the left of a crescent Moon,” says Faculty of Science Professor Paul Delaney, director of the Allan I. Carswell Observatory. “As the sun rises, so too will Mars and the Moon. They will also continue to move closer to each other until the Moon completely obscures Mars.”
The new one-metre telescope in the Allan I. Carswell Observatory will be trained on the skies and will broadcast imagery starting shortly after 7 a.m. with the ingress at 7:25 a.m., when the Moon first makes its moves on Mars, until the egress at 8:49 a.m., when the red planet emerges on the other limb of the Moon. The observatory chatroom will also be available to answer questions during that time.
Sky gazers will also be able to see the event on their own with a telescope or a good pair of binoculars. A little before the occultation time, is when you’ll get a good view of Mars beside a crescent Moon.
For most of this month, Mars can be seen low in the southeastern pre-dawn sky well before the Sun rises.
The observatory will broadcast images of the event starting at 7:25 a.m. ET. Physics and Astronomy Assistant Professor Elaina Hyde will answer questions online the morning of the occultation from the observatory. Delaney, who is the Carswell Chair for the Public Understanding of Astronomy, will be leading the event. Those interested in watching the event can ask questions and view this celestial event through the York University Allan I. Carswell Observatory’s online public viewing.
Registrations for PA Day Science Program now open for kids in grades 3 to 8
Available to students in grades 3-8, PA Day programs explore topics in STEM (science technology, engineering, mathematics) through engaging and interactive experiments, with a hands-on approach to learning.
Each PA Day Program is $85 for the day and runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with free before- and after-camp care.
When possible, programs are separated into Junior (grades 3/4/5) and Senior (grades 6/7/8) sections, and will run during the following dates. Class sizes are limited, so register early. Another PA Day program will be offered on Friday, June 5.
Past activities include: Rockin’ Rollercoasters, My Robotic Friend, DNA Extraction, and more!
Seminar explores collaborating with museums to do science communications
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Are you interested in learning more about opportunities to do science communications in museums?
Then don’t miss the seminar “Beyond media interviews: How museums provide powerful, creative opportunities to do science communications,” presented by York Science Communicator in Residence Patchen Barss.
The event will feature guest speaker Kathleen Brown, chief operating officer at Lord Cultural Resources, a global practice leader in cultural sector planning.
The seminar will be held on Thursday, Feb. 27, from 1 to 2:30 p.m.. in room 306 Lumbers Building, Keele Campus. Space is limited and those interested in attending this event should RSVP by email to fscomms@yorku.ca.
About the speakers
Patchen Barss
Patchen Barss tells stories about emerging multidisciplinary research. He has written, edited and produced material for television, magazines and newspapers, as well as for universities, museums, research institutes and public outreach campaigns. Barss has worked for the BBC, CBC, the Discovery Channel and TVO; Scientific American, Nautilus, The Walrus and the National Post; the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the Council of Ontario Universities.
Working with cultural consulting firm Lord Cultural Resources, Barss has developed content and strategy for the Perlan Museum of Natural Wonders in Reykjavik and the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, as well as for many other science, children’s and general interest museums. He also works as a research communications trainer, helping scientists connect more effectively with media, policy makers, donors and the general public.
Kathleen Brown‘s work over three decades with public and private institutions and organizations around the country includes both staff and consulting positions with cultural attractions, community organizations, government and academia.
In 1992 she founded the U.S. offices of Lord Cultural Resources; in 2015, Kathleen returned to the company, first as Director of Business Development and most recently appointed as COO. Brown’s depth of familiarity with the history and inner workings of the company, her 30-plus years of experience as a first-rate consultant, and her outstanding management skills were tapped to lead the organization forward.
Aquatic Research Group Seminar to explore the factors shaping urban ecosystem services
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Carly Ziter
Editor’s note: Today, the room number for this event was changed to 140 HNES Building.
The next event in the 2019-20 Aquatic Research Group (ARG) Seminar Series features Concordia University Assistant Professor Carly Ziterpresenting a talk titled “Thinking beyond the park: landscape structure, land-use history and biodiversity shape urban ecosystem services.” It takes place on Monday, Feb. 24, at 12:30 p.m. in room 140 HNES Building, Keele Campus. The seminar will be followed by a free lunch at 1:30 p.m. All members of the York community are welcome to attend.
The pan-Faculty ARG Seminar Series, organized by biology Professor Sapna Sharma in York University’s Faculty of Science, brings top ecologists from across the province to York to talk about their research in aquatic ecology and what’s causing stress in our waterways.
Professor Ziter grew up in southern Ontario, in a house surrounded by fields (usually corn, sometimes soy), punctuated by small woodlots. In her mind, this mix of farmland, housing and forest wasn’t an “ecosystem,” it was just where she walked the dog. Now, she realizes that these human-dominated landscapes are hard at work providing a multitude of ecosystem services we rely on, and she’s fascinated by how we can manage these areas better. When she’s not busy researching the intersection of landscape structure, biodiversity and ecosystem services, she can be found enjoying the great outdoors, knitting or at the pottery studio.
Ziter has a PhD (2018) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MSc (2013) from McGill University and a BSc (2011) from the University of Guelph.
Here’s a look at the rest of the ARG Seminar Series lineup:
March 11: Professor Karen Kidd (McMaster University), “Local through global influences of human activities on mercury in aquatic ecosystems.”
The ARG includes researchers who focus on aquatic science from the Faculties of Science, Engineering, Environmental Studies, and Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. The seminar series is designed to engage this multidisciplinary scientific community at all levels, including graduate and undergraduate students, both at York University and in the wider aquatic science community.
Astrophysicist Katie Mack presents “Death of a Universe” lecture
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Future Women in Physics and York University’s Department of Physics & Astronomy are inviting students, faculty and community members to a lecture and Q-and-A session featuring astrophysicist and science communicator Katherine (Katie) Mack on Feb. 27. The free event, open to the public but with limited seating, will take place beginning at 6 p.m. at the Tribute Communities Recital Hall (Room 112, Accolade East Building) at the Keele Campus. The lecture will be followed by a tour of the Allan I. Carswell Observatory, which houses the largest telescope on a university campus in Canada.
The Big Bang Theory tells the story of the beginning of the Universe, our cosmic home for the last 13.8 billion years, however the story of the end of the Universe has yet to be written. In her 45-minute presentation titled “Death of a Universe,” Mack will share what modern astrophysics tells us about the ultimate fate of the cosmos and what each possibility would entail if there were people there to see it.
Katie Mack – Photo by Rama
Mack, who describes herself as a “connoisseur of cosmic catastrophes” is a theoretical astrophysicist who studies a range of questions in cosmology. She received her PhD from Princeton University and is currently an assistant professor at North Carolina State University, where she is also a member of the Leadership in Public Science Cluster.
Throughout her career she has studied dark matter, the early universe, galaxy formation, black holes, cosmic strings and the ultimate fate of the cosmos. Mack is particularly interested in how the particle physics of dark matter – the mysterious invisible stuff that makes up most of the matter in the universe – can influence the evolution of stars and galaxies and what we might see in new observations as a result.
An active science communicator working to widen access to physics and astronomy beyond academia and traditional audiences, Mack’s efforts have amassed a huge following on Twitter (@AstroKatie) and inspired countless young scientists. Her popular-level book, The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking), is available for pre-order.
Mack was invited to York University by Future Women in Physics (FWiP), a York-based organization that works to break down barriers and advocates for a diverse academic environment in the physics field. Their work involves organizing educational events, such as seminars, workshops and conferences, to broaden students’ horizons and give them access to role models as well as skills and knowledge needed for success.
Allan I. Carswell Observatory
According to Ariella Sapers, a third-year Physics and Astronomy student, vice-president of FWiP and student coordinator at the Allan I. Carswell Observatory, Mack is an intriguing guest for the York community in part due to the wide popularity of her subject mater. “Everyone wants to learn about the universe,” she explained. “Her research is incredible.”
Mack’s presentation also supports FWiP’s mandate by introducing a successful female role model in a predominantly male field to the next generation of scientists. “We’re so underrepresented,” Sapers said. “I think that a young girl applying to universities, if they see it’s such a male dominated program, it might intimidate them.” Sapers noted high dropout rates among students of physics, especially women. FWiP aims to address some of the challenges aspiring female physicists face. “We wanted to have an organization where you can meet women doing the things you want to do, and know that it can be done and you can do it.”
In addition to the lecture and Q-and-A session, FWiP is organizing a special breakout session with Katie Mack for high school students interested in astrophysics. While tickets to this event are free, registration is required and can be completed on the event’s website.
Climate crisis will affect our health from dwindling bees to food insecurity
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Our overuse of fossil fuels continues to compromise our future.
It seems that every day the media is filled with shocking evidence of climate change: Heat records are being broken in Australia while bush fires ravage the country as never before; Labrador’s permafrost is melting; and ocean levels continue to rise, threatening low-lying islands and coasts.
York University researchers warn us that the climate change crisis is about to become a health crisis.
Bush fires are still active in Australia. York researchers encourage student activism and knowledge sharing to combat climate change.Steven Hoffman
“It’s been called by the World Health Organization the defining public health challenge of our century,” says Steven Hoffman, professor and director of York University’s Global Strategy Lab. “That’s a good assessment of it. What makes it overwhelming is that climate change is both caused by and impacts everything we do in our human civilization.”
York biology professor Dawn Bazely has devoted her 30-year academic career to understanding invasive plant species. Observing how the climate changes is essential to her work.
Dawn Bazely
She says that as climate change warms the globe, northern countries like Canada are seeing plant and insect species for the first time. “Because anywhere there is a warming trend, we’re going to see diseases that dominate tropical and subtropical areas become able to expand into other regions.” That’s why, she adds, we are seeing more West Nile virus (carried by mosquitoes) and Lyme Disease (carried by ticks) in Canada.
Sheila Colla warns that a declining bee population will have serious impacts on our health. Colla, assistant professor in York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, has noted significant reductions in the number of bumblebees, native to Canada.
She emphasizes that all bee species are susceptible to changes in weather caused by climate change. An early or late spring, for example, can change the growth of the fruits, vegetables and flowers that bees pollinate. This affects their ability to reproduce. Without bees, we have less food and, thus, fewer sources of nutrition.
Sheila Colla
“A third of our food is pollinated by animals, mostly bees,” Colla explains. She adds that bees pollinate a huge variety of crops and, most importantly, they pollinate foods that are antioxidants, like tomatoes, berries, kale and lettuce.
Unlike honeybees, bumblebees don’t make honey – but they are extremely good pollinators, notes Colla. “You need more than one type of bee to pollinate our crops and for us to have a diet that has variety and lots of vitamins… We clearly need to save all our pollinators.”
For York post-doctoral researcher and documentary filmmaker Mark Terry, the reality of climate change and its damage on living species can be seen, shockingly, at the north and south poles.
When he took a crew to Antarctica to shoot The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning in 2010, he filmed seals blinded by increased ultraviolet rays from the sun and penguins wandering away from their traditional coastal homes into the interior, on a desperate search for food. That’s because their primary food – krill, a crustacean found in Antarctic waters – is dying off due to warmer ocean temperatures.
Mark Terry
Malawi, in southeast Africa, brings the disparity of climate change into sharp focus. It’s one of the poorest countries in the world, with an economy is based on agriculture. Maize – known as corn in North America – is the principal food crop. But the maize crop yield has dropped recently by as much as 34 per cent.
“Maize requires a certain amount of sunlight and precipitation,” says James Orbinski, director of York’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research (DIGHR) and former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). “With climate change, Malawi now has prolonged periods of dryness. The Southern Region of Africa is amid its worst drought in 100 years. The famed Victoria Falls is running at a trickle, and taps are drying up. More than 45 million people are on food assistance because of crop failures. This is due to climate change.”
James Orbinski
Orbinski points to a cruel irony: “The countries and regions that are most affected by climate change are the poorest and least developed regions. They are the least resilient and have the least flexible social, political and infrastructural systems. The irony is that they are the ones least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.”
Is there hope for easing what could be a global health disaster? York researchers are optimistic – if we act now.
Bazely says it begins with sharing knowledge. “How we can equip local people everywhere and academics outside of the global north? How can we make the research and knowledge widely available? I’m very interested in open access and getting taxpayer-funded research out from behind the barriers of the university library systems. So many academics and researchers and people in the Global South just don’t have access to knowledge tucked behind expensive paywalls.”
For Orbinski, the priority is “seeing the symbiotic relationship between our biosphere and human civilizations that defines Planetary Health. It is also developing tools, technologies and policies that help communities adapt the new reality of the health impacts of climate change. We are actively working on these at the DIGHR.”
Hoffman likens the global action we must take on climate change to the action taken to combat pandemics. “Infectious diseases spread across borders. Viruses don’t carry passports. And as a result, if we’re serious about protecting our health from the next pandemic, we need to be thinking and acting globally in exactly the same way as we need to be thinking globally and acting globally about climate change.”
Terry urges us to help young people embrace activism aimed at halting climate change. In his post-doctoral work with the Dahdaleh Institute, Terry is teaching a course geared toward documentary filmmaking and environmental activism. He has also led a team of his own students during a “Fridays for Future” climate strike in Toronto and hosted a group of Indigenous students from Tuktoyaktuk at COP 25 in Madrid in December 2019.
“Students are the ones who will lead us into the reforms needed to maintain a healthy planet. That’s why Greta Thunberg’s work has been so important. She’s done a remarkable job at raising awareness. I believe our goal now, at universities, is to provide students with the knowledge and tools they will need to keep up the fight.”
To learn more about Steven Hoffman, visit his profile page. To read more on Dawn Bazely, see her lab. To read more about Sheila Colla’s research, visit her Faculty profile page. For more on Mark Terry, visit his profile page. To learn more about James Orbinski, see his profile.
To learn more about Research & Innovation at York, follow us at @YUResearch; watch our new animated video, which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity, such as Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the snapshot infographic, a glimpse of the year’s successes.
Paul Fraumeni is an award-winning freelance writer, who has specialized in covering university research for more than 20 years. To learn more, visit his website.
Neuroscience research adds key insights on communication between neurons
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Research led by York University investigated the role of protein transport to fine-tune communications between neurons. Understanding how communication between nerve cells is built, maintained and protected over a lifetime is one of the most important questions in the neurosciences.
Under the supervision of Professor Georg Zoidl, graduate student Cherie Brown undertook this ground-breaking research, the findings of which were published in the journal Cells (September, 2019).
This research looks at a phenomenon known as plasticity, which refers to the ability of neurons to change and control how they communicate with each other
Zoidl, who is in both the Faculties of Health and Science, is the Canada Research Chair for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. He is also an associate member of Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) and a member of the Centre for Vision Research. His research program aims to clarify how cells of the eye and the brain communicate through specialized cell junctions and how changes in this process can lead to impairment of vision, learning and memory.
Georg Zoidl
The research team included scientists from Albert Einstein College (New York) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). This study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the National Institutes of Health (US).
Brown and Zoidl sat down with Brainstorm to discuss this article and the importance of this work.
Q: Please describe for our readers the chief goals of your work.
CB: My work addresses fundamental cell biology, more specifically neurobiology. We are trying to understand how cells communicate. We’re looking deeper into a process called plasticity, which means that the neurons can regulate or control how they communicate with each other.
Q: What were the objectives of this recent study published in Cells?
CB: We were trying to fill a major knowledge gap about the mechanisms of neuronal communication. To close this gap, we have been looking at important steps in the life cycle of a critical protein. Specifically, we have filled the time it spends between two bookends, that is after it is born and before it is helping to exchange information between nerve cells. This is where transport comes into play. My major goal is looking at how this protein is transported to influence plasticity.
Q: What is the role of protein?
CB: The protein I am studying is connexin-36. What it does is form a tube or tunnel, called a gap junction channel, between two cells. The channel allows for the neurons to communicate with each other by letting small molecules easily pass through.
Q: How did you go about the study?
CB: We used cutting-edge imaging technology. Essentially, I tagged my protein connexin-36 with a fluorescent probe for visualization. We used high-power microscopy techniques to look at where the protein is in the cell and where it’s going.
GZ: Microscopy allows us to track the proteins. Because they are fluorescent, they will look like little dots on a cell. We can track where they start their life and where they end their life; over time, you can really resolve everything from birth to death of these proteins.
Q: What were your key findings?
CB: We found that connexin-36 interacts with what’s known as microtubules – a major transport highway of cells. We determined where microtubules bind on the connexin 36 protein, and that this interaction is influencing the ability of neurons to communicate with each other. Essentially, when we have less connexin-36 protein transported to its endpoint to form the gap junction channel, we know that means less communication is possible. More protein transported leads to more communication between paired neurons.
Q: Did anything surprise you about this finding?
CB: Yes, we found out that the specific region where microtubules and connexin 36 interact with each other is very fragile. Manipulating that binding region will nearly eliminate the interaction between these two proteins and as a consequence, connexin 36 won’t transport properly. Even just a small change in this binding region is very detrimental to the overall function of connexin-36 in the cell.
Brown is studying the protein called connexin-36, which forms a tube or tunnel between two cells, allowing the neurons to communicate with each other
Q: What kind of an impact will this new knowledge have?
CB: We are performing fundamental neurobiology, with the hopes of updating what we know about neuron communication. This is significant when we think of higher order processes of the nervous system, like vision. We are trying to explain this on a cellular level.
Q: How could this research be applied? Is there a disease or condition that this research could help?
CB: When you think of neurodegeneration, anything that affects communication between neurons, this research could play a role. I like to use the examples of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s diseases.
Q: How has York supported your research?
GZ: Look at the building [Life Sciences]. York University is providing the platform, the infrastructure to perform cutting-edge, fundamental neurobiology.
Q: York values its graduate students. They play a key role at the University. Could you tell us about your PhD student Cherie Brown?
GZ: Cherie is one of our stars. She is a perfect example of women in STEM. She has been invited to speak at international conferences and has received two major awards in the last two years. The most recent was the IGJC Star Award this year. She is almost finished her PhD and already got job offers.
To read the article, visit the website. To learn more about Zoidl, visit his profile or his Faculty profile page in Health.
To learn more about Research & Innovation at York, follow us at @YUResearch; watch our new animated video, which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity, such as Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the snapshot infographic, a glimpse of the year’s successes.
By Megan Mueller, senior manager, Research Communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, York University, muellerm@yorku.ca
Science student and faculty members’ achievements celebrated at annual ceremony
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The Faculty of Science hosted its annual Honours & Awards Ceremony on Jan. 29 to celebrate the hard work and achievements of faculty and students. Certificates were presented to graduate and undergraduate students for both academic excellence and extra-curricular involvement, as family members in the audience cheered. The event saw a record number of attendees, totaling more than 400.
Chris Scott
York alumnus Chris Scott, chief meteorologist and head of meteorology at Pelmorex Corp, the parent company of The Weather Network, presented the keynote speech. Scott earned a combined honours degree in atmospheric science and atmospheric chemistry at York University in 1998, and now he leads a dynamic team of 30 meteorologists who produce millions of weather forecasts daily and who are developing the next generation of forecasting technology.
Associate Dean of Students Mike Scheid and Dean of Science Rui Wang spoke about the dedication and time involved in achieving excellence and congratulated the students on their accomplishments.
“Every year students and their families take part in this great event,” said Scheid, who was the event’s Master of Ceremonies. “It really showcases how strong our students are, and as a community we take great pride in celebrating their achievements. After a long academic year, they can take a moment to step back and enjoy the outcome of all their hard work.”
The Faculty of Science award recipients with their award certificates
Among the graduate students, certificates were presented to the recipients of the NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral, including to Tamari Chkuaseli, Nathan Gold, Alexander Klenov, Jacob O’Brien and Alyssa Murdoch; the Susan Mann Dissertation Scholarship, including Anita Buragohain, Paige Whyte-Fagundes and Thomas Onuferko; and the C.D Fowle Graduate Scholarship in Ecology, including Alexandra Israel and Jenna LeBlanc.
The Richard Jarrell Award of Excellence for Teaching Assistants was also presented to Nicholas Bragagnolo and Eleni Fegaras.
A capacity crowd gathered for the event
In the undergraduate student award category, certificates were presented to recipients of the International Excellence Scholarship, including Hyunjin Kim, Lisha Li, Ardalan Hosseini-Mansob, Tofunmi Olowogorioye and Parth Patel; the Schulich Leader Scholarship, including Rathesh Balendran, Katrina Carver, Nadav Gasner and Kezia Johnson; and the Gillian E. Wu Award in Biochemistry, including Eden Teclemichael and Esther Wolf.
In addition, awards were presented to faculty members for special contributions and excellence in teaching and research. For instance, Dean’s Special Recognition Awards were presented to Professor Matthew George in the Department of Physics & Astronomy for leading the successful overhaul of second-year physics laboratories in the Faculty of Science, and Professor Hovig Kouyoumdjian in the Department of Chemistry for his work on improving the first-year student experience in Chemistry courses and his participation in outreach activities for the Faculty of Science.
For a complete list of awards and recipients, visit the Faculty of Science website.
York University Postdoctoral Fellow awarded the Polanyi Prize in chemistry
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Ramón Alain Miranda Quintana, a postdoc and York Science Fellow at York University’s Faculty of Science, is the John Charles Polanyi Prize winner in chemistry, Ontario’s Ministry of Colleges and Universities announced Tuesday.
He is one of five university researchers in Ontario who have been recognized with a 2019 Polanyi Prize in the fields of chemistry, literature, physics, economic science and physiology/medicine.
Ramón Alain Miranda Quintana
“Their work helps advance Ontario’s innovation economy, strengthening our province’s reputation in research, while changing the way we approach and understand issues that directly impact Ontarians,” said Ross Romano, minister of colleges and universities.
The prizes are awarded in honour of Ontario’s Nobel Prize winner John C. Polanyi, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research in chemical kinetics.
“Receiving a John Charles Polanyi Prize is a prestigious honour for early-career scientists. York University is proud to see one of our own researchers receive this recognition,” said Rui Wang, dean of science and interim vice-president research and innovation at York University. “Dr. Miranda Quintana came to York University as a York Science Fellow and his work will potentially lead to game-changing advances in areas such as electricity transmission and managing nuclear waste. York University continues to cultivate and support brilliant young researchers like Dr. Miranda Quintana.”
Miranda Quintana is researching new ways to understand the behaviour of complex chemical compounds using computational algorithms, which could lead to new innovations in industry and health. Current tools for theoretical chemistry can explain only about 90 per cent of chemical molecules.
“For the remaining 10 per cent, the existing methods of testing these compounds computationally are so inefficient it could take years to arrive at even the simplest calculation and, in some cases, billions of years,” says Miranda Quintana, who came to York from Cuba in 2018. “That 10 per cent contains molecules that are really important with potentially huge applications.”
These include molecules with rare metal centres that are found in nuclear fuels, nuclear waste and even some enzymes in the human body. Understanding these enzymes better, could lead to medical breakthroughs in treatments.
The goal is to create highly efficient and accurate computational tools that are also safer than traditional chemical lab experiments. “Once we are able to do that, we can apply these new tools to these compounds to understand how they behave, how their function changes when their structure is modified, and how to make them more efficient,” says Miranda Quintana, whose supervisor at York University is the Chemistry Department Chair René Fournier.
Already, Miranda Quintana and a team of colleagues have developed a general and convenient framework called FANCI (Flexible Ansatz for N-body Configuration Interaction) to test various theories about how these complex compounds behave and function using simple calculations, a combination of math and coding.
New tools such as FANCI would potentially allow researchers to understand how to modify these compounds so they convert energy more efficiently at regular temperatures, rather than needing to be cooled to close to minus 273.15 degrees Celsius, as is the case now. This could make the creation of superconductive materials possible and hold the key to revolutionizing the power industry, creating microscopic data storage devices, and better quantum computers. It could also lead to the creation of new nuclear fuels and a simpler way to dispose of nuclear waste.
The idea is to make FANCI software available on open source so researchers can study processes, such as magnetism, superconductivity and thermodynamics, and have a reliable answer much more efficiently than with currents methods. It would speed up the testing of ideas and lead to faster innovations.
The 2018 Polanyi Prize winner for chemistry was also from York University, Assistant Professor Christopher Caputo, whose research explores ways to remove precious metals from the manufacturing process for plastics, pharmaceuticals and other industrial products. His goal is to make production less expensive and more sustainable.
The Polanyi Prizes are awarded each year to innovative researchers in Ontario who are either continuing postdoctoral work or have recently gained a faculty appointment. Each of this year’s winners will receive $20,000 in recognition of their exceptional research in the fields of chemistry, physics, economic science and physiology/medicine.
Available to students in grades 3-8, 
Kathleen Brown‘s work over three decades with public and private institutions and organizations around the country includes both staff and consulting positions with cultural attractions, community organizations, government and academia.
