As a new year emerges, YFile looks back on 2016 and offers a snapshot of the year’s highlights. “Year in Review” will run as a four-part series, and will feature a random selection of top news stories published in YFile. Here are the stories and highlights for July to September 2016, as chosen by YFile editors.
July
Three York University faculty appointed to the Order of Canada
Faculty of Health Distinguished Research Professor Ellen Bialystok, Faculty of Education Professor Stephen Gaetz and Osgoode Hall Law School Professor David Vaver were among the 113 new appointments to the Order of Canada. In total, some 13 individuals with connections to York were named to the Order of Canada.
AGYU bioplan forest offers a living testament to the power of art and nature
A variety of saplings that were part of a Bioplan forest developed for the Art Gallery of York University’s exhibit “What We Lose in Metrics” were transplanted to a site near the Stong Pond on the Keele campus. The forest is now a permanent part of the University’s landscape and future ecology.
Professor Roberto Perin earns Glendon Principal’s Research Excellence Award
Glendon Professor Roberto Perin was the recipient of the 2016 Principal’s Research Excellence Award, an honour given annually by Glendon to recognize full-time faculty members who have made an outstanding contribution to research in the past three years.
Dual degree will offer York University’s Glendon College students the best of Canada and France
A new partnership between Glendon College and the emlyon business school in France will offer students the opportunity to combine liberal arts with business education, earn two university degrees and benefit from internships in France, Canada or other countries where French is an official language.
York U, partners receive $15M in federal funds to build health technologies
York University, along with partners Southlake Regional Health Centre and the University Health Network, received $15 million in federal funds to develop new patient-centred health technologies. The announcement was made July 21 by Navdeep Bains, minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario).
August
Lions to represent Canada at Rio 2016
Current and former Lions headed to Rio to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games. Named to Team Canada were Lions thrower Brittany Crew, Lions boxer Arthur Biyarslanov, former Lions sprinter Khamica Bingham, former Lions taekwondo competitor Melissa Pagnotta and honorary degree recipient and tennis player Daniel Nestor.
Former Glendon Principal Kenneth McRoberts named to France’s National Order of Merit
Professor Kenneth McRoberts, former Principal of York University’s Glendon College, was named to France’s National Order of Merit and appointed to the rank of Knight during a ceremony on April 25 at the French Consul General’s residence in Toronto.
York research finds new brain mechanism for perception during eye movements
York University researchers have shown, for the first time, areas of the brain that are sensitive to whether an object looks the same, or different, after making an eye movement. The study was conducted out of Professor Doug Crawford’s Visuomotor Neuroscience Lab.
CIHR grants $2.16M to fund two York research projects
Two research projects led by York University received a combined $2.16 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Michaela Hynie and Jonathan Weiss, both from the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Health, were selected to receive grants in the latest round of CIHR funding decisions.
York University ranked #1 in the world in quality of business ethics research
In a study published in the Journal of Business Ethics in July 2016 titled “A Citation Analysis of Business Ethics Research: A Global Perspective,” York University ranked as the No. 1 academic institution in the world in terms of quality of business ethics journal publications.
September
York U celebrates successful launch of OSIRIS-REx
OSIRIS-REx – the first-ever sampling mission by NASA to the distant asteroid Bennu – was successfully launched into space on Sept. 8 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
World-leading vision research program receives Canada’s premier grant
York University’s world-class expertise in vision research received a $33.3 million Canada First Research Excellence Fund grant that will support the Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) program.
York University researchers receive total boost of $7M in SSHRC awards
Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan paid a visit to York University’s Keele campus in September to announce $163 million in Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada funding. More than 25 research projects at York University received a total boost of $7 million of the federal funding.
Two York U professors among five Canadian scholars honoured as 2016 Trudeau Fellows
Professors Poonam Puri and Catriona Sandilands were named as two of only five scholars across Canada to be awarded prestigious research fellowships by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation this year.
Bee expert recognized for outstanding contributions to entomology in Canada
At the International Congress of Entomology on Sept. 25, York University Professor Amro Zayed in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, received the 2016 C. Gordon Hewitt Award from the Entomological Society of Canada.
Check back in the next edition of YFile for Year in Review: Top headlines at York University, October to December 2016.