Welcome to Brainstorm for February 2017

Brainstorm, a special edition of YFile publishing on the first Friday of every month, showcases research and innovation at York University. It offers compelling and accessible, feature-length stories about the world-leading and policy relevant work of York’s academics and researchers across all disciplines and faculties, and encompasses both pure and applied research.

Launched in January 2017, Brainstorm is produced out of the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation in partnership with Communications & Public Affairs; overseen by Megan Mueller, manager, Research Communications; and edited by Jenny Pitt-Clark, the YFile editor.

In the February 2017 issue, York’s Valerie Preston teams up with a US researcher in a policy-relevant study that reveals race and gender disparities through New York commuting times. New research from Professor Michaela Hynie on uninsured residents’ visits to ERs shows a surprising gap: The uninsured are more likely to have more serious health issues, to leave untreated and to die. Professor Amro Zayed puts into perspective an Australian researcher’s work and explains exactly how natural selection is assisting the invasion of Asian bees. SIRI Director Mark Roseman describes how his team fosters research excellence, via the federal granting system and the York Research Chairs program. A highly collaborative project, led by Professor Anna Hudson, seeks to recover, document and disseminate Inuit traditional knowledge and creativity; engage Inuit leaders, and enrich Inuit culture for generations.