York faculty members elected to Royal Society of Canada

September 5, 2023

York University professors Joshua Fogel, Sara Horowitz, Ali Kazimi and Debra Pepler are among the latest Fellows to be elected to the ranks of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) – one of the country’s highest honours in the arts, social sciences and sciences – in recognition of their career achievements and their positive contributions to public life.

“York University is thrilled that the exceptional work and leading expertise of professors Fogel, Horowitz, Kazimi and Pepler has been recognized by the Royal Society of Canada,” said Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation. “Their appointments as RSC Fellows are a testament to their passion and dedication in their respective fields of Asian studies, Jewish studies, film and psychology. The entire York community congratulates them on this well-deserved academic honour and recognition for advancing inclusive excellence for the benefit of Canada and the world.”

The RSC fellowship is made up of over 2,000 Canadian scholars, artists and scientists, who are all distinguished individuals in the arts, the humanities and the sciences. The York scholars join 101 new Fellows as part of the RSC Class of 2023. The new appointees will be inducted at an official ceremony hosted by the University of Waterloo in November.

The new RSC Fellows elected from York University are:

Joshua Fogel, professor, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Fogel is a professor in the Department of History. A leading scholar in Asian studies, his research focuses on the cultural, political and economic interactions between China and Japan, the importance of Japan in China’s modern development and the changing attitudes both countries have towards one another from the 14th to 19th century.

Sara Horowitz, professor, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Horowitz is a professor in the Department of Humanities, the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, as well as the graduate program in the Department of English. She is the former director of the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York. One of the world’s foremost experts in Jewish studies, her research and published works focus on Holocaust literature, women survivors, Jewish American fiction and Israeli cinema. She received the Distinguished Achievement Award in Holocaust studies from the Holocaust Education Foundation in 2022.

Ali Kazimi, professor, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design

Kazimi is an award-winning independent filmmaker and a professor in the Department of Cinema & Media Arts. Among Canada’s most acclaimed artists, his work explores issues of race, social justice, migration, history and memory, including documentaries that explore the diasporic South Asian relationship with Indigeneity. In 2019, he received the Governor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts. His most recent feature film, Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence, won the People’s Choice Award at Toronto’s Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival in 2022.

Debra Pepler, professor, Faculty of Health

Pepler is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Psychology and an Officer of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honour. Pepler’s influential research on bullying, aggression and other forms of violence, particularly among marginalized youth, has received international attention. She is a member of Ontario’s Safe Schools Action Team and the co-founder of PREVNet, a national research and knowledge mobilization hub focused on youth interpersonal violence prevention.

Schulich Leader Scholarships go to Lassonde students

September 5, 2023

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Two students beginning their post-secondary studies at York University have been named recipients of the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarship.

Out of a pool of 350,000 potential candidates across Canada, more than 1,400 students were nominated, of which 100 received this celebrated award.

With the help of the scholarship, the graduating high-school students from the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area will further their knowledge at the Lassonde School of Engineering at York to support their goals of starting their own companies and putting their skills to use for the greater good.

Mitchell Clapperton, 17, of Waterdown, Ont., is entering an electrical engineering program; and Jasmine Gherman, 18, of Toronto, will study computer programming.

The Schulich Leader Scholarship is Canada’s largest for undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). It is awarded to students who demonstrate academic excellence, leadership, charisma and creativity, as well as financial need.

Clapperton will receive a $120,000 scholarship and Gherman will receive $100,000, as per the scholarship funding for the Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Science programs.

“We’re delighted that Jasmine and Mitchell have chosen Lassonde as their academic home,” says Jane Goodyer, dean of Lassonde. “Their decision to pursue their aspirations here underscores our school’s reputation as a world-class hub for future engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs to collaborate in improving the world for everyone. As they embark on their post-secondary journeys with the generous support of the Schulich Leader Scholarship program, we look forward to seeing the positive impact they’ll make within our school, the STEM field and beyond.”

Mitchell Clapperton

Mitchell Clapperton

Clapperton hails from the Waterdown area, situated halfway between Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton, Ont. – where he was enrolled in the French Immersion program and founded the school’s STEM club – and Burlington, Ont., where he volunteered as a coach for the Special Olympics softball and floor hockey teams. He was a gold medallist in four regional science fairs, three of which went on to win medals Canada-wide and one that qualified for an international competition.

“The cool thing about science fairs is there’s always a little piece of ‘for good’ in there. I’d love to keep that up and keep ‘innovation for good’ as a goal in the future,” he says. “I am really looking forward to getting this education, so I can tackle more projects like this, and this Schulich Leader scholarship will help me to do that.”

Jasmine Gherman

Jasmine Gherman

Born to an immigrant family from Romania, Gherman is from Scarborough, Ont., where she attended Mary Ward Catholic Secondary – one of only a handful of self-directed learning schools in Canada – where she took a leadership role at the coding club. She is a contributor for an award-winning, arts-and-science, Romanian-language newspaper, where she has written about advice for parents and encouraging girls to consider STEM career paths. A self-described introvert, Gherman has embraced her quiet leadership style and says teachers describe her as being someone who does not always speak up, but when she does, everyone listens.

“I’m not someone who likes cut-throat competition. I appreciate drive and collaboration for the greater good, and I believe that this program will give me those opportunities,” she says. “I’m grateful that this scholarship will allow me to focus on my studies without taking on a large debt burden.”

“We are proud to celebrate the continued success of Schulich Leader Scholarships, the premiere STEM scholarship program in Canada,” says program founder Seymour Schulich. “This group of outstanding students will represent the best and brightest Canada has to offer and will make great contributions to society, both on a national and global scale. With their university expenses covered, they can focus their time on their studies, research projects, extracurriculars and entrepreneurial ventures. They are the next generation of entrepreneurial-minded, technology innovators.

Learn more at News @ York.

Government invests more than $15.5 million in York-led research projects

August 30, 2023

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More than 30 projects led by York University researchers in the social sciences and humanities were awarded a combined total of $15,541,343 in federal funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grants, Partnership Development Grants and Insight Grants.

The funding, announced on Aug. 29 by the Randy Boissonnault, minister of employment, workforce development and official languages, on behalf of the François-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry, goes towards 33 projects, ranging from research on migrant labour and gender inequality in retirement to heritage design in Canada.

“This week’s funding announcement highlights the council’s faith in the high calibre of our researchers’ work, ranging from Indigenous circumpolar cultural sovereignty, ecological footprint, to renewable greener transition and policy gaps in international mobility, in collaboration with other local and international subject experts,” says Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation at York. “I thank SHHRC for their support and I commend York’s research community for their ongoing commitment to creating positive change, both locally and globally.”

The new round of grants will support 605 social sciences and humanities research projects across Canada. Learn more about the York-led projects below.

Partnership Grants

SSHRC Partnership Grants support teams of researchers from post-secondary institutions working in new and existing formal partnerships with public, private or not-for-profit organizations. Through collaboration, sharing of intellectual leadership and resources by cash or in-kind contributions, the grants support work for four to seven years to advance research, training and knowledge mobilization in the social sciences and humanities.

Four York-led projects received a combined total of almost $10 million ($9,978,586) in funding.

Peter Victor, Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change
The International Ecological Footprint Learning Lab: Training, research and novel applications
$2,486,161

Richard Saunders, Department of Politics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
African Extractivism and the Green Transition
$2,498,948

Leah Vosko, Department of Politics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Liberating Migrant Labour?: International Mobility Programs in Settler-Colonial Contexts
$2,499,975

Anna Hudson, Department of Visual Art & Art History, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
Curating Indigenous Circumpolar Cultural Sovereignty: advancing Inuit and Sami homelands, food, art, archives and worldviews
$2,493,502

To learn more about the York-led projects, click here.

To view all Partnership Grant recipients, click here.

Partnership Development Grants

Partnership Development Grants support teams of researchers from post-secondary institutions working in a formal partnership with public, private or not-for-profit organizations for one to three years. The grants support research development, existing and new partnerships, knowledge mobilization, and related activities in the social sciences and humanities.

Eight York-led projects received a combined total of more than $1.5 million ($1,514,498) in funding.

Anna Agathangelou, Department of Politics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Building an International Partnership to Research and Address Reparative Justice in Post-Conflict Situations: Canada, Africa and Europe
$176,127

Thi Viet Nga Dao, Department of Social Science, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Slow violence and water (in)justice: Feminist political ecologies of intergenerational struggles in the Mekong region
$199,689

Anne MacLennan, Department of Communication & Media Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Interrogating Canadian Identities/ L’identités canadiennes – une interrogation (ICI)
$173,836

Jan Hadlaw, Department of Design, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
The xDX Project: Documenting, Linking, and Interpreting Canada’s Design Heritage
$193,400

Christopher Kyriakides, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Refuge, Racisms, and Resistances: A Co-Created Analysis of the Experiences of Syrian and Ethiopian Refugees in Canada
$196,426

To learn more about this project, click here.

Abigail Shabtay, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Strengthening Participatory Drama-Based Research in Institutional, Community, and Educational Contexts
$199,341

Susan Winton, Faculty of Education
The Public Education Exchange
$175,679

Debra Pepler, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health
Walking the Prevention Pathway for Indigenous Communities’ Journey of Change
$200,000

To view all Partnership Development Grant recipients, click here.

Insight Grants

Insight Grants are awarded to emerging and established scholars in the social sciences and humanities to work on research projects of two to five years.

21 York-led projects received a combined total of more than $4 million ($4,048,259) in funding.

Tasso Adamopoulos, Department of Economics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Inequality and Productivity in Developing Countries
$125,669

Kee-hong Bae, Department of Finance, Schulich School of Business
Incentive-focused corporate culture
$74,440

Anh Nguyen, School of Administrative Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Labour force aging and business vibrancy: Evidence and solutions for businesses and workers in Canada and around the world
$193,356

Thanujeni (Jeni) Pathman, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health
How accurate is memory for time across childhood and adolescence? Theoretical and practical implications for forensic settings
$240,030

Alexandra Rutherford, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health
Intersecting difference: Gender, race and sexuality in 20th century U.S. psychology
$134,090

Robert Savage, Faculty of Education
Tackling two of the most important unresolved tasks in reading intervention
$278,472

Marlis Schweitzer, Department of Theatre, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
Decoding the Lecture on Heads: Performing Objects and Satire on the 18th-Century Stage
$99,923

Simon Adam, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health
Entangled identities: Exploring neurodiversity through social media expression
$103,553

Kean Birch, Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change
Digital Data Value Paradox: An Empirical Investigation of Personal Data Valuation
$328,946

Antony Chum, School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health
Social and policy determinants of self harm across gender identities in Canada
$328,104

Julia M. Creet, Department of English, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Digital Afterlives
$283,757

Robert Cribbie, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health
Extensions of Negligible Effect Statistical Testing
$251,006

Ganaele Langlois, Department of Communication & Media Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
The Art of Necessity: Making Sustainable and Just Worlds through Local Textiles
$228,206

Brenda Longfellow, Department of Cinema & Media Arts, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
Abolition Feminism: Collaborating Across Communities
$352,679

Kinnon MacKinnon, School of Social Work, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Detransition: Examining pathways and care needs
$112,113

Jonathan Nitzan, Department of Politics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
The capital-as-power fractal: toward a general theory of the capitalist mode of power
$111,766

Yuval Deutsch, Schulich School of Business
Social capital, corporate social responsibility and corporate irresponsibility
$133,799

Caitlin Fisher, Department of Cinema & Media Studies, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
Mobilizing the arts for global health: a virtual museum of antimicrobial resistance
$236,457

Kamila Kolpashnikova, Department of Design, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
Gender Inequality in Retirement: Understanding Social Organization in Domestic Tasks
$88,145

Palma Paciocco, Osgoode Hall Law School
The Gatekeeper and The Timekeeper: Regulating Expert Evidence and Trial Delay in Criminal Courts
$51,777

Yan Shvartzshnaider, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Lassonde School of Engineering
Virtual Classrooms Privacy
$291,971

To view all Insight Grant recipients, click here.

CFI funding supports professors developing sustainable future

August 30, 2023

A new engineering facility to develop innovative nanomaterials at York University is part of the latest round of research infrastructure projects to receive support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), announced by the federal government earlier this week.

Reza Rizvi, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the Lassonde School of Engineering, will oversee the facility alongside co-principal investigators Stephanie Gora, an assistant professor of civil engineering, and Marina Freire-Gormaly, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

The JELF investment, totalling $138,585, will enable the York engineers to utilize cutting-edge scientific techniques and conduct the precise analysis needed to develop innovative nanomaterials that address energy and environmental challenges, like climate change, clean energy generation and storage, e-waste, and water treatment and monitoring. The project is titled “Infrastructure for Innovative Nanomaterials for Energy and Environment.”

“I am grateful for CFI’s investment in our applied research to create a more sustainable future for Canada and the world,” said Rizvi, who specializes in the scalable manufacturing of advanced materials. “Nanomaterials have a critical role to play in technological solutions that will help protect our planet.”

The facility will be housed in a shared lab space at Lassonde and will feature: a confocal Raman microscope (a Bruker Senterra II), a laser-based device that allows for microscopic examination; and an infrared spectrometer (Bruker Alpha II), an instrument used to measure light absorbed by a material sample. The facility will also be used to train highly-qualified personnel, including graduate students and postdoctoral Fellows.

“Every day, researchers dedicate their knowledge and skills to addressing issues that are important to Canadians, including improving the environment, health care and access to education. They contribute to a better future for all Canadians,” said Roseann O’Reilly Runte, president and CEO of CFI. “At the Canada Foundation for Innovation, we are proud to support their efforts with well-designed labs and necessary equipment placed in the communities and environments where they will be the most effectively employed.”

The nanotechnologies developed by Rizvi, Gora, Freire-Gormaly and their teams will advance several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including: good health and well-being (SDG 3); clean water and sanitation (SDG 6); affordable and clean energy (SDG 7); industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9); responsible consumption and production (SDG 12); and climate action (SDG 13).

Other JELF-funded projects at York

Three other York researchers also received funding: Shooka Karimpour, an assistant professor of civil engineering at Lassonde, for “Infrastructure for High-Definition Microplatic Detection (HD-MPD) and Identity Analysis” ($126,254); and Adeyemi Oludapo Olusola and Joshua Thienpoint, assistant professors in the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change, for “Landscapes in Transition: Environmental Sensitivities Due to Climate Change” ($198,161).

Shooka Karimpour with a tiny version of herself on her shoulder — Shooka Karimpour

Adeyemi Oludapo Olusola — Shooka Karimpour

The York-led projects are among 396 research infrastructure projects to receive more than $113 million at 56 universities across Canada.

The CFI funding is part of a wave of recent investments made by the Government of Canada, supporting 4,700 researchers and research projects with more than $960 million in grants, scholarships and programs. “Through this funding, the Government of Canada is investing in the next generation of researchers and inspiring them to continue to think outside the box and tackle the challenges of today and tomorrow,” said François-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry.

For the full CFI announcement, visit innovation.ca/news/jelf-august-2023.

Two York researchers receive Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships

August 30, 2023

gold cup with golf star confetti coming out of it

Following a highly competitive selection process, York University postdoctoral Fellows Chiara Camponeschi and Ashlee Christofferson have been named among this year’s recipients of the prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships.

Awarded by the Government of Canada, the Banting Fellowship is valued at $70,000 per year for two years and supports postdoctoral researchers who will positively contribute to the country’s economic, social and research-based growth. The award is open to scholars who are devoted to research in three areas: health, natural sciences and/or engineering, and social sciences and/or humanities.

The ambitious work of Camponeschi and Christoffersen falls into major themes identified in York’s Strategic Research Plan, such as forging a just and equitable world, and supports York’s commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Chiara Camponeschi

Camponeschi is a postdoctoral Fellow conducting research at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research. Her project, “Turning Moments of Crisis Into Moments of Care,” aims to rethink the approach to resilience and recovery in this age of systemic crises. By applying this model to the study of urban climate change, Camponeschi’s research provides practical solutions that can be leveraged in a variety of settings, from offering policy prompts for the design of infrastructures of care to making contributions to capacity-building and community practice.

“The lens of crisis has continued to be invoked to reinforce a reactive stance to change, one driven by narratives of enclosure, disconnection and austerity that are harmful to society – especially to already vulnerable groups,” says Camponeschi. “Crises, however, can be richly generative moments of rupture that reveal contradictions, incite action and stimulate new visions. They present us with the opportunity to turn moments of crisis into moments of care.”

Ashlee Christoffersen

Christoffersen is a postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Politics. Her proposed research aims to increase our understanding of how intersectionality can be applied in both policy and practice, with a unique focus on non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Titled “Operationalizing Intersectionality: Equality policy and NGOs,” the project aims to achieve positive change by highlighting the limitations of some existing NGO approaches and by impacting Canadian policy-makers’ interpretations of intersectionality.

“The question of how to apply ‘intersectionality,’ the Black feminist theory that social inequalities shape one another, is one that many across different fields have long struggled with,” explains Christoffersen. “This is because the predominant approach to inequalities has been to address these separately and thus ineffectively.”

Christoffersen underscores the importance of her research in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, which both deepened pre-existing inequalities and raised awareness of how they are intersecting.

The application deadline for the next round of Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships is Sept. 20. Learn more at yorku.ca/gradstudies/postdoctoral-fellows/funding/bpf-competition.

Students awarded Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

August 30, 2023

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The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, presented by the Government of Canada, aims to support first-rate doctoral students studying social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and health. This year, seven York University students have been named Vanier Scholars, earning them $50,000 annually for up to three years to support their research projects.

Candidates are evaluated based on three equally weighted selection criteria: academic excellence, research potential and leadership. This year’s scholars have proposed innovative solutions to challenging problems through their projects, each of which spurs positive change in their community, both locally and globally.

Marissa Magneson (Cree-Métis, citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario), Faculty of Education

Marissa Magneson

Magneson’s application was ranked second out of 200 at the national competition for Vanier Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council files. Her proposed research contributes to the ongoing discourse of decolonial and artistic pedagogy, research-creation and Indigenous beadwork practices by challenging the ways education can look both inside and outside of the classroom.

Her project specifically seeks to uncover how beading supports Indigenous students in reclaiming culture, strengthening identity, fostering community, healing intergenerational traumas and developing a sense of belonging, while also contributing to Indigenous pedagogy through creative storytelling and supporting reconciliation.

“Beadwork as pedagogy actively responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, suggesting that beading not only strengthens identity but also fosters healing and reconciliation,” shares Magneson.

Greg Procknow, critical disability studies

Procknow’s doctoral research illuminates the experiential claims of inpatients found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (NCRMD) to explore whether education leads to decarceration and to re-evaluate education as a non-psychiatric method for recovery.

His research will document the educative experiences of inpatients granted day-release privileges to pursue post-secondary education on campus to uncover what factors have facilitated or inhibited their inclusion in educational spaces, how education has advanced their recovery plans and how these inpatients perceive education’s role in qualifying them for an absolute or conditional discharge.

“This research is vital to learning how pedagogy impacts rates of decarceration, supports the reintegration of NCRMD into the community, reduces recidivism and rehospitalizations, and nurtures recovery,” opines Procknow.

Cole Swanson, environmental studies

Swanson’s PhD study will use material-based art to explore the dynamic ecology of a bird colony with a stigmatized reputation, the double-crested cormorants (Nannopterum auritum). Working against dangerous imaginaries on cormorants fuelled by religious, settler-colonial, and extractivist histories and politics, Swanson will examine life in the colony to illuminate the entanglements between avian, human and more-than-human worlds.

“Through socially-engaged art practice, the apparent divides between our species will be broken down, stoking empathy and a community-based investment in the well-being and protection of these ancient creatures and their colony constituents with whom we share our lands and resources,” says Swanson.

The project will culminate in a multisensory art exhibition composed of photo, video and sound recorded from the colony, which will be shared with a diverse public for analysis useful in both scientific and social contexts.

Areej Alshammiry, sociology

Alshammiry’s project explores the practice of “double punishment,” where non-citizens or foreign-born individuals in Canada are criminalized and rendered deportable. The research particularly focuses on double punishment’s impact on those who are unremovable because they are stateless but inadmissible on the grounds of criminality.

“Driven by the politics of the War on Terror, these processes lead to increasing cases of statelessness by decisions like citizenship stripping of foreign-born persons or deprivation of citizenship to those without one,” states Alshammiry. “However, such measures often target already marginalized communities and are often arbitrary, as they are driven by racial, ethnic, religious and national discrimination.”

This innovative project undertakes the important work of revealing the lived experiences of stateless individuals and can positively contribute to policy frameworks on statelessness and abolition.

Jordan Krywonos, physics and astronomy

The PhD study proposed by Krywonos considers gravitational waves, which are ripples propagating across the fabric of our universe. As the gravitational waves travel, they carry information about their source, providing an avenue to study previously inaccessible sources such as an orbiting pair of primordial black holes that are proposed to compose a portion of dark matter. Thus, this groundbreaking research on gravitational waves could help illuminate the nature of dark matter.

“Given that the identity of dark matter is among the most important outstanding questions in cosmology, discovering primordial black holes would revolutionize our understanding of the universe, and provide a new means of probing its origin,” reveals Krywonos.

Austin Martins-Robalino, civil engineering

Martins-Robalino’s project investigates how new and emerging materials can be used in place of traditional materials when constructing shear walls, which are a key influence on how structures perform when subjected to loading from wind or seismic events. Martins-Robalino proposes that replacing traditional reinforcing steel rebar with a smart material like superelastic shape memory alloys and concrete with engineered cementitious composites could provide insight into making more damage-resilient and sustainable structures that recentre themselves after loading.

“Such resilient infrastructure would inherently improve the sustainability of structures, reducing the equivalent carbon emissions over their service life,” says Martins-Robalino.

This cutting-edge project can help with progress towards safer and more sustainable construction and communities in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Anna Waisman, clinical psychology

Waisman’s proposed research seeks to provide a novel, easily accessible approach to treating chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP). A study conducted at York University and the Toronto General Hospital, published in the journal Pain, with Waisman as the lead author, found that patients who recall a greater number of event-specific, pain-related autobiographical memories before surgery are significantly less likely to develop CPSP up to one year later.

Building on these findings, Waisman’s PhD project will develop a remotely-delivered intervention that will train individuals to be more specific in the retrieval of their memories after surgery, with the aim of preventing chronic post-surgical pain.

“This work addresses a significant public health need. By creating a brief and easily accessible intervention, our plan is to deliver effective pain management to virtually anyone with a computer,” shares Waisman.

Professors recognized at international management conference

August 30, 2023

Speaker giving a talk in conference hall at business event. Audience at the conference hall.

Two faculty members from York University’s Schulich School of Business received awards at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management held in Boston earlier this month, where more than 10,000 academy members from around the world gathered to explore the theme “Putting the Worker Front and Centre.”

Maxim Voronov, a professor of organization studies and sustainability at Schulich, won Best Article for his co-authored paper titled “Commercializing the Practice of Voyeurism: How Organizations Leverage Authenticity and Transgression to Create Value,” which was published in the Academy of Management Journal in July of last year.

“My co-authors and I were absolutely shocked to even be nominated – never mind to win – the award,” admits Voronov. “Of course, we were proud of the paper, but it was surprising and humbling to see it recognized via a rigorous selection process as the best contribution published in the journal the entire year. It is without a doubt one of the highlights of our careers.”

This win is extra rewarding, he says, because all of his co-authors are former Schulich PhD students.

Voronov believes the article is important because while there are many businesses that are commercializing voyeurism, there was previously no theory to explain how and why such business models succeed. “Understanding what makes such businesses work is essential for truly understanding both positive and ‘dark’ sides of commercialized voyeurism by various businesses,” he explains.

Going forward, the researchers hope the article will promote a more reflective conversation about authenticity, which is a key component of commercialized voyeurism. “We tend to think of authenticity as unambiguously ‘good,’ ” says Voronov. “But our paper reveals that our society’s preoccupation with authenticity can also be associated with more negative outcomes – for workers, companies and society at large.”

Schulich Professor Geoffrey Kistruck, RBC Chair in Social Innovation and Impact, won the Kauffman Best Paper Award in Entrepreneurial Cognition for his co-authored paper titled “Reframing Entrepreneurship: A Field Experiment on the Relative Efficacy of Reflexive vs. Habitual Framing for Entrepreneurial Education.”

Kistruck and his authorship team were “thrilled” to be recognized for their intensive, multi-year field experiment, he says. Conducted in partnership with Desjardins International Development and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the team designed and delivered entrepreneurship training to 683 entrepreneurs in rural Sri Lanka, and then tracked the subsequent changes in the participants’ attitudes and behaviours.

The team’s alternative approach to entrepreneurship training focused on highlighting the ways participants were already being innovative in the non-business aspects of their lives, such as cooking and child rearing, and asking them to transfer those practices to their business tasks.

“The results of our field experiment indicate this new approach can create a more positive change in entrepreneurial ‘mindset’ as well as innovative behaviour,” explains Kistruck. “We think identifying an alternative training approach not only works to delineate the boundary of existing theory from a contextual perspective, but hopefully will also spur the adoption of this new approach by governments, non-profits and other organizations seeking to leverage entrepreneurship as a tool for poverty alleviation.”

For more information about the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, visit aom.org/events/annual-meeting.

Students receive summer research conference awards

August 30, 2023

At the Faculty of Science’s annual undergraduate summer research conference, students received awards in recognition of oral and poster presentations they gave on summer projects they worked on.

More than 60 students from the Faculties of Science, Health, and Environmental & Urban Change attended the Faculty of Science Summer 2023 Undergraduate Research Conference to present their projects, reflecting work ranging from bee conservation and biochemical innovations to quantum computing and more.

The conference was an opportunity for recipients of other summer undergraduate research awards (including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Undergraduate Summer Research Awards, the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Awards, the Earle Nestmann Undergraduate Research Awards and the York Science Scholars Awards) to share projects they have worked on. Students’ presentations were judged by faculty members as well as postdoctoral and graduate students, and the winners for best presentations were announced at the end of the event. Health students were announced in a separate category.

First place winners, from left to right: Hannah Le, Jessica Latimer, Patrick Hewan

The following science students received awards for their oral presentations:

Hannah Le, a third-year chemistry student, won first place for the project “Value-Added Vat Orange 3 Dyes for Functional Materials Development,” supervised by Thomas Baumgartner, professor of chemistry;
Chiara Di Scipio, a third-year biology student, won second place for the project “Investigating the signaling cascade of a CAPA neuropeptide in the Malpighian tubules of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster,” supervised by Jean-Paul Paluzzi, professor of biology; and
Isaac Kogan, a first-year biology student, won third place for the project “Using Machine Learning to Interpret LFIA Results,” supervised by Sergey Krylov, professor of chemistry.

The following science students received awards for their poster presentations:

Jessica Latimer, a fourth-year chemistry student, won first place for the project “Practical Accuracy Assessment of Equilibrium Dissociation Constants,” supervised by Sergey Krylov, professor of chemistry;
Sarah Powell, a fourth-year physics student, won second place for the project “Theoretical particle physics on quantum computers,” supervised by Randy Lewis, professor of physics and astronomy; and
Yash Shrestha, a second-year biology student, won third place for the project “Exploration of altered synaptic pruning in an autism model mouse,” supervised by Steven Connor, professor of biology.

Within the Faculty of Health, the following students received awards:

Patrick Hewan, a psychology student, won best oral presentation for the project “Microstructural integrity of the Locus Coeruleus is related to decision-making in older adults,” supervised by Professor Gary Turner; and
Mira Bhattacharya, a second-year cognitive science student, won best poster presentation for the project “Neuronal Correlates of Flexible Decision Making,” supervised by Professor Liya Ma.

Read more about the students and their projects in the conference program booklet.

Professor receives $780,000 in CIHR funding

August 25, 2023

Professor and York University Research Chair Chun Peng received $780,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to fund a new project associated with her ongoing research into pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy disorder with a profound impact on maternal and fetal health.

York biology Professor Chun Peng working in her laboratory — Chun Peng

The grant funds a project titled “NLRC5 isoforms in placental development and pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia,” part of Peng’s long-term research goal to better understand pre-eclampsia, which usually develops after 20 weeks of gestation and is characterized by high blood pressure, as well as damage to liver, kidneys or other organs. It is the leading direct cause of maternal and fetal death in the world, with over 75,000 pregnant women and 500,000 infants dying from it each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Even if someone survives the disease, it can lead to negative effects on the mother and fetus health during pregnancy, and can have lifelong negative impacts on cardiovascular health for both. The causes of pre-eclampsia are not fully understood, but it is known that abnormal placental development – in particular, the insufficient invasion of placental cells into the uterus to carry out the remodelling of the uterine blood vessels – is a major contributing factor.

The new study builds upon findings from a previous project where Peng and colleagues identified two truncated isoforms of a protein called NLRC5 in human placenta. Preliminary results suggest that these NLRC5 isoforms play important roles in regulating placental development, and they may contribute to the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia. In this study, her lab will collaborate with researchers from Mount Sinai Hospital and Toronto General Hospital to further examine how NLRC5 exert their functions in the placenta and to determine if their over-expression will lead to the development of pre-eclampsia-like symptoms.

“This project will allow us to understand more of how placenta development is regulated during pregnancy and how the abnormal levels of NLRC5 isoforms may contribute to the development of pre-eclampsia,” says Peng. “We really hope that this can give us some clues on whether a new strategy could be developed to either prevent or treat pre-eclampsia.”

Peng, who had her York Research Chair in Women’s Reproductive Health renewed in 2021, has been conducting research to better understand pre-eclampsia since 1998, and has received several previous CIHR grants – collectively amounting to nearly $3.5 million – to study the disorder.

Lassonde PhD students recognized for environmental research

August 25, 2023

Three Lassonde School of Engineering PhD candidates in civil engineering have been recognized – two with awards and one with publication approval – for work in environmental research that promises to help right the future.

The award-winning students are:

Gurpreet Kaur, third-year PhD candidate

In May 2023, Kaur presented research focusing on microorganisms to degrade harmful contaminants in groundwater at the International In-Situ Thermal Treatment (i2t2) Symposium in Banff, Alta., where she was honoured with a Best Presentation Award.

More than nine million people in Canada depend on groundwater as their primary source of drinking water. If groundwater is contaminated, pollutants can reach consumers and cause harmful effects like cancer and other diseases,” she says. Kaur specifically studies biomediation, a process that uses microorganisms that are naturally present in the subsurface to degrade environmental pollutants. However, the activity of these microorganisms may be hindered by cool temperatures below ground. To solve this issue, some remediation strategies supplement the subsurface with heat, but that can be an expensive process.

“My work analyzes the effect of geothermal heat pumps on bioremediation,” says Kaur. “This is a sustainable and cost-effective solution that can help enhance the growth and activity of microorganisms.” In addition to improving the efficiency of bioremediation, geothermal heat pumps can be used to provide heating and cooling to surrounding buildings, thereby serving two functions at once.

To explore the effects of geothermal heat pumps on bioremediation, Kaur isolated and analyzed two pollutant-degrading bacteria strains from geothermal borehole soil samples. Her analysis showed the strains have the ability to degrade Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene (BTEX), four common chemical contaminants found in groundwater. She also applied heat to these pollutant-degrading bacteria, which resulted in significantly increased bacterial growth and BTEX degradation rate, suggesting the inherent beneficial effects that geothermal heat pumps may have on bacteria. The results of Kaur’s work demonstrate the great promise of this modified method for bioremediation, which could ensure clean drinking water for millions of Canadians.

Michael De Santi, second-year PhD candidate

De Santi received an award for an outstanding presentation, given at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna, about his research focusing on developing the Safe Water Optimization Tool (SWOT) using machine learning methods.

De Santi’s research aims to develop and implement data-driven solutions for water safety issues in refugee and internally displaced person (IDP) settlements with SWOT. Primary sources of drinking water in these settlements are highly susceptible to contamination, which creates a risk for people to contract waterborne disease upon consumption.

To decontaminate drinking water and mitigate disease risk, free residual chlorine is used as a water treatment; however, this can significantly alter its odour and taste. Using data collected from a refugee settlement in Uganda called Kyaka II, the SWOT generated a risk model to help determine an optimal concentration of free residual chlorine that allowed for a balance between water safety, as well as favourable odour and taste. This work suggests the SWOT can be effectively used in real-world scenarios, to help water system operators satisfy both water safety and consumer standards in refugee and IDP settlements.

De Santi’s ongoing research and aspirations are supported by his PhD supervisors, Professor Usman Khan and Research Fellow Syed Imran Ali, as well as the Lassonde community, and reflects engineering’s potential to impact the world. “Engineering isn’t just about learning; it’s also about solving problems,” says De Santi. “The reason I was drawn to civil engineering is because I think it can be used to tackle the most global challenges and help the most people.”

Rodrigo Alcaino Olivares, fourth-year PhD candidate

Olivares recently had an article, titled “Thermally assisted deformation of a rock column above Tomb KV42 in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt,” accepted for publication in the journal Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering.

The article is an extension of his PhD thesis, supervised by Professor Matthew Perras, which has primarily involved geological field campaigns based in Egypt. His research focuses on the thermal effects of crack growth in rocks. Examining such growths is important, as climate change in post-glacial and arid regions can significantly progress rock damage over time, leading to altered function and behaviour.

The publication summarizes Olivares’ ongoing work in the Valley of the Kings, located within a large landscape and UNESCO World Heritage Site called Theban Necropolis in Luxor, Egypt. Along with his research team, he monitored the transient conditions of a micritic-limestone rock column above a tomb, as well as an existing fracture, while investigating thermomechanical displacements with various tools. Data gathered throughout this study will enhance understanding of environmentally-driven fracture growth mechanisms and help inform approaches to preserve and protect the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Discover more about student research at Lassonde.

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Tag: Awards

York faculty members elected to Royal Society of Canada

Joshua Fogel, professor, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Sara Horowitz, professor, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Ali Kazimi, professor, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design

Debra Pepler, professor, Faculty of Health

Schulich Leader Scholarships go to Lassonde students

Two students beginning their post-secondary studies at York University have been named recipients of the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarship.

Government invests more than $15.5 million in York-led research projects