Tag: VP Research and Innovation

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Two York research administrators receive national awards

featured image for the CARA Awards story
Above: David Phipps (left) with Angela Zeno at the CARA Awards
Above: David Phipps (left) with Angela Zeno at the CARA Awards

The Canadian Association of Research Administrators (CARA) has recognized the accomplishments of two of York’s senior research administrators with national awards. Angela Zeno, manager, research accounting, received the Community Builder Award. David Phipps, executive director, research & innovation services, received the Research Management Excellence Award.

The Community Builder Award is presented to a passionate leader in the CARA community whose efforts have strengthened the community through membership engagement efforts, welcoming and facilitating the integration of newcomers or other forms of leadership specifically advantageous to helping members connect to the broader CARA community. An advocate of CARA, Zeno regularly attends meetings and conferences, both regionally and nationally. She was responsible for the development and delivery of the Research Accounting workshop at CARA National for many years and is currently a key part of a team focused on revamping the finance workshops for CARA into a case-based, full-day workshop.

According to her nominators, Zeno has dedicated her efforts and those of her team to the implementation of “best practices” in post-award research administration at York University. “Within the Canadian research administration community, York is held in high esteem due to their work in this area,” says Trudy Pound-Curtis, AVP finance and CFO. “ I am very proud of Angela and her significant contribution to research grant administration in Canada.”

The Research Management Excellence Award is presented to an exceptional research manager who has made outstanding contributions to the profession, both nationally and internationally, through innovation, creativity, hard work and dedication. Phipps is being recognized for his leadership in two emerging areas of research management: knowledge mobilization that seeks to maximize impacts of research beyond the academy; and implementation of Canada’s controlled goods legislation that implements security assessments to safeguard controlled goods and/or technologies within Canada.

“David’s work across Canada in these two distinct areas has helped to increase York’s international recognition for innovation in research services,” says Robert Haché, vice-president research and innovation. “David is most deserving of this award from Canada’s research administration community.”

The awards were presented at a special celebration on May 25 at the CARA 2015 Annual Conference in Toronto. Haché was also featured on the conference’s opening panel discussing the topic “The Future of Research in Canada.” He spoke about the importance of investing in basic research that deepens our understanding of people and the world around us, as well as investing in knowledge mobilization, entrepreneurship and industry liaison to help maximize the social, economic and environmental impacts of university research.

CARA is a national voice for research administrators in Canada. With almost 1,000 members, the professional organization’s strength is in its diversity and comprehensive approach to research administration. CARA provides a critical interface between all stakeholders in the management of the research enterprise.

New dean appointed to the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Ananya MReed for YFile homepage

President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri has issued the following message to the York University community:

I am extremely pleased to inform you that the search for the next Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies has reached a successful conclusion.

Ananya Mukherjee-Reed
Ananya Mukherjee-Reed

You will recall that last year I established a committee charged with undertaking a search for the next Dean, comprising members of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (faculty, staff and students), as well as a member from outside the Faculty appointed by me, and chaired by the Vice-President Academic & Provost. At the suggestion of the Faculty Executive Committee, I attended the majority of the search committee’s meetings as a non-voting member. This is an important time in the development of York’s largest Faculty, as it builds on its strengths and accomplishments and explores new directions; the appointment of its new Dean is of great significance for both the Faculty and the University.

Following an extensive national and international search, which attracted a number of outstanding candidates, the committee recommended the appointment of Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed to the position of Dean. I am very pleased to announce that Professor Mukherjee-Reed has accepted our invitation to take up a five-year term as Dean, commencing July 1, 2015. On Friday, April 17, the Board of Governors Executive Committee, on behalf of the Board of Governors, concurred with my recommendation of the appointment.

Professor Mukherjee-Reed will be well known to members of the York community. She joined the Department of Political Science in the (former) Faculty of Arts in 1995 as Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2000 and Full Professor in 2010. From 2011 to 2014, she served as Chair of the department, where she led initiatives to engage undergraduate students more fully in their educational experience and to support and advance graduate teaching and learning; as Chair, she also represented the department as a member of Senate.

Most recently, Dr. Mukherjee-Reed has served in two key institutional capacities. Over the summer and fall of this past year, she served as a member of the Academic Task Force for the Academic and Administrative Program Review (AAPR) process, mandated to review all academic programs from across the University and contributing to the task force report which was released in November 2014. Since November of 2014, she has held the position of Associate Vice-President Research (AVP), with responsibility for York’s 27 organized research units. As AVP she has been working towards advancing research performance in the social sciences and humanities, developing a stronger connection between teaching and research, and chairing the University-wide Major Awards Advisory Committee, which advises the VPRI on key institutional nominations, awards and research chairs. As AVP, she also works with external bodies, including the SSHRC Leaders’ Network and the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Dr. Mukherjee-Reed holds a BA and MA in Economics from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India, and a PhD (1995) in Political Economy & Public Policy from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Her interdisciplinary scholarship is in the field of development and social change, with a current focus on the theme of justice, and particularly gender justice. She is the author or editor of several books, as well as numerous chapters, articles, and reports, and is a member of editorial boards for several international journals. Her research has been supported by Canadian and international organizations such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the International Development Research Centre, the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, and several UN organizations. She was the founding director of the International Secretariat for Human Development, based at York, which works with community organizations, UN organizations and research communities in several countries with the goal of linking the academic benefits of interdisciplinary scholarship to concrete social benefits. She is also highly respected as a commentator on and contributor to current public debates, appearing frequently in the media as well as before community and international organizations.

I would like to thank the members of the Search Committee for their contributions to this important process. I would also like to express my enormous appreciation to Professor Martin Singer, who has provided outstanding leadership to the Faculty for the past six years as its founding Dean.

I look forward to working with Professor Mukherjee-Reed as she undertakes this key leadership role. I hope that all members of the Faculty and the University will join me in congratulating her and wishing her well in her new role.

York Task Force on Sustainability Research releases draft report

trees near the lake

The York University 2014-2015 Task Force on Sustainability Research is seeking feedback from the University community on a draft report released today. The draft report highlights the task force’s suggestions and recommendations for the continued development of structures to support, integrate, cultivate and publicize York University’s sustainability research.

Jennifer Foster
Jennifer Foster

“The task force looks forward to receiving feedback from the York community on the draft report.  Over the past months the task force has been impressed with the richness and depth of sustainability research across the University,” said Faculty of Environmental Studies Professor Jennifer Foster, chair of the task force. “York researchers are exploring sustainability in a distinctly interdisciplinary and collaborative manner.  The University is certainly positioned to become a leader in this area, and feedback on the draft report is essential to advancing York’s sustainability research strategy.”

The task force has made several recommendations, organized into themes that reflect connections, communication strategies and funding, the implementation of which ranges from over 12 months to more than three years.

Recommendations from the report include:  The development of a comprehensive inventory of sustainability research at York that is updated regularly and available to York members; the establishment of a York-wide (institutional) Organized Research Unit focusing on environment and sustainability; the dedication of physical space to the Sustainability Institute for collaborative research purposes and social interaction, including student space; hosting an annual international interdisciplinary sustainability research conference that stimulates debates and discussions related to York’s vision of sustainability research and connects scholars at York; and prioritizing central funding support for sustainability research at York through the creation of a sustainability fund that provides seed funding or matching funds for both exploratory and applied sustainability research at York.

For a complete list of the report’s recommendations, view the full report online.

The task force met seven times between September 2014 and February 2015. The first phase of the consultative process consisted of meeting with members of York’s research community to solicit early input to the task force’s work and engage with York members on their sustainability research perspectives.

The current phase involves further group consultation to obtain further feedback on the draft report.  It will also include meetings with student groups, external partners and hosting an open forum where York members can contribute their input.

To provide feedback on the draft report, please visit the Feedback Tab on the Task Force on Sustainability website or contact Barbara Edwards, senior policy adviser, at ext. 55296.  The deadline to provide written feedback on the draft report is May 15.

Alzheimer’s study on women at risk shows deteriorating brain wiring

In their latest brain imaging study on women at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, York University researchers have found deterioration in the pathways that serve to communicate signals between different brain regions. These regions are needed for performing everyday activities, such as driving a car or using a computer.

LaurenSergio
Lauren Sergio demonstrates one of the tests

“We observed a relationship between the levels of deterioration in the brain wiring and their performance on our task that required simultaneous thinking and moving; what we see here is a result of communication failure,” says Professor Lauren Sergio in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health.

In an interview, Sergio, in whose lab the study was conducted, says the findings also suggest that the computerized, easily administered task that the study participants performed, can be used to test those at risk for Alzheimer’s disease to flag early warning signs. “The test is a clinically feasible substitute to the more involved brain imaging tasks that people don’t, or can’t, have done routinely.”

Typically, Alzheimer’s disease is associated with memory loss, perception and other aspects of cognition, while debility in complex movements is observed at a much later stage.

The study, “Diffusion Tensor Imaging Correlates of Cognitive-Motor Decline in Normal Aging and Increased Alzheimer’s Disease Risk,” recently published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, was conducted on 30 female participants of whom 10 were in their mid-20s. The rest were in their 50s or older, with half of them at high risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Kara Hawkins
Kara Hawkins

“We decided to focus this study on women, as there is higher prevalence in this group, and also women who carry the ApoE4 gene are more vulnerable to the degradation of white matter,” notes PhD candidate Kara Hawkins who led the study, adding that the genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease was one of the traits tested for in the current study.

“We scanned the brains of the participants, aiming to see if the impaired cognitive-motor performance in the high risk group was related to brain alterations over and above standard aging changes,” Hawkins adds.

According to the researchers, the big question ahead is “What can be done to prevent a decline in function of a person’s brain showing signs of communication problems?” The answer they are exploring is in finding ways to use these thinking and moving tasks in a proactive way, as part of a game-like cognitive-motor integration training method.

New lake surface temperature database will help in study of climate change

Lake Louise in Banff

A group of York University investigators and their international counterparts have jointly created a database of lake surface temperatures to help study the ecological effects of climate change.

Sapna Sharma
Sapna Sharma

“There has been a significant need to put together a database like this, considering the rapid warming of lakes,” says biology Professor Sapna Sharma of the Faculty of Science who led the international effort.

As part of the Global Lake Temperature Collaboration (GLTC) project, Sharma and her undergraduate students, Anam Qudrat and Samantha Stefanoff, gathered a database of summer-mean lake surface temperature for 291 lakes and reservoirs around the world. It included data collected from 1985 to 2009.

“Previously there were only satellite collected data available globally and we have doubled the data through in situ programs such as the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network and long-term monitoring programs, which collect data from visiting these locations,” says Sharma.

Eighty two researchers from more than 20 countries were involved in the effort that began in 2011. They collected data from major lakes in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and the Oceanic region.

The database provides information such as air temperature, solar radiation and cloud cover that define climate, as well as geomorphometric characteristics such as latitude, longitude, elevation, depth and volume, which may influence lake temperature.

“Our plan is to include additional lakes, longer time periods and vertical temperature profile data,” she says. “This unique, global dataset will offer an invaluable perspective on lake thermal conditions in this ever-changing global climate.”

The GLTC group’s article summarizing the project was published Tuesday, March 17 in Nature’s Scientific Data journal.

Organisms can keep gene expression in check

SUMO 1

York University researchers have learned how living beings can keep gene expression in check — which may help explain the uncontrolled gene expression found in many cancers.

Emanuel Rosonina
Emanuel Rosonina

“Using yeast as a model organism, we studied the Tup1 protein, a negative regulator of gene expression,” says biology Professor Emanuel Rosonina, adding, “This protein binds to some genes and blocks their expression, helping to ensure genes that shouldn’t be turned on remain inactive.”

The current study, jointly conducted by York University and Columbia University researchers, suggests that small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) alters proteins bound to active genes to prevent unfettered gene over-expression that can be harmful to the organism.

“One of the ways SUMO does this is by promoting the binding of Tup1 to active genes, which then acts to reduce their expression to appropriate levels,” says Rosonina in York’s Faculty of Science.

The study, “Sumoylation controls the timing of Tup1-mediated transcriptional deactivation,” published March 13 in Nature Communications is a follow up to a previous study that found SUMO in every gene examined.

“As a result of the previous study, we reported that SUMO is probably important for controlling expression of active genes because we found it on every gene we looked at, but only when they were turned on,” says Rosonina.

Considering that many tumours have abnormal levels of SUMO, the research concludes that it will be important to examine whether inappropriate SUMO modifications in these tumours are related to the uncontrolled gene expression that is observed in most cancers.

Dean’s Research Impact Awards presented at Schulich Research Day

Wade Cook receives the Dean's Research Impact Award for Lifetime Achievement from Markus Biehl, associate dean, research at Schulich

Nearly 150 students, alumni, faculty and staff attended Schulich’s second Research Day to celebrate the work of faculty, post-doctoral and PhD students on Jan. 28.

Wade Cook receives the Dean's Research Impact Award for Lifetime Achievement from Markus Biehl, associate dean, research
Wade Cook receives the Dean’s Research Impact Award for Lifetime Achievement from Markus Biehl, associate dean, academic

The Schulich School of Business Dean’s Research Impact Award for Lifetime Achievement was presented to Wade Cook, professor of operations management and information systems and Shaw Professor of Management Science. Cook’s research is aimed at developing decision support tools for modelling performance and identifying best practice in organizations.

Douglas Cumming, professor in finance and entrepreneurship and Ontario Research Chair in Economics and Cross Cultural Studies, received the Dean’s Research Impact Award for Emerging Leader. Cumming was recognized for his research accomplishments, his commitment to fostering relationships in the research community and for advancing Schulich’s international reputation for research excellence. Cumming’s research spans law and finance, public policy, entrepreneurial finance, venture capital, private equity, IPOs, hedge funds, exchange regulation and surveillance.

Douglas Cumming receives the Dean's Research Impact Award for Emerging Leader from Markus Biehl, associate dean, research
Douglas Cumming receives the Dean’s Research Impact Award for Emerging Leader from Markus Biehl, associate dean, academic

A gallery in Schulich’s CIBC Marketplace showcased 27 posters highlighting research on topics ranging from “Gender Diversity and Securities Fraud” to “Accountability, Performativity, and the Ethical Self.” Researchers were available to elaborate on their research and answer questions.

Later, a panel discussion on “Research Frontiers at Schulich: Past, Present and Future” followed a keynote speech by Dirk Matten, associate dean, research, and Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility.

“Schulich faculty have done an absolutely fabulous job to ensure that our credibility as a school is deeply rooted in world leading research contributions,” Matten said. Associate Marketing Professor Markus Giesler, who co-ordinates the Marketing PhD program, moderated the panel discussion between Eileen Fischer, who is professor of marketing, Tanenbaum Chair in Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise; Gareth Morgan, Distinguished Research Professor and professor of organization studies; Geoffrey Kistruck, associate professor and Binns Chair in Entrepreneurship; and Irene Henriques, professor of sustainability and economics. The panellists shared memories of their years at Schulich and discussed plans to continue to transform the way management research is conducted at the school.

From left, Markus Giesler and Anton Siebert receive award for Best Poster at Schulich Research Day
From left, Markus Giesler and Anton Siebert receive award for Best Poster at Schulich Research Day

Giesler and Anton Siebert, a Schulich doctoral student visiting from Witten/Herdecke University in Germany, won the Best Poster Award for “Emotional Consumption Systems and the Glocalization of Romantic Love,” which explores the market shaping of emotions.

“While we know much about emotions as motivators and outcomes of consumption, we know little about why consumers express and manage their emotions in certain ways and not in others,” Siebert said. “Research Day has demonstrated how exciting the excellent research at Schulich is, and has inspired many new thoughts about my own work.”

Schulich has been a research leader throughout the school’s 50 years. Corporate Knights magazine has ranked Schulich one of the top three schools in the world for research in responsible business and Bloomberg BusinessWeek rated Schulich among the top five schools in the world outside the United States in its ‘Intellectual Capital’ category.

Schulich Research Day to showcase world-class management scholarship

Schulich School of Business at YorkU

Cutting-edge research on issues ranging from gender diversity and securities fraud to mining, ethics and responsible investment will be showcased at the second Schulich Research Day taking place this Wednesday at York University’s Schulich School of Business.

Schulich is ranked among the world’s top business schools for its outstanding research. Corporate Knights magazine ranks Schulich one of the top three schools in the world for research in responsible business. And the 2014 Bloomberg Businessweek ranking rated Schulich among the top five schools in the world outside the United States for “Intellectual Capital”, which measures high-level research output.

Dirk Matten
Dirk Matten

The poster gallery viewing, where researchers will be available to answer questions about their work, will be held in the CIBC Marketplace at Schulich, from 1 to 2pm, on Wednesday, Jan. 28. A panel discussion on “Research Frontiers at Schulich: Past, Present and Future” will follow opening remarks from Dirk Matten, associate dean, research, and Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility.

The Dean’s Research Impact Awards, which include a $5,000 prize, will be presented at 3:30pm. The Lifetime Achievement Award will recognize a researcher’s achievement of true distinction in his or her research field, integrity and ability to inspire alumni, faculty, staff, students and the research community. The Emerging Leader Award will recognize a researcher’s remarkable professional and research accomplishments and demonstrated commitment to fostering relationships, research community-building and advancing Schulich’s international reputation for research excellence.

To attend, register for Schulich Research Day.

Does religion lead people to do good deeds?

Professor Joni Sasaki

Does religion make someone more likely to do good deeds? York psychology Professor Joni Sasaki recently received a prestigious John Templeton Foundation research grant to look at cognitive, social and biological factors contributing to religiously motivated altruism.

Joni Sasaki
Joni Sasaki

In her three-year project, “Biological and Cognitive Approaches to Explaining Religious Altruism,” supported by a US$330,842 Templeton Foundation grant, Sasaki will ask the questions of when religion might encourage prosocial behaviour and why.

“This research will test a proposed model explaining how biological and cognitive perspectives can be integrated to understand why religion increases altruism for certain individuals in particular contexts,” says Sasaki of York’s Faculty of Health.

Specifically, Sasaki will endeavour to find answers for the following questions in her Culture and Religion Lab. Do certain thoughts, such as concerns about a punishing or rewarding God or supernatural presence, explain why religion motivates some people to behave altruistically? And does the effect of religion on prosocial behaviour depend on features of the social environment, such as whether or not the person receiving help seems to deserve it?

She will also look at participants’ DNA, measuring genetic predisposition to reward and punishment sensitivity, and whether or not those predispositions matter for the impact of religious influence.

So far, there is relatively scant research investigating the links between religion’s effects on thought and behaviour, but Sasaki hopes to change that. Given the frequent and often costly misunderstandings involving religion around the world, this research could address a crucial and timely issue.

“I’m broadly interested in culture and religion because in a diverse society there are many important benefits and challenges that arise from people’s different cultural and religious beliefs,” she says. “What I’ve found so far in my research is that many of the assumed effects of religion seem to be true only for people in certain cultures or social contexts. In my new research, I hope to gather clearer evidence that religion’s effects also depend on certain biological predispositions.”

Sasaki hopes her research will provide a foundation for scientists to study religion with multiple theoretical and methodological perspectives, and to understand the processes surrounding the phenomenon at a deeper level.

“The Templeton Foundation grant will provide the necessary resources to conduct a series of laboratory experiments and to generally carry out the project successfully,” says Sasaki. “I will be able to support graduate and undergraduate students in my lab, acquire the necessary supplies for these studies and facilitate sharing of research findings.”

Prof a finalist in prestigious Bell Labs Prize competition

Andrew Eckford

York Professor Andrew Eckford was one of seven finalists in the Bell Labs Prize competition last week for a project that could someday see robots swimming through veins and arteries, repairing tissues and destroying tumors.

Andrew Eckford
Andrew Eckford

The Bell Labs Prize recognizes proposals that “change the game” in the field of information and communications technologies by a factor of 10. The competition is designed to provide motivation and incentive to drive disruptive innovation.

Eckford and his team, York PhD candidate Nariman Farsad and Weisi Guo, a professor from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, were one of a handful to make it to the finals out of almost 500 applicants from more than 30 countries who submitted ideas. Three of the seven finalists went on to win.

“We were certainly up against some fierce competition,” says Eckford. “I met some of the teams during the semi-final round, and we made it through where teams from very prestigious universities did not, like Yale, Columbia, Michigan and Duke. The ultimate winner was from Princeton, and the other finalists included groups from Clemson and UIUC, as well as one from Belgium and another from Spain.”

The project Eckford entered into the competition was called Small Talk: Molecular Communication for Medical Nanorobotics. He says they were inspired by how cells in the body talk to each other; they don’t talk through radio waves, but by using chemistry, exchanging molecules to send messages and control each other’s behaviour.

“If we can harness this method, it could let us control tiny devices within the body. Imagine a fleet of robots swimming through the bloodstream, repairing tissues and destroying tumors, all coordinating their action by chemical communication,” says Eckford. “Related to this, we did earlier work in which we used mists of vodka to communicate a message across a tabletop.”

He calls competing in the Bell Labs Prize an amazing experience. Bell Labs is the industrial research arm of Alcatel-Lucent. Bell Labs is legendary in technology, having produced eight Nobel Prizes and developed world-changing inventions, such as the transistor, the laser and the charge-coupled device. It is one of the pre-eminent global research organizations and has a rich history of identifying and solving some of the greatest challenges facing the information and telecommunications industry. The competition was designed to identify some of the next great minds in the field and find new ways to contribute to the growth of the industry.

“During the semi-final round in October, we were hosted on the Bell Labs campus in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and got to see some of their work first-hand,” he says. “We were introduced to Bell Labs researchers and we’ve been encouraged to keep the collaboration going. It’s a huge honour for our work to be worthy of their consideration.”

Eckford is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Lassonde School of Engineering. As with all seven finalists, his team presented their idea to a panel of judges, including: Alfred V. Aho, Bell Labs alumnus and professor at Columbia University; John Cummins, senior adviser with Hawkpoint Partners; Kevin Fitchard, technology writer with Gigaom; Marcus Weldon, president of Bell Labs and CTO of Alcatel-Lucent; Michel Combes, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent; Robert Wilson, senior scientist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Dr. Sangchul Lee, CEO of LG+; and Siya Xuza, entrepreneur.