St. George

Faculty of Arts & Science

Department of Economics

Graduate Students

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James Macek (photo by A. Macedo)

James Macek, a PhD candidate in the department of economics in the Faculty of Arts & Science, has received the Bank of Canada’s Graduate Student Paper Award for 2024.

The annual award aims to promote high-quality research in subject areas relevant to the Bank of Canada's mandate.

Macek was recognized for his research into housing policy and affordability, which examines how re-thinking minimum lot size and building smaller housing units could eliminate the housing shortage and reduce the cost of buying a home. “It’s an incredible honour to receive this award from the Bank of Canada,” Macek said. “I’d like to thank my supervisor Nathaniel Baum-Snow, advisors William Strange, Kevin Lim [and] Joseph Steinberg, the faculty and colleagues. I could not have achieved this without their tremendous support, care, and collaborative discussion. They make me feel valued.”

"James Macek’s research into how policy changes can make housing more affordable is relevant to everyone,” said Professor Ettore Damiano, chair of the department of economics. “I am pleased the Bank of Canada has recognized James’s accomplishments and, on behalf of all our faculty, offer him our heartiest congratulations.”

Read the department of economics announcement

FAS

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Ted Witek honoured by Yale School of Public Health

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:17:30 +0000

Ted Witek honoured by Yale School of Public Health

Teaching

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 12/23/2024 - 14:17

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

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Ted Witek (supplied image)

Ted Witek, professor and chair of the doctor of public health program in U of T's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, has received the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Yale School of Public Health.

Presented since 1988, the annual award celebrates Yale alumni who have demonstrated leadership in public health as outstanding teachers, researchers or practitioners; exceptional contributions to public health practice; and sustained contributions to community and society.

Witek, who graduated from Yale's master of public health program in 1982, was honoured for his "extraordinary level of achievement in all these areas and a very distinguished career in public health."

Witek's research on the health impacts of sulfur dioxide, which he initiated at Yale, played a pivotal role in shaping revisions of the Clean Air Act administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He later wrote a textbook on pharmacology and therapeutics in respiratory care, and has published more than a hundred manuscripts and chapters. He was named director of Dalla Lana's doctor of public health program – the first such degree offering in Canada – in 2020.

“The ability of public health to make an impact is what drove me to that discipline,” says Witek.

Read the Dalla Lana School of Public Health story

Read the Yale School of Public Health story

Dalla Lana

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Rea Beaumont recognized with King Charles III Coronation Medal

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 14:32:14 +0000

Rea Beaumont recognized with King Charles III Coronation Medal

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 12/20/2024 - 09:32

Faculty of Music

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Adjunct Professor Rea Beaumont (supplied image)

Rea Beaumont, adjunct professor of piano in the Faculty of Music and a celebrated pianist and composer, has been awarded a King Charles III Coronation Medal.

The award, which was created to commemorate the coronation of King Charles III on May 6, 2023, is awarded to those who have made a significant contribution to Canada.

Beaumont was recognized for her contributions to Canadian music, arts and culture as well as her dedicated efforts to build a diverse and inclusive music scene. A world-renowned pianist, her music has highlighted important global social issues such as climate change, environmental destruction and society's emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic.

She is also an influential scholar, having published a book on Canadian composer Barbara Pentland in addition to numerous articles and lectures, and holds a doctor of musical arts from the University of British Columbia.

She accepted the medal from Robert Oliphant, member of parliament, on behalf of Gov. Gen. Mary Simon.

Beaumont was previously awarded the SOCAN Foundation / MusCan Award of Excellence for the Advancement of Research in Canadian Music in 2021.

UTC

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Africa Health Collaborative scholars recognized at 2024 Family Medicine Forum

rahul.kalvapalle — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:00:32 +0000

Africa Health Collaborative scholars recognized at 2024 Family Medicine Forum

rahul.kalvapalle Thu, 12/19/2024 - 11:00

Department of Family and Community Medicine

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

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Princess Acheampong (L) and Jennifer Wilson (supplied image)

Jennifer Wilson, a lecturer in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine's department of family and community medicine, and Princess Acheampong, a lecturer at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana, have been recognized with the top prize at the Big Ideas Soapbox competition held during the 2024 Family Medicine Forum in Vancouver.

The competition recognizes concepts that have the potential to make a difference in clinical practice, faculty development, education, patient care and outcomes and health policy.

Wilson and Acheampong were recognized for their presentation, "Equity-focused global health partnerships can transform health systems." The idea was born out of the collaboration between KNUST and the department of family and community medicine, for which Wilson is the U of T faculty lead. The collaboration is part of the Africa Health Collaborative, an initiative that brings together U of T, leading African universities and the Mastercard Foundation.

The award-winning presentation was supported by U of T's Jamie Rodas and Katherine Rouleau, KNUST's Ellis Owusu-Dabo and Kofi Akohene Mensah, and University College Dublin alum Olivia Wilson.

Read the Africa Health Collaborative announcement

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U of T's Sustainability Pathways Program recognized by Quacquarelli Symonds

rahul.kalvapalle — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 15:32:20 +0000

U of T's Sustainability Pathways Program recognized by Quacquarelli Symonds

Teaching

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

rahul.kalvapalle Wed, 12/18/2024 - 10:32

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The ��Ů��Ƶ's Sustainability Pathways Program, an initiative of the President's Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability (CECCS), was shortlisted for a 2024 QS Reimagine Education Award.

Given by London-based Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the Reimagine Education Awards honour innovative pedagogical approaches that boost learning outcomes and employability, as well as effective methods of teaching sustainability.

U of T's Sustainability Pathways Program was shortlisted in the category of sustainability literacy. The program combines courses, co-curricular activities, campus-as-a-living lab projects and capstone leadership training to educate students across U of T's three campuses.

“Our goal is to ‘reach the rest’ – students who would not otherwise engage with sustainability as part of their degrees," said John Robinson, CECCS co-chair and professor in the School of the Environment and Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. "This approach is helping to shape the next generation of sustainability leaders, regardless of their field of study, while also providing a transformative educational experience for students.”

The recognition comes after U of T was named the most sustainable university in the world by QS for the second year in a row.

Read the CECCS announcement

Watch the CECCS video about the Sustainability Pathways Program

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Luc Tremblay and Joëlle Hajj recognized by Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:18:41 +0000

Luc Tremblay and Joëlle Hajj recognized by Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology

Academic Achievement

Teaching

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 12/16/2024 - 11:18

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Luc Tremblay (L) and Joëlle Hajj (photo by Gerome Manson)

Luc Tremblay, a professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, and Joëlle Hajj, an alumna who completed her PhD in Tremblay's research group, have been recognized by the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS).

Tremblay, who is director of the Centre for Motor Control at KPE, received the Brawley and Elliott Award for Excellence in Supervision and Mentorship, which recognizes faculty members for their longstanding commitment to supporting trainees in achieving their academic and career goals.

“I am very grateful to the SCAPPS community and thank all of the amazing students I had and still have the chance to work with,” said Tremblay. “I will endeavour to continue honouring the exceptional legacy of my own supervisors, Professors Emeriti Luc Proteau and Digby Elliott."

Hajj, who is now a post-doctoral fellow at Lund University in Sweden, was one of the recipients of the Franklin Henry Young Scientist Award.

Read the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education announcement

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U of T named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers for 2025

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 15:57:54 +0000

U of T named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers for 2025

Division of People Strategy

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 12/13/2024 - 10:57

Human Resources & Equity

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The ��Ů��Ƶ has been named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc. for the 19th consecutive year.

The competition recognizes employers with exceptional human resources programs and forward-thinking workplace policies. Winners are announced in a special magazine distributed online in The Globe & Mail.

U of T was recognized for supporting the families of its employees through an array of resources, including the dedicated Family Care Office, on-site child care options and a variety of family-friendly spaces; encouraging employees to keep fit and stay healthy with subsidized memberships to fitness facilities, health benefits coverage that extends to retirees with no age limit; and encouraging employees to save for the future with generous contributions to a defined benefit pension plan.

"The world is changing so fast that employers must constantly evolve to meet their employees’ needs", said Kelly Hannah-Moffat, U of T's vice-president, people strategy, equity and culture.

"It is both a core responsibility and a privilege to provide connection and wide-ranging supports for our world-class employees. I’d like to thank all our faculty, librarians, and staff for cultivating inclusive and responsive working and learning environments across our three campuses."

Read the Division of People Strategy, Equity and Culture announcement

Read the Globe & Mail story

PSEC

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Ellie Hisama recognized by American Musicological Society

rahul.kalvapalle — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 15:41:03 +0000

Ellie Hisama recognized by American Musicological Society

rahul.kalvapalle Thu, 12/12/2024 - 10:41

Faculty of Music

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Ellie Hisama (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Ellie Hisama, professor and dean of the Faculty of Music, has been named an honorary member of the American Musicological Society.

Honorary members are selected on the basis of their extraordinary contributions to the society and to the study and teaching of music.

Hisama, who is also a professor emerita at Columbia University, was recognized for her contributions to musicology, her distinguished teaching career and her commitment to diversity, inclusion and ethics. "Equally at home in the fields of music theory and musicology, Hisama’s writings on the role of gender, sexuality and race in musical modernity cover subjects ranging from 20th-century modernists to hip hop," the American Musicological Society noted in its citation.

The author of Gendering Musical Modernism and many articles in an array of publications, Hisama has collaborated with numerous regional and international bodies dedicated to anti-racist agendas in the arts and in the academy.

Read the Faculty of Music announcement

Read the American Musicological Society citation

Music

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��Ů��Ƶ recognized with 2024 VinFuture Grand Prize

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 20:16:24 +0000

��Ů��Ƶ recognized with 2024 VinFuture Grand Prize

Research & Innovation

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 12/09/2024 - 15:16

Department of Computer Science

Artificial Intelligence

Faculty of Arts & Science

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��Ů��Ƶ (photo by Johnny Guatto)

��Ů��Ƶ, a University Professor Emeritus of computer science at the ��Ů��Ƶ, has been named one of five recipients of the 2024 VinFuture Grand Prize.

The US$3-million prize is presented by the Vietnam-based non-profit VinFuture Foundation in recognition of scientific advances that support the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Hinton, widely regarded as the "godfather of AI," was recognized for his research on neural networks and deep learning algorithms. He shares the VinFuture Grand Prize with Université de Montréal's Yoshua Bengio, Stanford University's Fei-Fei Li, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun (Jensen) Huang and Facebook AI Research scientist Yann LeCun.

In a video message, Hinton said he was honoured to share the award with such an esteemed group of researchers – including his fellow A.M Turing Award-winners Bengio and LeCun. “The three of us spent our whole lives developing the technology of neural networks,” Hinton said. “I’m very happy to see that the VinFuture Prize recognizes the contributions of Jensen Huang in developing the kind of compute and software required for artificial intelligence, and Fei-Fei Li in providing the big data that was needed to prove that it worked.”

The recognition comes on the heels of Hinton receiving the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Read the U of T News story

UTC

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Christine Szustaczek recognized by Canadian Public Relations Society

rahul.kalvapalle — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 17:14:39 +0000

Christine Szustaczek recognized by Canadian Public Relations Society