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At this point, Avian flu H5N1 is thought to have very limited ability to transmit between humans, but a recent case in British Columbia with an unknown source of transmission has piqued the curiosity and concern of scientists, including �첥��Ƶ Professor Seyed Moghadas.

Did this lone case come about through transmission from an animal or another person, and if it was via human transmission, what methods will control its spread in the human population? Director of York’s Agent-Based Modelling Laboratory in the Centre of Excellence in AI for Public Health Advancement, Moghadas and a group of researchers used modelling to understand the best spread control measures should human-to-human transmission become possible.

“The idea was, let's evaluate some of the interventions that we usually implement at the very earliest stage of a disease outbreak or emerging disease, which we know very little about,” he says.

For the research, ",” published today in Nature Health, various scenarios from isolation to vaccination before or after a spillover event were modelled. It is one of only a few studies that have explicitly modelled outbreak dynamics following spillover into humans or the effectiveness of public health interventions in early and highly uncertain phases of virus development.

As a professor of computational epidemiology and vaccine science in York’s Faculty of Science, Moghadas and his colleagues were already collecting data on H5N1 cases in the United States when the Canadian case arose. Given the unknown nature of transmission, the team decided to pivot their work to look at what was happening in B.C.

“The case in B.C. was of particular interest for us because no definitive source of exposure was identified, including no direct contact with infected animals or known high-risk settings such as poultry farms,” says Moghadas. “Because of that, it came to our attention that maybe there is some sort of transmission going on between humans.”

As far as health and science experts know, H5N1 can only be transmitted among poultry and dairy cattle on farms, as well as through wild birds, and from these animals to humans, but sustained human-to-human transmission has not been established. The person from B.C., however, had no clearly identified exposure and even though human infection from animals is rare, avian influenza H5N1 is considered highly pathogenic and a potentially serious and evolving threat to global public health.

“This virus was first identified in 1997 in Southeast Asia. This kind of zoonotic virus essentially jumps from the bird or animal side to human side sometimes, mostly it circulates among wild birds,” says Moghadas. “There is no confirmation that human-to-human transmission happens as yet in North America.”

The virus has only been in North America since 2022, but surveillance monitoring for it began in 2003 and up until recently there have been close to 1,000 cases reported globally in humans and just under 500 deaths, although the number of cases could be higher because not all cases are likely reported or symptomatic. The virus has not only expanded its geographical range, but also the animal species it can infect.

“Evolution of influenza viruses of any type is always a challenge for humans. The flu virus is one of the very rapid mutating pathogens,” he says. The concern is it will mutate to be able to transmit between humans. How viable is it? How easily can it spillover from animals to humans, and how long could the potential chain of transmission from human-to-human become? These are still open questions.

“Quantifying that risk was important for us because that could also give us direction in terms of how bad the disease could be and what strategies will work to contain it,” says Moghadas. “We have very few measures in place or a strategy to deal with it at this point, given that the transmission between humans is not established.”

As it is an avian flu virus, it will likely require two doses of a similar vaccine to what was used during the H1N1 pandemic to reduce the risk and severity which often triggers a higher viral load.

The researchers used Abbottsford, B.C. as the location as it is a highly dense poultry farming area. The starting point is after a spillover has happened. “If a human became infected, how do we block this single individual to trigger a large outbreak? Or if the infection is going on between humans, can we block these chains and to what degree we can block them?” asks Moghadas. “What is the effectiveness of either self-isolation of symptomatic cases or vaccination of farmers or vaccination of farmers and their household members?”

Even with mitigation measures, someone in the farmer’s family could potentially be infected by the farmer and then transmit it to someone in the community.

The team evaluated two different types of vaccination strategies. One was reactive, which means that you trigger a vaccination program after a case has been identified somewhere. The second strategy was pre-emptive – individuals, such as farmers, are vaccinated before any case is identified.

What they found is that reactive vaccination has very limited additional benefits outside of self-isolation, but pre-emptive vaccination adds substantial additional benefits on top of self-isolation.

Should the virus be confirmed to be capable of human-to-human transmission, Moghadas says they want to limit the chain of transmission and minimize the risk of evolution of the virus to become more adapted to human conditions. For now, he says, when cases are identified, the person should self isolate immediately. For the authorized vaccine, it should be meted out quickly to target populations, but that could take several weeks to have population level effectiveness.

“Timely action is a critical part of controlling the spread. Self-isolation of symptomatic cases has a significant effect, but that comes with the caveat that we don't know if everybody who is infected will develop symptoms,” says Moghadas. “There could be potential asymptomatic cases we don't identify and by the time we do identify them, they've been already infecting others in the chain of transmission. This case in B.C. was particularly concerning because they could not find the source of infection.”

The concern is not only that the virus might be able to jump from animals to humans, but also the potential for it to mutate during early human transmission chains making it more adaptable to infecting humans. This underscores the risk of local outbreaks with global implications, he says.

“My research is all about evidence generation for governments, health-care providers and policymakers in public health organizations. We are generating evidence that can be used to at the very least limit the potential for this virus to become another pandemic,” says Moghadas.

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Researchers say findings point to the need to recruit beyond universities when doing cross-cultural investigations 

TORONTO, March. 26, 2026 – A new study in Nature Communications finds that world-wide, people with higher levels of education are more culturally similar to those in Canada, the U.S. U.K. and other Anglo, industrialized countries and countries in Western Europe.

Lead author and �첥��Ƶ Faculty of Health Assistant Professor says the study shows that solely recruiting from university students and educated people when doing cross-cultural comparisons will not fully capture the cultural variability we see in the world.

“Education doesn’t just teach skills or facts, to a certain extent it also shapes how people think about the world, so the findings make sense,” says White, in the Department of Psychology. “While Western countries continue to be over-represented in research in general, our study suggests that even where participants are recruited from non-Western countries, cultural bias may continue to persist.”

Analyzing data from nearly 270,000 people across 95 countries captured in the World Values Survey, the study shows that higher education is strongly associated with cultural values typical of so-called “WEIRD” societies (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic). For example, Russians with lower education levels were very culturally distant from American values, but Russians with a university degree were much more culturally similar to the U.S.

Contrary to modernization theories, when analyzing income and social status, the researchers did not find the same association.

White paired up with London School of Economics and New �첥��Ƶ Professor Michael Muthukrishna for the study. They found that in 70 per cent of the countries they looked at, highly-educated people were significantly closer to the United States than people with low education in those countries. However, the researchers say the pattern reflects a broader alignment with Western cultural norms, including individualism and an emphasis on personal freedom, analytical thinking, lower conformity to social norms, and a greater generalized trust, not just American values specifically.

Muthukrishna explained, “Schooling is one of the most powerful systems of cultural transmission ever invented. Education doesn’t just change what you know, but how you think and what you value. What our results reveal is that school systems around the world still carry the fingerprints of their Western origins. That means if you’re a researcher recruiting university students in Nairobi or São Paulo and comparing them to university students in New York, Toronto or London, you may be dramatically underestimating how different those cultures actually are.”

White emphasizes that the findings in no way suggest that highly-educated people in non-Western countries are culturally the same as those in the West.

“We're not saying that being highly educated makes everyone the same, there's still a lot of diversity within highly educated groups around the world. It's just that the diversity has shifted in the direction of being more Western,” says White, who recently also published a paper with a University of California researcher looking at . “We are saying that you do need to look at education, in addition to things like nationality, ethnicity and religion, when considering why someone thinks the way they do.”

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�첥��Ƶ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for meaningful life and career paths. York's Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campus in Costa Rica offers students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact: Emina Gamulin, �첥��Ƶ Media Relations, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

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TORONTO, March 25, 2026 – �첥��Ƶ jumped 20 spots globally in the today in arts and humanities and 17 overall out of close to 2,000 universities.

The University continues its upward trajectory landing six subjects in the top 100 globally this year – the most ever – which shows its growing academic and employer reputation.

The number of competitors in this year’s ranking grew by 165 to 1,912 institutions. They were all ranked across 26 subjects in 55 academic disciplines in five overall faculty categories, including Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences and Management, Engineering and Technology, Natural Sciences and Life Sciences and Medicine category.

"This remarkable achievement reflects the dedication of our faculty, students, and staff who continue to push the boundaries of knowledge and impact. Reaching our highest-ever number of top 100 subject rankings is a testament to York's growing global reputation — and our unwavering commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and community engagement. I am proud of how far we've come and energized by where we are headed,” says Lisa Philipps, �첥��Ƶ interim president and vice-chancellor.

York ranked in the top 100 for history, performing arts, and English language and literature in the Arts and Humanities category, social policy and administration and sociology in the Social Sciences and Management category, and psychology in the Life Sciences and Medicine category.

In English language and literature, York now ranks 78th in the world, while in sociology and psychology it ranks 99th globally. In history, performing arts, and social policy and administration it ranks between 51 and 100.

“The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) is home to four of the six York subjects ranked in the global top 100 – this is an extraordinary affirmation of the research excellence, scholarly leadership and creative inquiry taking place in our Faculty’s arts, humanities and social sciences units,” says Kathryn McPherson, LA&PS interim dean. “These results underscore the global impact of our instructors and students, and we are so proud of the work being done across LA&PS.”

In addition, the University saw increases in its rankings for computer science and information systems, geography, mathematics, business and management studies, communication and media studies, and law.

Rankings across Canada

This year, 684 programs were ranked across 33 institutions in Canada. York ranked in the top five for 13 subjects and in the top 10 for an additional five subjects. The University also ranked fifth overall in the broad Arts and Humanities category.

York tied for second in social policy and administration, third in performing arts, and fourth in accounting and finance, anthropology, communications and media studies, geography, law, history and sociology. It earned a fifth-place ranking for English language and literature, philosophy, politics and international studies, and psychology. In the top 10, York subjects include business and management studies, education, linguistics, mathematics, modern languages.

The QS World University Rankings by Subject, released by global higher education analyst QS Quacquarelli Symonds, uses a method that ranks each institution using five indicators (the weight given to each indicator varies by subject): academic reputation; employer reputation; research impact based on research citations per paper; international research network, citation productivity and influence measured through an h-index.

In other ranking results, York is also shining. For example, in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings results, York earned a top 40 spot demonstrating continued leadership in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. And in the , York placed in the top five as one of the best comprehensive universities in Canada, a spot it has held for several consecutive years. It also ranked fourth for reputation, third for student scholarships and bursaries, and fourth for social sciences and humanities grants.

For more than a decade, York has been named as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers and for the second consecutive year it also made the list for Canada’s Best Diversity Employers.

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TORONTO, March 25, 2026 – A new study by �첥��Ƶ researchers have found a potential striking flaw in artificial intelligence (AI) models.

Artificial neural networks (ANNs), a type of AI model built to solve vision tasks for computers, has surprisingly emerged as the . But does current AI really work like a primate brain?

“Artificial intelligence systems are often described as ‘brain-like’ because they can predict activity in parts of the brain that help us recognize objects,” says �첥��Ƶ Assistant Professor Kohitij Kar, senior author of a new study. “Until now, scientists mostly tested this in one direction. They asked whether AI models can predict brain activity.”

In this study, the researchers flipped the question – if AI truly mirrors the brain, shouldn’t brain activity also be able to predict what’s happening inside the AI model? – and developed a reverse predictivity test to find the answer.

“Ultimately, we need computational models to truly understand the underlying neural mechanisms of how we recognize objects. How do we see objects move? While it's a very easy task that we do every day, computationally, though, it's a very challenging problem,” says Kar, the Canada Research Chair in Visual Neuroscience and a member of York’s Centre for Vision Research and Centre for Integrative and Applied Neuroscience.

The researchers, including York Postdoctoral Fellow Sabine Muzellec, a Connected Minds trainee, used 1,320 natural or naturalistic synthetic images of a bear, an elephant, a face, an apple, a car, a dog, a chair, a plane, a bird and a zebra, placed against natural, indoor or outdoor background scenes. They also used an additional 300 images of the same objects rendered differently, such as outlines, drawing, schematized forms and artistic variations.

“The results were striking. While AI models can predict the neurons we recorded in the brain fairly well, the brain cannot equally predict many of the model’s internal features. Interestingly, this is not the case when neurons from one brain is compared against ones from another brain,” says Kar.

The problem with the ANNs solving vision differently is that this difference between primate brains and models will widen and compound over time if not corrected now. The direction of prediction was always to have the model predict like neurons, but if the reverse is not true then these models don't really serve as good hypotheses for the brain, adds Kar.

“The findings suggest that today’s AI systems solve visual tasks partly using internal strategies that the brain may not use. Importantly, the parts of AI models that align with the brain are also better at predicting real human behavior,” says Kar.

Why this matters

AI models are increasingly used to help design experiments to understand human behavior, including in clinical settings. It is assumed AI model see the world similarly to how a human brain does.

“Our findings challenge how similar current AI systems really are with the primate brain. We show that models that were previously thought to be brain-like rely on internal components that the brain does not appear to use. We provide a well vetted diagnostic metric for the field,” says Muzellec.

If AI models can become more brain-like, they could in the future help people with everything from post-traumatic stress disorder to autism, but for now, their use in experiments and to understand human behaviour is fraught. Similar models are also being used now for auditory systems, language systems and motor systems, but again, if they aren’t working as expected that’s an issue.

“Our approach helps identify which parts of an ANN truly match brain activity, allowing us to build more reliable models for understanding how people see and interpret the world,” says Kar. “This is especially important for our autism research program, which builds on models of the neurotypical brain as a baseline.”

The study’s authors have also made a available for AI developers to use to both test and improve their models going forward.

The , published today in Nature Machine Intelligence, introduces a new standard for building AI that is not just powerful – but truly brain-aligned.

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Following the fatal Air Canada collision at LaGuardia Airport, questions are emerging about aviation safety protocols, emergency response coordination, aircraft systems and potential economic and regulatory implications for the airline industry. As investigators work to determine the cause, �첥��Ƶ experts are available to provide context and analysis across these areas.

is a labour geographer and associate professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. He is a past spokesperson for the Toronto Airport Workers’ Council, an organization representing Pearson International Airport’s 50,000 workers and its largest unions. He frequently provides media commentary on labour issues related to aviation, hospitality and service industries.

His research focuses on labour markets, employment relations and the geography of work, with a particular emphasis on trade unions and workforce dynamics in service industries. His work examines how working conditions, labour organization and economic restructuring shape industry performance, including in the transportation and hospitality sectors.

He is available to comment on:

• Labour dynamics in the airline industry, including working conditions, scheduling and workforce pressures
• The relationship between labour practices and operational performance in aviation
• Economic and industry impacts of major aviation incidents, including recovery, regulation and workforce implications

is an associate professor of Disaster & Emergency Management. His research examines disaster response operations, hazard mitigation and non-routine emergencies, such as transportation disasters and mass casualty incidents.

Rozdilsky frequently provides media analysis on public safety, emergency preparedness and crisis response, including the Delta Flight 4819 crash at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year.

He is available to comment on:

• Public safety and emergency response coordination following aviation disaster
• Disaster management protocols, inter-agency collaboration and lessons learned from response efforts
• Risk management in high-reliability organization settings like airports

is a professor of Disaster & Emergency Management, executive director of York’s Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid Response Simulation (ADERSIM) lab and director of CIFAL York, part of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) network.

An expert in disaster, emergency and business continuity management, Asgary’s work focuses on modelling, simulation and decision-support systems for crisis management. His research examines how complex emergencies, including aviation incidents, can be better managed through data-driven and AI-enabled planning tools.

He is available to comment on:

• Disaster simulation and emergency management systems
• Decision-support technologies and AI solutions for airport emergency response and recovery coordination
• Risk reduction, response coordination and recovery planning in complex emergencies

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