#8 Celebrating new and renewed Chair positions

We welcomed and celebrated new and renewed Chair appointments, including Canada Research Chairs (Professors Chris Caputo, Kohitij Kar and Raymond Kwong), York Research Chairs (Professors Jianhong Wu and Jane Heffernan), the Allan I. Carswell Chair for the Public Understanding of Astronomy (Professor Sarah Rugheimer), the Guy Warwick Rogers Chair in Chemistry (Professor Cora Young), and the Mclaughlin Research Chair (Professor John McDermott).

#7 Three Science professors elected to Royal Society of Canada (RSC)

The elected three York Science faculty members: Professor Jianhong Wu, as Fellow, Academy of Science; and Professors Sandra Rehan and Sapna Sharma, as members of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Recognition by the RSC is the highest honour an individual can achieve in the arts, social sciences and sciences.

#6 New professors join Faculty of Science ranks

We welcomed new faculty members Charlotte de Araujo, Kohitij Kar, Allysa Lumley, Daniela Monaldi, Gloria Orchard, Balint Radics, Kelly Ramsay, Sarah Rugheimer, and Jennifer van Wijngaarden. By recruiting talented new researchers and teachers like these individuals, we are building science for the future and making York Science a great place to learn and be a researcher.

#5 Launch of Data Science program

The Department of Mathematics & Statistics launched a new Data Science program, starting fall 2023. The program includes streams in areas of practice such as business and health, together with a capstone course where students work on real-world problems for clients.

#4 Focus on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) for new STS offerings

The Department of Science, Technology & Society (STS) revamped its roster of courses and major and minor options, including two new EDI-focused courses that offer students the opportunity to examine EDI through explorations of past and present issues and controversies in science and technology.

#3 New domes installed at Allan I. Carswell Observatory

Two new state-of-the-art, remote-controlled domes were installed at the Allan I. Carswell Astronomical Observatory, replacing the original domes from the 1960s and opening the night sky for better viewing of planets, stars, nebulae and more.

#2 $7.25M for Global South AI4PEP Network

Professor Jude Kong received $7.25 million from the International Development Research Centre to establish the Global South Artificial Intelligence for Pandemic and Epidemic Preparedness and Response (AI4PEP) Network. The five-year project is aimed at ensuring vulnerable and at-risk populations are included in disease outbreak management and policies.

#1 Launch of Community 2022 initiative

We launched our Community 2022 initiative, aimed at helping faculty, staff and students reconnect in person and support the return to a more robust on-campus presence. Community 2022 includes events for social reconnection, initiatives to welcome new community members, supports for in-person teaching, seminars to support researchers, promotion of health and well-being, and improvements to the Faculty’s physical environment.

Jianhong Wu – Tier 1 York Research Chair in Industrial and Applied Mathematics

Wu is an expert in dynamical systems, disease modelling and vaccine evaluation. His YRC program aims, in part, to understand biological and physical systems wherein predation occurs. The research will contribute to the University’s growing capacities in disaster and emergency management and in AI research.

Jane Heffernan – Tier 2 York Research Chair in Mathematics of Immunity and Infectious Disease

Heffernan has a body of work in the field of infectious disease modelling. In her YRC research program, Heffernan will develop models of immunity against infection – both in individuals and in populations – which can be used to quantify distributions of immunity and its protective effects. Ultimately, the results of the work will serve to inform public health decision-making for mitigation and vaccination policies to combat infectious diseases, with particular emphasis on COVID-19 and influenza.

CANADA RESEARCH CHAIRS

The Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Program stands at the centre of a national strategy to make Canada one of the world’s top countries in research and development. The Faculty of Science is home to 11 CRCs.
See the full list of CRCs at żě˛ĄĘÓƵ.

YORK RESEARCH CHAIRS

The York Research Chairs program is envisioned as żě˛ĄĘÓƵ’s internal counterpart for the national Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program and recognizes outstanding researchers at York. The Faculty of Science is home to 11 YRCs. See the list of YRCs at żě˛ĄĘÓƵ.

MCLAUGHLIN RESEARCH CHAIR

The McLaughlin Research Chair, funded by a $1 million donation from the McLaughlin Foundation, supports world-class life sciences research within the Faculty of Science at żě˛ĄĘÓƵ.

The Chair is held by Biology Professor John McDermott. McDermott focuses on the mechanisms that cause a simple cell to become more specialized. This work is primarily undertaken using cardiac, skeletal and smooth muscle cells and neurons as model systems, and it is aimed at understanding the role of specialized proteins that bind to DNA to orchestrate gene expression. Professor McDermott is particularly interested in studying the basic regulatory mechanisms involved in muscle cellular differentiation.

GUY WARWICK ROGERS CHAIR IN CHEMISTRY

The Rogers Chair was created as an endowment fund with a donation from Mrs. Mary Rogers in 1988, in memory of her late husband, Guy Warwick Rogers, to support faculty research in the Department of Chemistry.

The Chair is held by Professor Cora Young. Young conducts research on environmental chemistry, using state-of-the-science analytical techniques to characterize chemicals, their sources, and their fates in the environment. Her primary area of interest is in atmospheric analytical chemistry, particularly in understanding how the atmosphere interacts with the terrestrial and oceanic environment, how contaminants are transported through the atmosphere, and the mechanisms and chemical drivers of partitioning.

ALLAN I. CARSWELL CHAIR FOR THE PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF ASTRONOMY

The Allan I. Carswell Chair for the Public Understanding of Astronomy is funded by a $3-million investment made in partnership with the Carswell Family Foundation. The Chair is dedicated to science engagement and outreach, and it benefits students and the public through education and activities.

The Chair is held by Professor Adam Muzzin, whose research interests are in the study of galaxy formation through observations of distant galaxies.  He is the Principal Investigator of the MINERVA survey, a large James Webb Space Telescope Treasury Program designed to find the most distant galaxies and search for the first stars to form in the universe.  He is also Project Scientist of GIRMOS, a state-of-the-art adaptive optics instrument being built in Canada and designed to map galaxy formation at cosmic noon with unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution.  Professor Muzzin is particularly proud of the junior scientists working with him and playing key roles in realizing these projects.