Ted Sargent

Sustainability

Researchers from the University of Toronto have developed an improved electrochemical system that raises the value of captured carbon dioxide by converting more of it into valuable products than ever before.

The International Energy Agency recently cited carbon capture and storage as one of the strategies that can help keep global emissions low enough to limit global warming to 1.5 C by 2050. But captured carbon currently has little economic value, reducing the incentive for companies to invest in the technology.

A team at U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering led by University Professor Ted Sargent, of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering, is addressing this challenge by designing advanced electrolyzers that use electricity to convert captured CO2 into the petrochemical building blocks of common everyday materials, from plastic to lycra.

The approach helps create a market for captured carbon, while also providing a low-carbon alternative to the fossil fuel-based manufacturing processes in use today. And, unlike previous systems, the team’s latest design can be run under strongly acidic conditions, which reduces undesired side reactions and enhances overall efficiency.

“In previous systems, you had to choose whether to focus on efficient use of electricity, or efficient use of carbon,” says Sargent, who is senior author of a paper outlining the research that was recently published in the journal Science.

“Our team used a new catalyst design inside the electrolyzer to consume a large fraction of the input carbon, while keeping good productivity towards desirable high-value products.”

In the electrolyzer, captured CO2 is dissolved in a liquid electrolyte, which flows over the solid catalyst through which the electricity is supplied.

“What we want is for the dissolved CO2 in the reactor to absorb electrons and get converted into ethylene and other products,” says PhD candidate Jianan Erick Huang, one of three co-lead authors on the new paper along with fellow PhD candidate Adnan Ozden and post-doctoral researcher Fengwang Li, who is now continuing similar research at the University of Sydney.

“But, in prior reports which operated at high pH – meaning alkaline or neutral conditions – most of the CO2 is wasted, because it gets converted into carbonate instead.”

Huang says that while the carbonate can be extracted, converted into CO2 and fed back into the electrolyzer, doing so is energetically costly. The team’s calculations show that more than half of the energy consumed by the overall system would be spent on recycling the carbonate in this way.

Running the electrolyzer under low pH, or acidic conditions, prevents the formation of carbonate, but it introduces a different problem: now the more favourable reaction is hydrogen evolution. This means that hydrogen ions (i.e., protons) in the acidic solution absorb electrons and get converted to hydrogen gas, leaving few electrons available to combine with CO2.

Huang and the team dealt with the issue by using two strategies in combination. First, under acidic conditions, they increased the current density, flooding the reactor with electrons. Hydrogen ions rushed in to react with them, but they got caught in a molecular traffic jam known as “mass transport limitation.”

“In effect, we’re creating a reactor that is acidic throughout, except for a tiny layer within less than 50 micrometres of the catalyst surface,” says Huang. “In that specific region, it is not acidic – in fact it’s slightly alkaline. There, CO2 can get reduced to ethylene by those electrons.”

The next step was to add a positively charged ion – in this case potassium – to the reaction. This created an electric field near the catalyst that made it easier for CO2 to adsorb to the surface, giving it the edge in the competition with the hydrogen.

The two changes made a big difference. Previous systems had typically utilized less than 15 per cent of the available carbon, losing the rest to carbonate. The new system utilizes about 77 per cent of available carbon, with more than 50 per cent being converted to multi-carbon products such as ethylene and ethanol. (The other 27 per cent goes to single-carbon products such as carbon monoxide and formic acid.)

“This breakthrough helps pave the way forward to an economically viable future for CO2 utilization even with high CO2 capture costs today,” says Philip Llewellyn, carbon capture and utilization manager for Total SE, which provided financial support for the research. “When one further considers the projected increases in carbon tax needed to meet global climate targets, this represents a significant acceleration in the time-to-market and time-to-climate impact for CO2 electrolyzers.”

“With the decarbonization of our economies, the generation of hydrocarbons out of CO2 and renewables is an undisputed must-have for storage of energy and provision of chemical feedstocks,” says Maximilian Fleischer, chief key expert for Siemens Energy Global, who was not involved in the research. “The attractive direct electrochemical CO2 route suffered from low utilization of CO2 up to now, and so this scientific breakthrough allowing more that three quarters of CO2 utilization in a single pass is of decisive strategic value for industrialization towards accelerated climate impact.”

There are still hurdles to be overcome before the system can be scaled up to an industrial level, including the stability of the catalyst when its size is increased and the need for even further energy savings. Still, Huang is proud of what the team has accomplished.

“By creating a reactor that is acidic in one place and alkaline in another, we’ve broken a theoretical limit,” he says. “We don’t have to choose between carbon efficiency and electron efficiency: we can optimize both to get the best overall system. It’s going to be challenging, but I think now it’s doable.”

U of T and Max Planck Society establish centre to study neural science and technology

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 20:54:12 +0000

U of T and Max Planck Society establish centre to study neural science and technology

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/15/2021 - 16:54

Cutline

Max Planck Society President Martin Stratmann and U of T President Meric Gertler participated in a virtual launch event for the Max Planck-University of Toronto Centre for Neural Science & Technology (photo by Axel Griesch für MPG and Johnny Guatto)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Global Lens

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Germany

Global

Meric Gertler

University Health Network

The University of Toronto has joined forces with Germany’s Max Planck Society, one of the world’s foremost scientific institutions, to establish a centre for the study of neural science and technology.

Hosted by both institutions, the Max Planck-University of Toronto Centre for Neural Science & Technology aims to develop and deploy advanced technologies to study brain circuits for the improvement of human health, while charting new territory in computing.

There are plans to train more than 25 doctoral students over the next five years.

“Max Planck and U of T are ideally suited to form a close collaboration,” said U of T President Meric Gertler during a virtual launch event this week.

“This is especially true when we consider our combined talent in brain function and health.”

The virtual event was attended by Martin Stratmann, president of the Max Planck Society, Stéphane Dion, Canada’s ambassador to Germany and special envoy to the European Union and Europe, and Dion’s diplomatic counterpart, Sabine Sparwasser, Germany’s ambassador to Canada.

Ted Sargent, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives, told attendees the collaboration would give PhD students access to resources and expertise not only at U of T and the Max Planck network, but also at the University Health Network (UHN), the Hospital for Sick Children and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

“It’s a partnership that’s going to drive not only cutting-edge research, but also innovative education and research translation in neuroscience and technology,” he said.

(Clockwise from top left) U of T President Meric Gertler, Max Planck Society President Martin Stratmann, German Amassador Sabine Sparwasser and Stéphane Dion, Canada’s ambassador to Germany and special envoy to the European Union and Europe.

The new centre will divide its research focus into four main streams: micro/nanotechnology for neural interfaces and sensors; understanding the neural basis of memory and behaviour; human neurons, microcircuits and cellular/molecular neurobiology; and neuroscience-inspired artificial intelligence and computing.

The plan calls for PhD students to spend their first year in Toronto and up to three years with a Max Planck partner institute before graduating with a U of T degree. Frequent exchange between the two institutions will take place throughout the students’ studies.

Stratmann, who joined the virtual inauguration from Munich, said Max Planck’s academic partners represent a “who’s who in science.”

“This new centre is special, I have to say, because it is truly interdisciplinary,” Stratmann said, citing Toronto’s expertise in neuroscience, neurosurgery and artificial intelligence.

“The Vector Institute [for Artificial Intelligence], for example, is highly regarded in Europe – even reaching attention on the federal political level.

“I have talked many times with (Chancellor) Angela Merkel about the Vector Institute.”

Dion and Sparwasser saluted the new partnership, which was inaugurated two days before the 50th anniversary of an agreement solidifying German-Canadian scientific and technological co-operation.

“What we see today is a match made in heaven,” said Sparwassser, noting U of T’s prowess in brain science, computing and other fields, and Max Planck’s history of success, including 20 Nobel laureates.

Joyce Poon, director of the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany, worked with Taufik Valiante, an associate professor in U of T’s department of surgery in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and scientist at the Krembil Brain Institute in the University Health Network, to make the Max Planck-U of T Centre a reality.

“It is another major pillar of the growing neurotechnology ‘ecosystem’ here at the University of Toronto and participating TAHSN [Toronto Academic Health Science Network] hospitals,” Valiante said.

“It is also exemplary of the much-needed cross-disciplinary work that needs to be done to advance brain science.”

Researchers such as Poon, who specializes in integrated photonic devices and circuits for communications and neurotechnology, bring an engineering background that complements experts such as Valiante, a neurosurgeon and scientist who has researched memory, epilepsy and the biophysical properties of neurons, among other topics.

Valiante said the new Max Planck-U of T Centre’s creation comes at a key time.

“There is a great sense of societal urgency given an aging population and the fact that neurological conditions have a greater societal burden than heart disease and cancer combined,” he said.

Illan Kramer, U of T’s director of international research partnerships, said interdisciplinary and global collaboration with a world-class institution such as the Max Planck Society will allow local researchers to see complex scientific questions in a new light.

“You really can see the problem from a 360-degree perspective when you look at it in through an interdisciplinary and international lens,” he said.

Moreover, the agreement creates new opportunities for U of T graduate students to work with top researchers in their fields, giving the university a competitive edge in recruiting promising students.

“It winds up being an excellent net benefit from a variety of perspectives,” Kramer said.

“Not only does it help experts do better research, but we get to attract the absolute highest calibre researchers.”

Renowned scholar Juna Kollmeier named director of U of T’s Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 14:25:48 +0000

Renowned scholar Juna Kollmeier named director of U of T’s Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 03/31/2021 - 10:25

Cutline

Juna Kollmeier, who will become the new director of CITA on July 1, is an observationally oriented astrophysicist whose research focuses on supermassive black holes, the Milky Way and the intergalactic medium (photo by Bret Harman/TED)

Lucianna Ciccocioppo

Topic

Global Lens

Alumni

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics

United States

Renowned astrophysicist Juna Kollmeier, on faculty at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, has been named the new director of the University of Toronto’s Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA), a research centre focused on the origin and evolution of the universe and other phenomena discovered by modern astronomy.

An observationally oriented theorist – uncommon in astrophysics – Kollmeier is the founding director of the Carnegie Theoretical Astrophysics Center and director of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys (SDSS-V). A scientist committed to public outreach and the “inalienable right to physics” for everyone, she studies how structures grow and evolve in the universe, and focuses on supermassive black holes, the Milky Way and the intergalactic medium. Her 2019 TED Talk has attracted more than 2.6 million views and, among other documentaries, she was in an episode of the series Genius by Stephen Hawking.

“I am thrilled to welcome Juna Kollmeier to the University of Toronto to take on this important leadership role,” says Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science, which is home to CITA. “This appointment is truly an outstanding ‘brain gain’ for Canada. An impressive scholar, passionate scientist and mentor, she is also brilliant at engaging the public in understanding our universe. She will undoubtedly advance CITA’s remarkable research and novel discoveries in astrophysics and cosmology to new frontiers.”

Kollmeier’s appointment is the result of a comprehensive, global recruitment process and underscores the university’s commitment to diversifying leadership across disciplines. When she begins on July 1, 2021, Kollmeier will be the first woman to lead CITA.

“CITA is Canada’s hub for research and discovery in theoretical astrophysics,” says Kollmeier. “It's been a tremendous global force, has contributed to cosmology, to our understanding of black hole growth and evolution, to star formation and to high energy astrophysics. I think U of T shines brightly as a place where excellence thrives and grows. This is an incredible opportunity to lead an incredible organization.”

Kollmeier holds a bachelor of science in physics with honours from the California Institute of Technology, and a master of science and PhD in astronomy – both from The Ohio State University, where, in addition to her thesis work, she designed, built and deployed instrumentation parts for two telescopes as part of the Ohio State Astronomy Instrumentation Lab team. She was an Institute for Advanced Study Visiting Professor in 2015-16 and a Fulbright Scholar, and received Hubble and Carnegie-Princeton Fellowships. She is a CIFAR Fellow and, most recently, has been selected the 2022 International Solvay Chair in Physics.

“She is an exceptional scientist, mentor and collaborator,” says Norman Murray, current director of CITA. “I'm excited that she will help advance our mission to expand Canada’s capacity in theoretical astrophysics and grow our national and international networks, as our post-doctoral fellows go on to teach and innovate at many other leading universities.”

Kollmeier replaces Murray, who is completing his third term as director. She says she is looking forward to joining an extraordinary community of scholars at U of T this summer.

“We are arriving at an incredibly exciting point in the overall history of astrophysics, where we have these rich datasets. And they allow us to explore a variety of deep questions, all open questions that are on the verge of breaking apart,” she says. “Joining this community will take my own research to the next level, and that's tremendously exciting.”

Ted Sargent, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives, says Kollmeier is a globally celebrated scholar.

“Her appointment exemplifies the outstanding calibre of researcher U of T continues to attract,” Sargent says. “Under Professor Kollmeier’s leadership, CITA will continue to achieve transformative discoveries, build national and global networks, and will continue to advance as one of the world’s leading theoretical astrophysics research hubs.”

U of T alumna Wendy Freedman, an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago, hired Kollmeier as the first theorist at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, when Freedman was its director.

“Juna is remarkably bright and enthusiastic about whatever she does, and it's hard not to get caught up in her infectious enthusiasm for whatever problem she’s working on,” says Freedman. “She's unusual in that she has a real interest in observations, not just the theory. And she chooses projects that interface very well with what observers are doing, and what you can learn from the observations. It's a great niche area where she can bring together groups of theorists and observers to initiate new projects that can benefit from that kind of analysis. I was delighted when I heard the news. It struck me as a really good match.”

“Juna is very knowledgeable and knows lots of people,” says colleague Matias Zaldarriaga, a cosmologist at the Institute for Advanced Study. “And I think that's a very good combination for someone leading CITA, to recruit and attract people with a wider range of research topics, and to create an atmosphere where people can collaborate and learn new things. She will bring this breadth of interest and expertise that I think will be very noticeable and very attractive to a lot of people.”

Hans-Walter Rix, director at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, has known Kollmeier since her time at graduate school. “Even back then it was very obvious she just was in a different category than most grad students,” says Rix. “This is a fantastic appointment for CITA because I think it is a role that fits her ambitious capabilities. She brings a vision and an energy that will be a tremendous boost for the place.”

As the first woman to lead CITA, Kollmeier will have a formidable impact, says McGill University’s Victoria Kaspi, physics professor and director of the McGill Space Institute.

“I think she'll be a tremendous role model and a mentor to the next generation of women in astrophysics and in STEM in general,” says Kaspi. “In addition, she also is an incredibly creative, versatile person, and she has tremendous energy and drive. I think she is going to shake the place up and bring CITA to new heights.”

Meg Urry, director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, and a former president of the American Astronomical Society, says she has seen “Juna’s impressive leadership up close.” Urry serves on the executive committee of the advisory council of the SDSS-V project. “That she is a distinguished theorist selected to lead this important institute – well, it shows Juna is a star on all fronts.”

U of T driver attention study could help cities turn the corner on road safety

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 20:31:50 +0000

U of T driver attention study could help cities turn the corner on road safety

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 02/22/2021 - 15:31

Cutline

To better understand vehicle accidents involving cyclists and pedestrians, researchers at U of T are working with the City of Guelph to study how drivers' attention and gaze are affected at intersections (photo by Massimo Colombo/Getty Images)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Our Community

Coronavirus

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Cities

Economics

Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Geography and Planning

History

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Psychiatry

Motorists preparing to turn at an intersection must quickly process several pieces of information before making their move: traffic signals, traffic signs, pedestrians, cyclists and, of course, other vehicles.

But if drivers become overloaded with information, the results can be deadly – and it’s often pedestrians and cyclists who pay the price.

Canadian and international studies show that driver inattention is a leading cause for collisions with pedestrians and cyclists – including those who were later identified as having right of way.

“It’s apparent that at certain intersections, we’re hitting the limits of drivers’ information-processing abilities,” says Professor Birsen Donmez of the University of Toronto’s department of mechanical and industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

“There are so many things one has to pay attention to – and drivers are failing to do so given the issues we’re seeing with pedestrian and cyclist crashes.”

Donmez, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Human Factors and Transportation, leads an interdisciplinary research team that is collaborating with the City of Guelph to evaluate driver attention and gaze towards pedestrians and cyclists at intersections. The experiment will use eye-tracking equipment to better understand the interplay between driver attention, infrastructure design and collisions.

Funded by $25,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s (SSHRC) Partnership Engage Grants program, the study will see Donmez team up with Professor Jay Pratt of the department of psychology in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Associate Professor Paul Hess of the department of geography and planning in the Faculty of Arts & Science and Liraz Fridman, transportation safety specialist with the City of Guelph and adjunct professor in U of T’s department of mechanical and industrial engineering.

“Addressing society’s biggest challenges often requires researchers to work across disciplines and, importantly, in partnership with stakeholders beyond academia,” says Professor Markus Bussmann, chair of the department of mechanical and industrial engineering.

“Professor Donmez’s study on road safety – an issue of importance to each one of us – exemplifies the approach by combining innovative use of technology with interdisciplinary scholarship and collaboration with a municipal partner.”

It’s one of six U of T-led initiatives to receive one-year Partnership Engage Grants, which are awarded quarterly to help researchers conduct timely and short-term research with a partner organization from the public, private or not-for-profit sectors. Four of the U of T projects received funding via the Partnership Engage Grants COVID-19 Special Initiative, which aims to support social sciences and humanities research on the impacts of the pandemic.

“I look forward to the outcome of this important project – and indeed all of the U of T-led projects that have received support from the SSHRC’s Partnership Engage Grants program,” says University Professor Ted Sargent, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

Over the past few years, Donmez and her team at the Human Factors and Applied Statistics Lab have been studying driver attention using tools such as driving simulators and eye-tracking wearables that examine where drivers look – and don’t look – when on the road. Their projects include a 2018 study, run in Toronto, in which eye-tracking equipment and glasses were used to assess where drivers allotted their visual attentions on the road.

However, the SSHRC-funded study is the first to involve a municipal partner.

“The City of Guelph has evidence on traffic conflict data – which is high-level data – but they want to understand the issue from driver behaviour and attention perspectives,” Donmez says.

The study will use eye-tracking equipment to monitor what drivers are looking at while they are behind the wheel (photo courtesy of Birsen Donmez)

For the Guelph study, around 50 participants will drive a pre-assigned route while wearing eye-tracking glasses in a vehicle fitted with cameras capturing internal and external scenes. Participants will drive for around 30 to 40 minutes each, with a break in between to prevent fatigue.

“We have a camera that faces the driver, which gives us information about their body position, head movement, emotional reactions and so on, and we have a road-facing camera which gives us a dashboard view to see objectively what the scene is in front of the vehicle as the person drives,” says Joelle Girgis, a second-year master’s student in Donmez’s lab who will be leading the data collection and analysis. “The most critical equipment would be the eye-tracking glasses. These glasses will give us a view of what drivers are looking at, even as they move their heads.

“This way, we know both what the objective road scene is in front of them, as well as where they’re gazing specifically.”

Once the data is collected, drivers’ turns at intersections will be coded according to whether they gazed at areas that were previously identified as being important.

“The question we’re asking is: Did they or did they not look at certain critical areas where a pedestrian or cyclist may appear?” says Girgis, whose master’s thesis will focus on the study. “So, we’ll view the videos and decide on whether the driver did or did not pay attention or directly gaze at a pre-determined area of importance.

“That gives us information that we can then turn into trends and statistics to see gaps. For example, drivers might not be checking their blind spot or right mirror when they’re stopped at a red light and need to turn right; maybe they’re overwhelmed; maybe there’s a lot of traffic coming from the left side; they’re also trying not to hit a pedestrian in front of them.

“So, there are all these things related to cognitive load that we might be able to infer based on the specific circumstance of where they are – and are not – looking.”

A camera facing the driver provides data about body position, head movement and emotional reactions. A road-facing camera, meanwhile, allows researchers to monitor the scene in front of the vehicle (photo courtesy of Birsen Donmez)

Girgis says driving routes and intersections will be chosen based on data about problem areas, as well as to cover different kinds of infrastructure and turn situations.

"There are certain intersections in Guelph where if a pedestrian or cyclist does get struck, the chances of them getting injured are high,” says Girgis, citing one particular Guelph intersection in which the nine vehicle-cyclist collisions reported between 2015 and 2019 all resulted in injuries to the cyclist.

“These are priority intersections where we’d like to understand what it is that’s causing the severity of collisions between vehicles and vulnerable road users.”

Girgis says the goal is to complete the driver data collection between April and September while respecting COVID-19 public health guidelines.

Donmez notes that driving data collected by the researchers still represents a “best-case scenario” since it won’t be able to take into account common in-car distractions such as cell phones and conversations with passengers.

“The participants aren’t doing anything else. They’re just focusing on their driving. Although it is an unfamiliar vehicle – so there’s that caveat there – I would expect that they have a lot less failures in our study compared to how they normally drive,” she says, adding that future studies may drill down on particular problem areas with the ultimate goal of informing policy and infrastructure design.

What might future solutions look like? Donmez says they generally come down to creating separation between drivers and vulnerable road users – both physically and in time.

“If you have barriers, you separate traffic,” Donmez says referring to the physical aspect. “But at intersections, the three modes of transportation will still merge. One of the issues is that cars can move at the same time as cyclists and pedestrians, so they’re not separated. In these cases, signals could be used to control traffic and decrease chances of conflict – that’s separation in time.”

She says her research shouldn’t be interpreted as blaming drivers. Rather, its focus is on finding ways to reduce the number of things competing for drivers’ attention – with the result being a safer environment for everyone.

“I walk everywhere in Toronto – or I used to a lot anyway, pre-pandemic – and over the years I’ve been starting to feel unsafe at certain intersections,” Donmez says, noting that Pratt, her research colleague, is an avid cyclist.

“I think we all have a stake in this as users of roadways and we all have a passion for this topic.”

The following U of T-led projects received SSHRC Partnership Engage Grants:

SSHRC Partnership Engage Grants

Birsen Donmez, department of mechanical and industrial engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, in partnership with the City of Guelph: Informing the design of safe intersections: An on-road instrumented vehicle study investigating driver attentional failures toward vulnerable road users
Lori Ross, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, in partnership with St. Stephen’s Community House: The political economy of precarious work: Stories of economic insecurity and work among sexual minority men

SSHRC Partnership Engage Grants COVID-19 Special Initiative

Cassie Brownell, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, in partnership with Be Loud Studios: Examining how children broadcast personal and community stories in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic and global demonstrations for racial justice
Max Mishler, department of history, Faculty of Arts & Science, in partnership with Focus Media Arts Centre: Interlocking histories of social inequality and public health in Regent Park
Michael Smart, department of economics, Faculty of Arts & Science, in partnership with the Canadian Tax Foundation: Fiscal policy implications of the pandemic
Sophie Soklaridis, department of psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, in partnership with the Canadian Medical Association: Identifying and addressing intersecting barriers of gender, sex and race to academic productivity in Canadian faculties of medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic

U of T, international researchers develop more efficient two-sided solar cells

geoff.vendeville — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 16:42:41 +0000

U of T, international researchers develop more efficient two-sided solar cells

geoff.vendeville Tue, 01/12/2021 - 11:42

Cutline

A bifacial perovskite/silicon solar cell prototype is field-tested at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia (photo courtesy of Michele De Bastiani)

Nicholas G. Demille

Topic

Breaking Research

Global

Solar

Sustainability

Institute of Biomedical Engineering

To increase the performance of solar panels, a team of researchers based in Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany and Canada has created a bifacial, or two-sided, tandem solar cell. The prototypes bring together the best of two separate technologies: silicon and perovskites.

Out in the field, light primarily comes directly from the sun. Conventional tandem solar cells already convert this light into electricity more efficiently compared to traditional silicon-only solar cells by absorbing additional wavelengths of light.

Now, researchers at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – with colleagues at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the University of Bologna and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology – have realized that even more energy can be gathered using a two-sided tandem configuration. Light reflected and scattered from the ground – known as “albedo” – can also be collected to significantly increase the current of a tandem solar cell.

The research, published this week in the journal Nature Energy, outlines how the team engineered the perovskite/silicon device to exceed the currently accepted performance limits for the tandem configuration. The study’s authors include University Professor Ted Sargent, in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering, and post-doctoral researcher Yi Hou.

“By exploiting the albedo, we can now generate currents higher than in conventional tandems, without increasing the manufacturing costs at all,” said Michele De Bastiani of KAUST, co-lead author of this study.

The potential for capturing indirect sunlight has been studied in the past, but without experimental verification. The researchers collaborated to solve the scientific and engineering challenges required to include indirect sunlight in the energy gathering capacity of their modules.

With this knowledge, they tested the bifacial tandem solar cell in outdoor conditions, achieving efficiencies beyond any commercial silicon solar panel.

“Bifacial silicon-only solar cells have rapidly taken an increasing share in the photovoltaics market, as they can lead to a performance gain of 20 per cent relative,” said Stefaan De Wolf, an associate professor of material science and engineering at KAUST. “Exploiting this concept in perovskite/silicon tandems now opens opportunities for ultra-high power generation at affordable cost.”

From astrophysics to literature: 29 researchers at U of T awarded Canada Research Chairs

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 17:15:54 +0000

From astrophysics to literature: 29 researchers at U of T awarded Canada Research Chairs

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 12/16/2020 - 12:15

Cutline

Twenty-nine U of T researchers are among 259 in Canada to receive new or renewed Canada Research Chairs, which support exceptional work across a wide variety of fields (U of T file photo)

Alison Kenzie

Topic

Our Community

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Pediatrics

Cell and Systems Biology

Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Canada Research Chairs

Chemical Engineering

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Electrical & Computer Engineering

English

St. Michael's Hospital

Sunnybrook Hospital

University Health Network

U of T Mississauga

Vasanti Malik’s research into the dietary and lifestyle risk factors for chronic diseases has far-reaching implications – for both individuals and the world.

By considering risk factors for type 2 diabetes across the lifespan – including in utero exposures, maternal health and childhood obesity – the assistant professor of nutritional sciences in the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine intends to develop a “dietary environmental index.”

The index would allow health practitioners and the public to understand how food and lifestyle choices can affect their own health as well as the health of the planet.

“What we eat has an impact on greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use and so on,” says Malik, adding that she can envision a smartphone app that helps underscore such connections for Canadians.

Soon, she will also be working with pregnant women in Chennai, India to study how reducing refined carbohydrate intake (for instance, substituting brown rice for white rice) can prevent gestational diabetes. This data could not only improve maternal health, but also potentially reduce childhood obesity, a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

Malik is one of 29 researchers at U of T – and among 259 nationwide – to receive new or renewed Canada Research Chairs, which support exceptional work across a wide variety of fields. (See the full list below.)

“I would like to congratulate all the University of Toronto researchers who received a new chair or had their chair renewed in this round,” says University Professor Ted Sargent, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“This important federal support and recognition will enable our leading researchers to pursue critical research across a number of fields, helping generate new knowledge and innovative ideas that could ultimately change the way we live here in Canada and around the world.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Canada Research Chairs program, established by the federal government to attract and retain top Canadian researchers working in a variety of disciplines – from engineering, the natural sciences and health sciences to the humanities and social sciences. The investment is significant: up to $295 million each year.

With 315 chairs total, U of T receives more than $46 million annually in funding from the Canada Research Chairs program.

At the same time, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) – in collaboration with the CRC program – announced support for two U of T researchers through its John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), which helps universities pay for cutting edge laboratories and equipment. The two U of T researchers are Kieran Campbell and Hartland Jackson, both of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in the Sinai Health System.

As for Malik, her tier two Chair in Nutrition and Chronic Disease Prevention brings with it five years of funding (renewable once) and the chance to pursue an ambitious three-part research project that will span Canada and India and involve collaboration with experts from nutritional science, environmental science and economics.

She says the award seemed “unattainable” during her many years of graduate and post-doctoral training, which she began at U of T and completed at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Malik adds that being situated within the Temerty Faculty of Medicine is an asset, allowing her to collaborate with clinicians working in partner hospitals and giving her a front row seat to how her research might impact clinical care guidelines.

“My ultimate goal is to create evidence for policy – evidence that links diet and lifestyle choices to chronic disease prevention,” Malik says.

Malik says she is looking forward to the opportunity to collaborate with economists and other researchers at U of T and beyond. She has many questions: Would a plant-based diet be feasible for low-income Canadian households? Would brown rice be easily accessible to Indian families living in poverty? Can governments here and abroad afford not to invest in chronic disease prevention, given the high costs of an unhealthy population?

While COVID-19 has put her travel plans on pause, Malik is excited to prepare for teaching her first class at U of T, a fourth-year international and community nutrition course that aligns with her research interests. As she strategizes how to make the course as interactive as possible, Malik looks forward to the energy generated by her students as they learn and discuss new ideas.

“We’re all figuring this out together,” she says.

Here are the new and renewed Canada Research Chairs at U of T:

New Canada Research Chairs

Jennifer Adese of the department of sociology at U of T Mississauga, tier two in Métis women, politics, and identity
Gillian Booth of the department of medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, tier one in policy solutions for diabetes prevention and management
Kieran Campbell of the department of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, tier two in machine learning for translational biomedicine
Angela Colantonio of the department of occupational science and occupational therapy in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, tier one in traumatic brain injury in underserved populations
Herbert Gaisano of the department of medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, and the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, tier one in diseases of endocrine and exocrine pancreas
Jennifer Gommerman of the department of immunology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, tier one in tissue-specific immunity
Ali Hooshyar of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, tier two in electric power systems
Timothy Hughes of the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, tier one in decoding gene regulation
Hartland Jackson of the department of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, tier two in systems pathology
Hae-Young Kee of the department of physics in the Faculty of Arts & Science, tier one in theory of quantum materials
David Lie of the department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, tier one in secure and reliable systems
Radhakrishnan Mahadevan of the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, tier one in metabolic systems engineering
Vasanti Malik of the department of nutritional sciences in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, tier two in nutrition and chronic disease prevention
Stephen Matthews of the department of physiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, tier one in early development and health
Nick Reed of the department of occupational science and occupational therapy in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, tier two in pediatric concussion
Lisa Robinson of the department of paediatrics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Hospital for Sick Children, tier one in vascular inflammation and kidney injury
John Rogers of the department of English in the Faculty of Arts & Science, tier one in early modern literature and culture
Shoshanna Saxe of the department of civil and mineral engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, tier two in sustainable infrastructure
Greg Stanisz of the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Sunnybrook Research Institute, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, tier one in cancer imaging
Harindra Wijeysundera of the department of medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Sunnybrook Research Institute, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, tier two in structural heart disease policy and outcomes
Hannah Wunsch of the department of anesthesiology and pain medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Sunnybrook Research Institute, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, tier two in critical care organization and outcomes
Azadeh Yadollahi of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and University Health Network, tier two in cardiorespiratory engineering

Renewed Canada Research Chairs

Jo Bovy of the David A. Dunlap department of astronomy and astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts & Science, tier two in galactic astrophysics
Birsen Donmez of the department of mechanical and industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, tier two in human factors and transportation
Lisa Forman of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, tier two in human rights and global health equity
Alan Moses of the department of cell and systems biology in the Faculty of Arts & Science, tier two in computational biology
Anthony Niblett of the Faculty of Law, tier two in law, economics and innovation
Laura Rosella of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, tier two in population health analytics
Arjumand Siddiqi of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, tier two in population health equity

Mapping history: U of T's Stephan Heblich uses historical maps to understand urban development

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 14:17:39 +0000

Mapping history: U of T's Stephan Heblich uses historical maps to understand urban development

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 12/11/2020 - 09:17

Cutline

Working with colleagues at U of T and in other countries, Stephan Heblich will use historical maps to study land-use changes and urban growth, providing a window into socio-economic structure and organization of cities (photo by Alexis MacDonald)

Topic

Global Lens

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Cities

Economics

Global

Stephan Heblich, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and department of economics in the Faculty of Arts & Science, is one of nine Canadian researchers to receive a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Open Research Area grant.

Heblich specializes in the field of urban economics, integrating elements of economic history, environmental economics, and political economy into his work.

Working with Marcel Fortin, head of the Map and Data Library at U of T, and colleagues in France and the U.K., Heblich will use the funding to undertake research as part of a project entitled “MAPHIS: Mapping History – What Historical Maps Can Tell Us About Urban Development.” The grant is part of a three-year, $3-million initiative to foster an international research collaboration funded by SSHRC, the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany) and the Economic and Social Research Council (United Kingdom).

The research unites many of Heblich’s research interests: he will be working with counterparts in the U.K. and France to develop new methods of extracting information from historical maps to study the evolution of land use patterns and urban growth.

“This SSHRC Open Research Area grant is a testament to the University of Toronto’s commitment to developing innovative solutions to global challenges across disciplines,” says University Professor Ted Sargent, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“By using historical maps and data to uncover how cities developed, Professor Heblich and his international colleagues will draw important lessons for how we can build sustainable cities and economies going forward.”

Working with maps dating back as far as 1750, the teams will develop recognition algorithms to detect points of interest and street names that can be matched to data sources (such as censuses and trade registers) in an effort to draw a uniquely detailed picture of changes in the socio-economic structure and organization of cities.

The project represents the first known attempt to digitize historical maps covering so many locations and timeframes; the first to test the full range of recognition methods on historical maps; and the first to draw such a complete picture of urban structure across three distinct historical environments: France from 1750-1950, England and Wales from 1870-1960 and Canada, with a focus on Toronto and Montreal, from 1876-1975.

Extract from Goad’s fire insurance map for Toronto in 1890 (Map and Data Library, Reference and Research Department, Robarts Library, University of Toronto)

The new methodologies will overcome several longstanding limitations in the study of hand-drawn historical maps and will considerably expand access to a large – and largely inaccessible – source of historical information. The ability to study historical maps in this level of detail will significantly advance the understanding of urban development. It will offer a unique analysis of the impact of atmospheric pollution on urban centres and ask questions about unequal distribution in cities, the role of building infrastructure in economic activity, whether cities “grow toward their bad parts,” and how advances in building technologies affect the organization of cities.

Heblich says he looks forward to advancing this work and collaborating with colleagues internationally. “My co-applicants and I have started developing algorithms to extract information from historical maps in previous work, and we are excited to use this funding boost to move forward and open up a new window into the past that will provide detailed insights into the spatial organization and growth of cities.”

Heblich joined the University of Toronto in 2019 as the first-ever Munk Chair in Economics. In 2020, he has had new research accepted in the Journal of Political Economy, the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Urban Economics and in Regional Science and Urban Economics.

Two of his upcoming journal articles directly relate to the MAPHIS research project. They include an investigation of why the east sides of formerly industrial cities are often more deprived, which looks at individual-level census data and creates historical pollution patterns (to be published in the Journal of Political Economy) and an examination of the making of the modern metropolis, which uses newly constructed spatially disaggregated data for London from 1801 to 1921 to show that the invention of the steam railway led to the first large-scale separation of workplace and residence (just published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics).

U of T grads among the most employable in the world: Times Higher Education

geoff.vendeville — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 18:31:27 +0000

U of T grads among the most employable in the world: Times Higher Education

geoff.vendeville Wed, 11/25/2020 - 13:31

Cutline

(photo by Daria Perevezentsev)

Topic

Times Higher Education

Subheadline

U of T ranks first in North America among public universities in latest graduate employability ranking

The University of Toronto ranked eighth in the world for the employability of its graduates in the latest Times Higher Education Global University Employability Ranking.

That’s up seven spots from last year.

Among public universities, U of T’s performance was even more impressive. It ranked first in North America and fourth globally in the eyes of international recruiters, who were surveyed for their views on which universities are best at preparing students for the workplace.

U of T continues to be the top-ranked school in Canada for employability, according to the 2020 survey – a position it has held for the past eight years.

“This is terrific news for our recent graduates and current students, who have demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of a global pandemic and a rapidly changing job market,” said U of T President Meric Gertler.

“We strive to foster a global outlook in our students, with an emphasis on excellence in scholarship, innovation, equity and sustainability – all areas in high demand by employers in Canada and around the world.”

The Global University Employability Ranking 2020 is based on the responses of 8,820 recruiters and managers at international companies in 22 countries who hire university graduates. Most recruiters were based in the Asia-Pacific region (37.1 per cent), followed by Europe and Central Asia (33.6 per cent), the Americas (20.8 per cent) and the Middle East and Africa (8.5 per cent).

Each participant was asked to rank universities in response to the following question: “As a person dealing with international graduates, which universities are in your opinion the best in the world when it comes to graduate employability?”

The ranking is designed by the Paris-based HR consultancy Emerging while the polling is done by independent research agency Trendence.

U of T has placed among the world’s top 15 schools in the Times Higher Education employability rankings since 2013.

The three highest-ranked universities in this year’s list are based in the United States: the California Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

Canadian universities were well represented in the ranking with four others in the top 100: McGill University (23rd), the University of British Columbia (28th), Université de Montréal/HEC (41^st) and McMaster University (77th).

Universities in France, Germany, China and Japan also fared well in the ranking.

Ted Sargent, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives, said the university's research strength across the academic spectrum – from arts and humanities to science, technology, engineering and medicine – and its booming startup scene are among the factors that set U of T apart when it comes to the employability of its graduates.

“U of T scholars have a long and impressive track record of developing solutions to the world’s most pressing problems,” he said. “This year, for example, they have risen to the challenge of COVID-19, making significant contributions to advancements in testing, treatments and vaccine development.”

What’s more, Sargent added, U of T students and researchers are taking advantage of the university’s expansive innovation and entrepreneurship network to move their work out of the lab into the real world, where it can have maximum impact.

In the past decade, U of T has launched more than 500 research-based startups, more than any other Canadian university, generating more than $1.5 billion in investment. The university boasts more than 250 entrepreneurship-oriented courses and is home to 11 startup accelerators that help U of T students and faculty turn their ideas into businesses.

“Employers are increasingly seeking grads who bring innovative thinking and an entrepreneurial spirit to their organizations – so it’s no surprise that U of T is top of mind for many recruiters,” said Derek Newton, assistant vice-president, innovation, partnerships and entrepreneurship.

Similarly, Sargent says U of T’s culture of innovation, combined with world-class teaching and research, and its network of international partnerships, gives graduates a clear edge in a competitive global job market.

“U of T strives to foster a problem-solving mindset in its students,” he said. “That’s an essential skill that will serve them well in any career, anywhere in the world.”

U of T continues to be the highest-ranked Canadian university and ranked among the top universities globally in the five most closely watched international rankings: Times Higher Education World University Rankings, QS World University Rankings, Shanghai Ranking Consultancy’s Academic Ranking of World Universities, U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities and National Taiwan University World University Ranking.

Leah Cowen appointed U of T’s first associate vice-president, research

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 20:00:55 +0000

Leah Cowen appointed U of T’s first associate vice-president, research

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 11/20/2020 - 15:00

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(photo courtesy of NSERC)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Our Community

Molecular Genetics