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Glenn Tiller helps Texas students discover classic American philosophy and the joy of studying the humanities

geoff.vendeville — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 22:44:28 +0000

Glenn Tiller helps Texas students discover classic American philosophy and the joy of studying the humanities

geoff.vendeville Thu, 08/31/2017 - 18:44

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Glenn Tiller, who earned his PhD and did a postdoc in philosophy at U of T, now teaches at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (photo by Hayford Osei)

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Tiller now teaches philosophy at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

In an undergraduate class at another Canadian university, Glenn Tiller was briefly introduced to the philosophy of a relatively obscure Spanish-American thinker named George Santayana.

It was as if the light suddenly came on, he said. After his professor jotted down a description of the philosopher and his work on the blackboard, it got Tiller thinking, “Why didn't we study that? These are good things to say.”

Tiller applied to the University of Toronto “hell-bent” on focusing on Santayana during his PhD studies, but his supervisor, University Professor Cheryl Misak, encouraged him to broaden his horizons. That decision led him to develop a more general understanding of American philosophy, which serves him well in his current job in the philosophy faculty of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

He is one of a new generation of thinkers transforming research and teaching across the globe. They come from all corners of the world to do their PhD or postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto, drawn by the chance to work with the leading experts in their fields.

Where do they go from here?

In the 11th instalment of a new series from U of T News, we turn the spotlight on Tiller. Below, he talks about his time at U of T and the importance of studying the humanities.

Why did you choose U of T for your doctoral studies?

I was interested generally in philosophy but I had this driving passion to look at the philosophy of George Santayana who's a Spanish-American philosopher. He taught at the turn of the last century. He was at Harvard for about 40 years and then lived in Europe for the rest of his life.

He gets lumped in with the classical American philosophers: William James, Charles Peirce, John Dewey.

At the time, Santayana was not a popular guy and a hard sell. His status has been raised a little in the last 20 years. I partly applied to the University of Toronto because at least somebody was doing American philosophy.

How did your academic interests change?

I came to Toronto hell-bent on studying Santayana. I shopped around for advisors and met one who said, “Oh yes Santayana, I once supervised a dissertation on that. The only time one of my students failed their PhD defence.” That was a bit heart sinking.

So I met Cheryl and she said I'd be happy to work with you but you might want to broaden your horizons a little bit. There are other figures in American philosophy, in particular Charles Peirce.

I ended up doing a dissertation on Peirceand Santayana, who were contemporaries.

How did you become interested in Santayana?

I was taking a course on British empiricism when I went to the University of Manitoba. At the time, they divided 17-18^th century modern philosophy into the Brits and the Continentals.

It was the last day of class... the professor said there's this guy named Santayana. He wrote down 10 things on the board and it got me thinking, “Why didn't we study that? These are good things to say.”

It was one of those moments where the light just started to come on. There are all these problems in philosophy, and I didn't want to wallow or live with them; I wanted to see my way through them. I guess I could say I largely accepted the philosophy of Santayana.

What is his philosophy in a nutshell?

He's most well known as the author of pithy phrases, such as "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," and "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

But really he is a completely naturalistic philosopher. He doesn't believe in supernatural powers, that there's some sort of cosmic force guiding the universe.

He also writes on spirituality, which is rare for someone who's not a theist. He developed a philosophy of naturalistic spirituality. It's a philosophy of life and that's what really attracted me. This is a philosophy that will try to not just organize your thoughts and make you aware of the history of philosophy, but also bring you some reflective equilibrium, some spiritual composure, some practical payoff.

Why is it important to study the humanities?

The humanities are about life and human existence and everything that goes along with that.

“Life can't just be about making a better can opener.”

There's history, psychology, poetry, art and all these things are the fruits of culture and they enrich our thoughts, they enrich our lives.

Apart from all those high-minded laudatory aspects of the humanities, it's good training for the mind. I've seen more and more articles from top tech and entrepreneurs like (American businessman) Mark Cuban saying we need people who can think and be creative.

Philosophy if anything broadens one's horizons. It helps you stretch your concepts and think around and through problems.

And also students like it. Students like to ask philosophical questions like, “What am I and where did I come from?”

Life can't just be about making a better can opener.

How did the postdoc at U of T help you for what came after?

The postdoc was wonderful. It was a carrot to help me to not linger and get my (PhD) degree done. You meet people who are nine or 10 years into their degree and I didn't want to do that.

It gave me the opportunity to design a course in American philosophy and teach a course. It was a wonderful opportunity, both the research and teaching. I still use the basic framework for that class 17 years later.

Quinn Konopacky searches for new planets orbiting distant stars

Romi Levine — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Quinn Konopacky searches for new planets orbiting distant stars

Romi Levine Thu, 08/24/2017 - 00:00

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Quinn Konopacky studied exoplanets at U of T's Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics (photo by Erik Jepsen)

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Around the time Quinn Konopacky started high school, astrophysicists were making history with the discovery of planets orbiting stars outside of our solar system – called exoplanets.

“I got really inspired by hearing about that news and thought maybe some day I could actually work on that,” she says.

Driven by her curiosity, Konopacky set her sights on the stars, studying astronomy and astrophysics at University of California, Los Angeles, and eventually making her way to University of Toronto, where she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

At Dunlap, her teenage aspirations became a reality when she played a part in discovering and capturing images of exoplanets.

“It almost surprises me every day (that) I get to wake up and say I actually made it and get to work on this subject I thought about all those years ago,” she says.

Konopacky is part of a new generation of thinkers transforming research across the globe. They come from all corners of the world to do their PhD or postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto, drawn by the chance to work with the leading experts in their fields.

Where do they go from here?

Konopacky is now an assistant professor at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. She spoke with U of T News about her research, the importance of inspiring young astronomers, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

What drew you to U of T?

U of T has one of the most vibrant communities of astronomers in the world so they have a huge number of people working in the different institutes and departments. It’s just a huge, vibrant community that makes for a really fantastic research experience as a postdoc because there's so many people you can go and talk to and learn what they're working on and start new collaborations with.

What did you research at Dunlap?

My research focuses on trying to take images directly of extra-solar planets – planets that orbit other stars. At U of T, I worked on projects on a particular directly imaged exoplanetary system called HR 8799. It's a really well-known exoplanet system. I spent a lot of time working on trying to understand through a technique called spectroscopy, where we take the light coming from the planets themselves and break it down into its constituent wavelengths – like if you look through a prism – the fingerprints of different molecules in the atmosphere of the planets. A lot of my work focused on trying to see what kind of molecules were in the atmospheres of some of these planets. What we saw were things like water vapour, carbon monoxide – which was really exciting at the time.

I was also spending time working on a new instrument I'm a collaborator on called the Gemini Planet Imager. It's a special instrument to go on the Gemini South telescope in the Andes Mountains in Chile. I got to go down there and help when they actually put it on the telescope. That was really important while I was in a post-doc because you're a little more flexible, you have some more time, so it was good to be able to do that work at U of T.

What are you working on at UC San Diego?

I'm doing similar research – I'm still working on trying to take pictures of other planets around other stars. I get to do a lot of work on the Gemini Planet Imager survey that's now been going since 2014 and I've been working on trying to get additional information about the atmospheres of these planets – the ones I was working on before and newly discovered planets through direct imaging. I've been working on gathering new data using the Keck telescopes in Hawaii and other projects as well having to do with star and planet information.

What can we learn from these types of discoveries?

I think it's really important to continue to do these types of research that don't necessarily seem obvious in terms of everyday, practical application because it's really inspiring to the public in general. The public likes learning about the universe, they like to hear about and think about the possibility of what other worlds are out there, whether we're alone in the universe. I think that helps get the general public and young kids inspired to want to pursue careers in the sciences, which is something we're always striving for.

Even if we don't necessarily know where we're headed or what the applications of what we're doing will be in the future, a lot of things that turn out to be really important inventions or discoveries, you didn't know about when you first started the research. So keeping up with pure research in astrophysics or in any field will end up having really important applications for the future and society.

As someone who researches planets outside of our solar system, do you think there's life beyond Earth?

The reason we study planets around other stars is we're fundamentally interested in this question of whether we're alone in the universe and the possibility of life on other worlds. In terms of figuring out the number of worlds that might possibly be able to harbour life, we’re really close to having that answer and that's something super exciting because it's something we didn't know only a few years ago.

If we look at the sheer numbers, most scientists would probably agree that the possibility of some form of life existing somewhere else in the universe is very, very high and it's just a question of figuring out how common it is and figuring out how we can detect it. I think in the next few decades or so, we might have the technology to at least look for some of these bio signatures – signatures of life on other worlds – and maybe start to come up with new and creative ways to determine what that life looks like.

If we find life on other planets, do you think we should attempt to communicate with it?

I think it would be fun to communicate with it. There's a lot of interesting, popular works that make it seem like it might be a scary possibility but I would hope that by the time we figure out if there's intelligent life that can actually communicate, that we can say that it would be worth it to do that.

Do you see yourself as a role model for women and girls interested in STEM?

It's a role I'm happy to take on. It's incredibly important that all of us who have been fortunate enough to have made it to this level remember that we can always improve the quality of research and the overall field in general by striving to increase both the number of women and the underrepresented minorities – people of colour – that come into the sciences. I really like the idea of trying to use my position and being a woman that actually made it to try to help achieve those goals.

Cosmologist Laura Newburgh works on a transformative radio astronomy telescope

geoff.vendeville — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Cosmologist Laura Newburgh works on a transformative radio astronomy telescope

geoff.vendeville Thu, 08/17/2017 - 00:00

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(photo by Geoff Vendeville)

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The former researcher at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics looks to understand the nature of the early universe

Laura Newburgh was inspired by Star Trek to boldly go where few men, or women, have gone before.

In high school, she read The Physics of Star Trek, which explains the science behind the TV series, including the differences between wormholes and black holes. The book stoked her curiosity about space.

In 2013, she took a fellowship at the Dunlap Institute to work on a radio telescope on the West Coast, which is intended to shed light on dark energy – a mysterious cosmic force that makes up 73 per cent of the universe.

She collaborated with U of T Assistant Professor Keith Vanderlinde to help build new radio telescopes that would yield a map of cosmic structure over the largest volume of the universe ever observed. Researchers say the data will help explain why the rate of the universe's expansion is accelerating.

Newburgh is part of a new generation of thinkers transforming research across the globe. They come from all corners of the world to do their PhD or postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto, drawn by the chance to work with the leading experts in their fields.

Where do they go from here?

Now an assistant professor at Yale University, Newburgh discussed her research and time at U of T in an interview with U of T News.

How did you get into cosmology?

I stumbled into cosmology. I had decided to do physics in general after reading a book called The Physics of Star Trek when I was in high school. Most of the book is debunking warp speed and transporters and things, but there's a whole other last part of the book which is all about black holes, white dwarfs and compact objects and cool, fun things in cosmology.

That inspired me to do a physics degree in undergrad. I did a lot of research as an undergrad in different things: I did some astronomy, condensed matter and particle physics. I really liked being an experimentalist. I liked being in the lab, building instruments. I found out about cosmology at the end of my undergrad, and it united both my interest in big questions about the universe and being able to build instruments to study them.

Were you a big Trekkie?

I was, yeah. Not enough to go to conventions or anything, but I liked Star Trek a lot.

Do you speak Klingon?

No, no, no.

What is it that fascinated you about black holes, white dwarfs and the universe in general?

I remembered seeing the diagrams of warping space time with black holes and that you could use general relativity to predict what would happen, and I think it was just captivating. It's so elegant that you can take these enormous objects that do the strangest things and describe them. That is extremely powerful.

Despite all of the measurements we've made about the universe, we still have a lot of fascinating open questions. We are still left with questions like: What is dark matter? What is dark energy? How did it all begin? Answering them is the most fun job in the world.

What did you specialize in?

My research focus was in cosmic microwave background (CMB) instrumentation. I did that in both my thesis work at Columbia University and my first post-doc at Princeton University. Those instruments are millimetre wave telescopes that are dedicated to the measurement of the CMB radiation – the first light that we see in the universe. The resulting measurements are the workhorses in cosmology and provide not just fascinating details about the early universe but also the basis for all other cosmology measurements we make.

How did you end up at U of T?

The thing that brought me to Canada and U of T was the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment.

What we measure with CHIME is the distribution of galaxies out to extremely high red shifts, so very, very far back in time. The result of that is something we can turn into a constraint on dark energy models. The idea is to use a signature we know is there from other surveys to trace the expansion rate of the universe over time, and then use that to better understand the nature of dark energy and what models are relevant.

CHIME is doing this with radio measurements of galaxies. It's a very large radio interferometer built in collaboration with four institutions: U of T, McGill, the University of British Columbia and the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory. It is built in four parabolic cylinders that look a lot like really large half-pipes. The reason that we have built this crazy instrument is that we have extremely high sensitivity to the cosmological signal we're interested in.

What did you think of your time at U of T for the Dunlap fellowship?

The wonderful thing about having the Dunlap fellowship is that it allowed me to be very independent. I had the opportunity to pick my own path and choose what I wanted to work on while I was at U of T.

It allowed me to focus on a part of CHIME no one was actively working on: to help calibrate the instrument better, which is essential to making the sensitive cosmological measurements possible. My fellowship at the Dunlap Institute gave me the resources to put together this separate calibration instrument, which was important for getting a faculty job later. It was a really unique opportunity, and I'm so glad I did it.

And what did you think of the environment at U of T?

I totally loved it. It was a really rich academic environment to learn all of the new things required for working in a completely new field, since I hadn't done radio astronomy or measurements of galaxies before.

What are you working on at Yale?

I'm continuing to work on CHIME to do these calibration measurements, the same sorts of things I was doing when I was at the Dunlap Institute. I also started working on this new facility for CMB observations called the Simons Observatory. We will build two new telescopes in Chile to make better measurements of the CMB, which should allow us to say lots of interesting things about particle physics and the early universe.

You said U of T’s location was part of its appeal. What did you think of life in Toronto?

The people here are really friendly, a bunch of the scientists would go out for beers on Fridays. One hard part of academia is you move every couple of years and have to rebuild your social life, so it was nice having a social atmosphere.

I liked the city a lot in general. I went to undergrad and grad school in New York, so I think there was an element of city life that I like. Everyone compacted into one place will inevitably mean good bars, restaurants, museums, parks. Ice cream. The food is good. Poutine is great. I guess that's a theme.

And of course, being right on the water was nice. I'm from Minnesota originally so when I'm near a lake, it feels like home.

Did you discover poutine in Canada?

Yeah. Maybe I only started noticing poutine in the U.S. after I moved to Canada, but I do not remember it being a thing more than three years ago. I'm glad it followed me though.

Abigail Friendly uses city-building know-how to connect São Paulo and Toronto

Romi Levine — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 16:40:10 +0000

Abigail Friendly uses city-building know-how to connect São Paulo and Toronto

Romi Levine Thu, 08/10/2017 - 12:40

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U of T alumna Abigail Friendly in Rio de Janeiro (photo courtesy of Abigail Friendly)

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Cities around the world are growing bigger and taller faster than ever before. By 2050 the United Nations estimates, 6.3 billion people – or 67 per cent of the world’s population – will be living in urban centres.

So how do we ensure that cities still reflect and accommodate their residents as they continue to grow?

U of T alumna Abigail Friendly looks at the different ways cities are doing just that – with a focus on Toronto and Brazil.

In Toronto, initiatives like Section 37 of the Planning Act allow developers to build higher or denser, so long as they feed money back into community projects. Friendly looks at how these kinds of policies compare to those in Brazilian cities like São Paulo.

Friendly completed a PhD in planning at U of T's Faculty of Arts & Science and completed postdoctoral research at the Munk School of Global Affairs’ Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance. This month, she began a new role as an assistant professor in the department of human geography and spatial planning at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

“I'm living in the centre of an old city next to a canal – it's pretty great,” says Friendly.

Friendly is one of a new generation of thinkers transforming research across the globe. They come from all corners of the world to do their PhD or postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto, drawn by the chance to work with the leading experts in their fields.

Where do they go from here?

In this latest instalment of a new series from U of T News, we turn the spotlight on Friendly. Below, she talks about the value of comparative research, and what Toronto and Brazil can learn from each other.

How did you become interested in researching cities in Brazil?

I went to Brazil after my master's to look at the participatory budget of housing in a city called Belo Horizonte, which is the size of Toronto.

Participatory budgeting is an approach to local decision-making that emerged in Brazil. At the time I was studying it, it was still a hot topic. Citizens decide on the local budget – they're doing it in Toronto now too.

When I went back to do my PhD at U of T, I had already worked in Brazil for a bit. I spoke Portuguese (it was already becoming a passion of mine), and I thought this is a time when I can do what I want, study what I want.

Your most recent paper for IMFG looks at what São Paulo and Toronto does with money coming from developers for community projects. What did you find?

Land value capture is capturing the value of increased densities. To build higher and denser cities, developers or the private sector shouldn't necessarily be benefiting from all of that extra value that they're gaining, and some of it should go back to investing in cities for everyone.

When I realized that what was happening in Brazil was similar to Section 37 in Toronto – which people are very interested in because it's very politicized – it seemed like a really good comparison and a good way of seeing what was challenging in both cases.

It's interesting to see the difference, especially when you look at the map of where the benefits are taking place. In Toronto, it's all in the centre of the city, whereas in São Paulo, the idea is the whole city should benefit. It's much more dispersed, and that's what I show in the paper.

The research is more data-driven. It's more economics, but it has a social equity perspective that carries through the rest of my research in Brazil and beyond.

Toronto and São Paulo are different in many ways, What’s the value in comparing the two cities?

It's definitely hard to do comparative research – so that's one caution – but I think there's not enough of it. If you looked at the two cases separately, you might learn something about them, but if you look at them in comparison, you can learn from one another. It highlights the differences, but you can also learn about how we can improve things. Planning is really about looking at some of the challenges, how we can improve things, and how we can move toward a better future for cities and for people.

There's literature in different fields that says we should do comparative research more because of all of these benefits in political science, planning and even sociology.

You just moved to Utrecht to work at the university there. What will you be doing?

I started as an assistant professor here – it's quite an interesting, collaborative department. I start teaching in November.

I just got a new grant to do work in Brazil. It'll be fun – I'll be talking to planners and city staff about how they're progressing with a new law of metropolitan governance. I'll be collaborating with a colleague in Brasilia.

I'll be starting up new research as well – I’m hoping to continue my work in Toronto and Brazil.

Utrecht is the largest university in the Netherlands, and Utrecht itself is a really charming old city. It seemed like a really attractive move – and kind of an adventure.

It’s a big decision moving to a new country – what makes it worth it?

It's a great opportunity to make new contacts, try something new, travel to new places, learn new things, and you always grow when you do this kind of thing. Of course it's hard to be away from what you know, to start new things, and learn about a new place and how things work, let alone learning a new language, which I have to do. I have to learn Dutch.

But it's pretty fun so far. It's tiring, but there are a lot of payoffs.

Shreya Shukla and Nafees Rahman help pave way for off-the-shelf supply of cells for immunotherapy

ullahnor — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 17:08:08 +0000

Shreya Shukla and Nafees Rahman help pave way for off-the-shelf supply of cells for immunotherapy

ullahnor Mon, 06/05/2017 - 13:08

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Shreya Shukla (third from left) and other graduate students meet stem cell pioneer James Till (right) as he tours the laboratory of Professor Peter Zandstra (photo by James Poremba)

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Medicine by Design

Nafees Rahman and Shreya Shukla's research in cell engineering could lead to a readily available supply of cells to boost patients’ immune systems against disease and to fight cancer.

The two PhD students, who worked in the laboratory of Medicine by Design's Professor Peter Zandstra, had their research detailed recently in two papers published in Nature Communications and Nature Methods.

They are part of a new generation of thinkers transforming research across the globe. They come from all corners of the world to do their PhD or postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto, drawn by the chance to work with the leading experts in their fields.

Where do they go from here?

Right now, Shukla and Rahman are both working in California's biotechnology hub. Shukla is currently testing the technology she helped develop in a six-month internship through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s Create M3 program. Rahman joined Neurona Therapeutics, a San Francisco startup that aims to generate human stem cell-derived nerve cells for the treatment of epilepsy.

In the final instalment of a new series from U of T News, we turn the spotlight on Rahman (pictured below) and Shukla.

Around the world, researchers are racing to find ways to use stem cells to treat, and even cure, debilitating diseases thanks to their ability to multiply and make all cell types in the body. Naturally occurring stem cells in the bone marrow and cord blood are being used to bolster the immune systems of patients undergoing cancer treatment that leaves them defenceless against infections. But because the cell grafts come from donors, they are not always available in sufficient supply.

Researchers working with Zandstra, who is located in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, are engineering ways to produce these cells in the lab. Zandstra is executive director of Medicine by Design, which brings together more than 100 researchers from across U of T and its affiliated hospitals, along with hundreds of post-doctoral fellows and graduate students, in collaborative teams to accelerate breakthroughs in regenerative medicine. With its commercialization partner, CCRM, the initiative is also driving Toronto’s regenerative medicine ecosystem and propelling new therapies to market – and ultimately to patients – more quickly.

Rahman specializes in making new blood from scratch as a potential source of cells for life-saving treatments. Together, he and Shukla developed new technologies that clear some of the barriers to having a limitless source of cells to target cancer and other diseases.

“A long-term vision in regenerative medicine is to have a renewable source of cells for therapy,” says Zandstra, a University Professor. “Our two papers focused on generating blood and immune cells in the lab that could be used in cancer immunotherapy. Working with our collaborators at U of T, affiliated hospitals and CCRM, we are getting closer to being able to do this.”

Working with Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker, a professor at U of T’s department of immunology and a senior scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute, the PhD researchers broke down the problem into two areas.

First, they found a way to convert pluripotent stem cells – cells that are able to make all the cells in our bodies – into blood progenitor cells, an intermediate state from which all cells in the blood, including immune T cells that fight off infections, are formed. Then, they developed new technology for turning blood stem cells into T cells in a way that can be scaled up for clinical use.

Writing in Nature Communications, Rahman and colleagues described how simulating the cells’ natural environment during development was key to understanding how blood forms. Instead of spreading the cells evenly across the surface of the dish as usual, Rahman placed them in discrete clusters of different sizes. This allowed him to study how cells talk to each other to influence what kind of blood cells the stem cells turn into. He discovered that larger clusters produced fewer blood cells because the cells secrete a molecule that blocks this process.

“The importance of cell-cell communication during embryonic development is key and it was nice to see this phenomenon replicated in the dish,” says Rahman. “Just by changing cluster size we were able to control how many blood cells we get, resulting in a significant improvement in cell yields.”

While blood stem cell grafts can rebuild the patient’s immune system, it takes roughly a year for the immune T cells to appear and start working, leaving the patient vulnerable to life-threatening infections. Shukla’s goal was to protect patients faster.

“Our idea was to use blood stem cells to produce T cells in the lab that we can then transplant into patients,” says Shukla.

But producing immune cells has been hampered by uncertainty over the conditions and ingredients that are required, limiting their potential as medicine.

To overcome this challenge, Shukla identified essential components that are needed to spur the blood stem cells to become T cells. As described in the Nature Methods paper, the new technology consists of precisely-defined ingredients and can be scaled up for industrial production.

When injected into mice, the lab-grown T cells can rebuild the immune system in one month, far more quickly than what it takes for the blood stem cells to mature inside the body. If the same is true in humans, it could have immediate applications in cell transplantation.

“With our approach, you could move the field to where you have universal, off-the-shelf T cells which could be used in many applications, including cancer immunotherapy,” says Shukla. “You could start with blood or pluripotent stem cells, engineer them to recognize tumours and then turn these into T cells that would rapidly reconstitute the patient’s immune system with cancer-fighting cells.”