Jennifer Robinson

In partnership with MaRS, the university is in the final stages of securing a lease for 24,000 square feet of the Waterfront Innovation Centre in the heart of the city’s next innovation hot spot and just a stone’s throw from the proposed Sidewalk Toronto neighbourhood.

“The University of Toronto is excited to partner with MaRS to help expand Toronto’s rapidly growing startup scene to the city’s waterfront,” said U of T President Meric Gertler, who is also a member of the Waterfront Toronto board.

“It’s a winning combination – MaRS’s world-class suite of innovation programming and expert support for entrepreneurship with the incredible depth and range of U of T’s globally renowned researchers and students.”

Construction on the centre, a project of Waterfront Toronto and developer Menkes, is expected to start this fall adjacent to Sugar Beach and Corus Entertainment.

When it opens in 2021, the centre and its more than 3,000 employees will be surrounded by new developments stretching along the eastern lakefront, the city’s largest swath of undeveloped land.

“This is the first building, this is the first step,” said Scott Mabury, U of T’s vice-president of university operations. “U of T sees itself as a primary anchor of Toronto’s innovation ecosystem. …If that ecosystem is going to expand to a different part of the city, then we want to have U of T’s flag planted there.”

“The University of Toronto is excited to partner with MaRS to help expand Toronto’s rapidly growing startup scene to the city’s waterfront,” said U of T President Meric Gertler (rendering courtesy of Menkes)

The Waterfront Innovation Centre marks the second time U of T and MaRS, two key innovation juggernauts in the city, have partnered on real estate. In 2015, U of T acquired four floors in the west tower of MaRS and took a 20-per-cent equity share in the building on the corner of College Street and University Avenue.

It’s there that you’ll find JLABs, Uber, the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Medicine by Design, the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine and SciNet.

However, the MaRS west tower is now 99.8 per cent full and we have to “turn away entities, startups and companies wanting space there on a weekly basis,” Mabury said.

It’s a common story across Toronto’s downtown core, where the vacancy rate is three per cent – a historic low. Space is also a pressing issue on the university’s downtown campus.

The time is right to make the leap, Mabury said, noting it’s the only way to keep the city’s startup scene growing because the “market is just not delivering” the space needed for companies to scale.

At U of T, “we see ourselves as facilitating that growth and scale,” he explained. “Many of these companies want to be associated with, or near to, the university to access the talent of faculty, staff and students . . . and to tap into the research powerhouse that we are, including our hospital partners.

“It matters that U of T will be in the Waterfront Innovation Centre because of that research connection.”

Yung Wu, CEO of MaRS, called the Waterfront Innovation Centre “the next destination for the city’s growing innovation sector – one that will further solidify Toronto’s reputation as premier tech city.”

The Waterfront Innovation Centre will consist of two buildings. The U of T-MaRS space will be located on the second and third floors of the larger tower known as the HIVE.

The building, which will feature state-of-the-art amenities including ultra high-speed broadband networks, is designed to support media and data-intensive industries.

With a decade-long lease, and the option to potentially double in size at a later date, the MaRS-U of T partnership is helping bring long-term stability and anchor development in this new innovation corridor, Mabury said.

That’s in addition to bringing much-needed assets to the table. These include world-leading researchers and proven entrepreneurship incubators that are magnets for attracting and developing talent in Toronto.

Much like MIT and Harvard are for Boston and Stanford and Berkeley are for Silicon Valley, “U of T is a catalyst in Toronto,” Mabury said. “We make things happen.”

The Waterfront Innovation Centre is just one of many developments U of T is eyeing to bolster innovation in Toronto, Mabury said, adding plans are in the works for U of T to build two new towers across from MaRS in the city’s Discovery District.

Ambitious U of T-led project on ancient Middle East gets $2.5-million boost from federal government

noreen.rasbach — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Ambitious U of T-led project on ancient Middle East gets $2.5-million boost from federal government

noreen.rasbach Thu, 08/02/2018 - 00:00

Cutline

The Orontes Watershed represents a “microcosm of the larger Middle East in terms of its geography, its social complexity and its political history,” says Timothy Harrison, who is leading the CRANE project (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Jennifer Robinson

Topic

Global Lens

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Faculty of Arts & Science

Gender

Global

Humanities

Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations

Physics

Subheadline

CRANE is one of two projects led by University of Toronto scholars to receive lucrative global partnership grants

An ambitious project that pools together knowledge from top archeologists working in the Orontes Watershed, a geographical region rich in ancient history, is expanding thanks to a $2.5-million grant from the Canadian government.

The Computational Research on the Ancient Near East, or CRANE, led by archaeology Professor Timothy Harrison, is one of two projects at the University of Toronto sharing almost $5 million in new partnership grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Shelley Craig, an associate professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, is also receiving $2.5 million in funding for her collaborative study on how information and communication technologies can be used to negotiate gender and sexual minority youth identity and well-being.

Federal government renews $15 million in funding for Toronto’s booming regenerative medicine cluster

noreen.rasbach — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Federal government renews $15 million in funding for Toronto’s booming regenerative medicine cluster

noreen.rasbach Mon, 07/30/2018 - 00:00

Cutline

Dr. Spencer Hoover, development manager at the Centre for Advanced Therapeutic Cell Technologies, CCRM (photo by CCRM)

Jennifer Robinson

Topic

Our Community

Regenerative Medicine

Research & Innovation

Vivek Goel

The federal government is renewing $15 million in funding for the commercialization heart of Toronto’s growing regenerative medicine community.

Announced today by federal Science Minister Kirsty Duncan, the funding for the Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) will be delivered through the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program.

“We are grateful to many groups…for their show of faith that our bold vision for the next five years will continue to deliver measurable impacts,” said Michael May, president and CEO of CCRM.

The centre, which has the support of the University of Toronto as its institutional host, is a leader in developing and commercializing regenerative medicine technologies and cell and gene therapies.

“The University of Toronto has been pleased to support CCRM for the last seven years and we are delighted that its funding will continue with this new grant from the NCE,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation.

CCRM opened in 2011 thanks to $15 million in funding from NCE and support from its industry and academic networks, building off the 1961 discovery of pluripotent stem cells at U of T by biophysicist James Till and hematologist Ernest McCulloch.

In the decades since Till’s and McCulloch’s discovery, regenerative medicine has emerged as a promising approach to disease prevention and treatment by harnessing the power of stem cells to repair, regenerate, or replace damaged cells, tissues, and organs affected by disease.

Globally, the market for regenerative medicine is estimated to be worth US$36 billion and is forecasted to grow to US$49.4 billion by 2021, CCRM noted in a news release.

Located at MaRS, CCRM is clustered with the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Medicine by Design, a U of T initiative that brings together university and hospital researchers from a variety of disciplines, as well as the Centre for Advanced Therapeutic Cell Technologies (CATCT). This fall, CCRM and the University Health Network will also open a facility for delivering cell and gene therapies.

Together, they are helping to create an emerging global regenerative medicine powerhouse populated by biotech startups, multinational corporations and hospital and university researchers clustered in Toronto’s Discovery District.

The university community has benefited directly from CCRM’s presence and helped raised Canada’s global profile in the booming regenerative medicine field, Goel said.

“We look forward to continuing our partnership role as CCRM positions Canada as a global leader in cell manufacturing, while also launching companies and creating new jobs,” he said.

To date, CCRM has supported the launch of six successful companies, including at least three with U of T connections: BlueRock Therapeutics, ExCellThera and Avrobio, which was recently listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

With this new NCE funding, CCRM said it will launch more new companies, scale emerging companies and attract existing companies to help capitalize and grow Canada’s regenerative medicine cluster.

NCE, an initiative of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Natural Sciences Engineering Research Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, currently funds 40 networks and centres through its suite of programs, which mobilize Canada’s best research, development and entrepreneurial talent, and focus it on specific issues and strategic areas.

McLean Award given to professor developing eco-friendly batteries

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 18:46:21 +0000

McLean Award given to professor developing eco-friendly batteries

noreen.rasbach Fri, 07/20/2018 - 14:46

Cutline

Dwight Seferos is this year's recipient of the $125,000 McLean Award. “No-strings-attached awards like the McLean are unique and very crucial,” he says (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Graduate Students

Hatchery

Research & Innovation

Startup

UTEST

Nature knows best, but sometimes a tweak here and there can make things even better, says University of Toronto chemistry professor Dwight Seferos.

Together with his team of graduate and postdoctoral researchers, Seferos is at the forefront of using modified natural compounds – like a vitamin found in leaves – to make high-tech items such as eco-friendly batteries and potentially clothing that can act as the wearer’s personal cooling system.

“We’re trying to take inspiration from nature,” said Seferos. “You can modify natural compounds to make them better. That’s been done in the drug industry, but not so much in the high-tech materials industry.”

Seferos is this year’s recipient of the $125,000 McLean Award, which he will use to delve deeper into developing new biodegradable polymers or plastics that can store energy from solar, wind and tidal power.

The importance of the research is not just about energy storage, he said. Used on a large scale, it could also mean a substantially reduced carbon footprint, a decrease in extractive mining fossil fuel usage, as well as less waste in landfills and oceans.

The McLean Award is jointly funded by the university’s Connaught Fund and the McLean endowment, the latter of which is the result of a $1-million gift to the university from alumnus William F. McLean over two decades ago. The award is designed to support the basic research of an outstanding early career researcher in physics, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, engineering sciences, or the theory and methods of statistics. The funds help the recipient attract and support graduate students and post-doctoral researchers of great promise.

“Congratulations to Dwight Seferos on receiving this year’s McLean Award for his impressive and cutting-edge work in eco-friendly batteries,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation and the chair of the Connaught Committee.

“No-strings-attached awards like the McLean are unique and very crucial,” said Seferos.

This is “an award that allows you to form new ideas, to do things that you normally wouldn’t be able to do – to take risks – which I think is extremely important for researchers at a university.”

Freedom to do basic, or fundamental, research is where everything starts, said Seferos, who is also the co-founder of Pliant Power Devices, a startup formed with his former student Tyler Schon out of his PhD research and the help of U of T entrepreneurship hubs UTEST and the Hatchery.

“We did not start this project thinking we were going to make a battery company or anything like that,” said Seferos. “We were developing new concepts in chemistry and engineering [and] those turned out to be fruitful – and we went from there.”

Their vitamin B2 polymer, which is made from leaves and other organic materials, is a relatively simple compound to make that’s just “a few steps from natural compounds,” he said.

“We’re just modifying it enough that it serves what we want it to do. It’s a very eco-friendly and renewable resource. You can scale it up and make kilograms of this compound. It stores a great deal of energy.”

It’s also printable and flexible, offering virtually limitless potential applications. Large-scale production of the B2 polymer batteries is not far off – within a year or two, he added.

“We’ve been out front of the polymer space in energy storage for a number of years,” said Seferos.

His group is also highly interested in thermoelectrics, and is collaborating with groups in the United States and China to use soft materials made from their polymers to recycle heat and turn it into electricity and the growing field of personalized cooling.

In a developed country like Canada, he said, many people have air conditioning in their car, in their home and in their office – which leaves a huge carbon footprint.

By making clothing that can cool people, “they won’t need the huge AC unit in their home or their car,” he said.

“As professors, we’re not trained as businesspeople but our students can certainly acquire those skills,” he said. “When they develop new technology during the course of their PhD, they become such great champions of that technology that they’re the natural leaders for spinning it out.

“I am supportive of that.”

The application deadline for the next round of funding for the McLean Award is Jan. 15.

Four U of T global projects get almost $1-million funding injection from Connaught Fund

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 13:54:08 +0000

Four U of T global projects get almost $1-million funding injection from Connaught Fund

noreen.rasbach Fri, 07/20/2018 - 09:54

Cutline

Marc Cadotte, a biological sciences professor at University of Toronto Scarborough, is receiving $242,500 to set up a Global Urban Biological Invasions Consortium (photo by Ken Jones)

Jennifer Robinson

Topic

Global Lens

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Connaught Fund

Connaught Global Challenge Award

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Forestry

Global

Humanities

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Research & Innovation

Rotman School of Management

U of T Mississauga

U of T Scarborough

Vector Institute

Global research in blockchain technology and using theologies to help build more inclusive societies are among four University of Toronto projects sharing almost $1 million in funding from this year’s Connaught Global Challenge Award.

The internal award, funded by the Connaught Fund, supports new collaborations involving leading U of T researchers and students from multiple disciplines, along with innovators and thought leaders from other sectors.

The Connaught funding will help these programs get off the ground and boost efforts to find external funding to further develop solutions to global challenges, as well as create new research-oriented academic programs.

“The Connaught Global Challenge Award is unique,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation. “It fosters cross-disciplinary research, harnessing the university’s incredible depth and breadth of expertise to come up with truly innovative, groundbreaking solutions.

“Once again, we have been amazed by the tremendous creativity and desire of U of T’s scholars to work together to tackle some of the world’s most challenging and complicated global problems.”

The recipients of this year’s Connaught Global Challenge Award are:

Marc Cadotte, a biological sciences professor at University of Toronto Scarborough, is receiving $242,500 to set up a Global Urban Biological Invasions Consortium.

The consortium will oversee a network of projects and collaborations to determine the magnitude of invasion economic and ecosystem impacts in cities around the world.

Understanding invasive plant and animal species – and how best to tackle them – is largely based on insights from natural habitats, yet urban ecosystems differ radically because of the human population. Researchers will study a number of issues including how political, economic, trade, and environmental differences among cities influence how vulnerable they are to invasive species.

His team includes U of T researchers Marney Isaac, department of physical and environmental sciences and the Centre for Critical Development Studies at U of T Scarborough, and the department of geography; Daniel Silver, department of sociology at U of T Scarborough; Scott MacIvor and Nicholas Mandrak, department of biological sciences at U of T Scarborough and the department of ecology and evolutionary biology; Sara Hughes, department of political science at U of T Mississauga; Marc Johnson, department of biology at U of T Mississauga and director of the Centre for Urban Environments; Marie-Josée Fortin, department of ecology and evolutionary biology; Sandy M. Smith, Faculty of Forestry; and Liat Margolis, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.

In addition, there are external collaborators from research groups in 30 different cities from 19 different countries. The cities are clustered into regional hubs led by Myla Aronson (Rutgers University); David Richardson (University of Stellenbosch); Ingolf Kühn (Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg); Petr Pysek (Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic); Rafael Zenni (Universidade Federal de Lavras); and Inderjit Singh (Delhi University).

Valentina Napolitano (pictured left), a professor in the department of anthropology, and Simon Coleman, a professor in the department for the study of religion, are receiving $230,000 to further build the U of T tri-campus into a world leading hub of dialogue and expertise on relations between theologies and both the social and the natural sciences.

Theologies, involving multiple means of sensing the divine and orienting everyday practices, remain key to studies of historical and ongoing political forms of social inclusion and exclusion.

The initiative will involve international and interdisciplinary collaborations for the organization of seminars, public lectures and visiting fellowships on the linked themes of sovereignty, sanctity and soil, as well as student initiatives in co-operation with interfaith organizations in the Greater Toronto Area.

Laura Rosella (pictured left), associate professor of epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, is receiving $250,000 to launch a global network to advance innovative research and training in predictive analytics to address pressing global population health challenges.

The multidisciplinary team will create two innovation hubs. One hub will develop and test artificial intelligence, or AI, approaches for population risk prediction and integrate these predictive models into health decision-making. The second team will focus on how best to integrate this knowledge using prescriptive analytics.

The team includes U of T researchers Ajay Agrawal and Avi Goldfarb, Rotman School of Management; Timothy Chan and Scott Sanner, department of mechanical and industrial engineering; and Anna Goldenberg, department of computer science, as well as the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

Andreas Veneris (pictured left), a professor cross-appointed with the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering and the department of computer science, will receive $250,000 to create the UTLedgerHub, the University of Toronto’s global knowledge hub for crypto-economic blockchain technology.

The development of distributed ledger technologies such as bitcoin and ethereum has almost entirely occurred outside of the mainstream tech sector, with universities and their researchers largely at the sidelines.

To address this knowledge gap, the UTLedgerHub will bundle research across technology, finance, law and governance to establish U of T as an international leader in research and teaching of decentralized ledger technology and help cement Toronto as a leader in the field at a global scale.

His team includes U of T researchers Andreas Park from the Rotman School of Management; Jon Lindsay from the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy; Katya Malinova from the department of economics, as well as Poonam Puri from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University.

To be considered for Connaught Global Challenge funding, global challenge teams must represent new collaborations involving leading U of T researchers and students from multiple disciplines, along with innovators and thought leaders from other sectors.

The application deadline for the next round of funding is Feb. 1.

Happy birthday! The Conversation Canada turns one

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 29 Jun 2018 18:23:14 +0000

Happy birthday! The Conversation Canada turns one

noreen.rasbach Fri, 06/29/2018 - 14:23

Jennifer Robinson

Topic

Our Community

Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics

Faculty & Staff

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

The Conversation

Subheadline

U of T scholars among top contributors, most-read authors carried by non-profit news organization

It was an interesting, solidly researched story – similar to the content they publish every day.

So Scott White turned off the lights at The Conversation Canada and headed home for the night. He made dinner and then – like usual – checked the daily stats to see how well the day’s stories were performing.

He did a double take when he saw what was happening.

“Within an hour or two of us putting it up, it had been viewed 80,000 times,” he says with a laugh. “I couldn’t figure out why so I started poking around.”

The story, disputing the health benefits of standing desks by U of T researcher Peter Smith, had touched a nerve – more than 14,000 kilometres away in Oceania where it was quickly picked up by major newspapers.

“We were like, ‘How the hell did this happen?’” says White. “Little did we know that in Australia and New Zealand a lot of employers have brought in standing desks that people hate so [the story] confirmed what a lot of workers thought.”

A hundred thousand views later, this story is just one of the surprises that has confounded and delighted the small editing team behind The Conversation Canada, which celebrates its one-year anniversary this week and its 900^th story published.

Led by White, a three-decade veteran of Canadian newswire journalism, the non-profit news organization is a fusion of journalism and academia where scholars work with seasoned newswire editors to hone their opinion and research pieces into articles for a general audience.

Just like any traditional newsroom, “it’s all about the story,” he says – which needs to be interesting, informative and topical.

The stories are published under Creative Commons, which means any news organization can republish or share their work for free as long as proper credit is given. They’re also free for anyone to read on The Conversation Canada’s website.

The Conversation started seven years ago in Australia and now has independent offshoots in the United Kingdom, the United States, Africa and France. This week Spain started, too. There is even a global edition run out of a newsroom in New York.

The Canadian version of The Conversation is among the smallest, with six staff members (the equivalent of 3.5 full-time editors), but “productivity-wise, I think we match the larger organizations,” says White, whose office is located at the University of Toronto.

“With the implosion of [traditional for-profit] journalism . . . we’ve arrived at the right time,” he says, adding they’ve learned two main lessons from their first year in operation: “There is an appetite amongst the public for evidence-based, research-based journalism . . . [and] we never knew how much the academics would want to write for us.

“We’re getting over 100 pitches a month coming in [from scholars across Canada] – that’s kind of more than we can handle right now.”

That’s a good problem for a startup to have, says White, who previously worked as editor-in-chief of The Canadian Press, the country’s leading national newswire service.

Everyone from young postdoctoral researchers to emeritus professors in their 80s have written for them to date and virtually all Canadian media organizations have republished their content, with the exception – so far – of the Globe and Mail and CBC.

The media pickups are critical for The Conversation since about 70 per cent of their readership comes from these sources, White says. However, they also know anecdotally from their researchers that even if outlets aren’t picking up their content, they are “matching” it by interviewing The Conversation contributors and writing their own stories.

“If I was a competitive news organization that depended on advertising dollars, that [matching] would anger me – but it doesn’t,” he says. “We see part of our mission is to expand knowledge mobilization. If we’re helping an academic from U of T or Dalhousie and somebody from CBC sees it, that’s great. It’s just getting the message out.”

Facts vs. fiction

There are now 26 Canadian universities involved in The Conversation across Canada, including founding partners U of T and University of British Columbia. U of T, Canada’s top globally ranked research university, was the organization’s No. 1 contributor in 2017.

“Everyone loves the concept,” explains David Estok, founding chair of The Conversation Canada’s board and U of T’s vice-president of communications.

“In times like this – a post truth, fake news era – it shows that in the academy there is significant and important work being done that is factual, evidence-based. That’s something our society needs now, more than ever.”

Underpinning the support from the universities is a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) awarded to UBC associate professors of journalism Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young to get the project off the ground and to study its success in helping academics reach a broader audience.

“We’re essentially their lab,” White says. “We wouldn’t be here without them.”

With the cutting of beat reporters assigned to science and higher education, The Conversation has found a niche to fill – and one that seems to work better for scholars.

“In the old model, you’d have a reporter [who] would call up an expert and interview them for half an hour and maybe use three sentences of that conversation,” White says.

“We’ve sort of taken that middle person out of it and allowed the academic to write in his or her own words about their knowledge. We help them put it into journalistic format so that people can understand it. It’s a really interesting model.”

Another important difference is a personalized dashboard for each academic who contributes to The Conversation. They can track how many times their stories are read and what media outlets have picked them up.

“Some of the authors become really addicted to their dashboards,” White says.

‘Nerd cred’

Last year, an article on how to safely watch eclipses by U of T astronomy Professor Bryan Gaensler was the second most read story – 204,000 views – published by The Conversation Canada.

“That one article, comfortably, has been read by more people than every single scientific publication that I’ve ever produced in my life put together,” says the director of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics.

(The Conversation’s top story with 450,000 global readers, White says, was on the female orgasm gap written by two male researchers at Concordia University.)

Since Gaensler started writing for The Conversation in Australia in 2011, he’s published 18 articles that have been viewed more than 680,000 times. He checks his dashboard regularly and delights in telling his wife when he’s been picked up by the journalistic big leagues.

Professor Bryan Gaensler, director of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics

A Canada Research Chair in Radio Astronomy, Gaensler says he finds the process of writing for an average reader enlightening. And, unlike his scholarly work, he can have opinions in his articles for The Conversation.

“Normally, when I write a piece for a newspaper or do an interview, they’ll change it and the first I’ll know is when it’s published,” Gaensler says. “What I like about this process is instead of them deciding to just take a paragraph out, it’s an iterative process. They can tell me what works and I can push back and say, ‘No, that paragraph is actually quite important.’ And they can say, ‘OK, but let’s move it to here.’ I actually get to participate in making the article accessible rather than some person who I never interact with changing what I wanted to say.”

There’s another important difference between the journalists and the academics. While White and his team get excited by pickups by Smithsonian magazine and the New York Times, Gaensler and his ilk have other big prizes in mind.

“The one that gets us the most excited is IFLScience.com,” he says. “The holy grail among nerds is to get picked up by them…[because] they pick up what’s cool and exciting.

“It’s obviously not as prestigious as the New York Times or the Washington Post, but in terms of nerd street cred it is the one.”

Next steps

Sitting proudly on Gaensler’s desk where everyone who comes to visit can see it is a mug reading: “My article in The Conversation was read by more than 100,000 people!”

The mugs are a small tribute to contributors who have really knocked it out of the park with their articles, says White, who recently presented two to scholars at Memorial University in Newfoundland during a workshop to encourage more researchers to write for The Conversation.

As his team prepares to embark on their second year in business, he says they’re looking to ramp up the number of stories they produce and launch La Conversation Canada to highlight the best of this country’s research produced in French. “We’ll also translate both ways,” White says.

They’ll also continue to focus on reconciliation and working with racialized authors through the work of Vinita Srivastava, The Conversation Canada’s culture, arts and critical race editor.

“We did this piece by Daniel Heath Justice from UBC called Settlers with Opinions, which was a very difficult thing for some people to read,” White says. “I thought it was one of the most powerful things we’ve ever produced. As this country is still going through reconciliation, I think we’ve really helped with the dialogue.”

Crediting White and his editorial team for the success to date, U of T’s Estok says he’s eager for even more universities to join in The Conversation Canada as they work to launch new products and punch even higher at the global level.

Universities and scholars who take part have a huge opportunity to raise their profile and share the public good that is arising from solid Canadian research talent across a dizzying array of fields, he says.

“All of this is a perfect fit for the University of Toronto,” Estok says. “It gives us a bigger platform to tell our story globally, which fits very well with our international strategy.”

The Conversation is a powerful tool for academics to play a role in and influence public opinion by sharing their evidence-based research in an engaging format, Gaensler says.

“I wish more people would write for The Conversation and read it,” he says. “My hero is Carl Sagan. One of the reasons he’s my hero is because he was not just a spectacular scientist, he was also an amazing communicator. He made all kinds of profound discoveries and that allowed him to speak with authority and insights and to respond to the changing public landscape.

“As an established researcher, I think I have a responsibility to advocate for the field in a broad way.”

Dozens of U of T faculty and alumni named to Order of Canada

geoff.vendeville — Fri, 29 Jun 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Dozens of U of T faculty and alumni named to Order of Canada

geoff.vendeville Fri, 06/29/2018 - 00:00

Topic

Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation

Alumni

Awards

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty & Staff

Faculty of Arts & Science

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Order of Canada

More than two dozen leading lights associated with the University of Toronto have been recognized by the Order of Canada – one of the country's highest civilian honours.

The long list of luminaries associated with U of T includes David Cameron, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. Cameron has been named a Member of the Order for his “governmental expertise in federal negotiations and constitutional affairs,” as well as his contributions as a scholar and academic leader.

A professor of political science, Cameron has lent his expertise to governments around the world. He's advised the government of Sri Lanka, travelled to Baghdad on behalf of a Washington-based institute promoting democracy and helped the Estonian government reform the country's constitution.

The new appointees and promotions within the Order were announced Friday by Governor General Julie Payette, herself a U of T alumna and former astronaut who was the first Canadian to board the International Space Station.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science and political scientist David Cameron has been named a Member of the Order of Canada (photo by Brian Summers)

Other Order of Canada honourees with connections to U of T include faculty whose expertise ranges from neurodegenerative diseases to Canadian history and politics.

University Professor Peter St George-Hyslop, an acclaimed geneticist and doctor, was made an Officer for his contributions to the study of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders. He took an interest in Alzheimer's as a medical student in the 1970s. Today, he's one of the top-cited authors in the field, having published over 200 articles. He and his team of researchers have helped discover key genes and proteins that cause cell degeneration in early onset Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative illnesses.

Robert Bothwell, a professor of history and international relations in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Munk School of Global Affairs, was named a Member for his “influential research of Canadian history, politics and foreign policy affairs.” He began teaching at U of T in 1970 and has written more than 20 books on Canadian history, including the Penguin History of Canada and an award-winning biography of the influential cabinet minister and businessman, C.D. Howe.

Dr. Allan Detsky has been named a Member in recognition of his “advanced economic expertise in the Canadian healthcare system, notably with respect to clinical policy making through cost-effective enhancement to improve patient outcomes.” He is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and holds a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Detsky, a general internist and professor at U of T's Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, was physician-in-chief of Mount Sinai Hospital from 1997 to 2009.

Jack Gerrow, an adjunct professor and alumnus of U of T's Faculty of Dentistry, made it his mission to improve dentistry education so that graduates learn to care for their patients safely and successfully. He has been appointed a Member of the Order for his contributions in dentistry, “notably in the areas of accreditation and competencies.” He served as executive director and registrar of the National Dental Examining Board for 24 years, and has helped develop examinations and certification processes in Australia, South Korea and Hong Kong.

Dr. Mitchell Halperin, a professor emeritus of medicine, has been named a Member for his “renowned leadership within the field of nephrology,” the branch of medicine that deals with kidneys. He is one of Canada's leading renal physiologists and has studied kidney disease for over three decades, according to the Kidney Foundation of Canada. He also played a key role in the development of St. Michael's Division of Nephrology, which didn't exist before his recruitment to the hospital 50 years ago.

Dr. K. Wayne Johnston, a U of T professor and surgeon with the University Health Network, has been appointed a Member for “his foundational leadership within the field of vascular surgery in Canada.” The graduate of U of T's medical school is considered a forefather of vascular surgery in Canada. In 1978, he co-founded the Canadian Society for Vascular Surgery and, three years later, established the division of vascular surgery at U of T.

Dr. Bryce Taylor, professor of general surgery at U of T and former surgeon-in-chief at UHN, has been named a Member for his “sustained impact on the teaching and practice of surgery in Canada.” Taylor is recognized, in particular, for his advocacy in improving surgical safety standards and patient care. He has helped devise a safe surgery checklist, which has been found to reduce surgical complications and mortality.

Dr. Taylor earned his medical degree and completed postgraduate training at U of T. His specialities are hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery. He was part of the team that initiated the U of T Liver Transplant Program, and he describes the lessons he learned over a career in leadership roles in the book Effective Medical Leadership.

Dr. James Waddell, a renowned orthopedic surgeon on faculty in U of T's division of orthopedic surgery, has been appointed a Member for his “sustained leadership” in the field and for “his dedication in advancing best practices in orthopaedic care across Canada.” He did his postgraduate training at U of T, and served as surgeon-in-chief and medical director of the trauma program at St. Michael's Hospital.

Andrea Baumann, a status faculty member at U of T's Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, has been named a Member for “her leadership in advancing nursing education and in shaping policy and practice in the field of health human resources.” She completed her PhD at U of T in 1988, has over 200 peer-reviewed articles and is recognized as an expert in health systems, human resources and workforce integration.

David Morley, the president and CEO of UNICEF Canada who teaches at the Munk School of Global Affairs, was named a Member for his work in international development and for helping to improve the lives of children and families around the globe. He has helped grow the organization and shape Canadians' response to the Syrian humanitarian crisis, according to UNICEF Canada.

Dr. John Conly, an infectious disease specialist who taught in medicine at U of T, was recognized for his dedication to anti-microbial resistance and infection control. He now teaches at the University of Calgary.

In an interview with CBC, he said he was surprised to have been made a Member of the Order; in fact, he thought the Canadian government called about his taxes. "But when I called back it was Rideau Hall and the Chancellery of Honours," he said on The Homestretch.

"When I looked at the list of honourees over the years, it's really quite humbling to be in this group of company," he added.

U of T alumni from a variety of fields – philanthropy, literature, medicine and education, to name a few – were also recognized for their achievements.

The Governor General honoured another astronaut with links to U of T – Roberta Bondar, who was promoted to Companion. The grade recognizes national pre-eminence or international service or achievement. Bondar, who earned a PhD in neurobiology from U of T in 1974, was the first Canadian woman in space.

Among her carry-on aboard the space shuttle Discovery was the crest of Erindale College (now U of T Mississauga). She also holds an honorary degree from U of T.

Lorne Michaels was also promoted to Companion. The creator and producer of Saturday Night Live honed his comedy skills at U of T. He wrote for and directed the Hart House troupe UC Follies, graduating in 1966. He's since come back to the university to shoot the comedy Mean Girls in Convocation Hall and to accept an honorary degree in 2002.

Cindy Blackstock, a member of Gitxsan First Nation who obtained a PhD in social work from U of T in 2009, becomes an Officer for “her leadership as a champion of Indigenous children and for her efforts to build a culture of reconciliation.” She is a professor at McGill University and has advised the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. She received an honorary degree from U of T in June.

Cindy Blackstock, who has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada, shakes hands with U of T President Meric Gertler while accepting an honorary degree in June (photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

A number of alumni were recognized for making an impact in medicine. Annette O'Connor, who completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing science at U of T, has been made an Officer for her leadership and research in “shared decision making,” the process by which a clinician and patient reach an informed, health-related decision together.

Dr. Jack Kitts, who interned at U of T, has been named a Member for his leadership in developing patient-centred care. Yvonne Steinert, a clinical psychologist and professor of family medicine at McGill University, joins the Order as a Member for her contributions to medical education.

Dr. Mohit Bhandari earned his MD from U of T in 1994. He has been appointed a Member for his contributions in the area of orthopedic trauma and his research on intimate partner violence.

Dr. Gilles Lavigne, who graduated with a PhD in dental medicine from U of T, has been named a Member for his work as a dentist and neuroscientist, “leading to an understanding of the interactions between pain and sleep disorders.”

Peter J. Dillon, a new Member, studies the biogeochemistry of lakes and their catchments. The U of T alumnus, former teaching assistant and former adjunct professor is lauded for his contributions to limnology, the study of bodies of fresh water.

Composer David Jaeger, who graduated with a master's in music in 1972, established a digital sound synthesis facility at U of T, one of the first in Canada, before joining CBC. He has been named a Member for being "at the forefront of Canadian music creation, performance and promotion.”

Hilary Pearson, president of the Philanthropic Foundations of Canada and a U of T alumna, has been appointed a Member for her leadership in “establishing a culture of philanthropy in Canada.”

Barry Callaghan, who holds a bachelor's and master's from U of T, has been named a Member for his contributions to CanLit as a publisher and writer. Also in Canadian literature, the teacher, critic and editor, Elizabeth Waterston, has been appointed to the same grade for her contributions and work as a mentor to writers across the country. She earned a bachelor's degree and PhD at U of T.

Veronica Strong-Boag, who earned a bachelor's and PhD in history at U of T, has been appointed a Member for her activism and her research on the history of women in Canada.

Seana McKenna is named a Member for her contributions to the Canadian stage, particularly at the Stratford Festival. She attended U of T before going to the National Theatre School in Montreal, and she holds an honorary doctor of letters from U of T. She’s won several awards, including a Genie for best supporting actress in The Hanging Garden.

Rebecca Jamieson, the president and CEO of the post-secondary institution Six Nations Polytechnic, has been named a Member for advancing Indigenous education. She holds a master's in education from U of T.

Did we miss anybody? If you know of recent Order of Canada honourees with ties to U of T who aren't mentioned above, please let us know at uoftnews@utoronto.ca.

Canada gives $12 million to boost power of Large Hadron Collider

noreen.rasbach — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 17:51:06 +0000

Canada gives $12 million to boost power of Large Hadron Collider

noreen.rasbach Mon, 06/25/2018 - 13:51

Cutline

Science Minister Kirsty Duncan announced in Vancouver today that the federal government will give $10 million to the Large Hadron Collider, with TRIUMF giving another $2 million in kind (photo courtesy of Innovation, Science and Economic Development)

Jennifer Robinson

Topic

Global Lens

CERN

Department of Physics

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

U of T physicists eager to see what secrets the upgraded particle accelerator will reveal next

For more than a decade, a small team of high-energy physicists and graduate students from the University of Toronto have helped push the boundaries of scientific knowledge at the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.

Today, the Canadian government and TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator centre, announced a $12-million investment to give a major performance boost to the Large Hadron Collider, known as the most massive and complex scientific experiment in human history.

The funding will go towards mission critical components in support of the new High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC or HiLumi), with Vancouver-based TRIUMF leading production of the Canadian components. HiLumi, which had a groundbreaking ceremony earlier this month, is expected to be operational by 2026.

“I am pleased to announce support for Canada’s outstanding researchers, engineers and technicians, whose combined efforts will further our reputation as a global leader in particle physics,” said federal Science Minister Kirsty Duncan in a news release.

The Large Hadron Collider, a high-energy particle accelerator operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), runs in a 27-kilometre circular tunnel buried 100 metres below the surface of the earth underneath France and Switzerland.

Since opening in 2008, it has enabled scientists to recreate the conditions that existed a billionth of a second after the Big Bang — and to study them in a controlled way. In 2012, researchers announced the discovery of the Higgs boson, the so-called “God particle” that gives other particles mass and makes life possible.

“Researchers at the University of Toronto welcome this important support by the Canadian government to help make one of the world’s most important scientific projects possible,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation.

“For more than a decade, U of T researchers have worked side-by-side with colleagues from universities across Canada, at TRIUMF, and around the world to push our knowledge of the fundamental structure of the universe. We look forward to being a part of even more critical breakthroughs as we continue to play a role with the HiLumi project for decades to come.”

One of the areas in which U of T has been involved is the ATLAS detector, one of the main experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.

Right now, the U of T team on ATLAS comprises six faculty, four postdoctoral researchers and 20 graduate students. In the past decade, approximately 50 U of T students have worked at CERN, said U of T physics Professor Robert Orr.

In 2012, the U of T Atlas team (which included Orr and colleagues David Bailey, Peter Krieger, Pierre Savard, Pekka Sinervo, Richard Teuscher and William Trischuk) and their 2,500 ATLAS colleagues from 35 countries played a key role in the hunt for the Higgs boson.

The ATLAS detector, key components of which were built at U of T, was designed to search for new particles in the highest mass collisions of high-energy proton collisions in the Large Hadron Collider.

U of T faculty and graduate students sifted through the massive amounts of data from ATLAS using SciNet super computing resources at U of T to identify collisions containing Higgs boson candidates.

For HiLumi, the Canadian research community will use its world-leading cryomodule technology to build five new particle accelerator components known as crab cavity cryogenic modules, a TRIUMF news release explained.

These sophisticated, ultra low temperature boxes will house crab cavities that “rotate bunches of subatomic particles before they smash together, significantly increasing the number of collisions, or luminosity, of the Large Hadron Collider.”

The souped-up particle accelerator “is very good news — something we’ve been waiting for for quite some time,” said Sinervo. “It will ensure Canada has the official status at CERN that it so appropriately deserves given all the contributions Canadians have made to the experiments and the accelerator.”

The assembly of the crab cavity housing, a cryostat that will serve as a high-performance coldbox, keeping the cavities at their operating temperature (photo by Maximilien Brice/CERN)

The discovery of the Higgs boson was huge, confirming the existence of all the particles making up the Standard Model of particle physics, as well as the existence of the mechanism that gives mass to all the fundamental particles, Orr explained.

Nevertheless, much remains to be discovered and puzzles resolved, such as: Why the pattern of masses? What is dark matter?

“In the context of the Large Hadron Collider, the most important puzzle is the surprisingly small mass of the Higgs,” Orr said.

“Our theoretical understanding leads us to believe this small mass of the Higgs implies there should be a whole zoo of ‘supersymmetric’ particles observable at the LHC. They have not been,” he said.

“It could be that the intensity of the present LHC is insufficient to observe them. That is the main motivation for the HL-LHC — to increase the intensity of the machine to the point where we can observe these new particles.”

On the other hand, Orr said the non-observation of this supersymmetry may also be telling because it “would finally demonstrate that we have to think of some other mechanism that keeps the mass of the Higgs small.

“This could lead to a complete sea change in our understanding of the basic structure of matter.”

With files from Jenny Hall

U of T’s reputation lands it among the top 30 global universities

noreen.rasbach — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 18:21:37 +0000

U of T’s reputation lands it among the top 30 global universities

noreen.rasbach Wed, 06/06/2018 - 14:21

Cutline

(photo by Ken Jones)

Jennifer Robinson

Topic

Global Lens

Global

QS World University Rankings

Ranking

A rock-solid academic reputation – recognized by employers and scholars around the world – has again propelled the University of Toronto to the upper tier of top global universities.

At 28^th – up three spots from last year – U of T is among the top global universities surveyed in the prestigious QS World University Rankings for 2019, published by global higher education company Quacquarelli Symonds. MIT landed in first place again this year.

Compared to other public universities on the list, U of T placed even higher at 16^th in the world and third in North America behind Michigan (20^th) and University of California, Berkeley (27^th).

Last week, U of T was ranked 22^nd in the world by Times Higher Education based on the strength of its university brand.

“The University of Toronto community is thankful for the recognition from our research peers and business leaders around the globe across such a wide range of subject areas,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation.

“It’s clear they see the tremendous value of hiring graduates with a U of T degree and in partnering with our researchers in the pursuit of critically important knowledge. It's rare to have such breadth and depth of scholarship in one institution. This ensures our students have the best and broadest learning opportunities with leading scholars."

The University of Toronto was again the top ranked Canadian post-secondary institution by QS, followed by McGill (33^rd) and UBC (44^th) in the top 100.

QS bases its ranking system on six criteria: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-to-student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty and international students.

When it comes to academic reputation alone, U of T ranked 18^th in the world, QS reported. The university also has a solid reputation among employers, ranking 35^th, and made strides in its rankings for international students.

Overall, the University of Toronto continues to be the highest ranked Canadian university and one of the top ranked public universities in the five principal international rankings: Times Higher Education, QS World Rankings, Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, U.S. News Best Global Universities and National Taiwan University. U of T is also among only a handful of global universities to be highly ranked across all fields.

U of T makes gains on list of universities with best global reputations

noreen.rasbach — Wed, 30 May 2018 17:42:49 +0000

U of T makes gains on list of universities with best global reputations

noreen.rasbach Wed, 05/30/2018 - 13:42

Cutline

(photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Topic

As the University of Toronto’s Class of 2018 prepares to graduate, they can take pride in knowing their degree is from a university with one of the best reputations in the world.

Today, U of T placed 22^nd in the world – and first in Canada – in an influential ranking of the world’s top 100 most powerful university brands. That’s two spots higher than last year on the list published by Times Higher Education (THE).

U of T ranked even higher at 11^thamong the top publicly funded universities in the world, tied with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich).

“This is more wonderful news for all of us at the University of Toronto,” said U of T President Meric Gertler. “It is a remarkable accomplishment once again to be recognized in the top tier of the world’s best public and private universities.

“Our international reputation is built on the efforts of our faculty, staff and students – those efforts propel our world-class performance in teaching and the global impact of our research.”

Three Canadian universities were in the top 50 and all made gains in their placements this year, THE noted in a news release. The University of Toronto was followed by the University of British Columbia at 38 (up from 40) and McGill University at 41 (up from 42).

THE compiles its Top 100 global university brands from a survey of more than 10,000 senior academics around the world.

American universities continue to dominate the list, with 44 institutions in the Top 100. Harvard University is again in the top spot for the eighth consecutive year, followed by MIT and Stanford University.

“What is particularly striking is that the U.S. has actually strengthened its position…despite fears that the U.S. is suffering a ‘Trump slump’ in terms of its global reputation,” said Phil Baty, THE’s editorial director of global rankings, in a news release.

He also noted Chinese universities, which have advanced up the rankings strongly in recent years, appear to be stalling. China’s top universities – Tsinghua University and Peking University – stayed put at 14^th and 17^th, respectively, while other “stars from mainland China have slipped,” THE said.

“This new data shows just how hard it is for emerging powers to break into the traditional global elite,” Baty said.

In addition, for the first time in seven years, India has cracked the Top 100 with the Indian Institute of Science landing in the 91-100 band.

Overall, the University of Toronto continues to be the highest ranked Canadian university and one of the top ranked public universities in the five most prestigious international rankings: Times Higher Education, QS World Rankings, Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, U.S. News Best Global Universities and National Taiwan University.

Jennifer Robinson

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Canada gives $12 million to boost power of Large Hadron Collider

U of T’s reputation lands it among the top 30 global universities

U of T makes gains on list of universities with best global reputations