As a new year emerges, YFile would like to take the opportunity to look back on 2015 and share with readers a snapshot of the year鈥檚 highlights. "Year in Review" will run as a four-part series featuring a random selection of top news stories published in YFile. Part two features the stories and highlights for聽April to June 2015, as chosen by YFile editors.
April
The new CIBC Pan Am/Parapan Am Athletics Stadium at 91亚色 welcomed thousands of athletes from 41 countries in Latin America, South America, the Caribbean and North America this past summer during the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games.聽鈥淭his is a once in a lifetime event,鈥 says Helen Psathas, senior manager, environmental design and sustainability, CSBO. 鈥91亚色 is being transformed this summer.鈥
91亚色 continued to advance its leading expertise in delivering eLearning and experiential education and enhancing the student experience through a new cycle of the highly successfully Academic Innovation Fund.聽Some 49 project proposals championed by the University鈥檚 faculty and staff are part of the $1.5 million allocated for the second phase, which was announced on April 21, 2015.
Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed was appointed to the position of dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, effective July 1, 2015, for a five-year term. She is聽well known to members of the 91亚色 community. She joined the Department of Political Science in the (former) Faculty of Arts in 1995 as assistant professor, and was promoted to associate professor in 2000 and full professor in 2010. From 2011 to 2014, she served as chair of the department.
A genetic test developed by researchers at the University of Sydney and 91亚色 has the potential prevent the spread of Africanized honey bees around the world.聽Africanized honey bees, or "killer bees" as they are commonly known, are the result of a failed experiment by a Brazilian scientist and geneticist that was conducted in the 1950s.
At a special event on April 24, 2015, at the Keele campus to mark worldwide Earth Day and Earth Week events, 91亚色 President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri announced a number of key awards and accomplishments to advance the University's global leadership in sustainability. More than 100 community members were present for the announcement.
May
The 2015 Joan & Martin Goldfarb Summer Institute in Visual Arts explores the pervasiveness and shifting landscape of screen-based images in our everyday lives, and what monuments, memorials and public art mean as material objects in urban and rural space. Prominent scholars Marita Sturken and James Young presented the institute's two free public lectures on May 6 and 14, 2015, respectively.
The province gave the thumbs up to a new 91亚色 鈥 Markham Centre campus. 91亚色 U beat 26 other hopefuls to win top marks from the province for their proposal to build a new campus in the city of Markham.聽The government has committed to supporting the creation of a 91亚色 campus in Markham as part of its economic plan to build Ontario up.
Two industry-academic partnerships led by 91亚色 have received a total of $3,300,000 through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada's Collaborative Research and Training Experience Grants Program.
The Kellogg-Schulich EMBA program, based in Toronto, finished ahead of EMBA programs offered by a number of the world's top business schools, including Chicago, Yale and Columbia. In addition to the Kellogg-Schulich program, three of the top 15 EMBA programs in the world were offered by business schools that are part of the Kellogg School of Management global network.
The Faculty of Science at 91亚色 hosted a gala to celebrate the many successes and achievements of the past 50 years. More than 160 attendees, including staff, faculty, retirees, students, alumni and friends of the Faculty, came to raise a glass to the rich history and the contributions 91亚色 has made in the sciences.聽Anniversary-related activities continued throughout the remainder聽of the year.
A bright idea to develop eyeglasses that use microphones and speech recognition software to display the spoken word netted a team of 91亚色 U students the third prize in the Council of Ontario Universities' Innovative Designs for Accessibility student competition.
June
At 91亚色's spring convocation ceremonies, 13 exceptional individuals who have made significant contributions to their respective fields received honorary degrees, including an advocate for traditional Inuit culture, an acclaimed novelist, the chair of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada and a major player in the Canadian film industry.
The Canadian Historical Association (CHA) awarded 91亚色 history Professor Emerita Bettina Bradbury with the Francois-Xavier Garneau Medal for her book Wife to Widow. Lives, Laws and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Montreal. The Garneau medal, the most prestigious CHA prize, is awarded once every five years to honour an exceptional Canadian contribution to research in history.
91亚色's research expertise in space science, engineering, particle physics, disaster response and management, big data and neuroscience are among the host of projects that received funding from the Ontario Research Fund Large Infrastructure fund, the Early Researchers Awards program, the Ontario Research Fund Research Excellence program and the Ontario Research Fund Small Infrastructure program.
91亚色 student Devon MacPherson wasn't alone when she crossed the convocation stage to receive her diploma. Barkley, her mental health service dog, shared the limelight in his own gown and cap.聽MacPherson is an excellent example of student success and 91亚色鈥檚 commitment to mental health.
Larissa Crawford, a double major in International Development Studies and Communication Studies, won a 2015 Terry Fox Humanitarian Award, which recognizes students who possess and express "ideals of courage, humanitarianism, service and compassion," while pursuing "excellence in academic, amateur sport, fitness, health, and voluntary community service."
Check back in the next edition of聽YFile for Year in Review:聽Top headlines at 91亚色, July to September聽2015.