As a new year emerges, YFile takes a look back on 2018 to share with readers a snapshot of the year鈥檚 highlights. 鈥淵ear in Review鈥 will run as a four-part series, and will feature a random selection of top news stories published in YFile. Here are the stories and highlights for October to December 2018, as chosen by YFile editors.
October
Carla Lipsig-Mumm茅
91亚色 Professor Carla Lipsig-Mumm茅, of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, was recognized for excellence in research by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Lipsig-Mumm茅,听a professor of work and labour studies, is the recipient of the SSHRC鈥檚 prestigious Impact Award (Partnership Category). She is currently principal investigator of the Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Respond to Climate Change project, which brings together 56 individual researchers and 25 partner organizations and unions in seven countries. Its groundbreaking work has been recognized by the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Schulich School of Business community came together on Sunday, Oct. 21 to celebrate the official completion of the Rob and Cheryl McEwen Graduate Study & Research Building. This campus expansion was one of the five major pillars of听, Schulich鈥檚 most comprehensive fundraising and alumni engagement campaign to date. The ceremony was attended by more than 300 guests, including students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the University.
The 91亚色 English Language Institute (YUELI) was recognized as the 2018-19 World Language School of the Year 鈥 North America by iStudy Guide. The award is the highest recognition for a language institution. YUELI provides English-language instruction for academic and professional purposes and serves approximately 3,000 students from more than 50 different countries every year.
Lassonde School of Engineering graduate students Zhongpan Wu and Karim Hammad at Innovation 360
Graduate students from the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science in the Lassonde School of Engineering won two industry awards for their work on custom computers that are helping to propel DNA sequencing into a low-cost mobile activity. Lassonde grad students Zhongpan Wu, Karim Hammad and Yunus Dawji, along with Assistant Professor Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh and Associate Professor Sebastian Magierowski, are making significant contributions in the field of DNA sequencing by听developing specially designed hardware intended to increase the rate at which DNA measurements can be processed and decrease the power consumption required to do so.
November
Darwinian evolution in a lab. That鈥檚 how this year鈥檚 winner of the Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award, Assistant Professor Ryan Hili, concisely describes what he does in his chemistry lab in the Faculty of Science. It鈥檚 also what won him the Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award, a distinction that recognizes outstanding early career faculty. The award program is a commitment by Petro-Canada (now Suncor Energy Inc.) and 91亚色 to encourage excellence in teaching and research that will enrich the learning environment and contribute to society.
To understand how climate change already impacts human health in Canada and around the world, leading scientific and civil society organizations gathered at 91亚色 on Nov. 29. The day-long event focused on findings contained in the Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change, a Lancet-led yearly review of the world's response to climate change and how it affects human health globally.
Koleszar-Green鈥檚 application of Indigenous pedagogy to her teaching has earned her a 2018 President鈥檚 University-wide Teaching Award. She was one of five people selected by the Senate Committee on Awards for their imaginative and significant contributions to enhancing the quality of learning for students enrolled at 91亚色.
Laurence Harris
Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Dec. 3. Soon after his arrival, some important research from 91亚色 Professor Laurence Harris began. This effort could one day help research in the areas of Parkinson鈥檚 disease, stroke recovery, damaged organs, aging and remote robots used for surgery. Harris is leading a virtual reality experiment, some equipment for which recently travelled to the听ISS on NASA鈥檚 Northrop Grumman鈥檚 commercial resupply mission. While Harris will remain on Earth, his research will investigate the effects of microgravity on astronauts鈥 perception of their motion.听
December
New research led by 91亚色 Faculty of Health Professor Tara Haas could be considered a breakthrough discovery in understanding obesity-associated events that worsen an individual鈥檚 health. Haas and a multidisciplinary team of scientists investigated the cause of a vascular dysfunction that links obesity with undesirable health outcomes, such as inflammation and diabetes, and made a novel finding that blood vessels may participate in the control of whole-body energy balance.
91亚色 Professor Emeritus Neil Brooks was named the recipient of the Canadian Tax Foundation (CTF) Lifetime Contribution Award. The most prestigious award given out by the foundation, it honours individuals who, over their careers, have made substantial contributions to the CTF and its purposes through their volunteer efforts and body of work. Brooks was a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, where he taught tax law and policy for more than 35 years.
Rob Bowman
91亚色's famous "rock 'n' roll professor," Rob Bowman, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Historical Album category as co-producer of the Numero Group鈥檚 2017 two-disc compilation Jackie Shane: Any Other Way. This is Bowman鈥檚 sixth Grammy nomination and second as producer. In 1996, he won the Grammy for Best Album Notes for his 47,000-word monograph accompanying the 10-CD boxed set of The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles, Vol. 3: 1972-1975.
91亚色鈥檚听Laboratory of Mathematical Parallel Systems听(LAMPS) is exploring how climate change will affect Ontario in a new online portal containing hundreds of thousands of data points, maps, graphs and predictions. The听Ontario Climate Data Portal, led by听Huaiping Zhu, a professor of mathematics and statistics and director of LAMPS in the Faculty of Science, based calculations on the greenhouse gas concentration trajectories adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
This concludes the four-part听YFile series听for Year in Review 2018: Top headlines at 91亚色.