Jay Pratt
Acting Vice-Dean, Research & Infrastructure
Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact
Email: vicedeanresearch.artsci@utoronto.ca
Tel: 416-978-7897
Executive Assistant: Christine Yarish
Office: SS2005, Office of the Dean, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street
Portfolio
The Vice-Dean, Research & Infrastructure is responsible for supporting and enhancing the research mission of the faculty, including research funding for new faculty members, providing support for external research funding, and managing the faculty’s Canada Research Chairs and facilitating commercialization opportunities.
Areas of Responsibility
- Research support
- Extra-departmental research units
- Infrastructure planning
- Institutional Strategic Initiatives (ISIs)
- Industry research partnerships
Biography
Professor Jay Pratt grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and has bachelor’s (psychology) and master’s (physical education) degrees from the University of Alberta.
He received his PhD in Experimental Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis in 1996 and then joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto.
Professor Pratt has served in several administrative positions at U of T: Chair of Psychology (2008–12); Acting Vice-Provost, Faculty and Academic Life (2012);Vice-Dean, Research & Infrastructure in Arts & Science (2013–20); Acting Vice-Dean, Graduate Education in Arts & Science (2020–21), and Interim Chair of Psychology (2023–24).
Professor Pratt’s research focuses on understanding the processes of the human attentional and vision systems, and how these interact with cognitive and action systems.
He has published more than 260 research papers with funding by NSERC, CIHR, and SSHRC, and over 25 of his former trainees are professors or scientists in six different countries. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Association for Psychological Science and the Society of Experimental Psychologists.
Professor Pratt has won the Psychonomic Society’s Mid-Career Award, an Ontario government Premier’s Research Excellence Award, the University of Toronto’s Faculty Award of Excellence and the Psychology Graduate Student Association’s “most valuable professor” award.
Professor Pratt was appointed Acting Vice-Dean, Research & Infrastructure effective April 15, 2025 and will serve until May 31, 2025.