The University of Toronto has recognized 51 faculty members — including 15 from the Faculty of Arts & Science — across its three campuses with Connaught New Researcher Awards.
The annual award supports researchers in the early stages of their careers in humanities, social sciences, life sciences, physical sciences and engineering and is designed to increase their competitiveness for external awards. Questions investigated by this year’s recipients range from the microscopic “How can we improve our cellular therapies?” to the macroscopic “What is the nature of Dark Matter?”.
“Early-career researchers face many challenges as they carve out their places in their respective fields. This funding will help alleviate many of these burdens and springboard their research,” said Professor Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice president of research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.
“I’m looking forward to seeing their work on a wide range of important issues such as the impact of sustainability on firms’ supply chain reporting, the experiences of Black and Indigenous women school administrators, and environmental exposure to contaminants during pregnancy.”
The Connaught New Researcher Award is part of the Connaught Fund, which celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year. As Canada’s largest internal university research funding program, the Connaught Fund has given out more than $178.7 million to researchers across myriad disciplines to tackle pressing global issues.
A&S Connaught New Researcher Award Recipients:
- Boris Babic, Philosophy: From Observed Disparity to Historical Inequity: A Data-centric Approach to Machine Bias
- Tarek Dika, Philosophy: Heidegger and the Possibility of Ontology
- Rahul Gopalkrishnan, Computer Science: Leveraging Structure in Privileged Information
- Jessica Gronsbell, Statistical Sciences: Statistical Methods for Integrative Analysis of Electronic Health Records and Genetic Data
- Ziqing Hong, Physics: Coherent Elastic Neutrino-nucleus Scattering Measurementwith the Ricochet Experiment
- Ting Li, Astronomy & Astrophysics: Probe the Nature of Dark Matter with Milky Way’s Satellite Galaxies
- Shelley Lumba, Cell & System Biology: Understanding the Molecular Dialogue Between Plants and Fungi
- Eric Merkley, Political Science: Evaluating the Social and Perceptual Dimensions of Polarization in the Canadian Public
- William Paris, Philosophy: Racial Justice and Forms of Life: Towards a Critical Theory ofUtopian Epistemology
- Arafat Razzaque, Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations: Moral Regulation of Speech in Early Islam: A Study of Ibn Abi I-Dunya’s Book of Silence
- Carolina Sá Carvalho Pereira, Spanish & Portuguese: Mosquito Aesthetics: The Art and Politics of Contagion in Brazil
- Christina Starmans, Psychology: Going Above and Beyond: How Children and Adults Reason about Morally Supererogatory Actions
- Helen Tran, Chemistry: Design of Molecular Architectures for Bioelectronic Interfaces
- Nathan Vedal, East Asian Studies: The Manchu Scholar: Translingual Intellectual Cultural and Ethnic Identity in Early Modern China
- Adrien Zakar, Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations: Ottoman Territory and the Instruments of Empire, 1800 – 1950