2022-23 Black Graduate Student Fellowship and Scholarship Awards

Oluwatosin (Joseph) Aladekoyi, Environmental Applied Science and Management PhD

Oluwatosin is a PhD candidate in the Environmental Applied Science and Management program whose research evaluates the policy and management options that currently exist in Canada for protecting aquatic health and the influence of scientific findings on wastewater management decisions and freshwater protection against emerging contaminants. His work aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 6, which ensures the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. In addition to his research, he volunteers with organizations like Young Water Professionals and facilitates scientific writing workshops for students. He has provided mentoring support for students through International Student Support and Tri-Mentoring program. He has also contributed to community development projects in African regions such as Niger Republic and various states in Nigeria. Oluwatosin has been recognized for his academic achievements, being a recipient of the university's Graduate Scholarships and the Geoffrey Bruce Fellowship for freshwater policy.

Mackenzie Agard, Communication and Culture MA

Mackenzie is an MA candidate with the joint Communication and Culture program with York University. Her research on microaggressions takes an intersectional approach to making connections between overt and covert racism in Canada. Inspired by racialized people’s reluctance to return to in-person work following work-from-home mandates, her approach takes an understanding of microaggression that is grounded in psychology as mental/emotional phenomena and explores these incidents of implicit racism as culturally and systematically upheld acts of discrimination and exclusion. She expands on de/postcolonial and critical race scholarship in the sphere of professionalism and labour to coincide with organizations working towards antiracism via equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives. Mackenzie’s research positions racialized voices at the forefront of her research to motivate changes to organizational policy and how human resource departments manage issues of microaggression in the workplace.

Krystal Henry-Mathieu, Environmental Applied Science and Management MASc

Krystal is an environmental applied science and management MASc candidate. Her research focuses on geothermal heating and cooling innovations and their impact on soil. Her research utilizes numerical modeling software to simulate the impact of the system’s use on soil organic carbon decomposition and the mobilization of contaminants.

Alongside her academic pursuits, Krystal is the founder of an outreach initiative named "BLK Women in STEM," which aims to provide mentorship opportunities and support to black youth in STEM fields. Through this initiative, she publishes a virtual magazine to showcase the remarkable accomplishments of black women in STEM whom she interviews. Outside of her own initiative, she also mentors youth through the Girl’s SySTEM Mentoring Program to help young girls in their pursuit of careers in STEM.

Krystal also collaborates with SciXchange at TMU where she delivers accessible STEM education and workshops to youth across the GTA as their climate change and climate justice program coordinator.

Samson Abioye, Chemical Engineering PhD

Samson’s research work centres around environmental sustainability with specific emphasis on water treatment. His work, aimed at revolutionizing the wastewater treatment process in the extractive industry, employs a two-pronged approach to ensure environmental protection of water bodies by removing tough-to-treat legacy and emerging contaminants from water, while also recovering precious materials. Samson is designing an energy-efficient adsorption process using biopolymer and graphene-based materials to simultaneously recover precious materials from water while treating. He is passionate about equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in advancing scholarly research and creative (SRC) activities.

Samson serves on a committee working on a three-year action plan to promote EDI within the Chemical Engineering department. He is a member of the FEAS Dimensions team, where he has championed various efforts to reduce and eliminate EDI barriers in SRC work. Samson has also worked with the Yeates School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies implementation working group (YSGPS IWG) on the review of guidelines to accommodate students in achieving non-course milestones in graduate studies.