Faculty Honours & Awards
Ryerson congratulates its researchers for the recognitions they have received. These are just some of the honours and awards presented to Ryerson faculty during the academic year.
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada (RSC), established in 1883 as Canada’s National Academy, is the country’s senior collegium of distinguished scholars, artists and scientists, dedicated to promoting learning and research. This year, one Ryerson researcher was elected to the RSC, the highest honour a scholar can achieve in the arts, humanities and sciences, and a second researcher was named to the Society’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, which represents Canada’s emerging leaders in their fields.
Candice Monson (Psychology) was elected to the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) for her groundbreaking work in developing and testing interpersonal prevention and treatment strategies for trauma-related conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Monson is one of the foremost experts on traumatic stress and the use of individual and conjoint therapies to treat PTSD. Her and her colleagues’ methods are the foremost recommended treatments for PTSD internationally.
Trevor Hart (Psychology) was named to the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists for his community-based research promoting sexual health among populations at higher risk of HIV and for people living with HIV. Hart’s work has focused on discovering factors associated with the risks of contracting or transmitting HIV among men who have sex with men. Hart also designs and tests HIV prevention interventions.
Kamal Al-Solaylee (Journalism) won the annual Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for literary non-fiction for his book Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone).
Peter Bregg (Journalism) was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s most prestigious honours, in recognition of his contributions to photojournalism and the not-for-profit sector.
Aurelia Di Santo (Early Childhood Studies) received the Children’s Rights Champion Award from the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children, an alliance of more than 50 non-governmental organizations.
Liping Fang (Mechanical and Industrial Engineering) was nominated and elected by his peers to be inducted as a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
Michael Kolios (Physics) was inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering’s College of New Fellows, which is composed of leading medical and biological engineers in academia and industry.
Ojelanki Ngwenyama (Business Management) was inducted as a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAF) for his international achievements.
Pamela Palmater (Politics and Public Administration) received the Margaret Mead Award from the International Community Corrections Association, considered to be the highest honour presented by the Association, and given to an individual who has demonstrated leadership in the field of community corrections.
Nancy Walton (Nursing) was recognized for her extensive contributions to the field of research ethics by the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards – L'association canadienne des comités d'éthique de la recherche (CAREB-ACCER) with the CAREB-ACCER 2016 Distinguished Service Award.
Through different disciplines and at various stages of their careers, Ryerson’s esteemed faculty exemplify a diverse range of Scholarly, Research and Creative (SRC) activity. Ryerson is proud of the continuing noteworthy contributions made by its researchers and is pleased to acknowledge such outstanding achievements on an annual basis.
University-Wide SRC Awards
The Sarwan Sahota Ryerson Distinguished Scholar Award is presented annually to one or more Ryerson faculty members who have made an exceptional contribution to SRC activity in their areas of expertise, such as a seminal idea, experiment, application, interpretation or through long-term cumulative impact.
The 2016-17 recipients were Ruth Panofsky (English), who has made significant contributions to all areas of SRC activity as an award-winning poet, acclaimed author of ten books and numerous refereed articles, and as an authoritative scholar of Canadian literature and Canadian publishing history; and Dérick Rousseau (Chemistry and Biology), one of Canada’s premier scientists in the area of food science whose international esteem has been amplified through his cross-disciplinary research collaborations as well as active contributions as a journal founder and editor.
Inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all, the Social Innovation and Action Research Award celebrates Ryerson scholars whose completed, rigorous research projects – typically with community partners − have cultivated the social good of all in areas such as education, health, violence prevention, and diversity and inclusion.
In the 2016-17 academic year, the award was bestowed on two Ryerson community members: Ben Barry (Fashion), whose project, “Refashioning masculinity,” explored how diverse men construct their identities through clothing, which trained 19 students in creative research; and Josephine Wong (Nursing), who worked closely with diasporic communities to understand how racialization can shape the health practices and health outcomes of marginalized groups, particularly in the areas of HIV/AIDS, social stigma and mental health.
Ryerson’s university-wide Knowledge Mobilization and Engagement Award is an SRC activity prize that recognizes one or more of Ryerson’s researchers who have fostered collaborations with external partners in order to generate new ideas that shape perspectives and incubate real-world change. It was presented to Jennifer Lapum (Nursing) for her groundbreaking approach to fusing arts-based programs with research dissemination in the health sciences. This includes her life-sized, 1,700 square-foot art installation, “The 7,024th Patient,” exploring patients’ experiences of heart surgery and recovery, featured at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress.
The Collaborative Research Award is presented to a Ryerson researcher who has undertaken a multidisciplinary or multi-institutional project in their respective field and who creates and maintains collaborations with industry, university and/or community partners to effect positive change. In the 2016-17 academic year, the award recipient was Judy Finlay (Child and Youth Care), a pioneer in non-traditional research methods whose deep engagement with often extremely vulnerable communities has led to important conversations among Indigenous leaders, community leaders, young people and academics in order to help bring agency to those who have been otherwise marginalized or voiceless.
The Early Research Career Excellence Award recognizes the SRC achievements of Ryerson faculty in the first five years of their academic careers. The two recipients in 2016-17 were Sharareh Taghipour (Mechanical and Industrial Engineering), director of the Reliability, Risk and Maintenance Research Laboratory (RRMR), whose research focus has included cancer progression modeling and screening optimization; and Scott Tsai (Mechanical and Industrial Engineering), a founding member of the Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Science Technology (iBEST) who is well-recognized for his research into the microfluidic encapsulation of cells, which has important applications for the immunoisolation of cell transplants.
Deans’ Scholarly Research and Creative Activity Awards
Faculty deans are pleased to recognize individual faculty members for outstanding contributions to their branches of knowledge. These are the recipients of the Deans’ SRC Awards in 2016-17.
Faculty of Arts
- Colleen Derkatch (English)
- Nima Naghibi (English)
- Robert Teigrob (History)
Faculty of Communication and Design
- Ben Barry (Fashion)
- Carolyn Kane (Professional Communication)
Faculty of Community Services
- Nick Bellissimo (Nutrition)
- Richard Meldrum (Occupational and Public Health)
Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science
- Alagan Anpalagan (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
- Farhad Ein-Mozaffari (Chemical Engineering)
Faculty of Science
- Ali Miri (Computer Science)
- Andriy Miranskyy (Computer Science)
Ted Rogers School of Management
- Rupa Banerjee (Business Management)
- Horatio Morgan (Business Management)