Kim Luke / en U of T's Mark Lautens and the art of being a great doctoral supervisor /news/u-t-s-mark-lautens-and-art-being-great-doctoral-supervisor <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">U of T's Mark Lautens and the art of being a great doctoral supervisor</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-09-19-lautens-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=JhfU-3D1 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-09-19-lautens-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=EWHH3Xg6 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-09-19-lautens-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=E0aW3Ufd 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-09-19-lautens-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=JhfU-3D1" alt="Photo of Mark Lautens"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>rasbachn</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-09-20T00:00:00-04:00" title="Wednesday, September 20, 2017 - 00:00" class="datetime">Wed, 09/20/2017 - 00:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Mark Lautens on supervising doctoral students: “They should see you as having their interests in mind and helping them reach their potential, rather than you dictating what they do and how hard they have to work”</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kim-luke" hreflang="en">Kim Luke</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Kim Luke</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/department-chemistry" hreflang="en">Department of Chemistry</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Like most successful relationships, partnerships between doctoral students and their supervisors are a matter of finding the right fit.</p> <p>Supervisors look for motivated, dedicated and hard-working students who can excel in their field and students look for guidance to do excellent scholarship in supportive and stimulating environments that will position them well for future careers. A good match is important: Supervisors and doctoral students work together for at least five years, longer than many people stay in a job.</p> <p>For some graduate students, <a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors/current-professors.htm">University Professor</a> <strong>Mark Lautens</strong> of chemistry is that model supervisor. Lautens has supervised more than 50 graduate students and his outstanding performance was recently recognized with the School of Graduate Studies JJ Berry Smith Doctoral Supervision Award.</p> <p>A renowned researcher, <a href="http://For his contributions at the forefront of organic chemistry, which have led to the creation of new medicinal compounds with fewer side effects.">Lautens was appointed to&nbsp;the Order of Canada in 2015</a> for “his contributions at the forefront of organic chemistry, which have led to the creation of new medicinal compounds with fewer side effects.”&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="/news/islamic-law-expert-among-six-u-t-scholars-named-royal-society-canada-s-college-new-scholars">Lautens was also recognized this week by&nbsp;the Royal Society of Canada with the&nbsp;Henry Marshall Tory Medal</a>, which is awarded once every two years for outstanding research in any branch of astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, physics, or an allied science.</p> <p>Lautens says he looks for a combination of enthusiasm and determination. Doctoral students must have the ability to keep trying when they hit a roadblock and the aim of making their own creative intellectual contribution to the project. He also thinks it helps when students view you as an adviser rather than the boss.</p> <p>“They should see you as having their interests in mind and helping them reach their potential, rather than you dictating what they do and how hard they have to work.”</p> <p>For <strong>Tomislav Rovis</strong>, joining Lautens’ group offered&nbsp; a “palpable sense of being in the middle of something that mattered,” doing science at an international scale and competing with the best groups in the world.</p> <p>“That was somewhat terrifying to a young and very inexperienced researcher but it was also incredibly attractive. I’ve never regretted that decision,” said Rovis.</p> <p>Now an organic chemistry professor at Columbia University, Rovis was impressed by how much Lautens cared about science and the development of his people. He also appreciated Lautens’ openness and flexibility.</p> <p>Rovis did not major in chemistry during his undergraduate years, which meant his decision to pursue graduate studies in chemistry was an unusual one. After finishing his bachelor’s degree, he worked for a while and travelled around trying to figure out what to do with his life. He eventually decided to go with his passion for organic chemistry.</p> <p>Since he did not have an undergraduate degree in chemistry, Lautens advised him to take qualifying courses in a probationary semester while applying to graduate school.</p> <p>“No other program would have looked at me without an undergraduate degree in chemistry or its equivalent,” said Rovis. “I’m grateful that U of T’s chemistry department – and Mark specifically – looked outside the norms to let me pursue it.”</p> <p>After completing his undergraduate degree, one of Lautens’ current students, <strong>Hyung Yoon</strong>, vacillated between whether to pursue graduate studies in pharmacy or chemistry. He found that Lautens’ group offered the exact combination he was looking for: the opportunity to explore research directly related to the development of drugs.</p> <p>“I thought that Mark was the best choice for me since he was very enthusiastic and the work environment was very supportive,” said Yoon. One of his proudest accomplishments working with Lautens so far has been presenting – and receiving a prize for – a poster at an international conference in South Korea.</p> <p>Drawn to Toronto’s urban lifestyle and to U of T for its reputation in chemistry, <strong>Jane Panteleev&nbsp;</strong>researched several potential supervisors. She chose Lautens because his work is recognized across industry and academia in North America and Europe, and has the potential to affect industrial processes and advance chemistry’s role in materials and drug discovery.</p> <p>Now employed at Amgen Inc, a leading biotechnology company in Cambridge, Mass.,&nbsp;Panteleev works on drug discovery programs in therapeutic areas including inflammation, cardiovascular and kidney disease, and neuroscience.</p> <p>“I loved the systematic and analytical approach employed in the study of chemistry,” said Panteleev. “I also liked that organic chemistry could be applied in many industries including energy, materials, and pharmaceutical sectors.”</p> <p>While doctoral students go on to many different careers, their doctoral supervisor can have a tremendous and long-lasting impact.</p> <p>For Panteleev, learning to be analytical and detail-oriented when conducting research were valuable lessons. She also credits Lautens with showing her how to be an effective project leader and supervisor. “Mark’s style of leadership gave me the opportunity to be more independent and to own my research accomplishments.”</p> <p>Rovis also took away some lasting lessons in how to work with people, including the doctoral students he now supervises.</p> <p>“There are people in my field that use their positions as adviser to validate their own insecurities,” he said. “They brook no dissent and no contradictions.</p> <p>“Mark was never like that. I vividly remember contradicting him as a junior graduate student in a group meeting in front of the entire group and he did not use his intellectual muscle and experience to squash me. In retrospect, I was mostly wrong – but not always! – but that’s not the point. Mark let me voice my opinion without retribution. That’s invaluable and the way I run my own group now.”</p> <h3><a href="/news/better-living-through-chemistry-mark-lautens">Read <em>Better Living Through Chemistry</em>, a Q &amp; A with Lautens</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 20 Sep 2017 04:00:00 +0000 rasbachn 116433 at Highlighting humanities: U of T's Jackman Humanities Institute celebrates 10 years, welcomes new director /news/highlighting-humanities-u-t-s-jackman-humanities-institute-celebrates-10-years-welcomes-new <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Highlighting humanities: U of T's Jackman Humanities Institute celebrates 10 years, welcomes new director</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-05-31-JHI.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Cdbm0eKN 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-05-31-JHI.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=fw0FwAsu 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-05-31-JHI.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ahkcTi8z 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-05-31-JHI.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Cdbm0eKN" alt="JHI directors"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-05-31T14:18:33-04:00" title="Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - 14:18" class="datetime">Wed, 05/31/2017 - 14:18</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Robert Gibbs (left) is the outgoing director of the Jackman Humanities Institute. Alison Keith (right) is the incoming director (photo by Diana Tyszko) </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kim-luke" hreflang="en">Kim Luke</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Kim Luke</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/humanities" hreflang="en">Humanities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/jackman-humanities-institute" hreflang="en">Jackman Humanities Institute</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>From the undergraduate scholars-in-residence research program&nbsp;to the creation of a digital humanities network, the Jackman Humanities Institute has much to celebrate over the last decade.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/">Jackman Humanities Institute</a> (JHI) was established in 2007&nbsp;thanks to significant donations from the Hon. Henry N.R.&nbsp;“Hal”&nbsp;Jackman,&nbsp;former&nbsp;lieutenant-governor of Ontario and former U of T chancellor. In 2002, he donated $15 million to support the humanities at U of T and then&nbsp;<a href="http://magazine.utoronto.ca/great-gifts/hal-jackman-gift-to-the-humanities-u-of-t/">doubled that&nbsp;donation in 2007 with another $15 million</a> –&nbsp;making it the largest gift to&nbsp;the humanities at a Canadian university.&nbsp;The gifts were double matched by the university, spurring increased&nbsp;investment in&nbsp;U of T’s humanities departments.</p> <p>As JHI marks&nbsp;its 10th anniversary this year,&nbsp;U of T's <strong>Kim Luke</strong> spoke with outgoing director <strong>Robert Gibbs</strong>, who has led the institute since its inception, and incoming director <strong>Alison Keith</strong>&nbsp;about the institute's achievements and what’s ahead.</p> <hr> <p><strong>What have been key achievements for JHI over the past ten years?</strong></p> <p><strong>Robert Gibbs: </strong>The short answer is that we have expanded both the range and the kinds of humanities research activities at the U of T.&nbsp;</p> <p>The U of T’s humanities departments and centres are world leaders and have exceptional researchers, ranked very highly on all accounts. JHI had no need to duplicate or distract from that. Instead, we aimed to support research that would augment&nbsp;and often complement the traditional and disciplinary research. &nbsp;So, we always looked for ways to forge connections and engage across disciplines, units, faculties and campuses.&nbsp;</p> <p>No single department could host the research that we have sponsored. For example, the undergraduate scholars-in-residence research project involves faculty from seven different disciplines and five faculties and reaches 50 students from all of the colleges and all three campuses. The chance for our undergraduates to explore humanities research, even at this relatively small scale, is enhanced by the multiple methods and approaches at play. It also creates a cohort of faculty who otherwise might not know each other.&nbsp;</p> <p>Each year, we bring together a group of scholars – a Circle of Fellows – to explore a theme from their various perspectives. The annual themes – such as Translation and the Multiplicity of Languages; Humour, Play and Games; and Time, Rhythm and Pace – help forge connections across disciplines and generations. Because we do not have a core discipline or approach, the JHI has been open to greater latitude, and this openness allows the different methods and topics to proliferate.&nbsp;</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/DH_Network">digital humanities network</a> is one of the most important communities of research to emerge at U of T in the last years. &nbsp;With 215 members, including 150 faculty, it is changing the digital humanities landscape at U of T.&nbsp;Scholars are finding out about new methods, finding new collaborators and creating new projects. There is a huge desire to learn from each other and the JHI is playing a key role by bringing people together.</p> <p><strong>Why did you decide to take on the role of becoming JHI's next director?</strong></p> <p><strong>Alison Keith: </strong>I was excited to be offered an academic administrative post in which humanities research figures centrally. There are very few administrative positions in the contemporary academy in which we have the opportunity to nurture and celebrate the research conducted by scholars across the full range of humanities disciplines – from the study of languages, linguistics&nbsp;and literature&nbsp;to art, history, philosophy&nbsp;and religion.&nbsp;</p> <p>The JHI is also an ideal environment for the kind of multidisciplinary research that I do. As a classicist, I work daily with texts written in Latin and ancient Greek (and scholarship in French, German and Italian) and try to assess the historical events that shaped the philosophical and religious commitments and artistic goals of classical authors. So, the opportunity to foster and participate in theoretical and methodological conversations across the humanities disciplines that the JHI supports excites me very much.</p> <p><strong>What do you hope to accomplish during your term as director?</strong></p> <p><strong>Alison Keith:</strong> The JHI has achieved a great deal in its first years, and I hope not only to maintain the momentum of the established programs but also to consolidate the innovative developments in international, digital&nbsp;and undergraduate humanities research initiated this past academic year.&nbsp;</p> <p>My top priority is to raise the public profile of humanities research in general and the research undertaken at the JHI, in particular. &nbsp;We have a long way to go get the word out on the street – or even across our huge university&nbsp;– about the most basic questions driving humanities research at JHI.&nbsp;</p> <p>Social media offers some terrific opportunities, and I hope to launch a weekly blog to showcase the innovative research questions and cross-disciplinary dynamics at the institute. I’m also excited about the idea of a podcast to showcase humanities scholarship in the public sphere.&nbsp;</p> <p>Raising our international profile is important, and I hope to explore the possibility of targeting specific areas for new streams of postdoctoral fellows in journalism or public humanities research and also for scholars-at-risk.</p> <p><strong>What do you wish people understood better about the humanities disciplines and their role in today’s world?</strong></p> <p><strong>Alison Keith: </strong>I wish that people understood that humanities disciplines aren’t studied in a vacuum&nbsp;but interact with today’s world in so many ways.&nbsp;</p> <p>Reading books and visual images and being able to analyze narrative and argument are skills that we use all the time in our lives and workplaces to make sense of our personal as well as the larger social contexts in which governments and institutions act.&nbsp;</p> <p>Historical interest in how a given society approaches different issues also informs our own understanding of the different forces that influence today’s social policies and inform global conflicts.&nbsp;</p> <p>The arts we enjoy in our leisure – music, visual art and theatre – can also be enriched for us by critical reflection about their origins and techniques, which are again part of humanist study.</p> <p><strong>What would you advise&nbsp;students who want&nbsp;to study humanities but are&nbsp;concerned about how well their studies will prepare them for the job market?</strong></p> <p><strong>Alison Keith: </strong>As a scholar and chair of classics, I always tell students that in the uncertain economy of the future, they can’t go wrong by strengthening their literacy and analytic skills through study in the humanities: critical reading, critical writing and critical analysis are transferrable skills that will take them far in whatever profession they wish to pursue.&nbsp;</p> <p>Students in humanities courses are trained to read texts and images closely, write carefully and analytically about complex ideas and synthesize complicated arguments for oral presentation. These remain valuable and relatively rare skills in our society.&nbsp;</p> <p>I also advise students to make the most of their opportunity to have an academic experience since the opportunity to focus on study for the sake of study, inquiry for the sake of inquiry, and the satisfaction of one’s own intellectual curiosity are not usually available outside of the university context and are worth pursuing if only to learn about oneself and one’s own particular interests. This kind of immersion in academic inquiry ideally helps to focus students’ professional interests beyond the university too.</p> <p>Then I’d advise that they look at the information on the website of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.epri.ca/esdc-tax-linkage-project-interactive-results">Education Policy Research Initiative</a> that charts mean earnings by field of study.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/humanities_at_uoft/">Learn more about humanities at U of T</a></h3> <h3><a href="/news/find-a-story?query&amp;field_topic_tid=All&amp;field_tag_tid_1=humanities&amp;date_filter%5Bmin%5D%5Bdate%5D=&amp;date_filter%5Bmax%5D%5Bdate%5D=">Read more humanities stories</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 31 May 2017 18:18:33 +0000 ullahnor 108005 at Changing our view of humans’ place in the world could save the planet: U of T environmental humanities prof /news/changing-our-view-humans-place-world-could-save-planet-u-t-environmental-humanities-prof <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Changing our view of humans’ place in the world could save the planet: U of T environmental humanities prof</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-05-30-andrea-most.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=uAsWDNwv 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-05-30-andrea-most.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=KZT1GNSo 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-05-30-andrea-most.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=qj78YTTv 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-05-30-andrea-most.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=uAsWDNwv" alt="andrea most"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-05-31T11:34:48-04:00" title="Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - 11:34" class="datetime">Wed, 05/31/2017 - 11:34</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Professor Andrea Most studies and teaches students about environmental humanities (photo by Diana Tyszko)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kim-luke" hreflang="en">Kim Luke</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Kim Luke</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/humanities" hreflang="en">Humanities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/environment" hreflang="en">Environment</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/books" hreflang="en">Books</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><strong>Andrea Most </strong>is&nbsp;engaged in a relatively new field of research – environmental humanities – that re-conceptualizes our relationship to the world in a way that might even save us from ourselves.</p> <p>She is a professor of American literature and environmental studies in the department of English at the Ƶ, where she teaches&nbsp;and conducts&nbsp;research in modern American literature and culture, Jewish cultural studies, food studies, and theatre and performance.</p> <p>Most has students use the lens of literature, history, art and philosophy to explore&nbsp;the human relationship to the environment.</p> <p>“How we behave in relation to the world around us is shaped first and foremost by cultural values, by the stories we tell about who we are – and who we should be – in the world,” she says.&nbsp;</p> <p>U of T's <strong>Kim Luke</strong> spoke with Most about environmental humanities and a new way of thinking.</p> <hr> <p><strong>What role could the humanities play in addressing the environmental crisis?</strong></p> <p>We have really good science on climate change, environmental toxins, pollution, water issues&nbsp;and so on. &nbsp;The science is essential for explaining what is happening and what we need to do to address these crises.</p> <p>But for reasons that have mystified scientists, politicians, economists and social scientists, the general public doesn’t pay much attention&nbsp;and certainly isn’t taking action proportionate to the severity of the situation. &nbsp;This is where humanities scholars, writers and artists have a crucial role to play.</p> <p>How we behave in relation to the world around us is shaped first and foremost by cultural values, by the stories we tell about who we are – and who we should be – in the world.</p> <p>We need to understand the old stories in order to figure out how we got into this mess, and, most importantly, we need to collectively imagine new stories. Only through creating and living new stories –&nbsp;what I would call new cultural mythologies&nbsp;about freedom, success, health, nature, humanity&nbsp;and ethics – can we begin to change our behaviour in the deep and fundamental ways necessary to allow us to rise to the challenge of the great crisis facing our species. There is a terrific <a href="https://academic-oup-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/isle/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/isle/ist146">call to action for writers in the <em>Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and Humanities </em>journal</a>.</p> <p>Humanities scholars are uniquely trained for this task. This work can’t happen without us.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__4817 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2017-05-30-environmental-humanities_0.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>Students in Andrea Most’s first-year seminar, The Environmental Imagination, present their final projects, exploring a multilayered celebration of spring (photo by Diana Tyszko)</em><br> <br> <strong>What exactly are environmental humanities?</strong></p> <p>On the simplest level, the environmental humanities study environmental issues and especially the human relationship to those issues through the lens of literature, history, art and philosophy. &nbsp;The field is fundamentally interdisciplinary&nbsp;and often includes collaborations with the sciences, social sciences and various areas of the humanities.</p> <p>In the earlier days of the environmental humanities, scholars focused on championing and explaining environmentalist thought – this is still a part of our agenda – but in recent years, the environmental humanities have begun to challenge environmentalists – and all of us&nbsp;–&nbsp;to think more carefully about our concept of nature&nbsp;and the relationship between nature and culture. &nbsp;</p> <p>Environmental humanities scholars often straddle the divide between academia and the general public, both responding to and influencing popular representations of current ecological conditions and problems.</p> <p><strong>How does your first-year seminar course, The Environmental Imagination, introduce students to some of the core concepts of the environmental humanities?</strong></p> <p>I try to move students from thinking of themselves as “being in nature” when they are out in the country to “being in nature” even within an urban-built environment&nbsp;and finally “being nature” by the end of the year so that they begin to conceive of themselves as part of an ecosystem and not separate from it.</p> <p>The idea of decentring human beings is central to the course, and students explore a wide variety of creation and apocalypse myths from ancient sources – Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist&nbsp;and Anishinaabe traditions. &nbsp;We explore how North American thinkers have represented the human relationship to the world through fiction, essays, poetry, film&nbsp;and new media,&nbsp;and ask how the stories we tell about our relationship to the earth have shaped the way&nbsp;we encounter and enjoy, destroy and&nbsp;restore, and use and abuse the natural world.</p> <p>We read and study works by Henry David Thoreau, Robert Frost, Willa Cather, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry,&nbsp;Andy Goldsworthy and many others. And, we watch films such as <em>Pocahontas</em>, <em>WALL-E</em>&nbsp;and <em>Merchants of Doubt</em>.</p> <p>This year’s course culminated with an experiential component in which the students told their own nature story by creating a ritual celebration of the seasons using songs, stories and theatre.</p> <p><strong>Tell us about your own research in environmental humanities?</strong></p> <p>My main focus right now is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/persephoneproject">The Persephone Project</a>, a research initiative that explores what happens to life writing when individual human beings – shaped by a long-standing cultural mythology that separates mind, body and earth – are reconnected to the world.</p> <p>Specifically, I am interested in how climate change, species extinction&nbsp;and the discovery of the human microbiome are transforming the way we think – and write – about our lives. &nbsp;The book that is emerging from my research, currently entitled <em>A Pain in the Neck</em>, engages literary and political issues in a deeply personal way, and is intended for a broad general audience. I’m writing it in the first-person, layering stories of individual experience within the more scholarly historical and critical narrative.</p> <p><em>A Pain in the Neck</em> begins with the tale of a mysterious neck injury, which becomes a metaphor for the troubled yet life-sustaining connection between our rational and embodied selves. &nbsp;This pain in the neck – and the narrator’s attempts to heal it – leads her from a personal health issue to a wide-ranging exploration of the still powerful but fatally flawed mythology, which assumes that mind is separate from and superior to the body, and human culture is likewise separate from and superior to nature. As she watches this old story unravel around her, she begins to discern the outlines of new strategies for reconnection, and, in the process, re-imagines what it means to be human.</p> <p>For parts of the book, I am conducting land-based and embodied writing experiments around the ecological design principles of permaculture and new discoveries of the microbiome inside us. &nbsp;I explore the relationship between ecological and literary form and ask how our sense of subjectivity changes when we realize we are actually walking ecosystems, that Walt Whitman’s proclamation “I contain multitudes” is materially true.<br> &nbsp;&nbsp;<br> <strong>Do you ever hear from students/parents who are afraid that studying humanities is not a good way to prepare for the future? &nbsp;What advice do you give them?</strong></p> <p>Sure, that’s a common concern. &nbsp;What good is reading books and thinking about ideas when what we need is a good job? &nbsp;This is why I really love teaching my first-year course, which tends to attract students in commerce and life sciences who are looking to fulfil&nbsp;a humanities requirement.</p> <p>I am much more interested in teaching students to read and think critically in whatever field they choose, than in specifically training them to be literary critics or English teachers – we need some very talented people to do that as well, of course, but they tend to be a self-selecting group of those who love books so much they want to spend their lives studying them.</p> <p>What I try to communicate to my first-year students is that there isn’t a gaping divide between the core ideas of the environmental humanities and their own long-term goals in business, technology or medicine. &nbsp;We discuss questions of what it means to be human, what our responsibility is to one another and the earth, how we can bring these concerns and thoughts into many fields.</p> <p>For example, we have a unit on time, where we use literary texts like the <em>Sand County Almanac</em> to look at how ideas of productivity have changed over history, or how body/nature time conflicts with industrial time in Charlie Chaplin’s film <em>Modern Times</em>, how our culture has chosen to resolve those conflicts in the past, and how we can imagine new ways of resolving them for the future. And then, I ask them to write stories about this, integrating their own life goals and studies.</p> <h3><a href="/news/find-a-story?query&amp;field_topic_tid=All&amp;field_tag_tid_1=humanities&amp;date_filter%5Bmin%5D%5Bdate%5D=&amp;date_filter%5Bmax%5D%5Bdate%5D=">Read more about humanities at U of T</a></h3> <h3><a href="http://news.artsci.utoronto.ca/all-news/top-11-reasons-study-humanities/">See the top 11 reasons to study the humanities</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 31 May 2017 15:34:48 +0000 ullahnor 107999 at Canada 150: New survey finds big gaps in how we study the country's birth /news/canada-150-new-survey-finds-big-gaps-how-we-study-country-s-birth <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Canada 150: New survey finds big gaps in how we study the country's birth</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-29-confederacy.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=a1VZs1dq 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-03-29-confederacy.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=pTYUpGqD 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-03-29-confederacy.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=lqbtI6-9 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-29-confederacy.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=a1VZs1dq" alt> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-03-29T11:16:24-04:00" title="Wednesday, March 29, 2017 - 11:16" class="datetime">Wed, 03/29/2017 - 11:16</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">The Charlottetown Conference was held in 1864 for representatives from the colonies of British North America to discuss Canadian Confederation (image courtesy of Library and Archives Canada)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kim-luke" hreflang="en">Kim Luke</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Kim Luke</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada" hreflang="en">Canada</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/history" hreflang="en">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/confederation" hreflang="en">Confederation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada-150" hreflang="en">Canada 150</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/political-science" hreflang="en">Political Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Ƶ and York University researchers surveyed historians and political scientists about how the 1867 Confederation is studied in Canada</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A recent survey of Canadian historians and political scientists, conducted by the Ƶ and York University, has found that there are important gaps in how Canada’s 1867 Confederation is studied in this country.</p> <p>The British North America Act was passed 150 years ago today, triggering the process of Canada’s Confederation.</p> <p>Canada’s 150th anniversary is heralded by some as marking a great moment in the country’s history: a view that reflects the opinion of political leaders at the time. John A. Macdonald, who went on to become Canada’s first prime minister, for example, hailed the union of British North American colonies, predicting “a great nationality, commanding the respect of the world.”</p> <h3><a href="http://utoronto.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d3cfd48e9c5087b515567af4a&amp;id=49c479d17b&amp;e=403bf92ddd">Read more at <em>The Globe and Mail</em></a></h3> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__4027 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/proclamation_1.jpg" style="width: 306px; height: 480px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image">At the same time, Canadians’ views of that landmark legislation seem to be evolving, in part because of increased awareness of the impact of the colonists on Indigenous communities.</p> <p>“The survey revealed an interesting tension,”&nbsp;said Professor <strong>Rob Vipond</strong> of the department of political science who conducted the survey with U of T political scientist <strong>David Cameron</strong>, dean of the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science, and colleagues at York.</p> <p>“On the one hand, most respondents said they were most deeply influenced by scholars who had written in the 1960s and 1970s when the rise of Quebec nationalism led to a passionate debate about the origins of Confederation. On the other, a striking number said in effect that it was time to reframe the history of Confederation away from the national unity narrative, especially to take into account Indigenous perspectives that were largely missing from the earlier accounts.”</p> <p>Among their key findings:</p> <ul> <li>Research about Confederation placed more importance on studies that focused on political elites and institutions over any other perspectives.</li> <li>Research failed to adequately address Indigenous peoples: the respondents said this needs to be included in the academic literature on 1867 going forward.</li> <li>Anglophone&nbsp;scholars paid limited attention to Confederation scholarship written in French whereas Francophone scholars were engaged with 1867 research whether it was written in French or English. (This finding was compatible with the determinations made by a Bilingualism and Biculturalism Commission 50 years ago that found the secondary education system has traditionally taught “two versions of Canadian history – an English version and a French version.”)</li> <li>Both Anglophone and Francophone respondents agreed that <strong>Peter Russell</strong> of U of T and the late Ramsay Cook of York University were two of the leading scholars on Confederation.</li> </ul> <p>Five hundred&nbsp;university faculty members responded to the survey – the first detailed analysis of how universities undertake research and study of 1867. Its insights are significant not only for scholars of Confederation but for the good governance of the country.</p> <p>“What scholars research and teach in universities, what we publish and share through the media, plays an important role in influencing public understanding. Many salient issues in today’s political arena are based on an understanding of what happened at the country’s establishment in 1867,” said Cameron.</p> <p>In addition to U of T’s Vipond and Cameron, York University professors Lesley Jacobs, Jacqueline Krikorian and Marcel Martel conducted the survey.</p> <p>Interested in learning more about the British North America Act, 1867 on its historic anniversary? &nbsp;<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/test-your-knowledge-of-the-british-north-america-act-1.2806466">Try this&nbsp;quiz</a>.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 29 Mar 2017 15:16:24 +0000 ullahnor 106274 at Undergraduate students compete at U of T this weekend to tackle affordable housing challenges /news/undergraduate-students-compete-u-t-weekend-tackle-affordable-housing-challenges <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Undergraduate students compete at U of T this weekend to tackle affordable housing challenges</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-10-regent-park.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=OUe9PfKT 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-03-10-regent-park.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=wvHR8TAP 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-03-10-regent-park.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ESVxWd4C 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-10-regent-park.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=OUe9PfKT" alt> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-03-10T15:24:26-05:00" title="Friday, March 10, 2017 - 15:24" class="datetime">Fri, 03/10/2017 - 15:24</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Regent Park, Canada's oldest and largest social housing development, is being revitalized with a mixture of condominiums, market-rate rental apartments and public housing (photo by the City of Toronto via Flickr) </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kim-luke" hreflang="en">Kim Luke</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Kim Luke</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/urban" hreflang="en">urban</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/geography" hreflang="en">Geography</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/political-science" hreflang="en">Political Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/economics" hreflang="en">Economics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ethis" hreflang="en">Ethis</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/society-and-law" hreflang="en">Society and Law</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/affordable-housing" hreflang="en">Affordable Housing</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/laneways" hreflang="en">Laneways</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The students behind <a href="http://civicspark.ca/">CivicSpark</a> – a Ƶ group devoted to fostering the next generation of city builders – will bring 13 undergraduate teams from universities across the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area (GTHA) together this weekend to offer solutions <a href="https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/building-up-the-6ix-an-undergraduate-public-policy-case-competition-tickets-31136552266">to the area’s affordable housing problem</a>.</p> <p>“With the cost of housing constantly increasing, there is a real concern that people, especially marginalized and vulnerable groups can be pushed out of their homes,” said CivicSpark’s co-founder&nbsp;<strong>Edwin White Chacon</strong>, a fifth-year Arts &amp; Science undergrad who is majoring in political science, and ethics, society and law.</p> <p>The competition comes at a time when the Ƶ is exploring different housing approaches to help make the city more livable and sustainable. U of T President <strong>Meric Gertler</strong>&nbsp;is working with the presidents of three other GTA universities&nbsp;to tackle affordable housing through a call for research proposals. U of T is also looking into building laneway houses in the Huron-Sussex neighbourhood bordering the St. George campus.</p> <h3><a href="/news/u-t-teams-ocad-york-and-ryerson-seek-research-proposals-addressing-toronto%E2%80%99s-affordable-housing">Read more about the call for research proposals on affordable housing&nbsp;</a></h3> <h3><a href="/news/u-t-experts-creative-solution-toronto-s-housing-problems-laneway-homes">Read more about laneway housing initiatives</a></h3> <p>Student teams have each had one month to analyse a specific case and prepare a 20-minute presentation that includes innovative and tangible solutions. They will be judged by a panel of urban experts and city planners, as well as professionals from Toronto Community Housing Corporation and the Ontario Ministry of Housing.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3754 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/civicspark.jpg?itok=GHoOiY1g" style="width: 232px; height: 300px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image">The top two teams of the day will go head-to-head in solving a surprise case under the pressure of a very tight time frame.</p> <p>“The finalist teams will be given the same case, and 60 minutes to prepare their solutions&nbsp;and present them,” said Chacon. &nbsp;</p> <p>Last year’s competition, which focused on transportation and public space, saw the final teams competing on ways to revitalize the space under Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway.</p> <p>For student participants, the benefits include professional development, insight into the complexities of regional issues, as well as valuable connections with experts and professionals in urban planning. The winning team gets the opportunity to have an informational interview with decision-makers in the GTHA’s public, private and not-for-profit sectors.</p> <p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CivicSpark/">CivicSpark</a> was co-founded in 2015 as a chapter of CivicAction, a local city-building organization, by Chacon and undergraduate students <strong>Sara Urbina</strong>, who is majoring in economics and geography,&nbsp;and <strong>Joe Becker</strong>, who is studying political science and Canadian studies.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 10 Mar 2017 20:24:26 +0000 ullahnor 105688 at Thanks to K-Pop and Korean dramas, Toronto's Korean speech contest at U of T gets bigger each year /news/thanks-k-pop-and-korean-dramas-toronto-s-korean-speech-contest-u-t-gets-bigger-each-year <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Thanks to K-Pop and Korean dramas, Toronto's Korean speech contest at U of T gets bigger each year</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-03-korean.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Wew8iq6b 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-03-03-korean.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=1O2IPHnP 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-03-03-korean.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=j8RDPJH0 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-03-korean.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Wew8iq6b" alt="Korean speech"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-03-03T17:24:03-05:00" title="Friday, March 3, 2017 - 17:24" class="datetime">Fri, 03/03/2017 - 17:24</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Students speaking at the Korean Speech Contest 2016</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kim-luke" hreflang="en">Kim Luke</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Kim Luke</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/language" hreflang="en">Language</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/east-asian" hreflang="en">East Asian</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/korean" hreflang="en">Korean</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/munk-school-global-affairs-public-policy" hreflang="en">Munk School of Global Affairs &amp; Public Policy</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">The competition will be held March 11</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The Korean Speech Contest held each year at U of T's Munk School of Global Affairs keeps getting bigger and better since its launch 10 years ago – an upsurge in popularity that mirrors a wider trend in Korean language study.</p> <p>This year, 45 university and high school students from across Canada will give speeches in Korean on topics ranging from pop culture and food to Korean friends and their own language study experiences.</p> <h3><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/programs/metromorning/korean-interst-1.4022395">Read more at CBC News</a></h3> <p>According to the latest figures available from the Modern Language Association of America, U.S. colleges and universities saw a 45 per cent increase in Korean language enrolments between 2009 and 2013.</p> <p><strong>Kyoungrok Ko</strong>, an associate professor in East Asian Studies at the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science&nbsp;and the organizer of the speaking contest, has seen a similar trend in Canada.</p> <p><strong>K-wave has students flocking to Korean language courses</strong></p> <p>“In 2010, only seven postsecondary institutions in Canada offered Korean language courses. Today, more than 15 do,” says Ko. &nbsp;When he joined U of T in 2010, there were 35 students in the introductory-level Korean language course. Last year, 175 students enrolled&nbsp;with over 200 on the waiting list.</p> <p>Ko points to the K-wave – the explosion of popular pop music videos and drama from Korea – for the increasing number of students flocking to Korean language courses.</p> <p>Students agree.</p> <p>“Before coming to U of T, the only knowledge I had about Korea was through K-pop and K-dramas on YouTube,” says <strong>Zoha Tanveer</strong>, a fourth-year Woodsworth College student specializing in East Asian Studies. &nbsp;“I basically discovered a country and I was shocked to not have known about it before.”</p> <p><strong>Korean popular culture is main motivation for learning Korean</strong></p> <p>According to Ko’s research with his own students, about 40 per cent of students say Korean popular culture is their main motivation for learning Korean. &nbsp;Others cited academic and linguistic interest, communication with family members or better career opportunities – with companies like Samsung, LG and Hyundai, Korea has the 13th largest economy in the world.</p> <p>Students from many different cultural backgrounds study Korean. It is especially popular with international students, notes Ko, who personally interviews each student who enrolls in first-year Korean language to ensure they are placed in the right course, depending on their language proficiency.</p> <p>For Ko, the main reason for hosting the Korean Speech Contest is to motivate his students – whether beginners or highly advanced – to speak Korean comfortably and persuasively in public.</p> <p><strong>Korean speech contest has become an important event for the Korean community</strong></p> <p>The competition, however, has also become an important event for the Korean community with many local business and media outlets contributing prizes and offering support. &nbsp;</p> <p>The contest is now supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Korea, the Ministry of Education in Korea, Korea Tourism Organization, LG Corporation, food and beverage company Nongshim, Korean Air, and Galleria, one of the GTA’s largest Korean supermarkets. In addition, major universities in South Korea provide five winners of the winners with place in their summer language programs.</p> <p>The Korean Speech Language Contest is open to the public. &nbsp;More information on the contest is at <a href="http://munkschool.utoronto.ca/csk/tksc/">uoft.me/tksc</a></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 03 Mar 2017 22:24:03 +0000 ullahnor 105295 at Female chimpanzees employ babysitters to wean young faster: U of T research /news/female-chimpanzees-employ-babysitters-wean-young-faster-u-t-research <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Female chimpanzees employ babysitters to wean young faster: U of T research</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-11-18-chimp-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=rkOBFM_n 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2016-11-18-chimp-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=GUE74hzm 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2016-11-18-chimp-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=l3g642Ap 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-11-18-chimp-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=rkOBFM_n" alt="Two chimps in trees"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lanthierj</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-11-09T10:13:21-05:00" title="Wednesday, November 9, 2016 - 10:13" class="datetime">Wed, 11/09/2016 - 10:13</time> </span> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kim-luke" hreflang="en">Kim Luke</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Kim Luke</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/international" hreflang="en">International</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/anthropology" hreflang="en">Anthropology</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A babysitter can make a big difference in a parent’s life.&nbsp;For wild chimps in Uganda, it may even mean that mothers can wean their infants faster, which can allow them to reproduce again more quickly.</p> <p>A Ƶ study looked at 42 pairs of chimpanzee mothers and infants at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda. Researchers&nbsp;wanted to better understand the impact of “alloparenting” – or babysitting – when individuals other than the mother assisted with infant care.</p> <p>In a paper published in the <em>Royal Society Open Science </em>(RSOS), they describe looking at two particular aspects of care that these other individuals provided: infant handling –&nbsp;carrying and holding the infants, and natal attraction –&nbsp;the interest in infants demonstrated through behaviours like grooming and playing.</p> <h3><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/chimpanzee-study-babysitters-1.3843871">Read the CBC story about the research findings</a></h3> <p>The researchers compared whether the extent of involvement of these individuals impacted the proportion of time that mothers spent foraging, the rates that infants nursed, and the contribution of milk to infants’ diets.</p> <p>“Infants who were held and carried more by babysitters, nursed less often and drank less milk,” said <strong>Iulia Bădescu</strong>, a PhD candidate in evolutionary anthropology at the Ƶ, and lead author of the study. “This means that they were becoming more nutritionally independent compared to infants of the same age who were babysat less or not at all. They were going through the weaning process quicker, and would likely be done weaning at a younger age.”</p> <p><img alt="chiimps socializing" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__2452 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2016-11-08-chimps2-resized.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 563px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"></p> <p>Babysitting may benefit mothers by enabling females to invest in their next offspring sooner through this accelerated weaning.</p> <p>“But not all chimpanzee mothers relied on babysitters&nbsp;and, in fact, in other chimpanzee communities, babysitting may be a behaviour that rarely occurs. Our findings emphasize the significance of babysitting as a flexible component of female reproductive strategies in some species.”</p> <p>In a separate study, Bădescu (pictured below) and her colleagues found that chimpanzee mothers let their “toddlers” nurse for comfort, even after lactation was over and they were receiving no milk.</p> <p><img alt="photo of researcher" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__2451 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2016-11-08-chimp-researcher-resized.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 563px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"></p> <p>“The young chimps were already weaned but continued to make contact with their mothers’ nipple not for nutrition, but&nbsp;presumably for&nbsp;emotional purposes, when they needed to be comforted,” said Bădescu of the related study published in the <em>American Journal of Physical Anthropology </em>last month.</p> <p>The researchers employed a novel method in both studies to arrive at their conclusions, analyzing fecal samples to determine what the contribution of maternal milk was to the diet of the chimpanzee infants. Until now, it has been very difficult to actually measure what animal infants eat in the wild, and Bădescu and her colleagues are the first to use this non-invasive method with wild primates in large numbers.</p> <p>”This novel method quantifies infant diets for us, so that we can know more precisely when weaning occurs for wild mammals, and also provides a biological way to determine if some infants are developing quicker than others” Bădescu said.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 09 Nov 2016 15:13:21 +0000 lanthierj 102388 at Two of U of T's University Professors honoured by Royal Society for exceptional contributions /news/two-u-t-s-university-professors-honoured-royal-society-exceptional-contributions <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Two of U of T's University Professors honoured by Royal Society for exceptional contributions</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-09-29-royal-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=o90CMoUd 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2016-09-29-royal-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=0PTBlGhn 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2016-09-29-royal-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=pJtpoJFJ 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-09-29-royal-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=o90CMoUd" alt="Photo of Linda Hutcheon and Barbara Sherwood Lollar"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-09-29T12:01:48-04:00" title="Thursday, September 29, 2016 - 12:01" class="datetime">Thu, 09/29/2016 - 12:01</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Barbara Sherwood Lollar, left, and Linda Hutcheon, right, have been awarded medals by the Royal Society of Canada (photo composite by Diana Tyszko)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kim-luke" hreflang="en">Kim Luke</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Kim Luke</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty" hreflang="en">Faculty</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/royal-canada" hreflang="en">Royal Canada</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/linda-hutcheon" hreflang="en">Linda Hutcheon</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/barbara-sherwood-lollar" hreflang="en">Barbara Sherwood Lollar</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The Royal Society of Canada is honouring two U of T scholars,&nbsp;<strong>Linda Hutcheon</strong> and <strong>Barbara Sherwood Lollar</strong>, both holders of the prestigious distinction of <a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors.htm">University Professor</a>, a title&nbsp;held by only two per cent of the tenured faculty.</p> <p>Hutcheon, University Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature, will receive the 2016 Lorne Pierce Medal for achievements in critical literature which have transformed understanding of “Canadian identity.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Sherwood Lollar, University Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, has been selected to receive the Bancroft Medal, a prize for work that contributes enormously to public understanding and appreciation of the earth sciences. &nbsp;</p> <p>“Both Linda Hutcheon and Barbara Sherwood Lollar are enormously respected in the international community as influential leaders in their fields,” said <strong>David Cameron</strong>, dean of the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science. “This latest accolade reminds us how highly they are both valued by their home country as well.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Hutcheon became a scholar of Canadian literature following her training in comparative European literature, a step she describes as “natural for a Canadian watching the exhilarating post-Massey Report flowering of our literary culture. &nbsp;In the '70s, the excitement was palpable, and continues to be so.” &nbsp;</p> <p>The 1951 Massey Report had warned that Canadian culture was becoming invisible in the shadow of the American invasion of film, radio and periodicals, leading the government to require Canada’s mass media to encourage Canadian content.</p> <p>"Being awarded the Lorne Pierce Medal, with its emphasis on the study of the literature of Canada, is an immense honour for me, and not only because of the many brilliant Canadianists who have won it before,” said Hutcheon. Previous medallists include Alice Munro, Rudy Wiebe and Rosemary Sullivan.</p> <p>Hutcheon has achieved broad international recognition as a literary theorist, a major critical voice on Canadian writing and culture, and as an interdisciplinary collaborative scholar. The author of nine books and co-author of four in collaboration with physician Michael Hutcheon, she has also edited 16 books or special issues of journals and published 300 articles and book chapters.&nbsp;</p> <p>A translator of Québec writers, Hutcheon also co-edited a book of interviews and fiction on what was for her a defining part of Canadian culture: its multicultural as well as bicultural/bilingual identity. Her <em>Other Solitudes </em>(1990) grew out of what she calls her “crypto-ethnic” experience: her married name conceals her cultural identity as an Italian Canadian.&nbsp;</p> <p>“I was driven by a desire to understand why culture matters, how Canadian culture helps shape individual, regional and national senses of self, and how cultural and linguistic diversity can and should be seen and practiced as forms of enrichment and invigoration rather than abrasion and instability,” she said. &nbsp;</p> <p>For Sherwood Lollar, being selected as the recipient of the Bancroft Award marks an important tribute to the depth and breadth of the earth sciences.</p> <p>Sherwood Lollar’s research ranges from projects that inform public policy and improve remediation of groundwater resources globally,&nbsp;to spearheading international research collaborations to&nbsp;uncover&nbsp;the most ancient water on earth, a discovery with potential implications for life on other planets.&nbsp;</p> <p>These deep waters, found three kilometres beneath the Canadian Shield, were reported in the prestigious journal <em>Nature</em> and has captured both the scientific community’s attention and the public’s imagination with several news outlets noting the discovery as one of the top 10 science stories of 2013.&nbsp;</p> <p>A second paper, also published in <strong>Nature</strong>&nbsp;on the hydrogen and methane-rich waters of the deep crust sparked similar attention for its implications not only for expanding our understanding of Earth’s subsurface life and habitability but for insights to the origin of methane –&nbsp;and possibly life –&nbsp;on Mars.&nbsp;</p> <p>Sherwood Lollar’s research in groundwater quality and remediation –&nbsp;investigations of bioremediation of toxic organic compounds using compound specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA)&nbsp;–&nbsp;revolutionized approaches to remedy environmental contamination.&nbsp;</p> <p>While the scientific community was aware that certain organic contaminants –&nbsp;particularly petroleum and chlorinated hydrocarbons –&nbsp;could be remediated by naturally occurring microbial communities, there was no solid “in situ” evidence of the effectiveness of the process and this, understandably stood in the way of regulatory approval and support. &nbsp;</p> <p>Sherwood Lollar provided the necessary proof. &nbsp;In the words of research microbiologist <strong>John Wilson</strong> of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CSIA was like “turning the lights on” by providing one of the few convincing means of demonstrating the effectiveness of natural microbial alternatives. &nbsp;The scientific approaches and research field Sherwood Lollar pioneered are now in widespread use throughout the world.&nbsp;</p> <p>In 2000, Sherwood Lollar was selected by <em>Time</em> as one of 25 “Leaders for the 21st Century,”&nbsp;and in 2013 Canadian Geographic named her one of the “Top Canadians Changing the World.” In 2012, she received the Eni Award in Protection of the Environment, a prestigious international prize for outstanding research in fields of energy and the environment.</p> <p>Most recently, she entered the Order of Canada at its highest level: Companion of the Order of Canada, was elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union&nbsp;and won the NSERC John C. Polanyi Award, one of Canada’s highest honours in science and engineering.&nbsp;</p> <p>Hutcheon and Sherwood Lollar will receive their awards at a ceremony at the Royal Society of Canada’s Annual General Meeting on Nov.&nbsp;18, 2016.&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 29 Sep 2016 16:01:48 +0000 ullahnor 101231 at U of T’s Deborah Cowen receives Trudeau Fellowship for boundary-busting research /news/deborah-cowen-receives-trudeau-fellowship <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">U of T’s Deborah Cowen receives Trudeau Fellowship for boundary-busting research</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/cowan_1140.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=oYZfopcN 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/cowan_1140.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=iecG823D 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/cowan_1140.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=jjafhupV 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/cowan_1140.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=oYZfopcN" alt="Deborah Cowen"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lavende4</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-09-20T12:09:49-04:00" title="Tuesday, September 20, 2016 - 12:09" class="datetime">Tue, 09/20/2016 - 12:09</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Deborah Cowen will receive a $225,000 Trudeau Fellowship (photo by Diana Tyszko)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kim-luke" hreflang="en">Kim Luke</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Kim Luke</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/trudeau-fellowship" hreflang="en">Trudeau Fellowship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/awards" hreflang="en">Awards</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><strong>Deborah Cowen</strong>, a Ƶ scholar whose work spans urban planning and politics, citizenship, contested spaces and social justice, has been selected for a prestigious <a href="http://www.fondationtrudeau.ca/en/activities/news/meet-2016-fellows">Trudeau Fellowship</a>.</p> <p>The $225,000 fellowships, awarded by The Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation to up to five individuals each year, recognizes and supports the work of humanists and social scientists who venture beyond the boundaries of their disciplines to find new solutions to complex issues of major importance to Canadians. &nbsp;</p> <p>An associate professor in the department of geography &amp; planning in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science, Cowen looks at how conflicts over infrastructure have come to define our political landscape. She will use the fellowship to pursue an ambitious three-year project entitled Reassembling the Infrastructures of Citizenship.</p> <p>“Infrastructure is arguably at the centre of political life today,” says Cowen.</p> <p><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tj1_Mc8hq40" width="560"></iframe></p> <p>“When they work, infrastructures bring us food, water, power, resources, consumer goods, information, security, and connections to loved ones. But the same structures and systems that enable greater mobility for some also often disconnect and dispossess others.”</p> <p>One clear example is the Alberta tar sands. Industry pressure to get bitumen to transnational markets has provoked controversial pipeline construction with social, environmental and Indigenous groups fighting the projects. At the centre of these struggles are questions of competing sovereignties on lands that remain unceded or contested.</p> <p>With an ultimate goal of finding ways toward a more just and sustainable future, Cowen’s project aims to rethink policy and political community from precisely the points of conflict, injury, and difference that lie at the heart of infrastructure crises in Canada. Central to her approach is engagement and learning from the communities whose lives are profoundly affected by infrastructure decisions but who are often at the margins of contemporary political life.</p> <p>Through four case studies in energy, transportation and security, Cowen will work with social movements and communities who contest the injustice of infrastructure and identify alternatives.</p> <ul> <li><strong>Pipelines and Power </strong>will explore how contemporary Indigenous sovereignty and histories of settler colonialism might be negotiated in the context of energy pipeline projects and investigate how energy infrastructures may be re-imagined to cultivate just and sustainable social and ecological futures.</li> <li><strong>Bordering Belonging</strong> will ask how to rethink national borders in an era of global migration and crises of asylum and whether border infrastructures could be recast to sustain rather than contain citizenship.</li> <li><strong>Policed People</strong> will look at how the social infrastructures of the city could undermine rather than intensify experiences of racial and gendered inequity.</li> <li><strong>Carrying Cargo</strong> will investigate how infrastructures of transnational trade could be governed so they may also support local livelihoods and how the connectivity they foster could also enrich collective deliberation</li> </ul> <p>“Deborah Cowen is a brilliant young scholar of the first rank, and it is wonderful to see her work being recognized in this way by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation,” said U of T president <strong>Meric Gertler</strong>. “As she analyses and rethinks the infrastructures that underpin local and national communities, she is at the same time critically theorizing a much-needed new vision of how these infrastructures can undermine or enhance citizenship. Her new project promises to be pathbreaking.”</p> <p>Cowen’s most recent book, <em>The Deadly Life of Logistics: Mapping Violence in Global Trade</em>, received the 2016 International Political Sociology Book Award.&nbsp; She also has worked with the National Film Board of Canada, to co-create the international award-winning <em>Universe Within</em>, a digital documentary that reveals the hidden digital lives of highrise residents around the world.&nbsp; Cowen’s research and policy recommendations have had a concrete impact in Canada: both the City of Toronto and the United Way have used her work on social infrastructure in their redesign of urban social policy.</p> <p>Cowen is the seventh Trudeau fellow from the Ƶ.&nbsp; Previous recipients include: <strong>George Elliott Clarke</strong>, <strong>Sujit Choudhry</strong>, <strong>Joseph Heath</strong>, <strong>Kent Roach</strong>, <strong>Janice Stein</strong> and <strong>Rosemary Sullivan</strong>.</p> <p><a href="http://www.fondationtrudeau.ca/en/activities/news/meet-2016-fellows">Read more about this year's Trudeau Fellows</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.fondationtrudeau.ca/en/community/deborah-cowen">Read more about Deborah Cowen's Fellowship Award</a></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 20 Sep 2016 16:09:49 +0000 lavende4 100479 at U of T scientists solve puzzle of converting CO₂ emissions to fuel /news/u-t-scientists-emissions-fuel <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">U of T scientists solve puzzle of converting CO₂ emissions to fuel</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/UofT5454_20120412_Geoffrey%20Ozin_001.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ao03Th2p 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/UofT5454_20120412_Geoffrey%20Ozin_001.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=bb3OgPq2 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/UofT5454_20120412_Geoffrey%20Ozin_001.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=KW_Qu36W 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/UofT5454_20120412_Geoffrey%20Ozin_001.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ao03Th2p" alt="Geoffrey Ozin"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lavende4</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-08-25T09:34:46-04:00" title="Thursday, August 25, 2016 - 09:34" class="datetime">Thu, 08/25/2016 - 09:34</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Geoffrey Ozin and his colleagues believe they have found a way to convert CO₂ emissions into energy-rich fuel (Brian Summers photo)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kim-luke" hreflang="en">Kim Luke</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Kim Luke</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Every year, humans advance climate change and global warming – and quite likely our own eventual extinction – by injecting about 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere.</p> <p>A team of U of T scientists believes they’ve found a way to convert all these emissions into energy-rich fuel in a carbon-neutral cycle that uses a very abundant natural resource: silicon. Silicon, readily available in sand, is the seventh most-abundant element in the universe and the second most-abundant element in the earth’s crust.</p> <p>The idea of converting CO₂ emissions to energy isn’t new: there’s been a global race to discover a material that can efficiently convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water or hydrogen to fuel for decades.&nbsp; However, the chemical stability of CO₂ has made it difficult to find a practical solution.</p> <p>“A chemistry solution to climate change requires a material that is a highly active and selective catalyst to enable the conversion of CO₂ to fuel. It also needs to be made of elements that are low cost, non-toxic and readily available,” said&nbsp;Faculty of Arts &amp; Science chemistry professor<strong>&nbsp;Geoffrey Ozin</strong>, the Canada Research Chair in Materials Chemistry and lead of U of T’s Solar Fuels Research Cluster.</p> <p>In an<a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160823/ncomms12553/full/ncomms12553.html"> article in <em>Nature Communications</em> published August 23</a>, Ozin and colleagues report silicon nanocrystals that meet all the criteria. The hydride-terminated silicon nanocrystals – nanostructured hydrides for short – have an average diameter of 3.5 nanometres and feature a surface area and optical absorption strength sufficient to efficiently harvest the near-infrared, visible and ultraviolet wavelengths of light from the sun together with a powerful chemical-reducing agent on the surface that efficiently and selectively converts gaseous carbon dioxide to gaseous carbon monoxide.</p> <p>The potential result: energy without harmful emissions.</p> <p>“Making use of the reducing power of nanostructured hydrides is a conceptually distinct and commercially interesting strategy for making fuels directly from sunlight,” said Ozin.</p> <p>The U of T Solar Fuels Research Cluster is working to find ways and means to increase the activity, enhance the scale, and boost the rate of production. Their goal is a laboratory demonstration unit and, if successful, a pilot solar refinery.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__1762 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/co2%20v2r3.jpg?itok=m-ptyOzw" typeof="foaf:Image" width="453" loading="lazy"></p> <p>In addition to Ozin, collaborators on the paper include:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Le He,</strong> <strong>Chenxi Qian</strong>, <strong>Laura Reyes</strong>, <strong>Wei Sun</strong> and <strong>P.Y. Wong</strong> – Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts &amp; Science;</li> <li><strong>Abdinoor Jelle</strong> and <strong>Jia Jia</strong> – Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts &amp; Science and Department of Materials Science &amp; Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering;</li> <li><strong>Kulbir Kaur Ghuman</strong>, Department of Materials Science &amp; Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering;</li> <li><strong>Chandra Veer Singh</strong> – Department of Materials Science &amp; Engineering and Department of Mechanical &amp; Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering;</li> <li><strong>Charles A. Mims</strong>, <strong>Paul G. O’Brien</strong> and <strong>Thomas E. Wood </strong>– Department of Chemical Engineering &amp; Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, and Solar Fuels Research Cluster;</li> <li><strong>Amr S. Helmy</strong> – Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical &amp; Computer Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering.</li> </ul> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 25 Aug 2016 13:34:46 +0000 lavende4 100257 at