Daniel Gilman
The mysterious properties of dark matter
Supervisor: Professor Jo Bovy (Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics)
Project Goal: To identify and understand the properties of dark matter, one of the most confounding mysteries in cosmology.
Research Interests: Cosmology, Dark Matter, Strong Gravitational Lensing
Fellowship: January – July 2023
Daoye Zhu
Sustainable natural-urban systems
Supervisors: Professor Yuhong He (Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment, UTM) & Professor Kent Moore (Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, UTM)
Project Goal: To improve our understanding of a wide range of biophysical, ecosystem and socio-economic changes to create sustainable natural-urban ecosystems.
Research Interests: Geospatial Big Data, GeoAI Applications, Geographic Information Engineering
Fellowship: May 2023 – April 2025
Fatema Zohora
Anti-cancer drug resistance
Supervisor: Professor Gregory Schwartz (Princess Margaret Cancer Centre)
Project Goal: To improve anti-cancer drug resistance in humans, which is responsible for up to 90 per cent of cancer related deaths, despite vast improvements to date.
Research Interests: Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Proteomics, Transcriptomics
Fellowship: May 2023 – April 2025
Felix Strieth-Kalthoff
Sustainable molecules for medicine, agriculture, and materials
Supervisor: Professor Alán Aspuru-Guzik (Department of Chemistry; Department of Computer Science)
Project Goal: To make molecules sustainably and efficiently for different (chemical) industries, ranging from modern medicine and drug development to agrochemistry and performance materials.
Research Interests: Synthetic Chemistry, Homogeneous Catalysis, Bayesian Optimization, Human-AI Interface
Fellowship: January 2023 – May 2024
Gerard O’Leary
Devices to treat neurological disorders
Supervisors: Professor Alex Mariakakis (Department of Computer Science) & Dr. Taufik Valiante (University Health Network)
Project Goal: To better understand mechanisms of neurological disorders and to accelerate the deployment of neuroelectronic medical devices to treat them, devices which have already shown great promise in reducing symptoms of tremors and seizures.
Research Interests: Bioelectronics, Wearable Technology, Implantable Devices, Translational Medicine
Fellowship: February 2023 – January 2025
Jessica Leivesley
Revolutionizing fish population management
Supervisors: Professor Vianey Leos-Barajas (Department of Statistical Sciences) & Professor Dak de Kerckhove (Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)
Project Goal: To revolutionize the monitoring and management of commercially important fish populations through non-invasive and non-lethal methods.
Research Interests: Ecological Statistics, Life-History Theory, Thermal Ecology
Fellowship: May 2023 – May 2025
Md Abdul Halim
Mitigating methane emissions for smart cities
Supervisors: Professor Sean Thomas (Institute of Forestry and Conservation) & Professor Debra Wunch (Department of Physics)
Project Goal: To quantify and monitor point-source methane emissions, which traps 25 times more heat than carbon dioxide, from urban landscapes and develop effective mitigation strategies for climate smart cities.
Research Interests: Climate Change, Biogeochemistry, Biogeophysics, Nature-Based Solutions
Fellowship: March 2023 – February 2025
Soukayna Mouatadid
Accurate forecasting for weather event management
Supervisor: Professor Steve Easterbrook (Department of Computer Science; School of the Environment)
Project Goal: To improve the accuracy of sub-seasonal forecasting to better respond to weather events, including decisions related to water allocation, wildfire management, and drought and flood mitigation.
Research Interests: Numerical Weather Prediction, Physics-Guided machine learning, Atmospheric Science, Climate Modeling
Fellowship: March 2023 – February 2025
Soumita Ghosh
Early detection of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Supervisors: Dr. Mamatha Bhat (Toronto General Hospital Research Institute) & Professor Michael Brudno (Department of Computer Science)
Project Goal: To discover consistent biomarkers, leading to non-invasive tests for large-scale screening, early detection and individually customized interventions for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, the most common chronic liver disease in Canada.
Research Interests: Machine Learning in Translational Research, Multiomics Data Integration, Liver Diseases, Data Visualization
Fellowship: February 2023 – January 2025
Tianyuan Lu
Genetic disease prevention for underrepresented ancestries
Supervisors: Professor Lei Sun (Department of Statistical Sciences) & Professor Andrew Paterson (SickKids)
Project Goal: To improve the prevention of complex diseases by better understanding an individual’s genetic predispositions, especially for individuals of non-European ancestries who are vastly underrepresented in the data.
Research Interests: Statistical Genetics, Genetic Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Population Genetics
Fellowship: February 2023 – July 2024