Dean's Scholarly, Research and Creative Activity Award Recipients

2021 recipients

Deborah De Lange

School of Business Management, Department of Global Management Studies, Ted Rogers School of Management

Dr. Deborah de Lange’s research focus is sustainable development and she was productive over the 2019-2020 year. She had four “A” ranked journal articles published/forthcoming and two invited conference paper presentations. Also, as a Massey Visiting Scholar, Deborah gave an academic talk at Massey College on Climate Change Impacts on International Security which was well received. Deborah also published four articles for publications such as The Conversation and ScienceX that disseminate academic work in more digestible form to the public. Deborah is also interviewed by the press as an expert on climate change and sustainable business topics.

Eric de Noronha Vaz

Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Arts

Eric has significantly contributed to the field of regional science at a national and global level. His work harbours novel methods addressing challenges in the Anthropocene and unraveling new findings also in merging extraplanetary research. He serves as the President of the Canadian Regional Science Association and the Graduate Programme Director of the Master of Spatial Analysis at Ryerson University. With three published and two upcoming books, six organized special issues, and over seventy journal articles on regional science and GIS, Eric stands out as a leading voice in the paradigms of regional science in times of unprecedented change.

Leila Farah

Department of Architectural Science, Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science

Dr. Leila M. Farah has done extensive and innovative research on historical and contemporary architecture; she has received a number of recognitions for her work and has fostered links between our university and leading French researchers. In 2019, she received the prestigious distinction of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques de la République française. This major honor “recognizes individuals who have actively contributed to the expansion of French culture in the world” (AMOPA) and is an extremely high distinction bestowed by the French Republic.

Niushan Gao

Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science

Dr. Niushan Gao has made internationally recognized research achievements in the interdisciplinary areas of Quantitative Risk Management, Financial Mathematics, Actuarial Sciences, and Operations Research. During his employment at Ryerson, he has published research papers in the best journals in these areas such as Mathematical Finance, Finance and Stochastics, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Mathematics of Operations Research, which is very rare among Canadian researchers in the area. Due to his excellent research work, Dr. Gao has been invited to give talks at many international institutions.

Carolyn Kane

School of Professional Communication, Faculty of Communication and Design

Dr. Carolyn Kane’s innovative SRC contributions are having a significant impact on the fields of media, design and aesthetics and she is quickly becoming one of the foremost scholars in this area. In the last year alone, Dr. Kane published her second monograph, High-Tech Trash: Glitch, Noise, and Aesthetic Failure (University of California Press) as well as four articles and two book reviews in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Kane frequently delivers invited talks at media and design events held at leading institutions such as Cambridge, Harvard and Stanford.

Naimul Mefraz Khan

Department of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science

Dr. Naimul Khan is the director of the Ryerson Multimedia Research Laboratory, conducting research in user-centric intelligent systems combining machine learning, computer vision and Augmented/Virtual Reality. He has over 50 publications in premier multimedia, AI, and health informatics venues, and a rich history of industry collaboration with media and healthcare companies in Toronto and beyond, with over $1.5 million government funding secured to-date. Notable projects include outdoor AR storytelling at the Fort York National Historic site, AR exhibit at the Canada Science and Technology Museum, computer aided diagnosis of neonatal anomalies, and non-pharmacological anxiety reduction with AR/VR gaming.

Eric Liberda

School of Occupational and Public Health, Faculty of Community Services

Dr. Liberda has devoted his career to using science to understanding human xenobiotic exposures. The majority of his research has involved working with remote Indigenous communities in Canada. His work exemplifies a unique method of team building that include community-based participatory research and “two-eyed seeing” with Indigenous youth and elders, students, and researchers from the sciences and humanities. His efforts have resulted in research that bring together Indigenous community partners, other departments within the Faculty of Community Service and the Faculty of Communication and Design, and from other Universities, while pushing the boundaries of innovative and tangible research.

Atefeh (Atty) Mashatan

School of Information Technology Management, Ted Rogers School of Management

Dr. Mashatan is an excellent cross-disciplinary scholar who can design mathematically protected security schemes with industry relevance to protect our citizens, organizations, and governments. She has consistently demonstrated her devotion to information security and privacy research and knowledge translation in collaboration with academic and industry partners. In 2019-2020, she successfully gathered about one million dollars of research funding for her Cybersecurity Research Lab as well as published 10 journal articles in highly ranked peer-reviewed journals. In this same year, she trained 4 postdocs, 8 graduate students and 8 undergraduate interns and was recognized by four external and three internal awards.

Mehrab Mehrvar

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science

Dr. Mehrab Mehrvar has been a constant proponent of research in areas of combined photochemical/biological processes for the treatment of actual wastewaters, photochemical reaction engineering, and climate change effects on water quality and quantity. His SRC activities have had significant contributions to the environmental health (social) and engineering (economics) through his publications and international presentations. He has published more than 113 journal papers and 200 conference proceedings and presentations. He has supervised 11 Ph.D., 32 MASc students, and 63 visiting scholars/research associates. Recently, he was awarded $515,000 to work on the effects of climate change on water quality.

Alireza Sadeghian

Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science

Dr. Sadghian’s contributions to SRC have been extremely impactful. He publishes his work in high-quality venues and is exemplary for his ability to produce useful real-world results that have been applied in various medical contexts. His work has inspired his students--many are now professors in their own right or have leadership roles in industry. He has been producing excellent results for years but this year was particularly fruitful and for this he heartily deserves this award.

Lixia Yang

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts

Dr. Lixia Yang is an exceptional psychologist with expertise in the psychology of aging, cognition, culture, and wellbeing. She has built thriving national and international collaborations with researchers from such institutes as University of Toronto, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Yang also works closely with community to disseminate research and promote psychological wellbeing of Chinese immigrants. She has published 60 research contributions and currently holds active grants from CIHR and NSERC. Her research and student training have been recognized with a NSERC Early Career Researcher Award and a YSGS Outstanding Contribution to Graduate Education Award.

Linda Zhang

School of Interior Design, Faculty of Communication and Design

Professor Linda Zhang’s outstanding achievement in SRC not only explores innovative and emergent technologies, but uses them to address important social-cultural issues including questions of diversity and inclusion, community-led design, and community resilience based pandemic response. Most recently she has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 McGill Toronto Excellence Award recognizing an alum who demonstrates early professional success and future leadership in their field. She was the recipient of the 2019 National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts Multicultural Fellowship amongst being nominated and awardee of international prestigious grants and residencies.

Past recipients