YSGS Outstanding Contribution to Graduate Education Award Recipients
The Yeates School of Graduate Studies (YSGS) Outstanding Contribution to Graduate Education Award recognizes faculty excellence in the complex process of mentoring graduate students to prepare them for productive careers. There are a total of seven awards: one to be allocated to a faculty member in each of Ryerson’s Faculties and one for a faculty member associated with an interdisciplinary program. Note: a faculty member that works with an interdisciplinary program or another graduate program outside of their Faculty may be considered for both their home Faculty YSGS award and any other appropriate award within the YSGS Outstanding Contribution to Graduate Education Awards.
Award recipient(s) will receive a certificate of recognition and a monetary award of $2,000 as a one-time payment (subject to applicable deductions).
Key criteria: Graduate student mentorship
2020 recipients
Miranda Campbell
School of Creative Industries, Faculty of Communication and Design
Dr. Miranda Campbell's contribution to graduate supervision at Ryerson University involves a holistic approach to creating supportive conditions for success through personalized, close and effective mentorship; rigorous and comprehensive training; and connecting students will further professional development opportunities. Campbell's research assistants are involved in the whole life cycle of her research projects from beginning to end. This training creates well-rounded graduate students who are well equipped for further graduate work and employment in industry, public, and non-profit sectors. She has made her mark on ComCult and on the Ryerson graduate students that have been privileged to work with her.
Seung Hwan (Mark) Lee
School of Retail Management, Ted Rogers School of Management
Dr. Lee firmly believes in taking an active interest in mentoring students. To enable this, Dr. Lee has secured numerous grants (e.g., Internal/SSHRC) that provides research and training opportunities for students. Within the Retail program, Dr. Lee hosts an annual Retail Research Colloquium, inviting graduate students to present their ongoing research. These opportunities have helped students realize their potential, leading to numerous peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations/proceedings. To date, he has co-authored with 24 students yielding 53 academic contributions. Dr. Lee currently teaches the Applied Research Methods I course for the Master of Science in Management Program at TRSM.
Mehrab Mehrvar
Department of Chemical Engineering, YSGS Interdisciplinary
Dr. Mehrab Mehrvar has had tremendously positive impact on graduate education through training graduate students in research and teaching. While helping them in professional life, well-trained graduate students are the centre of his research activities. He has created an effective training environment that fosters students' excitement and commitment in research and provides increased research self-efficacy. He encourages growth and learning where students enjoy their research by thinking, interacting and analyzing their findings. He mentors them to think beyond problems, critical outcomes and hypothesis, and how they could be implemented. He cultivates their curiosity about critical points in their research outcomes.
Maurice Roche
Department of Economics, Faculty of Arts
Dr. Maurice Roche has made extraordinary contributions to graduate education. He has displayed excellence in graduate teaching, created an environment for “a supportive environment for graduate research and scholarship”, advocated for students, and helped students in seeking employment. He has supervised six PhD dissertations (two at Ryerson), and over forty master's research papers. In particular, his PhD students’ initial placements were a tenure-stream assistant professor at MacEwan University, a senior economist at Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, an economist at World Bank, an economist at Irish Central Bank, and a senior economist at Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland.
Alireza Sadeghian
Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science
Dr. Sadghian's contributions to graduate education have been extremely impactful but are highlighted by simple metrics. He has supervised 13 Phd, 27 Masters and 11 Post Docs. Many are now professors in their own right or have leadership roles in industry. All this has been accomplished while spending 10 years as the Chair of the Department of Computer Science. Prof. Sadeghian has clearly shown leadership in this capacity and heartily deserves this award.
Sharareh Taghipour
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science
Dr. Sharareh Taghipour is Canada Research Chair in Physical Asset Management, and the Director of the Reliability, Risk and Maintenance Research Laboratory. She is recognized for her ground-breaking work on physical asset management and on cancer progression modeling and screening optimization. She has received 21 awards, including 6 best paper awards at international competitions. She has secured over $1.5M in external research funding and has supervised 80 HQPs, including postdoctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate students. Her former graduate students could secure excellent jobs in academia or industry, such as faculty, consulting, or engineering positions.
Past recipients
- Anthony Bonato
Mathematics, Faculty of Science - Marta Braun
Film and Photographic Preservation and Collections Management, Faculty of Communication and Design - Suzanne Fredericks
Nursing, Faculty of Community Services - Claire Oswald
Environmental Applied Science and Management, Interdisciplinary - Julia Spaniol
Psychology, Faculty of Arts - Hong Yu
Master’s of Business Administration, Ted Rogers School of Management
- Alagan Anpalagan
Electrical and Computer Engineering Graduate Programs, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Rachel Berman
Master of Arts in Early Childhood Studies, School of Early Childhood Studies - James Gräfe
Biomedical Physics Graduate Programs, Department of Physics - Karen Milligan
Psychology Graduate Programs, Department of Psychology - Paul Moore
Communication and Culture Graduate Programs, Department of Sociology - James Tiessen
MBA Programs, Health Services Management - Matthew Tiessen
Masters of Professional Communication Program, School of Professional Communications
- Deborah Fels
Master of Business Administration Program, School of Information Technology Management - Wendy Freeman
Master of Professional Communication Program, School of Professional Communication - Mehrab Mehrvar
Environmental Applied Science and Management Graduate Program, Department of Chemical Engineering - Ali Miri
Computer Science Graduate Program, Department of Computer Science - Candice Monson
Psychology Graduate Program, Department of Psychology - Pamela Robinson
Urban Development, School of Urban and Regional Planning - Krishnan Venkatakrishnan
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Graduate Program, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering