2021 External Award Recipients

Donald F. Putnam & George Tatham Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Created through a program of the province of Ontario and an endowment established in honour of two of the Department’s first three faculty members, Donald Putnam and George Tatham.

Black and white photo of Drew smiling.

Drew Kaufman

Drew’s research explores how a growing market for debt from low-and-middle-income countries relates to the rise of the financial sector and histories of uneven development. His work follows capital as it is lent to the Global South by way of sovereign bonds before tracing its path through global debt markets. He maintains an active interest in issues of affordable housing and homelessness.

 

Dr. Ranbir Singh Khanna Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Environment

Sophia smiling in front of trees.

Sophie Roussy

My research focuses on the intersection of transportation-related air pollution (TRAP), marginalization, human exposure, including its equitable distribution, and health outcomes. Specifically, my research uses spatial interpolation techniques to model the spatial distribution of TRAP, with a specific focus on ambient benzene pollution, across regions of Toronto. From here, my research employs spatial analysis techniques, statistical models, and established dose-response relationships of the air pollutants to health outcomes to examine associations between level of marginalization and disparities in human exposure to TRAP and subsequent health risks, thereby identifying environmentally-driven health disparities.

 

Edward Sorbara & BILD Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Created through a program of the province of Ontario and the endowment established by a donation by Mr. Edward Sorbara and the University of Toronto, this award is presented to an outstanding graduate student who is studying planning and has obtained first-class standing.

Michael smiling in front of sunny stone buildings.

Michael (Chun Fu) Liu

Michael Liu is a second-year Urban Planning student interested in a variety of urban planning issues. He is interested in growing urban nature and ensuring sufficient urban space to accommodate a growing population. He wants to learn and explore how urban areas can be planned to ensure vegetation and people can co-exist to achieve a more environmentally sustainable future. His personal interest is taking walks and pictures, and he always walks around to look for interesting things to capture in the city.

 

ESRI Canada Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship in Science and Technology

Created through a program of the Province of Ontario and an endowment established by ESRI Canada and the University of Toronto, this award is presented to an outstanding graduate student who is studying geography and has obtained first-class standing.

Kamille smiling in front of a white wall.

Kamille LeClair

Kamille LeClair is a second-year MA student in Geography. As part of her thesis, she is currently leading the development of an equity-scoring tool for the City of Toronto. The final product will be used to evaluate and prioritize projects managed at the Transportation Services Division. Kamille is passionate about her work and wants to keep designing practical, equity-forward solutions for cities of all sizes in the future.

 

J.M. Tomczak Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Created through a program of the province of Ontario and an endowment established by J. Michael Tomczak and the University of Toronto, this award is presented to an outstanding graduate student who is studying human geography and has achieved first-class standing.

Zahra smiling in the sun.

Zahra Moloo

Zahra Moloo is a 2nd year Kenyan-Canadian PhD student in Geography at the University of Toronto. Her work focuses on biodiversity conservation, the postcolonial state, capitalism, and extractivism. Specifically, her research project focuses on violent geographies and the creation of national parks in the Congo Basin. She has also worked as an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. Her writing and films have appeared in Al Jazeera, CBC Docs, The New Humanitarian, Africa is a Country and the Jacobin. She also works with ETC Group, an organization that monitors the impact of emerging technologies and corporate strategies on biodiversity, agriculture and human rights.

 

Michael Ralph Walsh Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Created through a program of the Province of Ontario and an endowment established in memory of Michael Ralph Walsh, this award is presented to an outstanding graduate student who has obtained first-class standing.

Melissa smiling in front of a wooden wall.

Melissa Serafino

Melissa Serafino is a MA student pursing a collaborative specialization in human geography and environmental studies at the University of Toronto's Department of Geography and Planning and School of the Environment. Her research focuses on questions of environmental and social equity within global supply chains. Specifically, she looks at how segments of the population, in particular, women of colour, are disproportionately impacted by issues of climate change which are driven by the production of modern garment manufacturing. Recognizing the huge impact of the fashion industry on the workers and the environment, her work lies at the intersections of environmental sustainability and social justice.

 

Neptis Foundation Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Planning

Created through a program of the province of Ontario and an endowment established by the Neptis Foundation and the University of Toronto, these awards are presented to outstanding graduate students who are studying geography and planning and have obtained first-class standing.

Shi Shu smiling and sitting in a boat in an icy river with a paddle in her hand.

Shi Shu Hong

Shuhong is a second-year MSc student in Physical Geography, whose research involves the use of high-fre-quency sonde data and limnological sampling to determine how seasonality impacts the chemistry and biology of temperate ponds. Her research interests include lake metabolism and the effect of seasonality on aquatic invertebrate communities. Shuhong hopes that her research will help to paint a more complete picture of what happens in lakes over the course of a full year, as winter processes are largely understudied.

 

Sara smiling in front of trees and grass.

Sara Eng

Sara is a second-year student in the MScPL program at the University of Toronto. She is interested in how urban design and land use policies impact the sustainability of communities. Sara has taken a specific interest in the role that transportation has in providing mobility options and structuring new neighbourhoods. Sara’s planning thesis evaluates how successful Transit-Oriented Development has been at increasing active transportation and producing a variety of housing options. She hopes this research will provide insight on how to shape vibrant and equitable communities across the country.

 

U of T Planning Alumni Ontario Graduate Scholarship

This award is given to a graduate student enrolled in full-time studies in the Department of Geography & Program in Planning, on the basis of academic merit.

Not Pictured: Suzanne Merchant

 

Urban Strategies Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Created through a program of the province of Ontario and an endowment established by Urban Strategies and the University of Toronto, this award is presented to an outstanding graduate student who is studying geography or planning and has obtained first-class standing.

Alexandra smiling and standing in front of field of yellow flowers.

Alexandra Lambropoulos

Alexandra is in her first year pursuing a Masters of Science in Planning. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in Human Geography (major), Urban Studies (major) and GIS (minor). Alexandra is interested in researching urban planning strategies and policies that develop strong communities and solutions for the cities of tomorrow, especially where they intersect with arts, community economic development, resilience, and technology. She is also very interested in urban planning in African cities, which she explores through her monthly podcast Urban Limitrophe and as a researcher at The Reach Alliance.

 

Wiliam G. Dean Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship in Science and Technology

Established by Dr. William G. Dean, the scholarship is awarded to a graduate student studying physical geography.

Mickey smiling in front of a sunny tree.

Mickey Chen

Mickey's research interests lies in understanding fire regimes in the Alaska-Yukon region (collectively referred to as Eastern Beringia), which was unglaciated during the last ice age. On this unglaciated landscape, Late Quaternary megafauna fed on a nutrient rich steppe-like biome until its gradual replacement by advancing boreal forests. It is possible that wildfire, acting as an agent of climate warming, played an important role in the replacement of ancient steppe with boreal forests. Understanding the cascading effects of re-vegetation in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions during the last major warming event will be critical to better evaluate future fire regimes and environmental trends which can alter the viability of human habitation in various communities around the globe.

 

SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship

Gabrielle Doiron

Jonah Olsen

Mariba Douglas

Alex Tabascio

Charlotte Corelli

Antony Riley

Gyoorie Kim

Julie Han

Katherine Yee

 

SHRC Doctoral Fellowship

Loren March

Ruilin Yang

Shaheer Tarar

 

Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Scholarship

Priscilla Ankomah-Hackman

Madeline Barnes Planer

Sarah Mackinnon

Jane O’Brien Davis

 

NSERC Canada Scholarship

Elysia Fuller-Thomson

Taylor Luu

 

Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Diala Lteif

Connie Yang

Victoria Nimmo

Emily Hawes

Suzanne Merchant

Garrett Morgan

Hassan Nima

Irenius Konkor

Jae Page

Shervin Ghaem-Maghami

Alexandra Lambropoulos

Michael (Chun Fu) Liu

Sara Eng