York University appoints seven new York Research Chairs

York’s President and the VP Research & Innovation announce seven new York Research Chairs, each outstanding in their respective academic fields, bringing the grand total to 24.

On March 22, York University President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri and York Vice-President Research & Innovation Robert Haché announced seven new York Research Chairs (YRCs). Four years after the launch of the YRC program, it has now grown to 24 Chairs.

The YRCs is an internal program aimed at building research recognition and research capacity, with excellence in research, scholarship and associated creative activity being the selection criteria. Standards, expectations and supports for YRCs are at the same level as for the Canada Research Chairs program.

This program is designed to recognize excellence that’s already in existence at York U and support the programs of the University’s most active researchers.

Tier I YRCs are open to established research leaders at the rank of full professor. Tier II YRCs are aimed at emerging research leaders within 15 years of their first academic appointment.

“We are delighted to acknowledge these outstanding researchers and scholars with the York Research Chair appointment,” said Shoukri. “These new Research Chairs embody York University’s commitment to research intensification, scholarly excellence and policy-relevant findings.”

“These academics are accelerating research leadership across York. They are undertaking visionary work that has local, national and international impact,” said Vice-President Research & Innovation Haché.

The following appointments are effective July 1, 2017. Note: The two Chairs associated with the Vision Science to Application (VISTA) Program were supported by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF).

Tier I York Research Chairs

Deborah Britzman
Tier I York Research Chair in Pedagogy and Psycho-Social Transformations

Britzman’s research interests are in psychoanalysis with education and studies of learning as psychosocial transformation. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, A Psychoanalyst and Distinguished Research Professor in the Faculty of Education, she is the author of 100 articles and eight books.

Eric Hessels
Tier I York Research Chair in Atomic Physics

Hessels’ area of specialization is in experimental atomic physics and high-precision measurements in excited states of few-electron atoms. A Distinguished Research Professor in the Faculty of Science, Department of Physics and Astronomy, he is part of a collaboration whose goal is to use antihydrogen atoms to conduct tests of the physics of antimatter.

Laurence Harris
Tier I York Research Chair in Multisensory Integration

Harris investigates how we integrate information from our different senses to create the perception of our own body, and our sense of position and movement in the world. He is the Director of the Centre for Vision Research at York, an international leader in biological and machine vision research. He is a professor in Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Health and a core member of the Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) program.

Zheng Hong (George) Zhu
Tier I York Research Chair in Space Technology

Zhu is the Director of the Space Engineering Design Laboratory at the Lassonde School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests touch on a number of topics including the dynamics and control of tethered spacecraft systems, electrodynamic tether propulsion and space debris removal, space robotics and advanced spacecraft materials.

Tier II York Research Chairs

Kristin Andrews
Tier II York Research Chair in Animal Minds

Andrews’ interests are in animal and child social cognition and moral development. She has worked with dolphins in Hawaii and orangutans in Borneo. Her research area is in the philosophy of psychology. Her first book, Do Apes Read Minds?, was published by MIT Press in 2012. She is in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Department of Philosophy.

Sapna Sharma
Tier II York Research Chair in Global Change Biology

Sharma, in the Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, is interested in predicting the effects of environmental stressors, such as climate change, invasive species, land use change, and habitat alteration, on ecosystems and improving the use of quantitative approaches used to generate these predictions.

Robert Allison
Tier II York Research Chair in Stereoscopic Vision and Depth Perception

Allison, in the Lassonde School of Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and VISTA Program is interested in human perceptual responses in virtual environments and study of stereoscopic vision. He is also interested in the measurement and analysis of eye movements and the applications of this technology.

Learn more at www.research.info.yorku.ca/research-chairs-2/.

By Megan Mueller, manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, York University, muellerm@yorku.ca