University of Toronto celebrates its award-winning researchers

The University of Toronto honoured more than 250 of its award-winning researchers for their notable achievements and discoveries at the Celebration of Research Excellence event on Jan. 19 at Hart House.

The event, held every two years and organized by the office of the vice-president (research), recognized the work of outstanding scholars and researchers who reached significant milestones in recent years.

“In recent years, our faculty members have been on a magical run,” said President David Naylor. “If you do the count, 17 of 52 Steacies awarded since 1964 have gone to University of Toronto professors, 13 of 34 since 1980. Similarly, if you look at the Royal Society of Canada, we had 18 fellows named in 2011, which is a record. No institution has had that number of fellows in a single year.”

Ninety percent of all Ontario Premier’s Summit Award winners have also come from U of T, as have one-third of all Premier’s Discovery Award winners.

Naylor said it’s the creativity, ingenuity and imagination of women and men at the University of Toronto, supported by staff, undergrads and graduate students, that are helping to solve humanity’s grand challenges.

“Above all, we’d like to thank these very fine scholars and researchers for continuing to make this their academic home and making us so proud to be part of it with you,” said Naylor.

Professor Paul Young, vice-president (research), recognized “the tremendous effort of U of’T faculty members, administration and staff who have contributed to the nomination of our professors for these prestigious honours. Nominating our faculty for awards and prizes is by no means a simple process and we appreciate the care you take and the knowledge you bring to bear in helping our researchers and scholars to win the recognition they deserve.”

Chancellor David Peterson also lauded the researchers.

“These scholars are not just national class researchers, they aren’t just the best in the university they’re some of the best in the world,” said Peterson. “These are world class and world renowned prizes they’ve won. These awards are handed out with very strong peer review and it’s competitive. Our researchers measure up to some very high standards.”

A full listing of the awards and prizes is available online.

As part of the Faculty of Music's New Music Festival, clarinetist Peter Stoll performs music by Anders Hillborg, Barbara Croall, Christos Hatzis, Norbert Palej and Kevin Lau.