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Dean's Round-up: October 2021FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS

The Dean’s Office hosted a Strategic PlanImplementation Workshop on Oct 29 where facultymembers and staff discussed how the new 2021-2025 Faculty of Science Strategic Plan can be putinto action. Thank you to everyone who partook inthe exercise.

CONGRATULATIONS Jude Kong (Mathematics & Statistics) was identified as one of the BlackHeroes of Operational Research by The Operational Research Society.

Christine Le (Chemistry) received a $110,000 grant from the AmericanChemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for her project "Harnessing theDiverse Reactivity of Acylium Ions in Fluorinative Transformations."

Ozzy Mermut (Physics & Astronomy) received the J.P. Bickell FoundationMedical Research Grant on the subject of new retinal models for the study ofvision disease and photonic therapy.

Georges Monette (Mathematics & Statistics) is co-investigator on a new CIHROperating Grant: Emerging COVID-19 Research Gaps and Priorities for theproject “An intervention to teach self-management skills for persistingsymptoms of COVID-19: Minimizing impact of symptoms on everydayfunctioning and on healthcare usage/utilization - A randomized controlled trial".

Mingming Li, Science International Recruiting Coordinator, received a bursaryoffered by the International Scholarship Committee to attend the CanadianBureau for International Education 2021 Conference.

MORE NEWS

The Department of Mathematics & Statistics hosted “Mathematical Lessonsfrom Industry and Academia” on Oct 7, presented by Dr. Dhavide Aruliah,senior vice-president of education at Open Teams. This was attended by facultyand students who learned about the professional math skills they would needupon graduation.

On Oct 19, the Faculty hosted “Hopeless to Hopeful,” a webinar presented byDr. Jaclyn Stewart (UBC) about instructional strategies to support sciencestudents' mental health.

The Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation at YorkUniversity, directed by Amro Zayed (Biology), hosted the 2021 BeeCon onOct 15-16. The event included presentations by students at York University aswell as from other Canadian and international universities.

The One Health Modelling Network for Emerging Infections/Réseau une seulesanté sur la modélisation des infections (OMNI/RÉUNIS) officially kicked offwith a virtual celebratory launch that included more than 100 network members.OMNI/RÉUNIS is led by Huaiping Zhu and includes Iain Moyles, Jude Kong,and Jane Heffernan (Mathematics & Statistics).

The Faculty hosted a virtual “Info Session Math & Stat to NOIC Academy” onOct 28. More than 60 prospective students attended. Stephen Watson(Mathematics & Statistics) presented “Introduction to Mathematics & Statisticsand Career Outcomes”; Hugo Chen, Director of International Relations &Partnerships, presented “About York Science and Scholarship Opportunities.”

Nantong University (China) hosted a virtual York U Science Summer TransitionProgram Awards Ceremony on Oct 27. Ten students from Nantong Universitysuccessfully completed the 2021 Science Summer Transition Program of YorkScience.

As a former Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowshipawardee, Emeritus Professor Sampa Bhadra (Physics & Astronomy) wasinvited to make a 2-minute video commentary (see link, starting at 1:44:30) that

was played at the Summer Festival for the 30th Anniversary of the JSPSWashington Office.

The United Nations Pulse lab in Jakarta, Indonesia, published a blog about the

Africa-Canada Artificial Intelligence and Data Innovation Consortium (ACADIC)and a video interview with Jude Kong (Mathematics & Statistics) about theproject. ACADIC is directed by Jude Kong and includes Jianhong Wu andWoldegebriel Assefa Woldegerima (Mathematics & Statistics).

Jude Kong (Mathematics & Statistics) was a panelist and presenter at theconference Data for Policy 2021: Lessons for Policy-Data Interactions AfterCOVID-19, as well as a panelist at a Nigerian artificial intelligence virtualstakeholders forum. He presented “Early Warning tools for emerging infectiousdiseases outbreak” at the Mathematics for Public Health Colloquium at theFields Institute, as well as the plenary talk “The power of Collaboration, ArtificialIntelligence and Big Data in the Fight Against COVID-19” at the Ghana ScienceAssociation 2021 Conference. He also presented “Harnessing ArtificialIntelligence and Big Data Techniques to Monitor, Manage and Forecast anEpidemic: the case of COVID-19” and was a panelist at the Black Heroes ofMathematics 2021 Conference.

Alexey Kuznetsov (Mathematics & Statistics) was appointed to the AtlanticAssociation for Research in the Mathematical Sciences Scientific ReviewPanel.

Paul Szeptycki (Mathematics & Statistics) presented an invited talk at theWorkshop on Generic Structures held at the Institute of Mathematics at theCzech Academy of Sciences; the workshop was organized by two former Yorkpostdocs Wieslaw Kubis and Tristan Bice, and former PhD student SaeedGhasemi was an invited speaker. Paul Szeptycki also began a three-monthvisit at the same Institute, hosted by Wieslaw Kubis.

Dawn Bazely (Biology) and Science Librarian John Dupuis were invited by theWikipedia Education Project of the Wikimedia Foundation to present WhenStudents contribute to Wikipedia: A Local Initiative with Global Reach atWikiConference North America.

Cora Young (Chemistry), and PhD students Daniel Persaud and JessicaClouthier presented at the Fluoros Global 2021 Conference, which wasfocused on the environmental impacts of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkylsubstances. Jessica Clouthier won a Poster Award for her presentation.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Sapna Sharma (Biology), David C. Richardson, R. Iestyn Woolway, researcherM. Arshad Imrit, Damien Bouffard, Postdoc Kevin Blagrave, Julia Daly,

Postdoc Alessandro Filazzola, Nikolay Granin, Johanna Korhonen, JohnMagnuson, Włodzimierz Marszelewski, Shin-Ichiro S. Matsuzaki, William Perry,Dale M. Robertson,Lars G. Rudstam, Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer, and Huaxia Yaopublished Loss of ice cover, shifting phenology, and more extreme events inNorthern Hemisphere lakes in the Journal of Geophysical Research –Biogeosciences. Read the press release from York University.

Former PhD student Alyssa Murdoch, Derek K. Gray, Jennifer Korosi,Jasmina M. Vucic, Rachel S. Cohen, and Sapna Sharma (Biology) publishedDrivers of fish biodiversity in a rapidly changing permafrost landscape inFreshwater Biology.

Alex O. Sutton, Emily K. Studd, Timothy Fernandes, Amanda E. Bates, AndrewJ. Bramburger, Steven J. Cooke, Brian Hayden, Hugh A.L. Henry, Murray M.Humphries, Rosemary Martin, Bailey McMeans, Eric Moise, Antóin M.O’Sullivan, Sapna Sharma (Biology), and Pamela H. Templer published Frozenout: unanswered questions about winter biology in Environmental Reviews.

Postdoc Hao Ding, PhD student Yan Zhang and Yuehua Wu (Mathematics &Statistics) published A novel group VIF regression for group variable selectionwith application to multiple change-point detection in the Journal of AppliedStatistics.

Postdoc Juan Li, Zhen Jin, Youming Wang, Xiangdong Sun, Quangang Xu,Jingli Kang, Baoxu Huang, and Huaiping Zhu (Mathematics & Statistics)published Data-driven dynamical modelling of the transmission of African swinefever in a few places in China in Transboundary and Emerging Diseases.

Nicole Chisholm, Baban Nagare, Charlotte Wainwright, Ed Creegan, PhDStudent Leyla Salehpoor, Trevor C. VandenBoer (Chemistry), Terry Bullock,Betty Croft, Glen Lesins, Hans Osthoff, H. J. S. Fernando, and Rachel Y.-W.Chang published Characterizing atmospheric aerosols off the Atlantic Canadiancoast during C-FOG in Boundary Layer Meteorology.

PhD Student Melissa P. Galicia (Biology), Gregory W.Thiemann (Faculty ofEnvironmental & Urban Change), Markus G.Dyck, and Steven H.Fergusonpublished Polar bear diet composition reveals spatiotemporal distribution ofArctic marine mammals across Nunavut, Canada in Ecological Indicators. Seethe press release from York University.

Postdoc Shira Joudan, Amila O. De Silva and Cora J. Young (Chemistry)published Insufficient evidence for the existence of natural trifluoroacetic acid inEnvironmental Science: Processes and Impacts.

The Public Health Agency of Canada Modelling Group Report (Oct 7) includedthe report “Impact of vaccinating the 5 to 11 age group and increasingvaccination coverage of those aged 12 and older in achieving herd immunity”by the LIAM-ADERSIM COVID-19 Reopening and Recovery Modeling Group,directed by Jianhong Wu (Mathematics & Statistics). The leading authors werePostdoc Jummy Funke David and PhD student Zachary McCarthy.

MEDIA

Jane Heffernan’s (Mathematics & Statistics) research on the long-termprotection of the Pzifer and Moderna vaccines was covered by News-Medical.Net.

Sapna Sharma (Biology) and her team’s research findings on loss of lake icecover received extensive media coverage across Canada and globally,including by CTV News, CBC News, CBC Radio, The Star and by the largestnewspaper in Finland, Helsingin Sanomat.

Dawn Bazely (Biology) was interviewed by CTV News about the COP26Climate Summit.

Jianhong Wu (Mathematics & Statistics) co-authored the article Co-feeding inticks helps transmit tick-borne diseases in Research Features.

Paul Delaney (Physics & Astronomy) spoke to CTV News, CP24, AM640,AM900, and Newstalk1010 about a number of topics including WilliamShatner’s flight to space, a Russian film crew on ISS, the DART mission, theLucy launch, the Chinese space station crew, space tourism, CometBernardeneli-Bernstein, a meteorite in BC and sounds on Mars.

Jesse Rogerson (Physics & Astronomy) spoke about William Shatnertravelling to space with CTV News, CP24, CBC Radio, Sirius XM, 660 Newsand AM980; as well Russian filmmakers, planetary defence, andcommercialization of space with Sirius XM.

Dasantila Golemi-Kotra (Biology) spoke to Global News about technologiesthat claim to detect COVID particles in the air and CBC Radio stations acrossCanada about COVID-19 and the reopening of the United States border withCanada.

Research led by PhD student Melissa Galicia on polar bear diet and climatechange was covered by CTV News, Ars Technica, and The Jerusalem Post.

Patricia Lakin-Thomas (Biology) spoke to the Toronto Star about thedownsides of permanent daylight-saving time, which some provinces are on thecusp of implementing.

Christine Le (Chemistry) was interviewed by Chemistry World about herthoughts on the recent Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

EVENTS

Nov 16: Science is for Everyone: Creating Cultures of Inclusive Excellence inResearch and Teaching, presented by Dr. Imogen Coe. 7-8:30 pm on Zoom.

Dec 14: Live training workshop on Panopto, 2:30 pm on Zoom (Link TBA).

INTERNATIONAL PARTNER INSTITUTION PROFILE

The Faculty of Science has established multiple partnerships with variousinternational institutions. In order to better inform the York Science communityof these international partner institutions, we will provide a brief profile of eachof them in our Dean’s Round-up.

Nantong University Nantong University (China) was founded in 1912 and offers 102 undergraduateprograms in the disciplines of literature, science, engineering, medicine, art,economics, law, pedagogy, history and management. It is home to 40,000 full-timeundergraduates, including 3,350 postgraduates and 916 international students. ItsSchool of Sciences includes the Departments of Mathematics & Applied Mathematics(Education), Applied Statistics, Information & Computer Science, Physics(Education), Applied Physics, and Optoelectronic Information Science & Engineering.In the last 5 years, the School has trained more than 120 postgraduates withmaster's degrees, and it has more than 1,300 undergraduates currently enrolled inthe program.