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York Research Chairs

Home » Research Excellence » Research Chairs » York Research Chairs

York Research Chairs are the University’s internal counterpart to the national Canada Research Chair Program (CRCP) and recognizes outstanding researchers at York.

There are two types of York Research Chairs (YRCs):

  • Tier 1 recognizes established research leaders at the rank of full professor
  • Tier 2 recognizes emerging research leaders within 15 years of their first academic appointment, and early-career researchers within five years of their first academic appointment. 

Both have five-year terms and are renewable based on peer review and the continuing availability of resources. YRCs receive similar support provided by the CRCP.

Featured Research Chairs

  • nantel-bergeron

    Nantel Bergeron

    YRC in Applied Algebra

    Bergeron, Faculty of Science, is one of the pioneers in the development of the theory of combinatorial Hopf algebras. His research helps to further insights into the super-symmetry of nature.

  • kerry-kawakami

    Kerry Kawakami

    YRC in Equity and Diversity

    Kawakami, Faculty of Health, is Principal Investigator of the Social Cognition Lab. Her work on implicit biases provides insight into how we perceive people from different social groups, how we react to intergroup bias, and strategies to reduce prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination.


York Research Chairs Program Report - Report from York Research Chair Program Review Panel (March 2018)

  • chun-peng

    Chun Peng

    YRC in Women's Reproductive Health

    Peng is a Professor in the Department of biology in the Faculty of Science. Her research will enhance the overall understanding of female reproductive health and may lead to the development of novel biomarkers for preeclampsia and therapeutics for ovarian cancer.

  • robert-allison

    Robert Allison

    YRC in Stereoscopic Vision and Depth Perception

    Allison, Lassonde School of Engineering, is interested in human perceptual responses in virtual environments and the study of stereoscopic visions. He is also interested in the measurement and analysis of eye movements and the applications of this technology.

  • kristin-andrews

    Kristin Andrews

    YRC in Philosophy of Animal Minds

    Andrews, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, has done extensive research into issues related to social understanding and animal rights. She will investigate how we can characterize social norms, which are often perceived as uniquely human, to reveal their existence in animals.

  • gary-sweeney

    Gary Sweeney

    YRC in Mechanisms of Cardiometabolic Diseases

    Sweeney, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, is an expert on diabetes and cardiovascular disease. His work focuses on understanding mechanisms of cardiometabolic diseases, such as heart failure, and is designed to advance knowledge that will facilitate our fundamental understanding of causes of these diseases.

  • ilijas-farah

    Ilijas Farah

    YRC in Foundations of Operator Algebras

    Farah, Faculty of Science, singlehandedly developed the field of the applications of logic to operator algebras, revealing deep and unexpected connections between the foundations of mathematics and some of the most concrete and ubiquitous mathematical objects.

  • james-elder

    James Elder

    YRC in Human and Computer Vision

    Elder is a professor in the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Psychology at York University. His research looks to develop novel and useful computer vision algorithms and machine vision systems through a better understanding of visual processing in biological systems.

  • janine-marchessault

    Janine Marchessault

    YRC in Media Arts in Community Engagement

    Marchessault is a Professor in the School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design. Her research has engaged with four areas: the history of large screen media; diverse models of public art, festivals, and site-specific curation; 21st century moving-image archives and notions of collective memory/history.

  • jianhong-wu

    Jianhong Wu

    YRC in Industrial and Applied Mathematics

    Wu, Faculty of Science, is an expert in dynamical systems, disease modelling and vaccine evaluation. His YRC program aims, in part, to understand biological and physical systems wherein predation occurs.

  • jimmy-huang

    Jimmy Huang

    YRC in Big Data Analytics

    Huang, School of Information Technology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, works to develop next-generation information retrieval techniques for a variety of information search applications by extracting knowledge by automatically searching and analyzing big textual, medical and social media data.

  • kerry-kawakami

    Kerry Kawakami

    YRC in Equity and Diversity

    Kawakami, Faculty of Health, is Principal Investigator of the Social Cognition Lab. Her work on implicit biases provides insight into how we perceive people from different social groups, how we react to intergroup bias, and strategies to reduce prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination.

  • lauren-sergio

    Lauren Sergio

    YRC in Brain Health and Gender in Action

    Sergio is a Professor in the Faculty of Health. Her research projects examine the effects of age, sex, neurological disease, head injury and experience (elite versus non-elite athletes) on the brain’s control of complex movement.

  • lorne-foster

    Lorne Foster

    YRC in Black Canadian Studies and Human Rights

    Foster, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, is the Director of the Institute for Social Research and the Director of the Diversity & Human Rights Certificate. His work on public policy formation and scholarship on the human rights approach to inclusive organizational change ranks among the best in its field.

  • marie-christine-pioffet

    Marie-Christine Pioffet

    YRC in Franco-Indigenous Relations in the Americas

    Pioffet is a Professor at Glendon College. Her work mainly focuses on texts from New France and French literature of the 17th century. She has published around a hundred articles and about ten books, including Voyages en Acadie (1604-1607) by Marc Lescarbot (2007).

  • rabecca-pillai-riddell

    Rebecca Pillai Riddell

    YRC in Pain and Mental Health

    Pillai Riddell is a Professor in the Faculty of Health. She currently is involved with two primary lines of research and participates in the leadership of other programs with colleagues from across the country.

  • doug-crawford

    Doug Crawford

    YRC in Visuomotor Neuroscience

    Crawford, Faculty of Health, is a Distinguished Research Professor in Neuroscience and the Scientific Director of the VISTA program. His work has focused on the control of visual gaze in 3D space, eye-hand coordination and spatial memory during eye movements.

  • nantel-bergeron

    Nantel Bergeron

    YRC in Applied Algebra

    Bergeron, Faculty of Science, is one of the pioneers in the development of the theory of combinatorial Hopf algebras. His research helps to further insights into the super-symmetry of nature.

  • benjamin-berger

    Benjamin Berger

    YRC in Pluralism and Public Law

    Berger, Osgoode Hall Law School, is an expert in law and religion. His interdisciplinary and comparative research aims to advance understanding of the challenges and complexities of public law in diverse societies.

  • stephen-gaetz

    Stephen Gaetz

    YRC in Homelessness and Research Impact

    Gaetz, Faculty of Education, is the director of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, the Homeless Hub, and Making the Shift – Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab. His research is defined by his collaboration with partners to conduct and mobilize research and have an impact on policy and practice.

  • adam-diamant

    Adam Diamant

    YRC in Managing AI-Driven Technologies in Health Care

    Diamant, Schulich School of Business, works towards the development of AI tools that support personalized diagnostics and the delivery of outpatient services. His work promises to improve the delivery of health services by reducing barriers to accessing care and empowering practitioners to make data-driven administrative decisions.

  • adrian-viens

    Adrian Viens

    YRC in Population Health Ethics and Law

    Viens, School of Global Health, is interested in the legal and ethical implications of the structural and collective forces that determine population health. His research program looks into how we can extend and refine the law’s capacity to promote health and well-being and reduce health inequities at the population level.

  • ali-abdul-sater

    Ali Abdul-Sater

    YRC in Regulatory Mechanisms of Inflammation

    Abdul-Sater is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health. His research looks at the roles of the protein TRAF1 in controlling inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, the role of Type I interferons in bacterial and viral responses, and how exercise regulates the immune response.

  • ali-sadeghi-naini

    Ali Sadeghi-Naini

    YRC in Quantitative Imaging and Smart Biomarkers

    Sadeghi-Naini, Lassonde School of Engineering, demonstrated, for the first time, that quantitative ultrasound biomarkers at low frequencies can detect cell death induced by anti-cancer therapies. He seeks to develop quantitative imaging and biomarker technologies integrated with innovative machine learning and computational modeling techniques for precision medicine and personalized therapeutics.

  • amro-zayed

    Amro Zayed

    YRC in Genomics

    Zayed, Faculty of Science, sequences the genomes of thousands of bees to identify mutations that influence their economically and ecologically relevant traits. His program aims to improve the health of Canadian honey bees, which will increase the sustainability and security of Canada’s food supply.

  • amy-muise

    Amy Muise

    YRC in Relationships and Sexuality

    Muise, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, studies the maintenance of sexual desire and relationship satisfaction in romantic relationships. Happy relationships are key contributors to overall health and well-being, and lowering the divorce rate helps to reduce financial instability and negative health and psychological consequences.

  • andrea-emberly

    Andrea Emberley

    YRC in Children's Musical Cultures in Practice and Research

    Emberley, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, focuses on the relationship between childhood, wellbeing, and musical arts practices. Her work intersects with music sustainability in terms of how children and young people access, innovate, and mobilize musical arts practices within their communities and beyond.

  • carmela-murdocca

    Carmela Murdocca

    YRC in Reparative and Racial Justice

    Murdocca, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, examines racialization, criminalization and social histories of racial and colonial violence. Her work is concerned with the social and legal politics of repair, redress and reparations.

  • cary-wu

    Cary Wu

    YRC in Political Sociology of Health

    Cary Wu is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. His research focuses on political culture, race and ethnicity, and health inequality.

  • denielle-elliott

    Denielle Elliott

    YRC in Injured Minds

    Elliott, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, focuses on arts-based ethnography and the intersections of colonialism, medicine and science, and politics. Her current project entitled "Neurological Imaginaries" explores the sensorial and affective dimensions of traumatic brain injuries.

  • emily-laxer

    Emily Laxer

    YRC in Populism, Rights, and Legality

    Laxer, Glendon College, looks at the relationship between emerging right-wing populism and the changing landscape of rights and legality in Canada. Her activities will include the launching of a new Observatory of Populism, Rights, and Legality.

  • eve-haque

    Eve Haque

    YRC in Linguistic Diversity and Community Vitality

    Haque, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, is interested in the regulation and representation of racialized groups in white settler societies. Her current research focus is on the recognition and language rights of non-official language communities in Canada.

  • gene-cheung

    Gene Cheung

    YRC in Graph Signal Processing

    Cheung is a Professor in the Lassonde School of Engineering. His research interests include Graph Signal Processing and 3D Imaging.

  • hina-tabassum

    Hina Tabassum

    YRC in 5G/6G-Enabled Wireless Mobility and Sensing Applications

    Tabassum is an Assistant Professor in the Lassonde School of Engineering. Her research interests include 5G/B5G wireless communications, Massive MIMO, mm-wave, Visible light Communication, Free Space Optics, Stochastic geometry, Geometric Probability, and more.

  • jacob-beck

    Jacob Beck

    YRC in Philosophy of Visual Perception

    Beck is an associate professor of philosophy in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. His current research mainly centres on three issues: the format of mental representation, the perception–cognition boundary, and how consciousness and representation interrelate.

  • jane-heffernan

    Jane Heffernan

    YRC in Mathematics of Immunity and Infectious Disease

    Heffernan, Faculty of Science, has a body of work in the field of infectious-disease modelling. Her research will develop models of immunity against infection, both in individuals and in populations, which can be used to quantify distributions of immunity and its protective effects.

  • joey-cheng

    Joey Cheng

    YRC in Leadership, Collaboration, and Teams

    Cheng, Faculty of Health, examines the psychological underpinnings of power, status, and social hierarchy. She conducts empirical investigations into gender disparities in power and leadership, thereby addressing ways to overcome barriers to women’s position in work teams, organizations, and society.

  • john-moores

    John Moores

    YRC in Space Exploration

    Moores is a Planetary Scientist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Space Science Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering. His research explores the atmospheres and surfaces of other worlds.

  • lisa-myers

    Lisa Myers

    YRC in Indigenous Art and Curatorial Practice

    Myers, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, is a curator and artist with a keen interest in interdisciplinary collaboration. Her research focuses on contemporary Indigenous art considering the varied values and functions of elements, such as medicine plants and language, sound, and knowledge.

  • lyndsay-hayhurst

    Lyndsay Hayhurst

    YRC in Sport, Gender and Development and Digital Participatory Research

    Hayhurst, Faculty of Health, researches the use of sport to support gender-related development goals, policies and practice. Her current research explores how key stakeholders experience Sport, Gender and Development initiatives focused on girls and women in Canada, Uganda and Nicaragua.

  • marlis-schweitzer

    Marlis Schweitzer

    YRC in Theatre and Performance History

    Schweitzer, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, specializes in 19th and early-20th century Anglo-American performance. Her research explores the relationship between historical casting practices, theatre’s role in the circulation and perpetuation of racist stereotypes, and the onstage representation of BIPOC individuals in contemporary Anglo-American performance.

  • mathieu-poirier

    Mathieu Poirier

    YRC in Global Health Equity

    Poirier, Faculty of Health, is building an innovative interdisciplinary research program to promote global health equity. This program will generate policy-relevant findings to measure and address socially determined inequities in health around the world and innovate new ways to address the world’s most pressing global health challenges.

  • mike-daly

    Mike Daly

    YRC in Planetary Science

    Daly is a Professor in the Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering. The YRC enables Daly’s participation in NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu and the return of Canada’s first sample of material from another solar system.

  • ozzy-mermut

    Ozzy Mermut

    YRC in Vision Biophotonics

    Mermut, Faculty of Science, and her group develop diagnostics and therapeutic biophotonics technologies to address age-related degenerative diseases. These techniques translate to accelerated aging studies in the environment of space, to understand long-term health consequences in space.

  • ping-wang

    Ping Wang

    York Research Chair in AI Empowered Next Generation Communication Networks

    Wang, Lassonde School of Engineering, is interested in radio resource allocation, network design, performance analysis and optimization for heterogeneous wireless networks and intends to develop innovative techniques for next-generation wireless communications networks in supporting the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

  • sapna-sharma

    Sapna Sharma

    YRC in Global Change Biology

    Sharma is a Professor in the Faculty of Science. Her research focuses on predicting the effects of environmental stressors, such as climate change, invasive species, and habitat alteration on ecosystems and improving the use of quantitative approaches used to generate these predictions.

  • sarah-flicker

    Sarah Flicker

    YRC in Community-Based Participatory Research

    Flicker, Faculty of Environmental Studies, is an expert in community development, health promotion and adolescent well-being. Flicker’s innovative program of research focuses on the engagement of youth and other allied actors in environmental, sexual and reproductive justice.

  • sean-hillier

    Sean Hillier

    YRC in Indigenous Health Policy and One Health

    Hillier, Faculty of Health, is a Mi’kmaw scholar and a special adviser to the Dean on Indigenous Resurgence. His research program spans the topics of aging, living with HIV and other infectious diseases, and antimicrobial resistance, all with a concerted focus on policy affecting health care access for Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

  • shayna-rosenbaum

    Shayna Rosenbaum

    YRC in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory

    Rosenbaum is a Professor in the Faculty of Health and core member of the VISTA program. Her research has shown how different forms of memory are represented in the brain and seeks to develop strategies to help healthy older adults and patients overcome memory loss.

  • sheila-colla

    Sheila Colla

    YRC in Interdisciplinary Conservation Science

    Colla, Faculty of Environmental Studies, is an ecologist using scientific principles to address real-world conservation issues. Her research focuses on the conservation of lesser understood native species such as bees, butterflies and flowering plants.

  • shital-desai

    Shital Desai

    YRC in Accessible Interaction Design

    Desai is an Assistant Professor in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design. Her research will undertake codesign and development efforts with People with Dementia, caregivers, healthcare practitioners and community partners.

  • sue-winton

    Sue Winton

    YRC in Critical Policy Analysis

    Winton is a Professor in the Faculty of Education. Her research examines educational policy advocacy, influences, enactment, and their implications for equity.

  • taien-ng-chan

    Taien Ng-Chan

    YRC in Marginal & Emergent Media

    Ng-Chan is an Assistant Professor in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design. She is currently working on an immersive, interactive media piece that blends concepts around self-representation, critical care, and karaoke.

  • uzo-anucha

    Uzo Anucha

    YRC in Youth and Contexts of Inequity

    Anucha, School of Social Work, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, is the Provincial Academic Director of the YouthREX. Her project makes research evidence and evaluation practices accessible to Ontario’s grassroots youth sector through capacity building, knowledge exchange and evaluation leadership.

  • valerie-a-m-schoof

    Valérie A.M. Schoof

    YRC in Primate Behavioural Endocrinology

    Schoof is a primatologist and an Assistant Professor at Glendon Campus. Her research program focuses on the ecology, sociality, physiology and life history of wild primates in East Africa, and the biological, geographical and cultural factors influencing human-wildlife interactions.