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
Aijun An
YRC in Reliable Artificial IntelligenceAn is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Her research focuses on advanced topics in data mining, machine learning and natural language processing, with projects aimed at optimizing big data systems and enhancing domain-specific AI systems, supported through collaborations with IBM and iNAGO Corp.
Jianhong Wu
YRC in Industrial and Applied MathematicsWu, 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.
Aijun An
YRC in Reliable Artificial IntelligenceAn is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Her research focuses on advanced topics in data mining, machine learning and natural language processing, with projects aimed at optimizing big data systems and enhancing domain-specific AI systems, supported through collaborations with IBM and iNAGO Corp.
Annie Bunting
YRC in International Gender Justice and PeacebuildingBunting, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, is a Professor of Law and Society. Her research expertise includes socio-legal studies of marriage and childhoods, feminist international law, and culture, religion and law.
Chun Peng
YRC in Women's Reproductive HealthPeng 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.
Doug Crawford
YRC in Visuomotor NeuroscienceCrawford, 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.
George Zhu
YRC in Space TechnologyZhu, Lassonde School of Engineering, is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Space Engineering Design Laboratory. 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.
Ilijas Farah
YRC in Foundations of Operator AlgebrasFarah, 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
YRC in Human and Computer VisionElder 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.
Jennifer Steeves
YRC in Non-Invasive Visual Brain StimulationSteeves, Faculty of Health, is a Professor in the Department of Psychology. Her research examines how the brain adapts to changes in sensory input with the loss of one eye or to direct brain damage. She uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to reverse engineer the brain.
Jianhong Wu
YRC in Industrial and Applied MathematicsWu, 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
YRC in Big Data AnalyticsHuang, 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.
Jonathan Weiss
YRC in Intellectual and Developmental DisabilitiesWeiss is a Professor in the Department of Psychology. His research focuses on mental health in autistic people or people with intellectual disabilities across the lifespan. He conducts studies into how people with developmental disabilities access mental health care, and is interested in their service needs, use, and experiences
Kerry Kawakami
YRC in Equity and DiversityKawakami, 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.
Kristin Andrews
YRC in Philosophy of Animal MindsAndrews, 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.
Lauren Sergio
YRC in Brain Health and Gender in ActionSergio 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
YRC in Black Canadian Studies and Human RightsFoster, 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
YRC in Franco-Indigenous Relations in the AmericasPioffet 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).
Nantel Bergeron
YRC in Applied AlgebraBergeron, 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.
Poonam Puri
YRC in Corporate Governance, Investor Protection and Financial MarketsPuri, Osgoode Hall Law School, is a Full Professor of Law. Her scholarly work is in several fields: corporate law and governance, securities regulation and investor protection, and regulatory and private enforcement.
Rebecca Pillai Riddell
YRC in Pain and Mental HealthPillai 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.
Robert Allison
YRC in Stereoscopic Vision and Depth PerceptionAllison, 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.
Shayna Rosenbaum
YRC in the Cognitive Neuroscience of MemoryRosenbaum 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.
Stephanie Ben-Ishai
YRC in Law, Finance and DebtBen-Ishai is a Distinguished Research Professor and Full Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, where she engages in research and teaching on bankruptcy, contract, commercial law, and financial crises. Her research focuses on the use of, and disparities in access to, bankruptcy’s extraordinary legal tools.
Adam Diamant
YRC in Managing AI-Driven Technologies in Health CareDiamant, 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
YRC in Population Health Ethics and LawViens, 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.
Amro Zayed
YRC in GenomicsZayed, 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
YRC in Relationships and SexualityMuise, 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 Emberley
YRC in Children's Musical Cultures in Practice and ResearchEmberley, 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
YRC in Reparative and Racial JusticeMurdocca, 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
YRC in Political Sociology of HealthCary 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
YRC in Injured MindsElliott, 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.
Elham Dolatabadi
YRC in Safe AI for Health EquityDolatabadi is an Assistant Professor in the School of Health Policy & Management. Her research harmonizes innovations in health informatics and machine learning to address complex challenges influencing human health and to reduce health disparities. In particular, her interest revolves around the three core pillars of multimodal learning in health, health equity analysis using causal mechanisms, and ambient intelligence.
Emily Laxer
YRC in Populism, Rights, and LegalityLaxer, 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.
Erez Freud
YRC in Visual Cognitive NeuroscienceFreud, Faculty of Science, is an Associate Professor of Psychology. His research investigates the developmental brain processes that enable tasks such as hand movement and grasping in children to examine how these processes might differ in children with autism, providing new insights into brain specialization.
Gene Cheung
YRC in Graph Signal ProcessingCheung is a Professor in the Lassonde School of Engineering. His research interests include Graph Signal Processing and 3D Imaging.
Hina Tabassum
YRC in 5G/6G-Enabled Wireless Mobility and Sensing ApplicationsTabassum 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.
Ian Stedman
YRC in Law, Policy and Personalized HealthcareStedman is a Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration. His research focuses on the technologies and policies driving greater personalization in health care, with a specific emphasis on genomics, artificial intelligence and the experience of those living with rare disease.
Jack Jiang
YRC in Software Engineering for Foundation Model-powered SystemsJiang, Lassonde School of Engineering, is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His research focuses on developing advanced engineering tools and processes aimed at facilitating the construction and enhancing the quality and trustworthiness of various generative AI systems like ChatGPT and Copilot.
Jacob Beck
YRC in Philosophy of Visual PerceptionBeck 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
YRC in Mathematics of Immunity and Infectious DiseaseHeffernan, 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
YRC in Leadership, Collaboration, and TeamsCheng, 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.
Jonathan Penney
YRC in Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance and the LawPenney is an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. His research and teaching expertise lies at the intersection of law, technology, and human rights, with an emphasis on emerging technologies like AI, machine learning, and automation, as well as interdisciplinary and empirical methods.
Kevin Lande
YRC in Philosophy of RepresentationLande, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy. His research is in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, with a special focus on perception, mental representation, and intentionality.
Laura Levin
YRC in Art, Technology and Global ActivismLevin, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, is an Associate Professor of Theatre & Performance Studies. Levin’s YRC program explores the artistic use of emerging technologies, like extended reality and AI, to address growing political polarization and misinformation and to develop imaginative methods for bridging political divides.
Lisa Myers
YRC in Indigenous Art and Curatorial PracticeMyers, 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
YRC in Sport, Gender and Development and Digital Participatory ResearchHayhurst, 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.
Mathieu Poirier
YRC in Global Health EquityPoirier, 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.
Ola Mohammed
YRC in Black Sonic CulturesMohammed is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities. She specializes in interdisciplinary research exploring Black cultural production, Black social life and Black being as sites of possibility.
Ping Wang
York Research Chair in AI Empowered Next Generation Communication NetworksWang, 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.
Sandra Rehan
YRC in Molecular Ecology and Behavioural GeneticsRehan, Faculty of Science, is a Professor of Biology. Her research focuses on social evolution and biodiversity with a special interest in the behaviour, ecology, and evolution of bees.
Sapna Sharma
YRC in Global Change BiologySharma 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
YRC in Community-Based Participatory ResearchFlicker, 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
YRC in Indigenous Health Policy and One HealthHillier, 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.
Shital Desai
YRC in Accessible Interaction DesignDesai 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
YRC in Critical Policy AnalysisWinton is a Professor in the Faculty of Education. Her research examines educational policy advocacy, influences, enactment, and their implications for equity.
Taien Ng-Chan
YRC in Marginal & Emergent MediaNg-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.
Valérie A.M. Schoof
YRC in Primate Behavioural EndocrinologySchoof 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.