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Concordia University Research Chair in Education (Tier 1)
Department of Education, Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance
abrami@education.concordia.ca
Dr. Phil Abrami is a native of New York and has been a member of the Concordia family since 1980. He completed his undergraduate degree in Social Psychology at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Dr. Abrami then headed northwest to Winnipeg to attend the University of Manitoba to attain his graduate degree (also in Social Psychology), and his Ph.D. in Social/Instructional Psychology. He is a member of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the Canadian Psychological Association. Dr. Abrami is currently the Director of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP).
Dr. Abrami’s main research interests include technology integration, systemic reviews and evidence-based practice, and the social psychology of education.
As a researcher of social and instructional psychology, Dr. Abrami’s prolific and illustrious career has included such achievements as:
Concordia University Research Chair in Communication Studies (Tier 2)
Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Arts and Science
Screen Culture Research Group
c.acland@concordia.ca
Dr. Charles Acland was born in Kingston, Ontario. He earned his B.Comm., specializing in Economics and Marketing, at Carleton University in Ottawa, before switching gears to pursue his doctorate in Cultural and Media Studies from the Institute of Communications Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Acland joined Concordia in 1999, after holding positions at Queen’s University and the University of Calgary.
Dr. Acland’s most recent publication is the edited volume Residual Media (University of Minnesota Press, 2007), a collection of twenty original essays that challenge presumptions about ‘new media’ in contemporary scholarship. Always engaged with the politics of popular media, he is writing a history of popular ideas about media manipulation titled Swift Viewing in a Cluttered Age to appear with Duke University Press.
Among his other research accomplishments, Dr. Acland was funded by SSHRC for his research on the history of film and media in educational and community venues. He also co-organized with Dr. Haidee Wasson a SSHRC-funded workshop in August 2006 titled “Useful Cinema: Expanding Film Contexts” that brought a group of top international media historians to Concordia for a symposium, from which a scholarly volume is currently in preparation. Dr. Acland is also part of an FQRSC-funded collaborative research team led by Dr. Martin Lefebvre that is investigating the institutional and epistemological history of moving image studies. Dr. Acland has formed the Screen Culture Research Group, a consortium of faculty and graduate students interested in the materiality of moving image screens, both historical and contemporary. This interdisciplinary research concern brings a steady flow of leading international research collaborators to Concordia, and is currently running a series of working group seminars through the CIISC.
A productive media scholar who spent the 2007 winter term as a Visiting Research Officer at Harvard University, Dr. Acland has been steadily raising his profile in his field. He has made a name for himself through successes such as:
Concordia University Research Chair in Psychology (Tier 1)
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Science
Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology
shimon.amir@concordia.ca
Dr. Shimon Amir is a native of Rehovot, Israel. He obtained his first two degrees at Tel Aviv University, which included a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology, as well as an M.A. in Psychobiology and Clinical Psychology. He moved to Montreal in 1973 to pursue his doctoral studies in Psychology at McGill University, followed by a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Concordia’s Center for Research on Drug Dependence. After spending seven years as a Research Scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Dr. Amir returned to Concordia in 1987 to become a member of the Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology.
Dr. Amir’s research interests are primarily in the area of circadian rhythms. Specifically, he is using molecular, neuroanatomical, physiological, neuroendocrine, and behavioural approaches to study the nature, regulation, and function of novel circadian clocks within limbic forebrain regions involved in the control of motivated behaviours and emotional states, such as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, amygdala, hippocampus and striatum. In a related line of research he studies how external and internal time signals gain access to, and regulate the activity of, brain circadian oscillators. Finally, Dr. Amir investigates modes and mechanisms of plasticity within the circadian system, focusing on the role of conditioning, emotional state, and stress in clock resetting and entrainment of circadian rhythms.
In a career spanning three decades, Dr. Amir has been tremendously successful in his research endeavours. His accomplishments include:
Concordia University Research Chair in Integration of Solar Energy Systems into Buildings (Tier 1)
Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Solar Buildings Research Network
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
aathieni@encs.concordia.ca
Dr. Andreas K. Athienitis obtained his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick, and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. His doctoral work focused on the thermal modelling of passive solar buildings. He then headed west to join the University of Alberta’s Mechanical Engineering department on a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship before joining Concordia’s Centre for Building Studies in 1987. Dr. Athienitis is a former Undergraduate and Graduate Program Director for the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Scientific Director of the Canadian NSERC Solar Buildings Research Network.
Dr. Athienitis’ research interests include solar energy engineering, energy efficiency, optimization and control of building thermal systems, and building integrated photovoltaics and daylighting. He has served as Associate Editor of the journal Solar Energy and as an advisor or consultant to major governmental bodies, including Natural Resources Canada, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and Hydro Quebec – Canada’s largest utility company.
Dr. Athienitis has developed an international reputation in his field, with an extensive list of achievements and awards that include:
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Canada Research Chair in Inter-X Art Practice and Theory (Tier 2)
Department of Theatre / Department of Music (joint appointment), Faculty of Fine Arts
Matralab (Music/Movement/Media Art Theatre/Theory Research Agency Laboratory)
sbhagwat@alcor.concordia.ca
Professor Sandeep Bhagwati was born in India and has lived for most of his life in Germany. He completed his Künstlerische Reifeprüfung (Kompositionsdiplom) – equivalent to an M.A. in Music – from the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, Germany. He served as the artistic director of three festivals for contemporary music in Germany (i.e. A ∙ DEvantgarde München, KlAngRiffe Karlsruhe, RASALILA Berlin), and as a writer for radio and other media, primarily on music-related issues. Professor Bhagwati joined Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 2006 and is the founder / Director of Matralab – a laboratory for interdisciplinary, intercultural, intermedia, and interactive art.
Professor Bhagwati is a composer, theatre director, and installation and performance artist whose experience includes the design and direction of five large-scale multimedia events throughout Europe, five evening-length operas and music theatre works, several evening-length orchestra pieces, dozens of chamber music works, vocal works, and incidental music for theatre, etc. His research interests include interdisciplinary ‘comprovisation,’ live-dramaturgy, and experimental performance topologies.
Professor Bhagwati’s achievements are many; in addition to numerous publications and compositions, he has received several significant appointments and accolades, including:
Concordia University Research Chair in Psychology (Tier 1)
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for Research in Human Development
william.bukowski@concordia.ca
Dr. William M. Bukowski was born in Buffalo, New York where he went to primary and secondary school, and received a B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) in Psychology from Canisius College in 1976. His first job was as a mathematics teacher at the St. Labre School on the Northern Cheyenne Reserve in southeast Montana. He then went to graduate school at Michigan State University in East Lansing, where he earned an M.A. and then his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology with a minor in Clinical Psychology. After spending six productive years in the Psychology department at the University of Maine, Dr. Bukowski joined the Department of Psychology at Concordia in 1989 where he now holds the rank of Professor and is a member of the Centre for Research in Human Development.
Dr. Bukowski’s research is in the area of social development. He is specifically concerned with the features and effects of peer relations during the school-age and early adolescent years. His work has examined age, sex, and cultural differences in the effects that experiences with peers have on behaviour, emotional well-being, and health.
During his active and productive career, Dr. Bukowski:
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Concordia University Research Chair in Nanoscience (Tier 1)
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Arts and Science
NanoScience Group
capo@alcor.concordia.ca
Dr. John Capobianco received a BSc (1973) in Chemistry from McMaster University. He then worked with the Canada Centre for Inland Waters Laboratory (Department of the Environment) for five years, before heading off to Switzerland where he completed both a Masters (1980) and PhD (1984) at l’Université de Genève. Upon returning to Canada, he pursued a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at McGill University. Dr. Capobianco joined the faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Concordia in 1986.
Dr. Capobianco’s research involves the synthesis, characterization and spectroscopy of lanthanide doped nanoparticles. Of particular interest are upconverting nanoparticles that are capable of converting near-infrared into visible light. These materials have attracted considerable attention due to their potential applications in scientific, medical and industrial areas. Areas where such materials may be used include: biotechnology (proteomics, genomics, high throughput drug screening), forensics and security (fingerprint detection, anti-forgery markings), biosensing (detection of chemical and biological warfare agents), medicine (contrast agents for tumour detection), imaging of cells and cellular events, lighting, solar energy, telecommunication, and photodynamic therapy.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Capobianco has built a substantial body of work. Highlights of his achievements and recognition include the following:
Concordia University Research Chair in Strategy and Entrepreneurship (Tier 1)
Department of Management, John Molson School of Business
mcarney@jmsb.concordia.ca
Born and raised in Leeds (UK), Michael Carney earned a BSc in Economics and Politics from Keele University. Following a two-year period in the Finance unit of British Telecom, Michael earned an MBA and a PhD in Strategy and Organization Theory at Bradford University. He joined the Concordia family in 1984.
He has published extensively on the corporate and organizational strategies of Asia’s family-owned business groups and on the development of the global institutional environment of international aviation. His research focuses on entrepreneurship and the comparative analysis of business, financial and governance systems and their influence upon the development of firm capabilities and strategic assets, and national competitiveness. Current projects include meta-analyses of diversified business groups, and family firm value creation. Having successfully obtained research funding from SSHRC, he can further his research into China and Vietnam’s state-owned and family-owned business groups and the technological change and the emergence of transnational institutions in air navigation service organizations.
Dr. Carney is a well respected and eminent scholar in his faculty and in his field. His most notable achievements include:
RBC Professorship in Responsible Organizations
Department of Accountancy, John Molson School of Business
Research Associate, David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise
ccho@jmsb.concordia.ca
Dr. Charles Cho holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, a Master of Science in Accounting, and a PhD in Business Administration (Accounting Track) from the University of Central Florida. He is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified General Accountant (CGA) and worked for several years at KPMG LLP.
His primary area of research activity is corporate social and environmental responsibility accounting where he is particularly interested in studying the function of accounting and corporate disclosure/reporting motivations and mechanisms at the intersection of organizations and society.
Dr. Cho has published articles in refereed academic journals such as Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, the European Accounting Review, and the Journal of Business Ethics. He has presented his research at a variety of international conferences and was invited to contribute content for three books. Dr. Cho’s research is funded by a variety of sources including SSHRC, FQRSC and the Network for Business Sustainability.
In just a short time, Dr. Cho’s accomplishments and accolades include the following:
Canada Research Chair in Discrete Mathematics (Tier 1)
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
chvatal@cs.concordia.ca
Born in Prague in the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia), Dr. Vašek Chvátal completed his graduate studies in Mathematics at Charles University in his native city before coming to Canada to pursue his doctoral studies at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton and the University of Waterloo. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was a faculty member at McGill University. In 2004, after more than a decade at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Dr. Chvátal returned to Montreal to assume the Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Combinatorial Optimization at Concordia.
While continuing with his research on combinatorial optimization, Dr. Chvátal is also beginning to explore computational neuroscience.
Dr. Chvátal is a well-known figure in his field with an enviable list of achievements, such as:
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Concordia University Research Chair in Information Systems Security (Tier I)
Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering
Computer Security Laboratory
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
debbabi@ciise.concordia.ca
Dr. Mourad Debbabi was raised in Constantine, Algeria, where he earned a B.Eng. in Computer Science and Engineering at Constantine University, later moving to Paris, France, to complete an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in the same discipline at Université Paris-XI (Orsay). Dr. Debbabi then worked in the following positions: Senior Scientist at the Panasonic Information and Network Technologies Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey; Senior Scientist at General Electric Corporate Research Center, New York; Research Associate at the Computer Science department of Stanford University, California; and Permanent Researcher at the Bull Corporate Research Center in Paris, France.
In 2003, after serving as an Associate Professor in the Computer Science department of Université Laval, Dr. Debbabi joined Concordia’s Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science. As the Associate Director of the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering and a co-leader of its affiliate, the Computer Security Laboratory, Dr. Debbabi is now leading major research initiatives in software security, cyber forensics, and cyberspace safeguarding.
Dr. Debbabi’s distinguished career includes the following accomplishments:
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Canada Research Chair in Developmental Psychopathology (Tier 2)
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for Research in Human Development
mark.ellenbogen@concordia.ca
Dr. Mark Ellenbogen grew up in the Ville St-Laurent district of Montreal and attended McGill University where he earned a B.A. in Psychology followed by an M.Sc. in Psychiatry. Dr. Ellenbogen then moved across town to pursue his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Concordia. Following a year of clinical training in Toronto at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, he returned to Montreal as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Université de Montréal. In 2004, he joined Concordia as a faculty member and is currently a member of the Centre for Research in Human Development. Dr. Ellenbogen continues to practise clinical psychology.
Dr. Ellenbogen’s current research focuses on developmental psychopathology, including multidisciplinary longitudinal research examining the developmental antecedents of maladjustment and psychopathology, particularly depression and bipolar disorder. He has also immersed himself in laboratory studies, examining cognitive mediators of the mood and hormonal response to stress, and their relationship to social functioning and psychopathology.
Although still early in his already dynamic academic career, Dr. Ellenbogen has made substantial contributions in different areas of the biological and social sciences, including such milestones as:
Concordia University Research Chair in Bioinorganic Chemistry (Tier 1)
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for Biological Applications of Mass Spectrometry
english@alcor.concordia.ca
Dr. Ann English’s origins are in the historic city of Limerick, Ireland. Her post-secondary years were spent at University College in Dublin where she completed her B.Sc. in Chemistry, Biochemistry and Mathematics. She later moved to Montreal for her doctoral studies, receiving a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from McGill University. After two years as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology, she became a faculty member of the Chemistry and Biochemistry department at Concordia in 1982.
Dr. English continues to pursue her research interests in how small redox-active molecules such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and nitric oxide control the functioning of cells. The goal of her work on cellular H2O2 levels and on antioxidant enzymes is to shed light on how organisms deal with oxidative stress, which is now believed to be a contributing factor in aging and in many age-related diseases; her research on nitric oxide is critical to understanding factors at the molecular level that contribute to cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration.
In a distinguished career spanning more than two decades at Concordia, Dr. English has compiled a list of significant accomplishments, for example:
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RBC Professorship in Work Motivation
Department of Management, John Molson School of Business
Centre for Multidisciplinary Behavioral Business Research
mgagne@jmsb.concordia.ca
Marylène Gagné (PhD, University of Rochester) is a professor of organizational behaviour. Her research examines how organizations, through their structures, cultures, rewards, tasks, and managerial/leadership styles affect people’s motivational orientations and the consequences of these orientations for individual and organizational performance as well as individual mental health. She also conducts research in the area of family business succession. She has published in top organizational behaviour and psychology journals and currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Business and Psychology, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, and European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology.
Dr. Gagné includes amongst her accolades:
Concordia University Research Chair on High-Speed Wireless Communications (Tier 2)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
aghrayeb@ece.concordia.ca
Born in Palestine, Dr. Ali Ghrayeb earned a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Jordan in Amman before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to pursue his postgraduate studies at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, where he also received his M.Sc. in the same discipline. Afterwards he obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Arizona in Tucson, focusing on coding schemes and signal processing for magnetic recording systems. Dr. Ghrayeb eventually moved north to Montreal, joining Concordia as a faculty member in 2002.
Dr. Ghrayeb’s research interests include digital and wireless communications, error correcting coding, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, linear and nonlinear equalization, signal processing and coding for data transmission and storage.
Dr. Ghrayeb’s current research projects include: Synchronization for Wideband Multiple Antenna Systems; Space-Time Code Design for Distributed MIMO Systems; and Interference Cancellation for CDMA Systems. Past projects have included: Reduced Complexity Transceivers for MIMO Systems; Interference Estimation and Cancellation in CDMA Systems; and Code Design and Equalization for Data Storage Systems.
As an emerging scholar, Dr. Ghrayeb already counts among his achievements:
Canada Research Chair in End-User Service Engineering for Communication Networks (Tier 2)
Telecommunications Service Engineering Laboratory
Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and computer Science
glitho@ciise.concordia.ca
Dr. Roch Glitho holds a Ph.D. (Tekn. Dr.) in tele-informatics from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. He holds three M.Sc. degrees: business economics (University of Grenoble, France), pure mathematics (University of Geneva, Switzerland), and computer science (University of Geneva). He is currently an Associate Professor at the Concordia University’s Institute of Information Systems Engineering, holder of a Canada Research Chair in End-User Services Engineering for Communications Networks, and leads the Telecommunications Service Engineering Laboratory. He is also an adjunct professor at the department of Computer Technology, University of Milan, Italy, and at the Institut de Mathématiques et Sciences Physiques (IMSP), University of Abomey-Calavi, Republic of Benin.
In the past he worked in industry for almost a quarter of a century and has held several senior technical positions at LM Ericsson in Sweden and Canada (e.g. expert, principal engineer, senior specialist). His industrial experience includes research, international standards setting (e.g. contributions to ITU-T, ETSI, TMF, ANSI, TIA, and 3GPP), product management, project management, systems engineering and software/firmware design. His research areas include architectures for end-users services, distributed systems, non conventional networking, and networking technologies for emerging economies.
During his active and productive career, Dr. Glitho:
Concordia University Research Chair in Consumer Research (Tier 2)
Department of Marketing, John Molson School of Business
Laboratory for Sensory Research
bgrohmann@jmsb.concordia.ca
Dr. Bianca Grohman is the Principal Investigator for the Laboratory for Sensory Research in the John Molson School of Business. She came to Concordia as an Assistant Professor in 2002 after completing both her PhD (2002) and MBA (2000) at Washington State University in Pullman, WA. In 2007, she received tenure in the Department of Marketing and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor.
Dr. Grohmann’s research focuses on sensory marketing; the ways in which visual, olfactory, auditory, and tactile cues impact consumer perceptions and behaviors in the context of retail environments and branding. Her recent research in this area has examined the effect of logo design on consumer memory and perceptions. Dr. Grohmann also works to develop measurement scales that help researchers and marketers in their assessment of consumers brand perception. Her current research in this area examines quantitative and qualitative measures of gendered brand personality. Dr. Grohmann is widely published, with articles in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Psychology & Marketing, and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. She has also presented her research at numerous national and international conferences of the Society for Consumer Psychology, European Marketing Association, and the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada.
Dr. Grohmann has been steadily raising her profile in her field. She has made a name for herself through successes such as:
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Concordia University Research Chair in Energy and Environment (Tier 1)
Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
fariborz.haghighat@concordia.ca
Dr. Fariborz Haghighat obtained his B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Sharif (formerly Arya-Mehr) University of Technology in Tehran, Iran before moving to the United States to complete his M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arizona. He then worked for two years at the Material and Energy Research Center in Tehran, after which he worked for another two years with a consulting firm in Italy. Dr. Haghighat ultimately came to Canada to pursue his doctoral studies in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. After obtaining his Ph.D., he worked as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Research Council. Dr. Haghighat joined Concordia’s Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1986, where he is currently the Graduate Program Director.
Dr. Haghighat’s current research focuses on the fundamentals of heat and mass transport and their applications in building and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems as well as the development of novel computational techniques for building thermal, airflow, and air quality analysis. He is currently involved in numerous research projects that explore topics such as indoor environment, high-performance green buildings, and urban ventilation and outdoor environment.
Among Dr. Haghighat’s many accomplishments over the course of his career are holding such appointments as:
Concordia University Research Chair in Data Communications and Networking (Tier 2)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
hamouda@ece.concordia.ca
Dr. Walaa Hamouda was employed at Siemens R&D in Cairo, Egypt as a Quality Assurance Engineer between 1994 and 1996. He received his M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Queen’s University, both in Electrical and Computer Engineering. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Hamouda received many fellowships and scholarships, including Ontario Graduate Scholarships, a Queen’s Graduate Fellowship, a Queen’s Graduate Award, an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Student Conference Award, and an Outstanding Engineering Award from Siemens. Dr. Hamouda is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario and joined Concordia in 2002.
Dr. Hamouda’s research interests are in wireless communications, channel coding, adaptive antennas, spread spectrum systems, and satellite communications. Currently he has been involved in many research projects on source compression, multiple-input multiple-output wireless systems, and wireless local area network technologies. Dr. Hamouda has been very active in his research area where he published over sixty-five articles in highly ranked international journals and conferences.
Among Dr. Hamouda’s achievements and professional activities since his appointment at Concordia are:
Canada Research Chair in Public History (Tier 2)
Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling
shigh@alcor.concordia.ca
Born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Dr. Steven High completed a H.B.A. in History at the University of Ottawa, returning to his birthplace to complete an M.A. in the same discipline at Lakehead University. Once again in the nation’s capital, Dr. High obtained his Ph.D. in History from the University of Ottawa in 1999. He joined Concordia’s Faculty of Arts and Science in 2005 after holding teaching positions at Nipissing University and the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dr. High is currently the Co-Director of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia, Canada’s premiere oral history research centre, and the Canada Research Chair in Public History.
Dr. High specializes in oral history, migration, deindustrialization (economic restructuring and job loss), and Canada-United States relations (nationalisms). He is on the Board of Directors for the Labor and Working Class History Association in the United States, and is on the editorial boards of three major academic journals: LABOR; Labour/le Travail; and Urban History Review.
His first monograph, Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America’s Rust Belt, based on oral narratives, won prestigious book prizes from the American Historical Association for best book in Canada-United States relations, from the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association for best book on Canadian Society, and from the Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Canada for the best book published in the Humanities. His second book, Corporate Wasteland: The Landscape and Memory of Deindustrialization, co-published by Cornell University Press and Between the Lines Press, was published in October 2007 and his third book, Base Colonies in the Western Hemisphere (Palgrave Macmillan) appeared in December 2008. He is the primary investigator of a $1.2 million collaborative research project entitled “Life Stories of Montrealers’ Displaced by War, Genocide and Other Human Rights Violations.” This “Community-University Research Alliance” (2007-12), funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, brings together 40 university-based researchers and community co-applicants as well as eighteen community partners who are examining the life stories of Montreal residents who fled large scale violence in Rwanda, Haiti, Cambodia, and Nazi Europe.
In addition to Life Stories, Dr. High is working on two other book projects. The first, More than a Pay Cheque: Place Memory and Belonging in a Former Mill Town, investigates the meaning of job loss in a forestry town that has lost its economic reason for being. The project includes a “memoryscape” component. The other project is looking at the wartime memories of residents of St. John’s Newfoundland.
A widely recognized and well-esteemed figure, some of Dr. High’s fondest accomplishments include:
Concordia University Research Chair in Materials and Composites (Tier I)
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia Centre for Composites
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
hoasuon@alcor.concordia.ca
Originally from Vietnam, Dr. Suong Van Hoa came to Concordia in 1977 after obtaining his B.Eng. from California State University in San Luis Obispo, as well as an M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto. Dr. Hoa was recently Chair of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Concordia and is currently the Director of the Concordia Centre for Composites. He is one of the most recognized names in composites and materials research in Canada, and is well-known internationally in his field.
Dr. Hoa has many projects in progress at the moment, with a particular emphasis on composites research, the development of nanocomposites, stress analysis, and the design of materials and structures.
Having had such an illustrious research career, Dr. Hoa counts the following among his most memorable moments:
Concordia University Research Chair in Early Childhood Development and Education (Tier 1)
Department of Education, Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for Research in Human Development
Canadian Council on Learning: Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Centre
Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development
nina.howe@education.concordia.ca
Dr. Nina Howe started her academic career with a BA (Hons) in Psychology from York University (1974), and quickly followed it up with an MA in Psychology from the University of Western Ontario (1977), where she focused on Early Childhood Education. Moving west to Alberta, she spent two years as an Assistant Supervisor in a municipally-funded day care in Edmonton, then attended the University of Alberta to obtain her teaching degree (1980) and, after teaching in elementary schools, her teaching license (1982). Dr. Howe then returned east to pursue PhD studies in Developmental Psychology at the University of Waterloo (1986). She has been teaching and researching in Concordia’s Department of Education ever since, and is affiliated with the Centre for Research in Human Development (CRDH), the Canadian Council on Learning’s Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Centre, and the Centre for Excellence in Early Childhood Development.
Dr. Howe’s current research has two distinct but complementary tracks: the first focuses on children’s early social relationships, predominantly sibling relations, with a particular interest in how siblings co-construct meaning in their relationship through their interactions during play, conflict, teaching, and language; and the second examines early childhood education through the lenses of children’s play, curriculum, professional development, and knowledge transfer.
As an established researcher at the top of her field, Dr. Howe’s career has included many awards and accolades; the following are but a few highlights from the last 5 years:
Concordia University Research Chair in Interactive Design and Games Innovation
Associate Dean, Research and International Relations
Department of Studio Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts
Hexagram Institute for Research/Creation in Media Arts and Technologies
lynnh@alcor.concordia.ca
Professor Lynn Hughes was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and grew up in Africa and in Europe. She has undergraduate degrees in Art and English Literature (Vancouver School of Art and University of Toronto) and a graduate degree in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, with a concentration in the History and Philosophy of Mathematics from the University of Toronto. She has taught at universities across Canada, moving to Montreal in 1989 to join Concordia. In addition to being a faculty member in the new InterMedia/Cyber Arts program in the Department of Studio Arts, Professor Hughes is currently the Associate Dean, Research and International Relations in the Faculty of Fine Arts.
Professor Hughes’ current research focuses on, emerging models of gaming, new media, interdisciplinarity, and collaboration. The following can be counted among her many accomplishments:
Concordia University Research Chair in Art History
Department of Art History, Faculty of Fine Arts
Canadian Women Artists History Initiative
huneault@alcor.concordia.ca
Dr. Kristina Huneault hails from Windsor, Ontario where she completed her B.A. in the History of Art while attending the University of Windsor. She first came to Concordia in 1994 to pursue her M.A. in the same subject, later moving to the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom for her doctoral studies. In 1999, she returned to her alma mater in Montreal as a faculty member in the Department of Art History.
Currently, Dr. Huneault is actively researching a number of areas in art history including the relation between art and subjectivity, and art historical methodology. She is presently involved in establishing the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative, a resource centre and research group in the Faculty of Fine Arts.
Dr. Huneault has wasted no time in building up her CV since joining Concordia. Among her proudest accomplishments are the following:
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Canada Research Chair in Political Sociology of Global Futures (Tier 2)
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty of Arts and Science
Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy
sikeda@alcor.concordia.ca
Dr. Satoshi Ikeda was born in Japan and obtained both of his doctorate degrees in the United States, beginning with a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan and later a Ph.D. in Sociology from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Dr. Ikeda was an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta before joining Concordia in 2007, where he now holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Political Sociology of Global Futures. He is an associate of the Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy, Concordia University.
Dr. Ikeda’s current research tackles the political sociology of global futures, social economy, sustainable agriculture, and Japan and East Asia using the method of Polanyi-Hopkins historical sociology informed by the world-system perspective. He is examining the failure of corporate economy, the crisis of neoliberal globalization, and emerging social economies as democratic, egalitarian, sustainable, and just alternatives to corporate economy. He is organizing Global Futures Forum, a discussion and research forum examining social economies.
His research projects have looked specifically at the trajectories of 150 countries under neoliberal globalization, as well as sustainable agriculture in rural Alberta, masculinity and ‘masculinism’ under globalization, Japan’s neo-feudal tendencies under globalization, and Canadian perspectives on peace construction in East Asia. Dr. Ikeda has also specialized in economic development, international trade, and finance.
Among Dr. Ikeda’s noteworthy accomplishments are:
Canada Research Chair in Research in Number Theory (Tier 2)
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Arts and Science
iovita@mathstat.concordia.ca
Born in Romania, Dr. Adrian Iovita spent his undergraduate years studying mathematics at the University of Bucharest. It was not until the Iron Curtain fell more than a decade later that he would be able to continue his studies. He moved to the United States for his graduate and doctoral studies, earning a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Mathematics at Boston University, with a specialization in Number Theory. In 2003, Dr. Iovita came to Montreal and became a faculty member at Concordia.
Dr. Iovita is now spending much of his time conducting further research on number theory as well as arithmetic algebraic geometry.
In the highly specialized field of number theory, successes can be very hard to come by. However, that has certainly not been the case with Dr. Iovita, whose achievements include:
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Concordia University Research Chair on the Optimization of Communication Networks (Tier 1)
Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
bjaumard@ciise.concordia.ca
Dr. Brigitte Jaumard received a D.E.A. (master’s degree) in Artificial Intelligence from Université Paris-VI in France, and obtained her doctorate in Computer Science from the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications, also in Paris. Dr. Jaumard later followed up on these by returning to Université Paris-VI where she completed a Thèse d’habilitation in Computer Science. In 2005, after serving her term as a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in the Optimization of Communication Networks at the Université de Montréal, Dr. Jaumard joined Concordia’s Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science.
Dr. Jaumard is an active researcher in combinatorial optimization and mathematical programming, with a focus on applications in telecommunications and artificial intelligence. She has been engaged in the design of large-scale optimization techniques such as column and row generation techniques, branch-and-price methods, and meta-heuristics. Some of her projects have covered the following topics: cost and benefits of survivability in optical networks; deployment of wireless and ad-hoc networks aiming at minimum energy consumption, minimum cost and maximum lifetime; design of scalable and reliable architectures for routing protocols; provisioning issues in access and core optical networks; and dynamic network reconfiguration.
Dr. Jaumard’s accomplishments are many; some of her more notable recent contributions and positions held include:
Concordia University Research Chair in Management (Tier 1)
Department of Management, John Molson School of Business
gjohns@jmsb.concordia.ca
Although born in Butler, Pennsylvania, Dr. Gary Johns has spent more than half his life in Montreal, arriving at Concordia in 1973. He received his B.A. in Psychology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and went to Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan to obtain his M.A. and Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Dr. Johns’ research deals mainly with absenteeism from work, presenteeism, job design, personality, self-serving behaviour, research methodology, and the impact of context on organizational behaviour. Two key projects he is currelty working are are “Studies in Absenteeism from Work” and “Presenteeism in the Workplace: A Scientific Agenda”.
Dr. Johns is one of the most active researchers in the John Molson School of Business and is considered to be a top specialist in his field worldwide. His many acknowledgments include:
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Chair in Canadian Irish Studies
Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for Canadian Irish Studies
michael.kenneally@concordia.ca
Dr. Michael Kenneally was born in Youghal, County Cork, Ireland and came to Canada to pursue his post-secondary education. He studied English as an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia, moved to Montreal to obtain his M.A. in English at McGill University, and later attained his Ph.D. in English at the University of Toronto. Dr. Kenneally began teaching Irish literature at Concordia in 1991 on a part-time basis before being selected as the inaugural Chair in Canadian Irish Studies in 2003 as well as the Director of the Centre for Canadian Irish Studies.
Presently, Dr. Kenneally studies modern and contemporary Irish literature and currently is working on a SSHRC-funded project that examines Irish-Canadian life writing and literature, particularly a significant body of nineteenth-century Irish-Canadian writing previously unknown or neglected in Canadian literary studies.
Dr. Kenneally’s career as a researcher and academic has been tremendously distinguished, resulting in many significant accomplishments that include:
Concordia University Research Chair in Decision and Negotiation Systems (Tier 1)
Department of Decision Sciences and Management Information Systems, John Molson School of Business
InterNeg Research Centre
gregory@jmsb.concordia.ca
Dr. Gregory E. Kersten received an M.Sc. in Econometrics and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland. In 1996, he set up the InterNeg Group, which is involved in on-line training and the development of e-negotiation systems. In 2005, Dr. Kersten joined Concordia, where he established and became Director of the InterNeg Research Centre, as well as its E-negotiation, media and transaction research program. Dr. Kersten is also currently an Adjunct Research Professor at the Carleton University Sprott School of Business.
Dr. Kersten’s research and teaching interests include decision making and negotiation processes: behavioural, analytical and technical approaches; negotiation modeling and analysis; experimental studies of negotiation, transaction mechanisms; exchange mechanisms in electronic marketplaces and supply chains. His current research projects focus on the development of a software platform to support electronic negotiations, experimental studies in negotiations and auctions, the use of information systems in decision-making and user satisfaction with the technology, software agents and automation of negotiation activities and comparative studies of exchange mechanisms.
Dr. Kersten’s experience is extensive, having achieved the following wide-reaching accomplishments:
Concordia University Research Chair on Control of Autonomous Network of Unmanned Systems-CANUMS (Tier I)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Control and Robotics Group
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
kash@ece.concordia.ca
Born in Iran, Dr. Khashayar Khorasani travelled halfway around the world to complete his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since joining Concordia in 1988, his research has been funded by both public and private sectors sources such as the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and more recently Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC). Dr. Khorasani is currently the Director of the Control and Robotics Group in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he is also a faculty member.
Dr. Khorasani’s current research specialties include: nonlinear and adaptive control; cooperative control of multi-agent systems; intelligent control; neural networks; modelling and control of flexible manipulators; fault diagnosis, isolation, and recovery; autonomous systems; and network of unmanned systems. Some of his projects cover or have covered: fault diagnosis, isolation and recovery of space vehicles; precision formation flight, control, and diagnosis of a network of unmanned aerial vehicles; cooperative control of a network of unmanned systems; fault diagnosis, prognosis, and health management of aircraft jet engines; autonomous and intelligent control of mobile sensor-actuator networks; and estimation, prediction, and identification of the state of charge of hybrid electric vehicles.
An avid and dedicated researcher, Dr. Khorasani counts the following as his most noteworthy achievements:
Concordia University Research Chair in Mathematics and Statistics (Tier 2)
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Arts and Science
korotkin@mathstat.concordia.ca
Dr. Dmitri Korotkin was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in Soviet-era Russia. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Mathematical Physics from St. Petersburg State University, and then received his Ph.D. and Doctor of Sciences (Habilitation) in the same discipline from the Steklov Mathematical Institute in St. Petersburg. He became a Concordia faculty member in 2000.
Currently, Dr. Korotkin’s research involves studying classical and quantum gravity, alebro-geometric methods in integrable systems and the ‘Riemann-Hilbert problem,’ and the spectral properties of Riemann surfaces.
Dr. Korotkin has put his years of research to good use in his field, resulting in numerous innovative findings and accolades, including:
Concordia University Research Chair in Finance (Tier 1)
Department of Finance, John Molson School of Business
lawrence.kryzanowski@concordia.ca
Dr. Lawrence Kryzanowski was born in Saskatchewan and grew up in southern Alberta. He stayed in western Canada for his undergraduate studies, earning a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Calgary. He then moved even further west for his doctoral studies, obtaining his Ph.D. in Business Administration (Finance) at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Kryzanowski ultimately came east to become a Concordia faculty member in 1972.
Dr. Kryzanowski juggles a number of different research interests at the moment, such as: investment and portfolio management, including the performance of mutual and private-equity funds; efficiency and regulation of capital markets/participants, including the market impact of various information disclosures and informed trading for both single and multiple listed securities; and market microstructure, or the trade-by-trade and quote-by-quote workings of markets, including market fragmentation, trade costs, and market-making.
Dr. Kryzanowski is often sought for his technical ability and advice on various matters in financial economics. He has appeared as an expert witness in various court cases dealing with securities and in rate of return hearings before a number of Canadian regulatory boards, and has consulted for various governmental and private-sector entities. Dr. Kryzanowski is currently the representative of retail investors on the Regulation Advisory Committee of Market Regulation Services Inc.
Dr. Kryzanowski has achieved many significant milestones, including:
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Director and Research Chair – Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art
Department of Art History, Faculty of Fine Arts
Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art
Centre for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence
mlangfor@alcor.concordia.ca
When Dr. Martha Langford came to Concordia in 2004, she brought a wealth of experience with her. After completing a BFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1975, she returned to her native Ottawa for the next 18 years. From 1981 to 1984 she served as Executive Producer of the Photography Division of the National Film Board of Canada, and from 1985 to 1994 as the founding Director and Chief Curator of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. Dr. Langford completed both her MA (1991) and PhD (1997) in Art History at McGill. She then continued her research with two fellowships, the first at the Institute for the Humanities of Simon Fraser University, the second at the National Gallery of Canada. Dr. Langford joined the faculty in Concordia’s Department of Art History in 2004 and received tenure in 2007. She has also taught at McGill University, Bishop’s University and the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Langford’s research, reflected in her numerous exhibitions and publications, examines Canadian art history and cultural theory, photographic historiography, and modes of consciousness associated with photographic experience, such as memory and imagination. She is currently writing an intellectual biography of Michael Snow. She is active on the editorial boards of EXIT: Imagen y Cultura / Image & Culture, Journal of Canadian Art History, The Journal of Photography and Culture and Border Crossings, as well as an active reviewer for Source.
As a working artist, Dr. Langford’s achievements have included:
Royal Bank Distinguished Professorship in Marketing
Department of Marketing, John Molson School of Business
laroche@jmsb.concordia.ca
Dr. Michel Laroche was born in Rabat, Morocco and spent his adolescent years in France. He completed a Diploma and an M.Sc. in Engineering at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris, France and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, respectively. He then switched to the Columbia University Graduate School of Business where he obtained his M.Phil. and Ph.D. In 1979, Dr. Laroche arrived at Concordia and is currently the Managing Editor of the Journal of Business Research.
Presently, Dr. Laroche’s research primarily involves looking at consumer behaviour, culture and consumer behaviour, services marketing, internet marketing, and marketing communications.
Through the years, Dr. Laroche has been showered with a variety of awards and other accomplishments such as:
Concordia University Research Chair in Film Studies
Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Faculty of Fine Arts
lefebvre@alcor.concordia.ca
In 1998, after teaching at the University of Alberta and at Université Laval, Dr. Martin Lefebvre officially became a faculty member in Concordia’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema – the same department where he originally earned his B.F.A. in Cinema. Staying true to his Montreal roots, Dr. Lefebvre followed up on his undergraduate studies with a move to the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where he furthered his credentials by completing an M.A. in Études littéraires and a Ph.D. in Sémiologie.
Dr. Lefebvre’s research focuses primarily on semiotics, the study of meaning in terms of representation and interpretation by way of signs and sign processes. In particular, his research seeks to define an approach to film and visual representation inspired by the pragmatic ‘semeiotic’ philosophy of Charles S. Peirce. He currently heads an international research group on the history and epistemology of film studies (funded by FQRSC). He is a member of several research teams and centres (i.e. Groupe de recherche Peirce/Wittgenstein; Laboratoire de recherches littéraires sur les nouvelles formes de textes et de fictions; and Centre de recherche Figura sur le texte et l’imaginaire) and serves as an Adjunct Pofessor in the département d’Études littéraires at UQAM. His current SSHRC-funded research includes a team research project on the development of a protocol for computer based discourse analysis of a film studies journal and a semiotic study of film trailers. Dr. Lefebvre also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Recherches sémiotiques/Semiotic Inquiry, the journal of the Canadian Semiotic Association.
Among Dr. Lefebvre’s many noteworthy achievements are:
Canada Research Chair in Post-Conflict Memory, Ethnography and Museology (Tier 2)
Department of History / Department of Sociology and Anthropology (joint appointment) , Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence
elehrer@alcor.concordia.ca
Originally from Lexington, Massachusetts, Dr. Erica Lehrer completed a B.A. with honours in Anthropology at Grinnell College in Iowa. She then earned a Certificate in Museum Studies and an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Michigan, where she also attained her Ph.D. in Anthropology. In 2007, following postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Illinois (Program for Research in the Humanities) and the University of Washington (Hazel D. Cole Fellowship), she became a faculty member at Concordia in both the Department of History and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Dr. Lehrer was awarded a major CFI grant for the establishment of a research centre called the “Centre for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence.”
Dr. Lehrer’s research looks at cultural practices and products that attempt to apprehend, represent, or come to terms with mass violence and its aftermath – from the stories told in theoretical and creative texts to films, monuments, exhibitions and the ‘happenings’ of everyday life. She is currently in the process of completing a book manuscript titled Remaking Memory: How Jews and Poles are Salvaging Jewish Heritage in Poland (and reconceiving national belonging along the way), based on ethnographic fieldwork in Poland, Israel, and the United States. She is also engaged in a number of related public projects of cultural interpretation, translation, dialogue, and exchange. In collaboration with Hannah Smotrich, a graphic designer and Assistant Professor at the School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan, Dr. Lehrer is currently working on a project called “conversationmaps”.
Although a new scholar, Dr. Lehrer is continuing to build upon an impressive list of achievements that includes:
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Lawrence Bloomberg Endowed Chair in Accountancy
Department of Accountancy, John Molson School of Business
mmagnan@jmsb.concordia.ca
Born and raised in Montreal, Dr. Michel Magnan completed his first two degrees in his home city, receiving a B.A.A. from HEC-Montréal and an M.B.A. from McGill University. He obtained a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Washington. Dr. Magnan is also a Fellow Chartered Accountant. He joined the John Molson School of Business in 2000.
Dr. Magnan’s research centres on corporate disclosure strategies, as well as accounting ethics, performance measurement, incentive compensation, corporate governance, and financial statement analysis. He is frequently quoted in the media on these issues.
Since joining Concordia, Dr. Magnan has been active in pursuing new research opportunities, resulting in a number of successes, for instance:
Concordia University Research Chair in Relational Art and Philosophy (Tier 2)
Department of Studio Arts / Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema (joint appointment), Faculty of Fine Arts
Sense Lab
emanning@alcor.concordia.ca
That Dr. Erin Manning was destined to be an interdisciplinary scholar was evident early on. With an emphasis on art-making and philosophy throughout, she began her post-secondary studies at the Free University of Berlin (Germany), immersed in continental philosophy. She then returned to Canada to pursue an Honours BA (1996) at Carleton University in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on film and philosophy. Compelled by the political question of the role of “home” for second-generation immigrant artists in the Canadian nation-state system, she completed a PhD in Political Theory at the University of Hawaii in 2001. The focus on art, philosophy and the political continue to be the mainstay of her work today. Her last two books emphasize the relationship between bodies, the senses and movement.
Dr. Manning is the Director of Concordia’s Sense Lab. The Sense Lab explores intersections between art practice and philosophy through the matrix of the sensing body in movement. In her art practice she works between dance, fabric and sculpture. Her current project, Folds to Infinity, is an experimental fabric collection composed of cuts that connect in an infinity of ways, folding in to create clothing and out to create environmental architectures. The next project, Folds to Infinity II, is the creation of a collection based on a mapping process that proposes transversal linkages between topology and topography.
Dr. Manning is an exciting, emerging researcher whose achievements have already included:
Canada Research Chair in Comparative Public Policy (Tier 2)
Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts and Science
pmarier@alcor.concordia.ca
Dr. Patrik Marier obtained his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh (which also included a certificate in West European studies). He holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Comparative Public Policy, which focuses mainly on the policy challenges surrounding population aging. He is involved with a group of researchers at Concordia involved with the creation of a research network on ageing.
Dr. Marier’s current research focuses on challenges to the welfare state, the impact of population aging on public policy, and the elaboration and transformation of fiscal policies. His main project consists of analysing comparatively, strategies elaborated by public administrations across Canadian provinces and American states to face the upcoming demographic challenge. He has also received a SSHRC grant to pursue his work on pension reform in Latin America (with Jean Mayer).
Some of Dr. Marier’s latest achievements have been:
Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics and Engineering (Tier 2)
Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics
vmartin@alcor.concordia.ca
Born in Montreal, biologist Dr. Vincent Martin studied his way through a variety of fields, earning a B.Sc. in Microbiology at McGill University, an M.Sc. in Environmental Biology at the University of Guelph, a Ph.D. (also in Microbiology) at the University of British Columbia, and finally a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned to Montreal in 2004 to accept his Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Microbial Genomics and Engineering.
Dr. Martin’s research concerns microbial genomes and how they function so as to engineer their metabolism and produce valuable biochemicals and biofuels. The knowledge generated from this research will help in the development of sustainable technologies and the next generation of industrially important microbes for the purpose of producing cleaner, better, and cheaper products.
Still early in his career, Dr. Martin has already racked up an impressive list of academic achievements, which includes:
Canada Research Chair in Cellular and Molecular Neuromuscular Physiology (Tier 1)
Department of Exercise Science, Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics
rmichel@alcor.concordia.ca
Born in Montreal, Dr. Robin Nicholas Michel earned a B.Ed. with Honours in Physical Education at McGill University before pursuing M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies in Kinesiology at the Université de Montréal. For nearly two decades, he taught physiology-based courses across various programs such as Behavioural Neuroscience, Biology, Midwifery and Human Kinetics at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. Dr. Michel was initially appointed at Laurentian as a Lecturer in 1987, eventually becoming a Full Professor by 1997. Dr. Michel joined Concordia’s Exercise Science department in 2005 to take up his Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Cellular and Molecular Neuromuscular Physiology. He is also cross-affiliated with graduate programs in the Chemistry and Biochemistry and Biology departments.
Dr. Michel’s research is interdisciplinary, spanning biochemistry, biology, genomics and neurosciences to name a few. He has become acknowledged internationally as a leading expert on calcineurin - a protein phosphatase (enzyme) that can sense and decode calcium levels in cells. He is currently investigating the role of calcineurin and its signalling modulators in the regulation of muscle remodelling and calcineurin’s role in muscular dystrophy. His research expertise also includes using molecular and cellular biological approaches to decipher the role of neural and muscle activity-dependent and trophic chemical regulators on the nerve and muscle phenotype. He also studies muscle contractile properties, cell signalling and morphology, muscle fibre hypertrophy, cellular growth, gene expression, and quantitative and immuno histochemistry of nerve and muscle cells.
Among Dr. Michel’s many noteworthy achievements are:
Concordia University Research Chair in Geo-environmental Sustainability (Tier 1)
Department of Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
mulligan@civil.concordia.ca
Dr. Catherine Mulligan has a passion for her birthplace of Montreal, where she completed all three of her post-secondary degrees. At McGill University, she obtained her B.Eng. and M.Eng. in Chemical Engineering, and finally her Ph.D. in Geoenvironmental Engineering. In 1999, following more than three years as a researcher at the National Research Council’s (NRC) Biotechnology Research Institute and a decade working in industry, Dr. Mulligan returned to academia to become a full-time faculty member at Concordia.
Dr. Mulligan’s current research is pushing boundaries in the areas of water, sediment and soil remediation and the environmental applications of biosurfactants.
Nearly twenty years of experience in governmental, industrial, and academic settings has resulted in a long list of achievements for Dr. Mulligan, including:
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Concordia University Research Chair in HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health (Tier 2)
Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Faculty of Arts and Science
viviane@alcor.concordia.ca
Dr. Viviane Namaste is an Associate Professor in Concordia’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute. She completed both a BA (Carleton, 1989) and MA (York, 1990) in Sociology before coming to Quebec to undertake doctoral work in Semiology at the Université du Québec a Montréal. Prior to joining the faculty at Concordia, she worked to set up a community health project with sex trade workers and intravenous drug users at a local needle exchange, CACTUS-Montréal. Dr. Namaste is also recognized as an expert on transsexual health. She has published three books in this regard: Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), Sex Change, Social Change: Reflections on Identity, Institutions and Imperialism (Toronto: Women’s Press, 2005), and C’était du spectacle! L’histoire des artistes transsexuelles à Montréal, 1955-1985 (Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005).
Dr. Namaste’s current research considers questions of bisexuality and HIV/AIDS. Surprisingly, there remains no HIV/STD education in Canada that is specifically addressed to bisexual men and women. Dr. Namaste’s research seeks to explain this absence. Moreover, working with a community of local activists, the research aims to develop and distribute appropriate educational materials that are adapted to people who have sexual relations with both men and women. The research is informed by critical studies of epidemiology, institutional ethnography, and participatory action research.
Dr. Namaste’s work is both academic and very much grounded in the real world needs of the community, and her recent career highlights reflect this mix:
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Johnson Chair in Quebec and Canadian Irish Studies
School of Canadian Irish Studies
Faculty of Arts and Science
gearoid@alcor.concordia.ca
A world-renowned musician, Dr. Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin MA, DUEF, MBA, Ph.D. is a native of County Clare on the west coast of Ireland. He is a graduate of University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin, and Université du Sud-Toulon-Var, France and received his Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and Ethnomusicology from Queen’s University Belfast in 1990. Formerly the Smurfit-Stone Chair of Irish Studies and Professor of Music at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, he is an external research advisor for the Centre for Irish Studies at the National University of Ireland-Galway.
As Johnson Chair, he is planning to conduct an extensive interdisciplinary project on the soundscape of the Irish in Quebec. Focusing on traditional Irish repertoire, transmission, and performance contexts that mark critical nodal points in the cultural history of the Irish in the province, his ground-breaking project will broaden our understanding of how the Irish in Quebec preserved their unique sense of identity, place and memory through sound.
An internationally acclaimed music author, lecturer, producer and editor, highlights of his illustrious career accomplishments include:
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Concordia University Research Chair in Optical BioMEMS (Tier 2)
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia Centre for Advanced Vehicle Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
pmuthu@alcor.concordia.ca
Born in India, Dr. Muthukumaran Packirisamy earned a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering at Madras University (Regional Engineering College, Trichy), and an M.S. by Research in Turbomachines at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He worked as a scientist in the area of design and development of gas turbine engines for six years. After completing his Ph.D. in Design Synthesis of Microsystems at Concordia, Dr. Packirisamy worked for Mitel Semiconductor and Optenia Inc. in the design and development of photonics and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) devices; he joined Concordia in 2002, where he is also a member of the Concordia Centre for Advanced Vehicle Engineering.
Dr. Packirisamy’s research in MEMS, optical MEMS (OMEMS), and bio-integrated OMEMS is broadly recognized as being first-rate, evidenced by his extensive record of collaborations with, and technology transfer to, the industrial sector. His present research interests include optical bioMEMS, lab-on-chip, micro total analysis system, integration of microsystems, microphotonics, dynamics of microsystems, and micromachining. Dr. Packirisamy’s current or recent projects include the development of a Concordia Silicon Microfabrication Facility (ConSiM), as well as several others in collaboration with such notable industrial and academic bodies as Valeo and Valorisation-Recherche Québec, and the Canadian Institute of Photonic Innovation.
Dr. Packirisamy has already received many successes in his still early research career, including the following accomplishments and accolades:
Concordia University Research Chair in Simulations for Clean Energy Production and Storage (Tier 2)
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
paraschi@encs.concordia.ca
Dr. Marius Paraschivoiu was born in Romania and grew up in Montreal. He completed a B.Eng. and an M.Sc. at the École Polytechnique de Montréal, Université de Montréal, before obtaining his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Paraschivoiu joined Concordia in 2003 and is now the Aerospace Program Director for his department.
Dr. Paraschivoiu’s expertise includes the development of computer algorithms for computational fluid dynamics; his current interests are in improving the accuracy and calculation speed of computational fluid dynamics applied to the storage of compressed hydrogen gas and to wind energy generation. Dr. Paraschivoiu has also worked on projects such as: Large Scale Simulation of Airplane Aerodynamics; Large Eddy Simulation of Gas Turbines; Error Estimation for Finite Elements Methods; and Acoustic Simulations.
Some of Dr. Paraschivoiu’s latest achievements and activities include:
Concordia University Research Chair in Chemistry and Biochemistry (Tier 2)
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry / Department of Physics (joint appointment), Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for Research in Molecular Modeling
ghp@alcor.concordia.ca
Dr. Gilles Peslherbe was born in Caen, France. He completed the Classes Préparatoires Mathématiques Supérieures et Spéciales at the Lycée Corneille de Rouen, France, allowing him to take the Concours des Grandes Écoles exam and enter the École Supérieure de Chimie Physique Électronique de Lyon where he obtained a Diplôme d’Ingénieur Chimiste. Dr. Peslherbe then earned a Ph.D. in Physical / Theoretical Chemistry with a minor in Computer Engineering from Wayne State University, Michigan. He is the founding Director of the Concordia-led, multi-institutional Centre for Research in Molecular Modeling, the mission of which is to promote excellence in research and graduate education in computational physics, chemistry, and biochemistry.
The primary focus of Dr. Peslherbe’s research is the development and application of computer tools to perform realistic simulations of fundamental chemical problems and chemical reactions relevant to photochemistry, biology, geology, and materials science.
Dr. Peslherbe’s research career has been prolific, piling up a list of successes that include:
NSERC/Hydro-Québec Industrial Research Chair: Energy Efficiency in Electrical Machines for Small Scale Renewable Energy Production Systems
Concordia Power Electronics and Energy Research Group
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
pillay@ece.concordia.ca
After receiving his Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, U.S.A. in 1987, Dr. Pragasen Pillay taught at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England from January 1988 to August 1990, at the University of New Orleans from August 1990 to August 1995, and at Clarkson University in upstate NY from August 1995 to Dec 1997. He then joined Concordia University in January 2008. He is also an adjunct Professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa since 1999, collaborating on research with colleagues in South Africa.
Dr. Pragasen has lived, taught and conducted research in South Africa, the USA, the United Kingdom and Canada. His research activities include: electric machine design for electric vehicles, improving the efficiency of electrical machines by understanding and reducing core losses, designing specialized machines for niche applications like the harvesting of energy from ambient vibrations, optimizing biomass energy systems, and investigating novel generation techniques like osmotic power.
From early on in his career, his technical contributions in electrical engineering and overall contributions have been recognized worldwide:
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Manulife Financial Professor in Financial Planning
Department of Finance, John Molson School of Business
yxqi@jmsb.concordia.ca
Dr. Yaxuan Qi was born in Sichuan, China. She received her PhD from the Rutgers University in New Jersey (2007), an MA in Finance from the Renmin University of China (2001) and a BA in Economics from the Central University of Finance & Economics in Beijing (1998). Her main research area is portfolio choice and asset pricing along with a growing interest in law and finance. Qi is currently busy working on a variety of funded research projects supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC) and the Institut de finance mathématique de Montréal.
Dr. Qi has already garnered a number of distinctions at this early stage in her career including these most recent accolades:
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Concordia University Research Chair in Vehicular Ergodynamics (Tier I)
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia Centre for Advanced Vehicle Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
rakheja@alcor.concordia.ca
Concordia is like a second home to Dr. Subhash Rakheja, who earned both his B.Eng and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University. Originally from India, Dr. Rakheja became a faculty member at Concordia in 1985 under the Programme d’action structurante, following a stint as a Research Officer with the National Research Council (NRC). Dr. Rakheja is a member of the Concordia Centre for Advanced Vehicle Engineering.
The foci of Dr. Rakheja’s current research are vehicular ergodynamics, human vibration, commercial vehicle safety dynamics, and intelligent vehicles.
In a career spanning more than twenty years, Dr. Rakheja continues to add to his long list of research accomplishments. Among his most significant achievements are:
Chair in Canadian Jewish Studies
Department of Religion, Faculty of Arts and Science
Concordia Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies
ravv@videotron.ca
A native of Calgary, Dr. Norman Ravvin studied History and English as an undergraduate at the University of British Columbia before switching entirely to English when he pursued graduate studies at the same institution. He completed his doctoral studies in the same discipline at the University of Toronto, and came to Concordia in 1999 after teaching creative writing at the University of New Brunswick for two years. He is currently overseeing the Concordia Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies.
Dr. Ravvin recently co-edited The Canadian Jewish Studies Reader, published by Red Deer Press, to which he also contributed two essays. His primary areas of research are Canadian Jewish studies, Holocaust studies, and museums and identity.
Dr. Ravvin has been productive and highly praised in both the literary and academic scenes in Canada, especially in relation to Jewish culture. His published work includes:
Chair in Hindu Studies
Department of Religion, Faculty of Arts and Science
rukmani@alcor.concordia.ca
Dr. T.S. Rukmani was educated in her home country of India, earning all four of her post-secondary degrees at the University of Delhi. Beginning with a B.A. in English, Mathematics, Economics, and Sanskrit, Dr. Rukmani decided to concentrate on Sanskrit for the remainder of her studies, receiving her M.A., Ph.D., and D.Litt. in this subject. She joined the Concordia research community in 1996.
Indian philosophy is Dr. Rukmani’s primary area of research, in particular the Advaita Vedanta, Samkya, and Yoga philosophies. She is well-published in these areas.
Dr. Rukmani is renowned worldwide as a pioneer in her field, achieving a number of significant objectives during her career. These include:
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Concordia University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences and Darwinian Consumption (Tier 2)
Department of Marketing, John Molson School of Business
gadsaad@jmsb.concordia.ca
A Department of Marketing may seem like an odd place to find a Darwinian theorist, but don’t tell that to Dr. Gad Saad. Dr. Saad began his academic career in Montreal, when he undertook a BSc (1988) in Mathematics and Computer Science at McGill. He quickly followed it up with an MBA (1990) in Marketing from McGill and an MS (1993) in Management at Cornell University. A year later, he completed his PhD (1994) at Cornell with a major in Marketing (dissertation area: psychology of decision making) and minors in Statistics and Cognitive Studies. He joined the Faculty at Concordia in 1994 and was tenured in 1999.
Dr. Saad’s research infuses Darwinian theory, specifically evolutionary psychology, within the behavioral sciences in such disparate areas as consumer behavior, advertising, marketing, mate choice, psychiatry, and behavioral game theory. He believes that a full and accurate understanding of human phenomena requires the recognition of the Darwinian/biological forces that have shaped our minds and bodies. His book, The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption (2007), is the first academic monograph to demonstrate the Darwinian roots of consumption phenomena. In 2011, he completed his Darwinian book trilogy with the publishing of his latest two books: The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal about Human Nature; and Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences. He has also guest edited a special issue of the journal Futures (2011) on the futures of evolutionary psychology. A man on a mission, Dr. Saad plans to further the impact and reach of his research through three new broad initiatives: (1) establishing the biology of business center at JMSB; (2) creating a university-wide evolutionary studies program for students and professors interested in Darwinian theory; (3) founding an inter-university Darwinian center wherein evolutionists from the four Montreal universities could interact with one another.
As an emerging scholar and founder of a new scientific discipline (evolutionary consumption), Dr. Saad has accumulated a long list of impressive accomplishments, including:
Concordia University Research Chair in Psychology (Tier 1)
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for Research in Human Development
lisa.serbin@concordia.ca
Dr. Lisa Serbin is a native of New York City. She was educated entirely in the United States, receiving her B.A. in Psychology from Reed College in Portland, Oregon and her Ph.D. in Psychology (Clinical) from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She moved to Montreal in 1978 to join Concordia’s Psychology department. Dr. Serbin is currently the Director of the renowned Centre de recherche en développement humain (CRDH), a research ‘centre of excellence’ funded under Quebec’s Regroupements stratégiques program, which is headquartered at Concordia’s Loyola campus.
Dr. Serbin’s present research involves a continuation of her longitudinal projects on child development and developmental psychopathology, women’s health, and the social and environmental factors in the transfer of health and developmental risk from parent to child.
After twenty-five years as a faculty member at Concordia, Dr. Serbin has established herself as one of the University’s stars in research. Some of her more important achievements include:
Canada Research Chair in New Media Arts (Tier 2)
Department of Design and Computation Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts
Topological Media Lab
shaxinwei@gmail.com
Hailing from Washington D.C., Dr. Sha Xin Wei received an A.B. in Mathematics from Harvard University and obtained his Ph.D. in Mathematics, Computer Science, and the History and Philosophy of Science from Stanford University. He is a co-founder of Sponge and of Pliant Research, and is the Director of the Topological Media Lab in Montreal.
The Topological Media Lab was established to experimentally explore gestural, performative and embodied use of hybrid computational-physical materials with a view to creating a world that is not complicated, but rich. Dr. Sha and TML researchers investigate how we build, inhabit and use sensate or active matter. They combine computational and physical materials sensitive to environmental features or activities and explore how they respond, such as changing their form or appearance. This investigation is substantively based in a fusion of computer science, science studies and critical studies of new media. Intertwining scientific work with cultural practice gives meaning and context to guide the research.
Dr. Sha has worked for more than ten years in scientific or social simulations and the visualization of geometric and topological structures. His creative and scientific approach to worlds of art and media has resulted in numerous innovative research contributions to date. For example, as a human-computer systems architect at Stanford University, he designed the MediaWeaver distributed media authoring framework. In 1985-1987, he led a team of physics students with Professor Blas Cabrera to build the first micro-world simulations that exploiting its graphical interface for virtual experiments. Later on (1987) he created the first generation of object-oriented classes of physics and mathematics operators that performed lattice computation. In 2001, he created the TGarden Responsive Play Space, a series of responsive media spaces in which people wearing sensor-laden costumes create gesturally inflected sound and video textures as the move and dance together. The play spaces allowed people to improvise individually and collectively meaningful gesture with real-time media feedback. The TGarden:TG2001 responsive play space was realized with 26 person-years of work by a team of artists, computer scientists and engineers from 11 nations from the Sponge and Foam art research networks. It was supported by an international network of cultural and scientific institutions, including the Daniel Langlois Foundation Canada, and the Banff Centre.
A sample of some of the projects he has been recently involved in include: WYSIWYG - a Hexagram project on fabric-based gestural instruments, a collaboration with Marcelo Wanderley from McGill University (in 2006-2007); OUIJA – phenomenological experiments on intentional and collective movement (summer 2007); COSMICOMICS, a responsive video installation, presented at the Elektra Festival (May 2007); REMEDIOS TERRARIUM - autopoiesis and systems exhibition at the Concordia Fine Arts Gallery (2008); PNEUS - Champ Libre installation at the Galerie Monopoli in Montreal (September 2008) ; and the E-SEA installation at the eArts Festival, in Shanghai (October 2008).
Dr. Sha’s paradigm-shifting work in his interdisciplinary field of critical studies of media arts and sciences has led to a number of achievements, including:
Canada Research Chair in the Neurobiology of Drug Abuse (Tier 2)
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Science
Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology
uri.shalev@concordia.ca
Dr. Uri Shalev’s research career began during his undergraduate studies in Animal Sciences and continued on through his graduate work in the same field at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in his native Israel. He switched to Psychology for his Ph.D. at Tel Aviv University, which evolved into a specialization in Drug Abuse for his postdoctoral research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institutes of Health in Baltimore. He arrived at Concordia in 2004 and is currently a member of the Centre for Studies in Behavioural Neurobiology.
Dr. Shalev’s research at present is focused on brain mechanisms underlying relapse to drug seeking and their interaction with the ones involved in the control of eating.Using an animal model of relapse he has been studying the involvement of orxigenic peptides in drug intake and reinstatement of drug seeking as well as the brain mechanisms underlying food deprivation-induced reinstatement of drug seeking. Most recently, he is examining the effect of hunger on brain activation in response to drug-related stimuli, using imaging techniques (fMRI) in humans.
Dr. Shalev, who is only at the beginning stages of his career, has wasted no time in establishing himself in the research community. Some of his successes include:
Concordia University Research Chair in Psychology (Tier 1)
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Science
Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology
peter.shizgal@concordia.ca
A native of Montreal, Dr. Peter Shizgal remained in his home city to obtain his B.A. in Psychology at McGill University, moving to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia for his graduate and doctoral studies in Physiological Psychology. He returned to Montreal to become a Lecturer at Concordia in 1975 and became a faculty member the following year.
Dr. Shizgal is a past Director of the Centre for Studies in Behavioural Neurobiology (CSBN) and holds memberships in seven professional associations and learned societies. He and his research team are enthusiastically pursuing current projects on the neural basis of reward, motivation, and decision-making. Key areas of interest they are looking at include: the role of dopamine in the pursuit of reward, the characterization and identification of brain reward circuitry, the mathematical modeling of how the cost, strength, risk, and delay of reward contribute to the selection and pursuit of goals, the psychophysical inference of opportunity costs, and the mapping neural correlates of hedonic states in humans by means of functional neuroimaging.
During the thirty year period that Dr. Shizgal has been working at Concordia, he has achieved considerable success as a researcher. Some of his more significant accomplishments include:
Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Enterprise
Department of Management, John Molson School of Business
Director, David O’Brien Center for Sustainable Enterprise
pshrivas@jmsb.concordia.ca
Dr. Shrivastava received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburg and has over 25 years experience in management education, entrepreneurship and consultancy. He has published 15 books and over 100 articles in professional and scholarly journals and has served on the editorial boards of leading management education journals including the Academy of Management Review, Asian Case Research Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Organization, Risk Management, Business Strategy and the Environment, International Journal of Sustainable Economy and the International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management. He also founded Organization and Environment in 1998, a journal published by Sage Publications.
A small sample of Dr Shrivastava’s most notable accomplishments and contributions to his field includes the following:
Chair in Appetite and Addiction Studies
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Science
Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology
jane.stewart@concordia.ca
Dr. Jane Stewart received her Ph.D. from the University of London, England, after which she worked as a Senior Research Biologist at Ayerst Pharmaceuticals in Montreal. She joined Concordia (then Sir George Williams) in 1963, became Professor in 1969, and served as Chair of the Department of Psychology from 1969 to 1974, as well as Director of the Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology from 1990 to 1997.
Dr. Stewart’s current specialty is the behavioral and neurochemical studies of conditioning and sensitization to stimulant and opioid drugs, as well as their role in drug self-administration and relapse. She has carried out studies on the effects of ovarian hormones on behavioral and neurochemical responses to drugs, stress, and brain injury.
Dr. Stewart’s dedication to her field of research has left her with a rewarding list of accolades and achievements such as:
Concordia University Research Chair in Control of Non-Smooth Dynamic Systems (Tier 1)
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
cysu@alcor.concordia.ca
Originally from the northern province of Hebei in China, Dr. Chun-Yi Su began his career as an undergraduate student in Control Engineering at the Shaanxi Institute of Mechanical Engineering (now the Xi’an University of Technology). He completed both his M.Eng. and Ph.D. in Control Engineering at South China University of Technology, specializing in Control Theory and Applications. Dr. Su joined Concordia in 1998 after a long stint at the University of Victoria.
Dr. Su’s research covers control theory and its applications to various mechanical systems, with emphasis on the control of nonlinear systems preceded by non-smooth nonlinearities, the control of robotic and nonholonomic mechanical systems, and mechatronic systems.
Throughout his career, Dr. Su has gained a solid research reputation, building continuously upon a list of successes that includes:
Concordia University Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition (Tier 1)
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering
Centre for Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
suen@cs.concordia.ca
suen@cenparmi.concordia.ca (Centre for Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence)
Originally from Zhongshan in Guangdong, China, Dr. Ching Y. Suen began his research career with a B.Sc. (Eng.) in Electrical Engineering and an M.Sc. (Eng.) in Electronics at the University of Hong Kong. Following this he completed an M.A.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Man-Computer Communications at the University of British Columbia. In 1972, he joined Concordia’s Computer Science department, serving as its Chair from 1980 to 1984 and as the Faculty’s Associate Dean, Research from 1993 to 1997. Dr. Suen has been the Director of the Centre for Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence since 1988.
Dr. Suen’s primary areas of research interest include handwriting recognition by computer for applications in automatic entry/reading of handwritten data, as well as the analysis of the legibility of type and print fonts to discover how they affect human reading and vision, with the goal of discovering the most legible font for easy reading by children and adults.
In his three-decade long relationship with Concordia, Dr. Suen has been a creative and dynamic researcher, with accomplishments such as:
Honorary Concordia University Research Chair in Signal Processing (Tier I)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Center for Signal Processing and Communications
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
swamy@ece.concordia.ca
Dr. Srikanta M.N. Swamy was born in Bangalore, India. His undergraduate studies were completed at Mysore University, one of India’s oldest universities, where he earned his B.Sc. (Honours) in Mathematics. He then attended the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, obtaining a Post-Graduate Diploma in Electrical Communication Engineering. Dr. Swamy left India to earn his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, which he did within just four years. He began his career at Concordia in 1968. He was chair of the Electrical Engineering department from 1970-77, when he became Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science until 1993.
Dr. Swamy’s current research is focused on signal processing for speech, image, and video, and studying the theory and implementation of fast algorithms for multi-dimensional signal processing.
After four decades of research activity at Concordia, Dr. Swamy has compiled an impressive list of achievements, including:
Van Berkom Endowed Chair in Small-Caps Equities
Department of Finance, John Molson School of Business
Concordia-HEC Institute for Governance in Private and Public Organizations
switz@jmsb.concordia.ca
A native of Calgary, Alberta, Dr. Lorne Switzer has been a faculty member at Concordia for over twenty years, having arrived in Montreal in 1984. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he earned his B.Sc. in Economics from the famed Wharton School, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics. He served as Chair of the Finance department in the John Molson School of Business from 1997 to 2004, and is a past Director of the M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Administration programs. Since 2002, he has served as the Associate Director of the Concordia-HEC Institute for Governance in Private and Public Organizations, and has served as Associate Editor of the academic journal European Financial Management since 1994. In 2006, he joined the Editorial Board of the journal of the French Finance Association, La Review Financier. Dr Switzer is currently the Associate Dean, Research at the John Molson School of Business.
At present, Dr. Switzer’s key focus is on governance and small-cap equities. He is also addressing several other key areas of finance, such as investments and portfolio management, derivative securities, and international finance.
Among his more well-known endeavours are the following:
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Concordia University Research Chair in Formal Verification of System-on-Chip (Tier 1)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Hardware Verification Group (hvg.ece.concordia.ca)
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
tahar@ece.concordia.ca
Dr. Sofiène Tahar pursued his postgraduate studies in Germany, receiving his master’s degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Darmstadt and his Ph.D. with Distinction in Computer Science from the University of Karlsruhe. From 1995 to 1996, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Université de Montréal. He is a Professional Engineer of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, as well as a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE), the IEEE Computer Society, the Association for Computer Machinery, and Euromicro. Dr. Tahar is the founder and director of the Hardware Verification Group (HVG) at Concordia, where he is also a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Dr. Tahar has made contributions and published papers in the areas of formal hardware verification, very large scale integration (VLSI), microprocessor and system-on-chip verification, and formal specification and verification of communications architectures and protocols. He has organized and been involved in various international conference program committees as well as national research grant selection committees.
Dr. Tahar and his HVG research group have conducted pioneering work and elaborated innovative techniques, which have attracted significant interest from academia and the industrial sector. With his team and other research partners, he has published three books and over 180 international journal and conference papers. Moreover, he has been frequently invited to present his findings at world leading research institutions such as Microsoft Research, NASA Langley Research Center, Fujitsu Laboratories, the University of Cambridge, and Oxford University.
Dr. Tahar has seen his reputation as an innovative researcher rise steadily due to successes such as:
Concordia University Research Chair in Genomics, Cell Biology and Aging (Tier 2)
Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Science
Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics
vtitor@alcor.concordia.ca
Born and raised in the former Soviet Union, Vladimir Titorenko received both a BSc and MSc in biochemistry from Lvov University in the Ukraine. He then moved to Moscow to undertake a PhD in genetics at the Institute of Genetics. He subsequently completed two post-doctoral fellowships, the first at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, and the second at the University of Alberta. Dr. Titorenko joined the faculty in Concordia’s Department of Biology in 2002.
Dr. Titorenko is a cell biologist who uses cell biological, genomic, proteomic, lipidomic, bioinformatic and systems biological approaches for studying the aging process, elucidating the subcellular organization and protein transport in disease processes, and developing pharmaceutical therapies for human diseases and disorders. His latest work focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying the biogenesis of the peroxisome, a cell organelle that is required for the degradation and biosynthesis of lipids. Other research examines the molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating longevity, large-scale procedures for identifying novel anti-aging drugs, and mechanisms by which these drugs extend lifespan.
Dr. Titorenko’s work has garnered wide interest and attention. His recognitions and achievements include:
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Concordia University Research Chair on the Study of Quebec (Tier 2)
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty of Arts and Science
jphwarren@sympatico.ca
Dr. Jean-Philippe Warren completed a B.A. and M.A. in Sociology at Université Laval, later obtaining his Ph.D. in the same discipline from the Université de Montréal. He is a member of the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie and the Centre interuniversitaire d’études et de recherches autochtones. Dr. Warren joined Concordia in 2002 after holding teaching positions at Université Laval and the Université de Moncton.
Dr. Warren has dedicated himself to a better under understanding of Quebec society by intertwining many fields (e.g. social, philosophical, political, etc.) that remain too often isolated. His current research, which is highly interdisciplinary in nature, is examining the histories of the Canadian social sciences, Quebec popular culture, the Canadian Native peoples, the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec, and Quebec-based social movements.
Dr. Warren’s far-reaching work has appeared in history, anthropology, sociology, and religious studies peer-reviewed journals, as well as in popular magazines such as Liberté, Le Devoir, and The Globe and Mail.
Since joining Concordia, Dr. Warren has been extremely productive, having written or edited a dozen books and published more than a hundred articles or book chapters. In 2004, he won the following awards for one of those works:
Concordia University Research Chair in Documentary Film and in Sexual Representation (Tier 1)
Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Faculty of Fine Arts
Concordia Documentary Centre
waugh@alcor.concordia.ca
Thomas Waugh has been teaching at Concordia since 1976. In that time, he has created a body of work that makes him one of the world’s foremost experts on political discourses in documentary, the subject of his 1981 doctorate (Columbia University), sexual representation in visual media, as well as queer film and video.
His present interests include the history and current situation of documentary culture in Canada and elsewhere, as well as cultural representations of sexuality and sexual diversity. He also maintains a research and teaching interest in Indian cinema, and in Canadian studies. Dr. Waugh is currently in postproduction on two books on documentary, Challenge for Change/Société nouvelle: The Collection (with Ezra Winton and Michael Baker) and The Right To Play Oneself: Historical Essays on Documentary 1974-2008, and completing a monograph on the documentarist Joris Ivens.
Over the last 30 years, Dr. Waugh’s career has had many significant accomplishments including:
Canada Research Chair in Biological Chemistry (Tier 2)
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Arts and Science
cwilds@alcor.concordia.ca
Dr. Christopher J. Wilds was born and raised in Montreal. He completed his undergraduate science degree in Chemistry at Concordia and his doctoral degree in Organic Chemistry at McGill University. In 2003, Dr. Wilds returned to Concordia as a faculty member after working briefly as a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
The main research foci for Dr. Wilds are nucleic acid chemistry, as well as organic and medicinal chemistry with the intent of designing new drugs to treat human disease that meet the specific needs of individual sufferers.
Dr. Wilds has already been highly productive in his research career. He is the co-author of approximately thirty-five peer reviewed publications and has obtained funding from FQRNT, NSERC, and CFI (Canada Research Chairs Infrastructure Fund and Leaders Opportunity Fund) for his research program. In 2006, he was the recipient of a Petro-Canada Young Innovators Award and more recently a travel award from the Ichikizaki Fund for Young Chemists.
Some of his other notable achievements include:
Concordia University Research Chair on the Physics of Advanced Materials (Tier 2)
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Laboratory for the Physics of Advanced Materials (Concordia Centre for Composites)
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
woodadam@alcor.concordia.ca
Dr. Paula Wood-Adams completed a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (with Distinction) at the University of Alberta before moving to Montreal to pursue her postgraduate studies at McGill University. There she earned an M.Eng. in Chemical Engineering, making the Dean’s Honour List, for her thesis work on “Determination of Molecular Weight Distribution from Rheological Measurements.” At McGill, she also obtained a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering with her thesis titled “The Effect of Long Chain Branching on the Rheological Behavior of Polyethylenes Synthesized using Constrained Geometry and Metallocene Catalysts.” Dr. Wood-Adams joined Concordia in 2001.
Dr. Wood-Adams is an expert in applied polymer science and complex fluids, and is well-known in the field of polymer rheology and polymer structure characterization. In the eight years since obtaining her doctorate at McGill, Dr. Wood-Adams has worked extensively in the areas of molecular structure-rheology modelling, molecular structure characterization, and stochastic modelling of branching structure. Recently she has been working on surface science and contact mechanics of viscoelastic surfaces, and is developing expertise in atomic force spectroscopy and nanoindentation. Dr. Wood-Adams is the recipient of NSERC’s University Faculty Award and is a past recipient of an FQRNT Nouveau Chercheur grant. She has also set up the Laboratory for the Physics of Advanced Materials as part of the Concordia Centre for Composites with support from a CFI New Opportunities Grant as well as FQRNT and NSERC funds.
Although a young researcher, Dr. Wood-Adams is already renowned in her field and the following are some of her proudest achievements:
Concordia University Research Chair in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (Tier 1)
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Science
Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology
Barbara.Woodside@concordia.ca
Originally from England, Dr. Barbara Woodside completed her BSc in Psychology at University College London. She emigrated to Canada in the 1970s to pursue a PhD in Psychology at McMaster University. She then completed an NSERC-funded postdoctoral fellowship before joining the faculty in the Department of Psychology at Concordia in 1980. Dr. Woodside is currently the Director of Concordia’s Center for Studies in Behavioural Neurobiology.
Working with rat models, Dr. Woodside’s research examines the complex interaction of neural, endocrine and behavioural processes that enable female mammals to successfully meet the challenges of pregnancy and lactation. Using this model, Dr. Woodside has demonstrated that the pituitary hormone prolactin, which plays a critical role in pregnancy and lactation, stimulated food intake in part by changing the sensitivity of neural pathways to the effects of anorectic peptides.
Dr. Woodside is an internationally renowned scholar, whose career achievements reflect highly on Concordia. A few highlights include:
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Canada Research Chair in Design Science (Tier 2)
Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
zeng@ciise.concordia.ca
Dr. Yong Zeng was born in Yicheng, China and attended the Institute of Logistics Engineering in Chongqing as an undergraduate student, receiving a B.Eng. in Structural Engineering. Dr. Zeng then moved to Dalian University of Technology, earning his M.Sc. and his Ph.D. in Computational Mechanics. For the next phase of his career, Dr. Zeng moved to Alberta to attend the University of Calgary, obtaining a second Ph.D. in Design/Mechanical Engineering. He came to Concordia in 2003 after a brief stint with the National Research Council of Canada.
Presently, Dr. Zeng is working on turning his theory of design modelling into a formal design science in order to understand design activities and help develop design tools. This is tied to a few other research areas such as human factors engineering, product life cycle management, and geometric modelling.
Dr. Zeng has managed to bring new innovations to the design engineering field based on his research experience in China and Canada. His successes include:
Page Title: Faculty profiles - Concordia University - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Page URL:http://vprgs.concordia.ca/whatwedo/research/researchchairs/facultyprofiles/...index.php
Date Printed: Sun May 19, 2013
