Two �첥��Ƶ chemists are among the recipients of one of NASA's highest honours for their role in a major North American air quality campaign – work that could help improve how wildfire smoke risks are understood and communicated in Canada. Faculty of Science��Professor��Cora Young��and Associate Professor��Trevor VandenBoer��were recognized through the NASA Group Achievement Award for their contributions to the Atmospheric Emissions and Reactions Observed from Megacities to Marine Areas (AEROMMA) campaign, a joint effort between NASA and the The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to study air quality and climate interactions across North America.

�첥��Ƶ is launching a new fellowship designed to help research-driven inventions and innovations move beyond the lab and into the marketplace. York’s entrepreneurship and innovation hub YSpace and the IP Innovation Clinic, Canada’s largest intellectual property (IP) clinic, are introducing the Inventor to Founder Fellowship, a 13-week program that supports students, researchers, faculty and recent graduates as they navigate commercialization and entrepreneurship.

A �첥��Ƶ visual arts doctoral student will head to the Scottish Highlands this summer after being named the��2026 Glenfiddich Artist in Residence, one of Canada's most prestigious honours for contemporary artists. Jenine Marsh, a first-year practice-based PhD student in visual arts at �첥��Ƶ’s��School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design��(AMPD) was selected from more than 200 applicants across Canada. A��national jury of artists and curators chose Marsh, with the final selection made by Glenfiddich Artists in Residence program curator Andy Fairgrieve.

New research by �첥��Ƶ doctoral candidate��Cassandra Harmsen��is shedding light on a form of trauma care that remains understudied and underused: online group therapy. For people who have experienced trauma, early support is critical for regulating distress and restoring a sense of safety. But Harmsen, a PhD candidate in York’s Clinical‑Developmental Psychology program and the��Trauma & Attachment��Lab, notes that individualized, in‑person therapy isn’t always accessible. Cost, distance, time constraints, mobility challenges and a shortage of trained clinicians can all stand in the way.

Research led by �첥��Ƶ's��Roya Haghiri-Vijeh��is embracing��Globally Networked Learning��(GNL) for��nursing collaboration on��2SLGBTQIA+ care. In 2023, a Canadian-wide review of undergraduate nursing programs found that of all 2SLGBTQIA+ topics, gender-affirming care was the least included in the curriculum. Haghiri-Vijehan, assistant professor in the��Faculty of Health, was not surprised given her own experience as an educator. The process behind that has now been published in a paper in��Nursing Education Today. Wong is a co-author along with York colleague��Karen A. Campbell��and York master’s student��Camille Alcalde.

A new study led by �첥��Ƶ researchers is shedding light on a little‑understood experience reported by many people living with limb loss: phantom limb telescoping. New work by��Andrea Aternali, a doctoral researcher in the��Faculty of Health,��Heather Lumsden-Ruegg,��master’s researcher, and Department of Psychology Professor��Joel Katz, is advancing understanding of this phenomenon. "Despite decades of research on phantom limb phenomena, telescoping has been largely overlooked," says Aternali. For people with limb loss, phantom pain and discomfort in the remaining part of the body – sensations that seem to originate from a missing or altered limb – have long captured clinical and research attention.

As communities around the world face increasingly complex emergencies, the demand for disaster and emergency management expertise continues to grow. Addressing population displacement, public safety risks and long‑term recovery requires approaches grounded in research, policy and community engagement.

At �첥��Ƶ, the Master of Disaster & Emergency Management (MDEM) program supports graduate‑level study focused on preparedness, response and recovery across diverse contexts. This September, the program welcomes Tommy Taylor, recipient of the $20,000 Chancellor Bennett Master’s Scholarship for Liberal Arts.

Administered through the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS), the scholarship recognizes incoming graduate students with strong academic achievement and research potential. For Taylor, entering the MDEM program reflects a long‑standing commitment shaped by lived experience and community‑based emergency response work.

_{Photo of Tommy Taylor}

“The honest answer is that I didn’t find this field – it found me, twice,” Taylor says.

His first encounter came in 2010 during the G20 Summit in Toronto, where he was a part of the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. The experience, which later informed his solo documentary performance You Should Have Stayed Home, shaped his understanding of disasters as events influenced by policy and power. “They are shaped by decisions about whose safety counts and whose doesn’t,” he says.

Taylor’s second formative experience emerged during the COVID‑19 pandemic, when he spent several years working on the frontlines of crisis response for unhoused community members, including in shelter and harm‑reduction settings. Witnessing systemic gaps in emergency response prompted him to pursue graduate study. “I needed to understand these systems from the inside,” he says, “so I could help rebuild them.”

Through its interdisciplinary approach, the MDEM program enables students to examine emergencies through social, economic and policy lenses. Under the guidance of York faculty members, Taylor will focus his research on how emergency management systems can better account for social vulnerability and lived experience.

Receiving the Chancellor Bennett Scholarship provides Taylor with the stability to fully engage in his studies. He says the recognition affirms the value of professional and community‑based experience in shaping effective research and policy.

“My goal is to help build emergency management frameworks that take social vulnerability seriously, not as an afterthought, but as the organizing principle,” Taylor says.

As he begins his studies, Taylor joins a community of graduate students and researchers working to strengthen preparedness and inform policy that supports communities when they need it most.

Three �첥��Ƶ researchers will participate in a provincial program designed to strengthen connections between science and policy.
Ciuying Jian (associate professor, Lassonde School of Engineering), Trevor VandenBoer (associate professor, Faculty of Science) and Daanish Mulla (postdoctoral fellow, Faculty of Health) are three of 34 delegates selected to engage in dialogue with policymakers during the 2026 Science Meets Parliament – Ontario Program (SMP-ON). The event creates opportunities for in-depth knowledge sharing, in which delegates from the academic scientific community gain insights into the legislative process and learn how to effectively communicate research to policymakers.

As cities around the world grapple with mounting waste crises, researchers at the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) are exploring a critical but often overlooked question: who does the work of managing waste and under what conditions? At �첥��Ƶ, this question is shaping an emerging area of interdisciplinary research that connects environmental change with labour, inequality and shared global priorities. Research efforts led by��Shubhra Gururani, a political ecologist, associate professor of anthropology and director of YCAR, examine how waste is a technical or environmental problem, but also a deeply political one, structured by histories of colonialism, race, caste and gender.