As the lights dimmed over St. Catharines and the first chords filled the air, the crowd swayed in unison. Faces lifted, voices rose, and for a moment, music became something larger than entertainment. Christine Rose Cooling, a PhD student in the Joint Graduate Program in Communication & Culture at �첥��Ƶ, was there—not as a fan, but as a scholar, watching, listening, and feeling the energy that rippled through the room.

“When a Canadian artist returns home, something powerful takes place,” she says. “Artists and audiences experience a sense of national pride and recognition that feels bigger than commercial entertainment.”

For Cooling, the question isn’t just how these musicians perform—it’s how audiences respond, how the room seems to hum with a shared history, a collective memory, a connection to place and identity. She studies that “charge” in the air, the unspoken bond between performer and hometown, and what it reveals about Canada itself.

Her curiosity comes not from theory alone but from lived experience. At events like the 2023 Born & Raised festival, she felt the energy move through her as she stood in the crowd, noting how music, memory, and emotion intertwined.

_{A photo of Christine Rose Cooling}

_{Born & Raised festival}

“If we see cultural policy only as bureaucratic protectionism, we miss how real experiences of attachment and collective memory are shaped,” she explains.

Indeed, Cooling’s research bridges the personal and the political. Hometown concerts are not just celebrations—they are shaped by Canada’s cultural policies, by the pressures of a globalized music industry, and by the historical influence of American media. They are moments where audiences negotiate their own sense of “Canadian-ness,” where national identity is performed as much as felt.

York’s interdisciplinary Communication & Culture program allows her to explore these moments from every angle: as economic events, as cultural rituals, and as mediated symbols. Under the guidance of Professor Anne MacLennan, Cooling connects the energy she observes in the crowd with a deeper understanding of media history and policy, showing how academic insight and human experience can inform one another.

“This project began from my own embodied experience in a crowd,” Cooling says. “I would very much like its insights to return, in some form, to those spaces.”

Her work reminds us that scholarship does not have to be distant or abstract. By following music into the towns that shaped it, by listening closely to audiences and performers, Cooling illuminates the cultural pulse of Canada. Through her research, the roar of a hometown crowd becomes more than applause—it becomes a story about memory, identity, and the enduring power of shared experience.

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^{Graduate students conducting vision research.}

Innovation and Interdisciplinary Research

Pioneering Interdisciplinary Graduate Training in Vision Research
�첥��Ƶ advanced interdisciplinary education in health and science with the launch of the Collaborative Specialization in Vision Research—the first graduate-level program of its kind at the university. Bringing together faculty from diverse disciplines, this initiative provides cutting-edge training and formal credentials in vision research, preparing students to address pressing scientific and technological challenges and contribute meaningfully to health and science innovations.

Supporting Postdoctoral Researchers to Secure Funding
Tailored guidelines were introduced to support postdoctoral researchers in preparing and submitting grant applications, enhancing external research funding at the institution. These resources provide clear guidance at a critical stage in researchers’ careers, fostering professional development and enabling impactful contributions to the broader research community.

Strengthening Systems and Academic Processes

Graduate Supervision Toolkit & Flipbook
The Graduate Supervision Toolkit and Flipbook provide accessible, practical guidance to foster equity-informed, communicative, and collaborative supervisory relationships. By centering clarity, mutual care, and co-created success, these resources strengthen trust, communication, and the well-being of both students and supervisors.

Enhancing the Systems That Support Every Graduate Journey
The Special Projects team focused on maintaining and improving the five online graduate portals—Petition, Proposal Milestone, Progress Report, Oral Exam, and Supervisor & Supervisory Committee. Through issue resolution, targeted upgrades, and new features, these platforms became more reliable, efficient, and supportive, simplifying administrative processes and enabling a smoother graduate experience for students, faculty, and staff.

^{Graduate Supervision resources support effective supervisory pedagogy and guidance.}

Introducing a More Streamlined Proposal Milestone Process
A redesigned research proposal milestone process, effective November 5, 2025, reduces approval timelines and allows students to begin research sooner. Students conducting research involving human participants or higher-risk protocols can now develop ethics applications concurrently with proposal review, creating a more efficient pathway from proposal development to research initiation.

Automating Funding Processes for Greater Accuracy and Efficiency
Advanced Excel macro automations streamlined key funding workflows, including the Annual Funding Commitment Review, monthly revenue-recognition reconciliation, and ARMS-to-FAAS data conversions for Fellowships and GIA payments. These enhancements minimized manual effort, reduced errors, and created faster, more dependable, processes for staff and students alike.

Strengthening Clarity and Integrity in Academic Policies
Restructured academic integrity policies and procedures enhanced consistency, transparency, and practicality, supporting efficient case resolution while reinforcing a culture of honesty, responsibility, and fairness. These improvements provide the graduate community with clear guidance and strengthen an environment where ethical scholarship can thrive.

Strengthening Support for Professional Graduate Programs
Updated regulations distinguishing research-focused from professional graduate degrees improved guidance for program development and reinforced partnerships with program proponents. This framework supports programs in delivering offerings that meet student needs, reflect professional standards, and enrich the graduate education landscape.

^{Incoming students meet Joseph Hafner, Dean of Libraries (left), and Alice MacLachlan, Vice-Provost & Dean of Graduate Studies (right).}

Supporting Students and Building Community

Seamless Transition of Graduate Admissions Support
The Graduate Admissions team was successfully integrated from its previous unit into FGS. This transition centralized graduate recruitment and admissions support, enhancing coordination, accessibility, and consistency for prospective students. Applicants now benefit from clearer communication, streamlined processes, and a stronger connection to the faculty guiding them throughout their graduate journey.

Providing Personalized Support for Prospective Graduate Students
Individualized 1:1 advising sessions offered dedicated time for prospective students to ask questions and gain clarity on next steps. These personalized meetings help applicants feel informed, confident, and supported as they navigate the admissions process, fostering a welcoming introduction to the graduate community.

Enhancing Connections for Incoming Graduate Students
Expanded and , led by the new Graduate Recruitment team, provided incoming students with early answers to common questions and a deeper understanding of York’s campus, community, and research environment. Also, FGS hosted its first in-person social () since 2019. These initiatives eased transitions, fostered connection, and strengthened confidence in choosing York.

Connecting International Students Through Insightful, Targeted Panels
A new international student recruitment panel series connected prospective and admitted students with current graduate students. With a focus on engagement from the , , these panels provided first-hand insights, helping students feel confident in choosing �첥��Ƶ and Canada as a study destination while fostering a welcoming global graduate community.

Graduate Student Support Group
Launched in 2025, the Graduate Student Support Group provides a safe space for students to connect, share experiences, and access peer support. The group allows participants to gain perspective on common graduate challenges, exchange wisdom and resources, and realize they are not alone in their academic journey. Feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive, and the drop-in, year-round format ensures ongoing accessibility and support throughout the graduate experience.

Equipping Graduate Students through GradForward Series
The inaugural GradForward series, a new approach to graduate orientation, offered 30-minute virtual sessions covering scholarships, graduate funding, academic integrity, professional skills, student affairs, and portal use. Accessible via Zoom, these sessions equipped students with practical knowledge and resources to navigate graduate studies successfully and build a strong foundation for academic and professional growth.

Celebrating Achievement and Inclusion

Associate Director honoured with York’s Excellence in DEDI Award
Richolette Freckleton received the Excellence in DEDI Award from �첥��Ƶ in recognition of her exceptional commitment to advancing decolonization, equity, diversity, and inclusion across the graduate community. Her leadership led to the creation and funding of a new scholarship for BIPOC part-time students and the launch of a workshop that connects Black graduate students with faculty mentors — concrete actions that expand access, promote representation, and foster a stronger sense of belonging and support for equity-seeking scholars at York.

Looking Ahead…

Our achievements in 2025 reflect a shared commitment to innovation, equity, and student success. By strengthening systems, supporting research, and building inclusive communities, FGS continues to create an environment where graduate students and researchers can thrive today—and shape the breakthroughs of tomorrow.

^{President & Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton with Richolette Freckleton.}

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^{Group photo of award recipients from the Graduate Program in Psychology}

PhD Level

• Dr. Benjamin Diplock (Clinical Development, Supervisor: Debra Pepler) – A telepsychology-based social competence program for youth with learning disabilities and mental health difficulties during COVID-19
• Dr. Rebecca Lewinson (Clinical, Supervisor: Joel Katz) – Gaming as a coping strategy during COVID-19
• Dr. Elizabeth Wanstall (Clinical Development, Supervisor: Maggie Toplak) – Parent Mediation of Screen Media Use in Children and Youth at-risk of Attention Difficulties

CCDP Teaching Assistant Awards

^{Photo of Sonya Varma}

• Patricia Colaco (Social Personality, Supervisor: Jennifer Steele) – PSYC 2010 Writing in Psychology
• Samantha Feldman (Clinical Development, Supervisor: Mary Desrocher) – PSYC 6910 Psychoeducational Assessment
• Michelle Hirsch (BBCS, Supervisors: Buddhika Bellana & Andree Ann Cyr) – PSYC 2010 Writing in Psychology
• Suzanne Mckeag (Clinical, Supervisor: Joel Goldberg) – PSYC 2020 Statistical Methods I & II
• Sonya Varma (Clinical, Supervisor: Skye Fitzpatrick) – PSYC 6422 & PSYC 2010
• Danika Danylchuk-Wagner (Clinical, Supervisor: John Eastwood) – PSYC 4180 Critical Thinking

Research Fellowships and Awards

• Norman S. Ender Research Fellowship: Ariel Shoikhedbrod (Clinical, Supervisor: Amy Muise) – When a Partner Supports Your Sexual Autonomy…
• Sandra Pyke Award: Rebecca Dunk (Social Personality, Supervisor: Raymond Mar)
• Clinical Psychology Student Excellence Award: Anna Waisman (Clinical, Supervisor: Joel Katz)
• Graduate Student Award in Clinical Neuropsychology: Natasha Baptist Mohseni (Clinical, Supervisor: Matthew Keough)
• Outstanding Doctoral Research in Clinical Health Psychology: Anna Waisman – The autobiographical memory system and chronic pain

^{Photo of Rebecca Dunk}

^{Photo of Anna Waisman}

• Outstanding Master Research in Clinical Health Psychology: Lojain Hamwi (Clinical Development, Supervisor: Rebecca Pillai Riddell) – Machine learning classification of EEG responses to pain-related vs non-pain-related stimulus in preterm infants
• Graduate Student Research Award in Clinical Developmental Psychology: Alaina Thomas (Clinical Development, Supervisor: Yvonne Bohr)
• Graduate Student Master’s Award in Clinical Developmental Psychology: Isabella Sewell (Clinical Development, Supervisor: Magda Wojtowicz)

Clinic and Service Awards

• Dr. Louise A. Hartley Graduate Psychology Award: Natasha Baptist-Mohseni & Kaitlyn Butterfield
• YUPC Award in Clinical Developmental Psychology: Stephanie McKenzie (Clinical Development, Supervisor: Debra Pepler)
• Faculty Advisory Committee Commendation: Samantha Feldman

Historical, Theoretical & Critical Studies Awards

• Fancher-Bakan-Danziger Awards: Neil Franchuk (Supervisor: Thomas Teo), Spencer Arshinoff (Supervisor: Chris Green)

Methodology and Specialty Awards

• Michael Friendly Award: Gabriel Crone (Quantitative Methods, Supervisor: Chris Green)
• E. Lynn Kirshner Memorial Scholarship: Lina Musa (BBCS, Supervisor: Douglas Crawford)
• Ivana Guglietti-Kelly Prize: Lucas Norton (Clinical, Supervisor: Karen Fergus) – Cancer Recovery Narratives Pre- and Peri COVID-19
• Mirka Ondrack Award: Miranda Too (Social Personality, Supervisor: Joey Cheng)

These awards celebrate students’ scholarship, research innovation, and contributions to psychology, both in academia and the community.

^{Photo of Lina Musa}

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_{Photo of Eric Mykhalovskiy}

Somewhat unexpectedly, an opportunity arose to work with George Smith, one of the founding members of AAN!, on a large research project about access to social services for people living with HIV. I jumped at the chance to become involved. George and I developed a mentor-apprentice relationship; I was the community researcher person on the project.

At the very beginning of the project, George said to me: “There is one condition for your participation in this research: you must not challenge the research method”. The method, I learned, was institutional ethnography (IE), an approach to sociology developed by Dorothy Smith. The approach emphasizes how what Smith calls the “relations of ruling” are put together through people’s activities, particularly as they are mediated across time and place by texts.

Through doing IE in the project and my mentorship with George, I learned about a new kind of sociology. This research project gave me an entry point for thinking about sociology in a less alienating way and I felt there was an opportunity to return to the academy.

George didn’t have a PhD, and although he was widely respected, he knew that there were disadvantages to working without that credential. “With a PhD,” he emphasized, “you will be able to do things you would not be able to do otherwise. You will have a level of academic capital and credibility that will mean your work has the chance to be taken up seriously.” He urged me to use the PhD to support the kind of political work that I thought important.

Unfortunately, George died of HIV-related complications in 1994, before the project finished.

In a book chapter you wrote with Kathryn Church, “Of t-shirts and ontologies: Celebrating George Smith’s pedagogical legacies” , you observe that student activists may not want to do institutional ethnography because they may prefer to study social movements rather than the institutional relations movements struggle against. There are limits to such a focus, you suggest. Can you explain what you mean?

It is not that studying activism is more or less important than studying ruling relations–but there is a difference. There is a way that the training that prevails in sociology, especially at �첥��Ƶ, creates an emphasis on theory as an almost apex practice for sociologists and, with it, expectations that one’s research proceeds from the conceptual preoccupations of a recognized body of scholarly literature. In my experience, students with an interest in activism often turn to the social movement literature as a conceptual guide and take up social movements as the object of their analytic attention. Certainly, a lot of important activist scholarship takes this form.

By contrast, institutional ethnographers—and George lays this out in his article on political activist ethnography[1]—begin their work in the standpoint of everyday experience and focus their attention on the institutional relations that social movements confront. In a sense, we study the large-scale problems movements are grappling with.  Rather than study movement strategies or tactics we try to understand how ruling relations are put together so that they can be challenged and transformed.  This means that when you take up IE, you are in a different relationship to the movement—you’re not studying the movement—you’re almost in a kind of service relationship, because you are trying to help activists understand ruling practices that they confront and challenge.

My point is not that taking up IE to do research about ruling relations is better than research on or about social movement activism. Instead, there are different politics and ways of doing research that connect with what questions you are trying to address. I think it’s important for student to ask themselves: How am I related to the movement? How do I orient to creating knowledge with, about, or for the movement?

You have written and, in this interview, spoken about George Smith’s formative influence. He had said to you “don’t challenge me on the method.” Why was he so insistent on the centrality of institutional ethnography? Why did this matter so much for the aims of the project?

There are many schools of sociology and institutional ethnography is one of them. What distinguishes IE is that it is a method informed by a strong feminist and historical materialist theoretical underpinning. There is a way to do IE, which is very different from other schools where there may be a shared theoretical approach but without a unified methodological commitment.

Substantively, a lot of social science research on HIV at the time George and I conducted our study, objectified people.  Scholars were studying the identities of people living with HIV, their suffering, and how they created meaning in and through their experiences of illness. George wanted to do something different. As an institutional ethnography, the study didn’t treat people living with HIV as an object of inquiry. Instead, it began with their experiences and active “work” as a way into exploring the social and institutional processes that shaped their access to social services. In establishing IE as the method, he established the boundaries of our work.

Do you think IE leads to particularly productive scholarship for activists trying to bring about social change? What other approaches have you found useful?

As I mentioned, in the 1990s, there was a lot of extractive research being done about HIV. When I was working at AAN!, researchers would come into our office with their studies they wanted to do: they would plop down their surveys, ask us to find research participants, take what they needed, and be gone. As George was practicing institutional ethnography, he promised something different: we would produce knowledge for communities, knowledge that would be in service of people’s concerns.

But that is where you have to be careful not to oversell. When you are doing research, the whole point is that you do not know what you will find. If you knew, you would not have to do the research. Maybe nothing will come out of your inquiry. When an IE or other study is community-based, you want to be honest with that community about what you hope the research will accomplish and the reality that it may not accomplish as much as you hope.   

The general promise of IE is important: the aim is to produce knowledge about how institutions and systems work, because once you know how they work you can try to change and remake them. In this way, IE is good for producing knowledge based on people’s experiences that can transform the institutional practices to which they are subject. For example, there has been some fantastic institutional ethnographic work done in the U.S. on how domestic violence is processed through the police and court systems. It has led to organizational changes that build women’s safety into how domestic violence is dealt with.[2] Social inquiry, done right and in the right mix of circumstances, can make a difference, even if you cannot promise that at the outset of any research project.

Some activists see the university as an ivory tower, as a place that is not very useful to them, because it is preoccupied with scholarly questions that are less important to community activists. How might you answer activists who see the university in this way?

Certainly, in activist circles, scholarly publications may be viewed as careerist or esoteric. And academic work can be like that! But scholarly research can be very meaningful for activists, depending on the politics scholars engage with and articulate with their academic work.

A good deal of the Canadian research on HIV criminalization has been influenced by IE.  People have been looking at intersecting relations of criminal law and public health from a scholar-activist standpoint and concern for criminal law reform. Early on in that work, we researched criminal cases and determined that people living with HIV with negligible or no risk of HIV transmission were being charged with aggravated sexual assault for HIV non-disclosure.  This, among other factors, led us to be very critical of the use of the criminal law. As researchers and as activists we mobilized our communities and reached out to authorities of various sorts, including politicians, about the need for change.

To try to convince politicians, research was needed that provided evidence related to HIV criminalization. The results of that work have made a difference. First, “hard” science produced evidence that, with successful treatment, people living with HIV posed zero risk of HIV transmission. The Canadian Consensus Statement on HIV and its Transmission in the Context of Criminal Law[3] has been extremely important in establishing this fact and activists have been able to take this evidence to parliamentarians and lawmakers to limit the reach of the criminal law. Second, Canadian researchers have produced a knowledge base about the implications of HIV criminalization for HIV prevention, showing that far from supporting public health, criminalization hinders it.[4] That type of evidence needs to be published in the highest impact scholarly journal you can get, because – whether it should matter or not – being published in highly ranked journals matters to people in power.

Scholarly work can be critical to the persuasive work that is required to inform and change criminal law. We created a body of evidence, and we brought it to lawyers, to court proceedings, and ultimately to the politicians that make and unmake law.

George Smith told you to make the most of your PhD. How do you assess your contributions, as you look back on what is now several decades of scholarly work?

I think my most important contributions have centered on HIV criminalization. There, I can say: yes, my research has made a difference for the better.

Since 2007, when we founded the Ontario Working Group on HIV Criminalization, I’ve worked on this issue politically and in research. There have been many activities—organizing, engaging communities, going to meetings, endless emails, conducting research, writing and publishing, bringing researchers together, mentoring emerging scholars, lobbying politicians—that have added to that political work over a long period of time.

In my experience, academic research does not contribute to quick, direct transformation. My experience is that change takes place over time and not alone but in collaboration. In my case, I have been working with extraordinarily creative and thoughtful lawyers, human rights advocates, people living with HIV, health care providers, and people interested in public health– together –to figure out how to intervene in HIV criminalization. Having a PhD has meant being able to produce research and using that research to shift community perspectives, in meetings with Members of Provincial Parliament, when providing expert testimony in legislative hearings, and before parliamentary committees exploring the issue.

In those respects, not alone, but with other like-minded people, I have tried to realize the spirit of political activist ethnography.  

*Santbir Singh, PhD student in Sociology, prepared questions for the workshop on which this text is based. Charlotte Smith, PhD student in Sociology, took notes and provided the original edit for the article. Professor Elaine Coburn is responsible for final edits along with Professor Eric Mykhalovskiy.

References

[1] Smith, G. W. (1990). Political activist as ethnographer. Social problems. 37(4), 629-648.

[2] Pence, E. (2001). Safety for battered women in a textually mediated legal system. Studies in Cultures, Organizations and Societies, 7(2), 199-229.

[3] Loutfy, M., Tyndall, M., Baril, J. G., Montaner, J. S., Kaul, R., & Hankins, C. (2014). Canadian consensus statement on HIV and its transmission in the context of criminal law. Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology, 25(3), 135-140.

[4] Hastings, C., French, M., McClelland, A., Mykhalovskiy, E., Adam, B., Bisaillon, L., ... & Wilson, C. (2024). Criminal Code reform of HIV non-disclosure is urgently needed: Social science perspectives on the harms of HIV criminalization in Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 115(1), 8-14.

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_{Photo of Amanda van Beinum}

What are your main areas of interest and how did you move into this area of social inquiry?

I continue to be interested in using social science approaches to study health, healthcare, and medicine. Having spent several years working and doing research in the intensive care unit, one of my current areas of focus is on the development and use of technologies as part of medical practice. At present, my work focuses on neurotechnologies, electronic devices which interface with the brain either directly or indirectly. These devices are being tested for various clinical and commercial applications ranging from treatment of mental illness to assisting people with paralysis to trans-humanist techno-enhancement. The overarching question driving my research across several different projects is to figure out whether and how neurotechnology can promote human empowerment without contributing to widening inequalities in health and social status.

Another major area of focus which emerges from my work in critical posthuman theory is a project on the use of antibiotics in agriculture. This interdisciplinary project examines biosecurity practices on farms and their impacts on planetary health, as well as potential policy implications of re-imagining antibiotic use in farming through a relational ecology lens. The overarching question driving this research work is both theoretical and practical and centers around understand how critical posthumanism can be used to drive material changes in the applied world of agriculture.

How do you work and get writing done amidst competing responsibilities as an academic who teaches and undertakes service work, as well as scholarship?

I have built a habit of writing every work day for at least 30 minutes. I start my most productive period of the day with writing, which ensures that I make time for this important part of my work with a clear and focused mind. I set and track quarterly goals, which helps me to remain focused on larger projects instead of getting buried in smaller tasks.  I am also adamant about the need for rest. Combined with my family caregiving responsibilities this means that I try not to work on weekends, and I take regular dedicated vacation time to disconnect. I have found that I can do more in 2 hours when I am well rested and have clear goals than with a full day when I am burnt out and lacking direction.

I like to think about big writing projects like making a sculpture, where the shape and the details only come together as part of the process of working with the material. There are so many ways to communicate ideas, and it is very satisfying when the final figure of a project becomes clear. Thinking about writing as shaping a tangible, applied contribution to a better understanding of the world makes it into a very satisfying as well as creative activity.   

What do you like about being a sociologist — and an interdisciplinary scholar?

My favorite thing about being a sociologist and interdisciplinary scholar is that pretty much any topic can be studied. Everything in the world, from farming to medical technologies, interacts with social relations in a multitude of ways. Some of these have been well studied in the social science world and new things can be understood by bringing them into conversation with ongoing work in science and medicine. Sometimes issues are just emerging in the science and medicine world and haven’t yet been discussed in the social sciences – again, bringing these two fields into contact can reveal a whole new area of questions and social implications. My work has taken me into laboratories, board rooms, grazing fields, medical clinics, conference halls, hospital wards, milking parlours, and of course many classrooms. I love having a job that allows me to continue to learn about the world so broadly, to work with many different types of people, and to share interdisciplinary insights with others.

What advice would you give to early career academics/PhD students?

My advice would be to focus on skills development. Skills like developing a research project, collecting and analyzing data, writing, presenting results, working with others, and teaching are valuable across different sectors and will allow you to pivot to different opportunities that arise. The specific sociological skills of being able understand and analyze the world through social relations, characteristics, and distributions of power will be useful in many different places. Finding work in academia requires flexibility – you may end up working in a department or academic-adjacent position which requires your skills more so than your content expertise. This flexibility not only opens doors to diverse career paths but also allows you to find meaningful and rewarding work that draws on the core strengths of sociological inquiry—making a real impact by understanding and engaging with the complexities of society.

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Nikolai M. Cook (MA ’14)—Economic Science

Dr. Cook completed his MA in Economics at York, and obtained his PhD in Economics from the University of Ottawa. As an assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, he is redefining what it means to do meaningful economic research—by making it both more transparent and more urgent.

Through innovative tools that expose publication bias and p-hacking, and by championing pre-analysis plans, he’s laying the groundwork for a more honest, accountable, and reliable field of economics. But his impact doesn’t stop there. Cook also explores how the environment—specifically climate change and air pollution—is shaping economic realities.

His research shows that rising temperatures and even low levels of pollution impair productivity and cognitive performance. His findings point to surprisingly simple interventions, like better indoor climate control and changing building layouts, that can help protect workers and communities.

In his latest work, he reveals how hotter days in North America are already linked to increases in gun violence, using innovative data from real-time gunshot detection systems. As he looks ahead, Cook aims to expand his focus to developing countries, where climate vulnerability is greatest.

_{Photo of Dr. Nikolai M. Cook}

_{Photo of Dr. Hossein Davarinejad}

Hossein Davarinejad (MSc ’15)—Physiology/Medicine

Dr. Davarinejad earned his MSc in Molecular Biology from York, and obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Ottawa. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa, he is on a mission to decode this complexity. His groundbreaking research focuses on histones, the DNA-wrapping proteins that help control which genes turn on or off.

By exploring how chemical changes to histones—especially variants of Histone H3—regulate crucial cellular processes like DNA repair and nuclear structure, Davarinejad aims to illuminate the molecular dance that keeps our genes in check. Using advanced tools like cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography, he is uncovering how key enzymes like ATXR5/6 orchestrate these changes, offering a model that could unlock similar mechanisms in humans.

This work doesn’t just deepen our understanding of cellular function—it paves the way for future therapies targeting the very root of genetic misfires. By revealing how cells remember, repair, and regulate, this research holds promise for rewriting the future of medicine, one atom at a time.

Established in honor of John Charles Polanyi, the University of Toronto’s Nobel Prize-winning chemist, the Polanyi Prizes are awarded annually by the Ontario government through the Council of Ontario Universities. Each recipient, an early-career researcher at an Ontario university, receives $20,000 in recognition of their exceptional contributions across fields like chemistry, physics, literature, economic sciences, and physiology/medicine. The 2024 awards, announced on December 10, 2024, celebrate researchers whose work drives innovation and addresses pressing societal challenges, from healthcare advancements to economic resilience.

For �첥��Ƶ, the success of Cook and Davarinejad is a moment of collective pride. “Ontario’s researchers represent some of the best and brightest minds in the world,” said the Honourable Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities, in a statement. “Recipients of the John C. Polanyi Prizes are tackling some of the most challenging issues facing our society, and, in turn, continue to position Ontario as an international leader in research.” The York community echoes this sentiment, celebrating the role its graduate programs played in shaping these scholars’ paths.

Cook’s and Davarinejad’s achievements highlight the strength of York’s commitment to fostering innovative thinkers. Their time at York equipped them with the tools to question, explore, and innovate, laying the foundation for their award-winning research. As alumni, they carry forward York’s legacy of excellence, demonstrating how curiosity and dedication can lead to solutions that benefit society at large.

The 2024 Polanyi Prizes serve as a reminder of the power of research to transform lives and communities. For Dr. Nikolai M. Cook and Dr. Hossein Davarinejad, this recognition is not just a milestone but a call to continue their pursuit of knowledge. The �첥��Ƶ community beams with pride, knowing that its alumni are leading the charge in creating a brighter, more innovative future for Ontario and beyond.

Sources: Ontario Newsroom, December 10, 2024; Council of Ontario Universities, 2024.
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