Dr. Tamara Kelly will take on the role of Interim Chair, Department of Biology, for a term of six months. Dr. Seyed Moghadas has been appointed Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Education. And, Dr. Andrew Skelton will step into the portfolio of Associate Dean, Faculty. The latter two appointments are in effect for a term of three years.

We welcome these distinguished colleagues to their respective roles and look forward to their continued leadership and service to the Faculty.

Dr. Tamara Kelly – Interim Chair, Department of Biology

Dr. Tamara Kelly is a Professor, Teaching Stream, in the Department of Biology and served as the inaugural Pedagogical Innovation Chair in Science Education for the Faculty of Science. In this position, she championed evidence-based inclusive teaching strategies and led initiatives to improve student learning experiences.

Since joining FSc in 2008, Dr. Kelly’s commitment to teaching excellence has been recognized with numerous awards, including the OCUFA Teaching Award, the President's University-Wide Teaching Award, and the Faculty of Science Excellence in Teaching Awards. She has played a key role in curriculum redesign and faculty development within the department. She is institutional lead for the Canadian Consortium of Science Equity Scholars (CCSES) and current president of the Open Consortium of Undergraduate Biology Educators (oCUBE). Dr. Kelly holds a PhD from McGill University and completed postdoctoral training at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Seyed Moghadas – Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Education

Dr. Seyed Moghadas is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and a leading expert in computational epidemiology and vaccine science.

He is the founding director of the Agent-Based Modelling Laboratory at �첥��Ƶ, where his research focuses on advanced mathematical and computational modeling of infectious disease dynamics, public health interventions, and health economics. Dr. Moghadas has received several prestigious honors, including the 2022 President’s Research Impact Award and recognition as a York Research Leader. He holds a PhD in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Sharif University of Technology and has led international research efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. His work bridges theory, policy, and practice to support evidence-based decision-making in public health.

Dr. Andrew Skelton – Associate Dean, Faculty

Dr. Andrew Skelton is an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, with a primary focus on mathematics education and pedagogy. He won the 2021 Faculty of Science Excellence in Teaching Award and has served as the Academic Coordinator in Bethune College, the Coordinator of the Mathematics for Education major and was the inaugural Director of the Data Science major.

Dr. Skelton is deeply involved in research aimed at supporting first-year students in their transition to university. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Guelph and has extensive experience in both secondary and postsecondary education. Dr. Skelton is committed to enhancing the student experience and supporting academic success through innovative teaching and curriculum development. 

We would also like to thank outgoing Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Education, Vivian Saridakis, and Associate Dean, Faculty, Gerald Audette, for their dedication and service to the Faculty of Science.

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Students at �첥��Ƶ’s Markham Campus are taking their math skills beyond the classroom, thanks to a real-world teaching and learning initiative led by Assistant Professor Jessie Yang.

Under Yang’s guidance, seven first-year students host a bi-weekly math club at the Markham Public Library, offering tutoring sessions for children in grades 1 through 4. The students, who come from different disciplines of study, develop lesson plans, conduct math lessons and facilitate tutoring sessions. 

Their goal is to inspire young minds to enjoy and excel in math while making the learning process fun and engaging, says Yang, a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Faculty of Science. 

“Despite being in their first year, these student leaders are already making a significant impact in their local community,” says Yang. “By applying their academic training in a real-world setting, they are gaining valuable experiential education that enhances their understanding of mathematical concepts and their ability to communicate effectively.” 

The bi-weekly math club aligns with Markham Campus’ goal to foster community engagement and experiential learning.  

"The activities helped me connect with students, allowing me to learn how to nurture curiosity and showed the importance of enjoying what you’re learning,” says Tharuk Ranasinghe, a computer science for software development student. 

Maria-Aimée Tat, a first-year science student, says the experience has given her an opportunity to see first-hand how teaching can spark insterest in learners – and reinforce learning in teachers.

"Seeing their excitement when a concept finally clicks has been incredibly rewarding,” she says. “We’re grateful to be part of these young learners’ journeys and can’t wait to keep making math exciting.” 

The  began Feb. 22 at the Markham Village Branch and will run until March 22, with two sessions per day that offer four classes for grades 1 to 4. 

Courtesy of YFile

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This March, �첥��Ƶ is recognizing and participating in , a national initiative to advance collaboration, awareness and engagement around the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Throughout the month, YFile will present a series of articles that highlight contributions from �첥��Ƶ and its efforts to advance the SDGs. These stories reflect the people, research and initiatives that make the University an international leader in sustainability.

�첥��Ƶ has launched a new academic partnership with Jiangnan University in Wuxi, China, establishing an international pathway for graduate studies in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

The 3+1+1 program – named for its structure – allows students to complete three years of undergraduate study at Jiangnan, followed by a fourth year (the first “+1”) at �첥��Ƶ focused on academic preparation and research skills, and a fifth year (the second “+1”) dedicated to earning a master’s degree.

The program is designed to attract high-performing students from Jiangnan University’s mathematics and applied sciences programs. These students, selected for their academic excellence, will join York’s academic community during their fourth year to bridge their undergraduate education with the demands of graduate-level study. While the program primarily targets Chinese students from Jiangnan, it also offers opportunities for cross-cultural engagement with Canadian peers during their time at York.

“This isn’t just about moving students between two institutions,” says Hugo Chen, director of International Collaborations and Partnerships at York. “It’s about building an academic bridge that equips students with the tools to thrive in research-intensive environments and prepares them to make meaningful contributions in their fields.”

The transition year at York is central to the program’s design. Students take courses in advanced mathematics, research methodologies and academic communication skills while adapting to an English-speaking academic environment. Faculty mentorship plays a key role during this period, helping students navigate York’s research-focused learning culture and develop the skills needed for graduate-level work. By the end of this year, they are fully prepared to enter one of York’s master’s streams: Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Probability and Statistics or Data Science.

The fifth year allows students to specialize in areas that align with both academic inquiry and industry demand. The Data Science stream, for example, equips students with computational and statistical expertise sought after in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantitative finance.

“The program is designed not just to prepare students for academia, but also to position them as leaders in fast-evolving industries,” says Chen.

Jiangnan University nominates candidates based on their academic performance, and York conducts a final review to ensure all applicants meet its rigorous admission standards. “We hold all our graduate students to the same expectations,” Chen explains. “This ensures consistency in quality across all our programs.”

Discussions are already underway about expanding this model to other departments within York’s Faculty of Science or exploring similar agreements with additional international institutions.

Chen says: “International collaborations allow us to create pathways that benefit not only individual students but also advance research and innovation on a global scale.”

Courtesy of YFile

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“A lot of people, when they think about math, think about geometry and Pythagoras’ theorem,” says Iain Moyles, an associate professor in York’s Department of Mathematics & Statistics. “Math is a language of structure and logic and science that can help you test a hypothesis. So we’ve designed a mathematical model to understand the cause and effect of peer influence in smoking.”

The idea came from PhD student Sarah Machado-Marques in response to a class assignment to experiment with math modelling to explain the psychology behind human behaviour.

Although she has never vaped, she says she wanted to understand why so many of her peers took up the e-cigarette craze when they were in high school.

“I’m really interested in why people do what they do, what drives people to make certain decisions,” she says. “I was walking around campus and noticed that vaping is still relevant in both my age group and also younger age groups, and so I started thinking, how can we use math to address this problem?”

Ten years ago, the surge in vaping among adolescents was considered an epidemic. In 2018, the number of U.S. high-school students vaping nearly doubled in a single year, according to the American Heart Association. More recent data, from Statistics Canada, shows that vaping is still popular among Canadian youth. In 2022, one in 10 Canadians aged 20 to 24 and one in 15 aged 15 to 19 vaped every day, compared with one in 50 Canadians aged 25 and older.

Moyles says the vaping epidemic is not a classic disease like COVID-19 but a social contagion that behaves like one.

“In a standard disease, you might walk past someone and infect them with an actual virus or bacteria,” he says. “In vaping or similar behaviours, an adolescent can pressure someone and you change your behaviour because you were ‘infected’ by the influence of your peer.”

Machado-Marques says it can be a subtle pressure, where teenagers and young adults feel the need to fit in or mimic the behaviour of their friends.

What their research suggests is that while teenagers can be influenced to vape because their friends are, equally so, they may be influenced to quit the habit because their friends are. Their mathematical model shows that the long-term trajectory of vaping is a cyclical pattern of starting and quitting depending on what their cohort is doing.

“We see this re-emergence in society all the time – things that were cool when we were kids, then weren’t cool,” says Moyles. “Our kids and our grandkids eventually find them again and once again they become cool.”

The findings from Machado-Marques and Moyles can apply to any adolescent trend where friends have influence on each other. The same cycle can be seen in the pendulum between bell bottoms and skinny jeans, and curly and straight hair, for example.

Moyles says math modelling can be used by parents, teachers and public health authorities to identify cycles of undesirable adolescent behaviours influenced by peers and look for opportunities to intervene.

“The key learning I would say from our modelling would be to recognize the cycle and to start to saying, ‘OK, when do we think this sort of thing is happening and how do we get ahead of it?’”

The researchers say that while prevention is always best, attempts to influence more positive behaviour among adolescents may be strongest coming from other adolescents.

“If a parent or teacher encourages a certain behaviour, adolescents might do the opposite, just because it's not coming from within their influence group,” says Moyles. “The key from the influence structure of our model is to find a way to have that information coming through the peer network.”

Courtesy of YFile

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�첥��Ƶ’s Faculty of Science is welcoming five new full-time, permanent faculty members this year.

“The Faculty of Science has hired fantastic new faculty members that will contribute to enhancing our Faculty’s academic excellence, diversity, and research and teaching capacity,” says Faculty of Science Dean Rui Wang. “I look forward to working with our outstanding new colleagues, who bring diverse experiences and perspectives that will strengthen our Faculty as a destination of choice for students and aspiring scientists.”

Divya Sharma

Sharma joins the Department of Mathematics & Statistics as an assistant professor in the data science stream. She holds a PhD in computer science with a specialization in machine learning (ML) from the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur.

Following her doctoral studies, Sharma completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Biostatistics Department at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, part of the University Health Network, in Toronto. During this time, she was awarded the Canadian Institutes of Health Research STAGE (Strategic Training for Advanced Genetic Epidemiology) Fellowship for 2020-22. Following that, she worked as a senior biostatistician and clinician investigator at the University Health Network, where she developed artificial intelligence models to address various health outcomes, including liver disease, cancer, sepsis and osteoarthritis. She did so through interdisciplinary collaborations at Toronto General Hospital, the Krembil Research Institute and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

Sharma’s research program focuses on developing novel deep learning models for integrative, high-dimensional modelling of multi-modal big health-care data, comprising clinical, imaging and genomic domains. Her work places a strong emphasis on clinical interpretability and deployability, with innovative ML modelling approaches published in high-impact journals such as Lancet Digital Health and Bioinformatics.

Sharma has recently received the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant and Launch supplement for 2024, as well as a Resource Allocation Grant 2024 from the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, which will help steer her research program at York and provide computational resources to develop deep learning models for guiding personalized medicine. In her teaching at York, she wants to provide students with a strong foundation in statistics, mathematics and computational principles behind complex concepts in machine learning and data science. Her goal is to equip students so they can become future leaders in the application and development of robust modelling approaches.

Yi Liu

Liu joins the Department of Mathematics & Statistics as an assistant professor. He received his PhD in statistical machine learning from the University of Alberta in 2023, following his postdoctoral fellowship and experience as an assistant lecturer at the same institution. Liu also holds a master’s degree in mathematics from Beijing Normal University.

Liu’s research focuses on developing robust algorithms for differential privacy, functional data analysis and reinforcement learning. His work seeks to balance data utility with privacy preservation, exploring innovative approaches to protect user information while maintaining the integrity of statistical analysis. His research has been presented at top-tier conferences and published in leading journals like Statistica Sinica and Bernoulli.

Liu’s contributions are advancing both theoretical and applied aspects of statistical machine learning, particularly in privacy-preserving technologies and optimization in dynamic environments.

Tianyu Guan

Guan joins the Department of Mathematics & Statistics as an assistant professor. Guan received her PhD in statistics and MSc in actuarial science at Simon Fraser University. Before joining York, she was an assistant professor at Brock University from 2020 to 2024. Guan’s research spans several cutting-edge areas, including sports analytics, functional data analysis, machine learning and data science. She specializes in developing novel statistical and data science methods to analyze data across various fields such as sports, public health and economics.

In recent years, Guan’s research interest in sports analytics has particularly grown. She analyzes sports data to craft better strategies, improve team and player performance, and influence betting odds. She has collaborated with various organizations to advance the use of statistical techniques in sports decision-making. Her goal is to use sports analytics to help teams and players gain a competitive edge.

Bruce Howard

Howard joins the Department of Physics & Astronomy having received his undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Pittsburgh and his PhD in physics from Indiana University. Following this, Howard held a postdoctoral position as a research associate at Fermilab, near Chicago.

Howard’s research focuses on experimental particle physics, specifically neutrinos. His main interest is in furthering our understanding of the properties of neutrinos and antineutrinos, especially around the properties at work in the process known as neutrino oscillation. Neutrino oscillation is the phenomenon where a neutrino or antineutrino created as one type can later interact as another type.

Howard’s research efforts at York in the next years will primarily use liquid argon (LAr) time-projection chamber (TPC) detectors to study neutrinos. One focus is on realizing and performing studies with an upcoming, powerful neutrino experiment (DUNE) in which an international collaborative effort will deploy detectors near the beam at Fermilab and far away in South Dakota. The other focus will be on conducting studies with a smaller LAr TPC detector that is currently operating and enabling interesting neutrino studies as well as key opportunities to prepare for the next-generation experiment.

Stephanie Jones

Jones will join the Department of Chemistry as an assistant professor in February 2025. Her research is focused on atmospheric aerosols and environmentally relevant surface films. In particular, she is interested in understanding how atmospheric transformations impact the fundamental properties of aerosols and films. Jones uses single particle levitation methods, as well as neutron and X-ray scattering, to study transformations of aerosols and films in the laboratory to determine their fundamental physicochemical and optical properties.

Jones has an integrated master’s in chemistry from the University of Bristol and a PhD from Royal Holloway University of London. Following her PhD, she undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Victoria in Canada, before moving back to the U.K. where she worked in industry for a brief period as a product manager at Laser Quantum. She then transitioned back to academia and chemistry, completing a second postdoc in environmental chemistry at the University of Toronto where she expanded her research interests to include the indoor environment.

After successfully obtaining funding for her own position from the German Research Foundation, Jones then moved to the Institute of Meteorology & Climate Research’s Atmospheric Aerosol Research Department at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany, where she is currently based. Her research at KIT involves the study of photochemically induced transformations of wood smoke aerosol using single droplet studies and large-scale cloud simulation chamber experiments.

Jones is excited to return to Canada and looks forward to contributing to the atmospheric chemistry community.

Courtesy of YFile

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Modelling suggests advanced age does not have a strong effect on immune response once comorbidities are controlled for

Thinking about getting a spring-time booster shot? coming out of �첥��Ƶ’s Centre for Disease Modelling in the Faculty of Science shows that immunity after a COVID-19 booster lasts much longer than the primary series alone. These findings are among other, sometimes “unintuitive,” revelations of how factors like age, sex and comorbidities do and don’t affect immune response.

The study’s authors – York Post Doctoral researchers Chapin Korosec and David Dick, Applied Mathematics Professor Iain Moyles and Professor James Watmough with the University of New Brunswick – used health data submitted to the Covid Immunity Task-Force project for more than 150 individuals who received either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to look at how immunity holds up over time.

“Our approach as mathematicians is to create mathematical models of the immune system, and then calibrate those models to health care data in order to advance our understanding of the human immune system. It was really interesting to see the SARS-CoV-2 booster dose have such a huge increase in protective longevity capacity as compared to the primary series of two doses,” says Korosec, the study’s lead author.

Published today in the journal Scientific Reports, the study used Canadian vaccine data collected from individuals living in long-term care, as well as frontline health-care workers working in long-term care and hospitals.

Looking at the group as a whole, the median length for the antibody half-life immune response was 63 days for the primary series, and increased to 115 days for those who went on to receive their boosters, a statistically significant finding, says Korosec.

It is well-established that age can affect how adept the body is at priming an immune response after vaccines, so much so that advanced age is considered a comorbidity itself, says Korosec.

“Chronological age is your time since birth. But you also have an immunological age, which is correlated to your chronological age, and is related to how your body loses its ability to prime against invading pathogens and produce antibodies as time marches on,” explains Korosec. “What's convoluted is that as we age chronologically, the probability that we accrue diseases that can affect the immune system in unintuitive ways also increases.”

Looking into this aspect, the researchers found that older adults did have a less long-lasting immune response, but once they controlled for other comorbidities such as hypertension, lung disease and cancer, age no longer had as significant of an influence on the immune response.

Other interesting findings include a small, but statistically significant immune response for males versus females, and people with asthma having a longer lasting immune response – more durable, in fact, than those with hybrid immunity from vaccines and contracting COVID-19.

“We found that some outcomes were surprising and worth further study, but of course we're not advocating any particular comorbidity is beneficial,” says Dick. “We don't have any information from this study on how asthma would affect the severity of the COVID-19 illness, for example.”

Outside of the strict findings, the researchers also say the study points to the importance of interdisciplinary research and are excited about the possibilities for collaboration, with plans to open York’s medical school in 2028.

“While we’re all from math and stats departments, the data comes from clinicians who went through medical school and are now professors studying immunology, and I think this study shows how people with different skill sets can come together and do really interesting science,” says Korosec.

Adds Moyles: “We have a really top applied math program at York, and now the university has announced a medical school. Imagine these clinicians were at York and we had access to the data on the ground floor. This would cut the research timeline by years and has huge potential for future interdisciplinary research at the university.”

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“There are big changes in study skills, life skills and learning skills and students need to acquire the ability to reflect and adjust,” said Skelton, an assistant professor, teaching stream, in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at �첥��Ƶ.

In the United States, it is quite common to find first-year seminar courses, taken for credit by first-semester undergraduates. These courses have a small faculty-student ratio (30:1) and focus on assisting students to develop practical and intellectual skills that will enhance their university experience. Such courses are not prevalent in Canada, so Skelton began pondering how a Canadian model might look.

“All over the York campus, there is experience in helping students develop these skills, but how do we get students to take advantage of these resources?” he said.

His solution was to develop stand-alone modules that could easily fit into a first-year course. The models address three types of student needs: mathematical skills (how to learn from homework problems, effective mathematical communication, multiple representations and other aids); study skills (avoiding procrastination, notetaking and the neuroscience of learning); and, life skills (managing academic stress, how to send an email and combating perfectionism).

It is a project that has been three years in the making. The first year was funded by the Junior Faculty Fund in the Faculty of Science. Skelton had three summer students work with him to develop proof of concept. Feedback from the first group of students led Skelton to modify the offerings. The second year was funded by an Academic Innovation Fund (AIF) grant and was focused on balancing the cost and benefit to the students to create a product they would find valuable. Students in the second group perceived that the value of the modules had significantly increased, while the cost relative to the value had decreased significantly. In other words, the redesign process was effective in better optimizing student motivation and effort.

“I wanted them to be of benefit to students in terms of time and emotional energy and wanted to determine how to advertise them to students and how they would figure into a student’s grade,” Skelton said. “In doing so, I realized they were built for me and my teaching style and weren’t transferable to other professors.”

The third year of his project, funded by a grant from  (and the York Science Scholars Award program), focused on making the modules suitable for use by any faculty member and on balancing the cost and benefit to the faculty members so more would adapt the product to their courses.

“If you, as a faculty member, have an interest in helping the students in your course with these learning skills, I have a product that you can adapt to your teaching style,” Skelton said.

Data were collected over each year of the project and have produced interesting results. There was, for example, a significant correlation between the number of modules completed proactively and the final grade in the course. This gives support to the advice that faculty often share with students: it’s a good idea to set small goals if you want to see long-term change. Trying to submit just one more thing proactively is a perfectly reasonable goal. Each proactive submission is associated with an increase in average academic performance, so start small and build from there.

Jermin Bates, a 2020 alumna with a BA in mathematics and education, spent two years working with Skelton in developing the modules for e-class, turning them into portable modules and tracking the cost and benefit to students.

“It was great to see the results of the modules and how effective they were,” she said. “Especially after we redeveloped them, we saw an increase in overall student grades. I wish I’d had these modules as a first-year student. It’s tough for a lot of us as we go through it.”

Skelton is currently using the modules with 1,200 first-year students and will give the modules a final tweak, once he sees the impact they have in the classroom. In February 2022, the modules will be posted online on the  website, so they are available to faculty anywhere. In creating the eCampus Ontario modules, Skelton reached out to colleagues at the University of Guelph and Western University to collaborate.

“It was nice to bring perspectives from other universities to the product,” Skelton said. “Although the student demographics there might differ, all students need these skills.”

The modules are designed so that students can do them independently or as part of a course.

“Faculty can accompany them with instructional activities and make them part of the grade,” Skelton said. “For example, they can ask students to do five of 20 possible activities and make each of them count for one per cent of the grade. You don’t want there to be such high stakes that they infringe on the course content.”

He thoroughly enjoys teaching first-year students and hopes that these modules will smooth their journeys from incoming students to graduates.

“It’s such fun to see them transition and grow,” Skelton said. “By fourth year, they are completely different people.”

Bates, too, is a different person after working with Skelton. She had previously planned to pursue a degree in education but is now considering attending graduate school to obtain a more research-based degree.

“This opened my eyes to the possibilities of research,” said Bates. “I don’t think I realized how broad it was. This had a bigger impact on me than I was expecting.”

By Elaine Smith and featured in the Jan 2022 Issue of .

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