Our Researchers
At Toronto Metropolitan University, we combine excellence and relevance to advance prosperity and quality of life in Canada. Our researchers are also impacting their fields in areas from literature to nursing and aerospace to digital media.
Innovation is at the core of our research mandate, and the success of our approach is reflected in our strong record of research growth.
Faculty Experts
Toronto Metropolitan University offers its partners access to world-class expertise and facilities.
Highlighted Researchers
Canada Excellence Research Chair
Anna Triandafyllidou (opens in new window) (CERC in Migration and Integration (opens in new window) )
Anna Triandafyllidou’s main areas of research and teaching are the governance of cultural diversity, migration, and nationalism from a European and international perspective. Her research program is investigating the links between migration and post-migration processes, forced and voluntary mobility, internal and international migration, and the role of countries of origin and transit.
Learn more about Anna Triandafyllidou’s research (external link) .
Contact: anna.triandafyllidou@torontomu.ca (opens in new window)
Canada Research Chairs – Tier I
David Gauntlett (opens in new window) (Creative Innovation and Leadership)
David Gauntlett is exploring creative processes, self-initiated everyday creativity, and cultures of making and exchanging. His work experiments with platforms for creativity, creative identities, leadership and public understanding of creative practice, all of which are essential to the development and design of content and technologies in business, media, educational organizations and cultural institutions.
Learn more about David Gauntlett’s research (external link) .
Michael Olson (opens in new window) (Molecular Cell Biology)
Michael Olson is an established leader in cytoskeleton function, the internal structure that shapes all cells in the human body. His research seeks to identify and understand the characteristics of cancer cells that are prone to metastasize, with the aim of creating more effective, targeted drug therapy treatments that will improve outcomes for cancer patients.
Learn more about Michael Olson’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Canada Research Chairs – Tier II
Reza Arani (opens in new window) (Smart Grid Cyber-Physical Security)
Reza Arani is developing new controls and designs to ensure that smart power grids are secure, sustainable and resilient. His research considers factors such as increasing digital communications along the grid and the growing availability of renewable and clean energy sources. In particular, his work addresses potential digital and physical vulnerabilities in the power system while innovating ways to eliminate, mitigate or detect attacks and threats.
Learn more about Reza Arani’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Ebrahim Bagheri (opens in new window) (Social Information Retrieval)
Ebrahim Bagheri is combining his expertise in the fields of social media analytics and information retrieval to create technology that presents internet users with the most relevant and trustworthy information during their browsing experience. His work will help platforms proactively determine what users need to know, even if the users are unable to express their information needs using appropriate search terms.
Learn more about Ebrahim Bagheri’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Rupa Banerjee (opens in new window) (Economic Inclusion, Employment and Entrepreneurship of Canada’s Immigrants)
Rupa Banerjee is exploring the significant role that non-state actors, such as universities and employers, play in Canada’s immigration system. She aims to increase our understanding of newcomers’ experiences, discover more about how institutions approach this issue and provide insights that can be used to guide policy.
Learn more about Rupa Banerjee’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Umberto Berardi (opens in new window) (Building Science)
Umberto Berardi is developing and testing new, state-of-the-art construction materials that will help reduce buildings' energy demand and increase their resilience against climate change. Such materials include wall insulation similar to what is used in an astronaut's space suit and coatings for windows that reflect sunlight to keep buildings cool.
Learn more about Umberto Berardi's research (external link, opens in new window) .
Roberto Botelho (opens in new window) (Organelle Function and Adaptation)
Roberto Botelho is a leading researcher on organelles, the “organs” of the cell. The Botelho Lab for Organelle Identity and Function explores how cells establish, maintain and change organelles and how this process can affect the human body’s ability to combat disease. His research aims to better understand organelle identity processes and consequently create knowledge for improved therapies.
Learn more about Roberto Botelho’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Anton de Ruiter (opens in new window) (Spacecraft Dynamics and Control)
Anton de Ruiter is developing next-generation control systems for spacecraft that orbit asteroids. He is also advancing research on trajectory design for low-thrust and autonomous spacecraft that can assemble, inspect and repair large space structures.
Learn more about Anton de Ruiter’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Seth Dworkin (opens in new window) (Sustainable Energy Modelling and Simulation)
Seth Dworkin's work focuses on improving emissions profiles for aircraft engines and geothermal heating and cooling systems. Using computer models, he looks at ways to enhance these systems' performance and develop models adaptable to industry use.
Learn more about Seth Dworkin's research (external link, opens in new window) .
Bilal Farooq (opens in new window) (Disruptive Transportation Technologies and Services)
Bilal Farooq’s research explores the possibilities of connected and autonomous vehicles and ride-hailing services. Using advanced sensor networks in combination with big data, he is building prediction models that can inform public policy and make the most efficient use of the transportation systems of today and tomorrow.
Learn more about Bilal Farooq’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Anatoliy Gruzd (opens in new window) (Privacy-Preserving Digital Technologies)
To answer questions about why and how data consumers use social media data, Anatoliy Gruzd is expanding on his past work in social media data stewardship to examine the adoption and use of new privacy-preserving technologies and methods by social networking platforms with the aim of understanding how privacy-preserving technologies can be leveraged to benefit Canadians and organizations while fostering digital innovation.
Learn more about Anatoliy Gruzd’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Dae Kun Hwang (opens in new window) (Microarchitecture for Advanced Polymeric Materials)
In his work, Dae Kun Hwang is creating “novel polymer-based platforms” using microparticles with 3D shapes, membranes with 3D pores and surfaces with wrinkled 3D microstructures. His research aims to develop biomedical applications, such as less invasive microneedles for therapeutic drug delivery and low-cost detection of circulating tumour cells, as well as to better understand cellular responses to 3D environments.
Learn more about Dae Kun Hwang’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Miranda Kirby (opens in new window) (Quantitative Imaging)
Miranda Kirby is developing automated ways of extracting information from CT and MRI images to help assess smoking-related lung diseases. Her research program will help develop new measurements of lung disease, combining image processing with machine learning to extract more information than can be seen by the human eye in the images. She hopes to one day be able to use the new measurements developed to study other lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis.
Learn more about Miranda Kirby’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Damien Lee (opens in new window) (Biskaabiiyang and Indigenous Political Resurgence)
Biskaabiiyang is an Ojibwe term that translates to “returning to ourselves” in English and expresses a research methodology that promotes decolonization using Ojibwe thought. Using this methodology, Damien Lee’s research focuses on Indigenous governance and how various Indigenous communities are practising their own systems of government while disengaging from the systems imposed by Canada’s Indian Act.
Learn more about Damien Lee’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Atefeh (Atty) Mashatan (opens in new window) (Quality of Security Framework for Internet-of-Things)
Atty Mashatan is examining ways of enhancing contextual security for smart devices in homes and businesses. Her research addresses new threats that have arisen with the widespread adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT), for which she will create new security systems and recommend best practices for users, technical audiences and policymakers.
Learn more about Atty Mashatan’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Alexandra (Ali) Mazalek (opens in new window) (Digital Media and Innovation)
Ali Mazalek’s work explores emerging modalities in new media. She works at the forefront of computing and interaction design trends that support a tighter integration of the physical and digital worlds. Mazalek designs and develops tangible and embodied interaction systems that enable humans to be more creative across both science and art disciplines. Her Synaesthetic Media Lab is a playground where physical materials, analog sensors and digital media happily co-exist and come together in novel ways to support creativity and expression.
Learn more about Ali Mazalek’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Jas Morgan (opens in new window) (Digital Wahkohtowin and Cultural Governance)
Jas Morgan is working to address a gap in the representation of Indigenous people as leaders in fields such as technology, digital media and heritage curation. They are developing governance models that decolonize the creation, analysis and collection of Indigenous digital arts, heritage and culture.
Learn more about Jas Morgan’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Contact: jasmorgan@torontomu.ca
Julia Spaniol (opens in new window) (Cognitive Aging)
Julia Spaniol’s research explores the impact of aging on both contextual decisions, such as the timing of an event, and decision-making generally. As these thought processes decrease when people get older, motivational and emotional capacities tend to stabilize or improve with age. Spaniol investigates how motivation and reward can affect cognition throughout a lifespan and how maximizing older adults' cognitive strengths could help counterbalance cognitive deficits.
Learn more about Julia Spaniol’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Sharareh Taghipour (opens in new window) (Physical Asset Management)
Sharareh Taghipour is seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in industries – such as transportation, commercial building and heavy manufacturing – by developing state-of-the-art methodologies to enhance energy efficiency. Her approach includes optimizing physical assets such as turbines, transformers and dams. Her work is also essential for establishing sustainable operations in carbon-intensive industries such as mining, iron and steel.
Learn more about Sharareh Taghipour’s research (external link, opens in new window) .
Ali Tavallaei (opens in new window) (Systems and Devices for Cardiovascular Interventions)
Ali Tavallaei is working to generate new image-guided therapeutic and diagnostic solutions to overcome and better understand the limitations of the conventional devices employed during minimally invasive cardiovascular procedures, the main interventions performed to diagnose and treat cardiovascular diseases.
Learn more about Ali Tavallaei’s research (external link, opens in new window) .