Paul Gardiner (Photo submitted by Ruth Gardiner)
Story by Heather Finley
Coming from modest means, the late Paul Gardiner (EngPhys 6T2) was deeply grateful for the bursaries and awards that enabled him to complete his Engineering Physics (Engineering Science) degree. In recognition of the impact this support had on him, his family is now honouring him with The Paul Gardiner Engineering Science Award, to be offered each year based on academic merit to an incoming undergraduate EngSci student, prioritizing students from Scarborough.
“Engineering Science is challenging, but Paul learned that through hard work you could accomplish your goals,” says Ruth Gardiner, Paul’s wife.
“He drew on this experience to inspire others to pursue their dreams, and he would be honoured by a scholarship in his name to help others interested in the program.”
Paul, who passed away in 2022, was a lifelong science education advocate. To share his love of math and physics, he began teaching in the Toronto District School Board in 1963. He moved to the Scarborough Board of Education in 1966, and eventually served as principal for several high schools.
Paul worked hard to instill his love of learning in his own children and his students, and encouraged them to pursue higher education. But he also knew that financial barriers could prevent some students from following their dreams. By investing in the next generation of engineering leaders, his family’s scholarship celebrates his personal history, career and values.
“EngSci’s highly interdisciplinary and collaborative program provides such an excellent foundation for one’s career,” says U of T Engineering Dean Christopher Yip.
“Indeed, the impact that our alumni have, and continue to make, can be seen across an amazing diversity of fields — from biomedical engineering to education, just as Paul Gardiner did — and in every corner of the world. This gift will extend the benefits of an EngSci education to even more talented students for years to come.”
Paul’s simple beginnings did not prevent him from building a good life. His family’s gift in his name will ensure that the best and brightest students have a similar opportunity to pursue engineering science and make their own positive impact on the world. This remarkable act of generosity and remembering will help young EngSci students for generations to come.
Professor Susan Andrews
PhD
Acting Associate Chair of Graduate Studies
Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering University of Toronto
Professor Susan Andrews has been investigating various aspects of drinking water and its sources for more than 25 years, and has been with the Drinking Water Research Group since 2008. Her research specialty is in the area of identifying and minimizing chemical by-products from water treatment, involving in projects that span the globe and include participants from non-engineering fields. She has made significant contributions to professional and government organizations related to water (e.g., as Chair of Ontario Water Works Association, Director of the Walkerton Clean Water Centre, and Program Leader for the Canadian Water Network), and currently serves as a member of the Ontario Drinking Water Advisory Council.
Professor Robert Andrews
PhD, PEng, FCAE, FCSCE, FEIC
NSERC Senior Industrial Chair in Drinking Water Research
University of Toronto, Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering
Professor Robert Andrews has over 25 years of experience in the field of drinking water treatment, both as an academic researcher as well as a consultant. He holds a Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Senior Industrial Chair in Drinking Water Research at the University of Toronto, Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering. He regularly collaborates with researchers across Canada, the United States and internationally regarding current and emerging drinking water related issues.
Professor Ervin Sejdić
Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Research Focus: Biomedical Engineering / Communications
Contact Information
E-Mail: ervin.sejdic@utoronto.ca
Website: http://www.imedlab.org/
Dr. Ervin Sejdić received B.E.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada in 2002 and 2008, respectively. From 2008 to 2010, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto with a cross-appointment at Bloorview Kids Rehab, Canada’s largest children’s rehabilitation teaching hospital. From 2010 until 2011, he was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School with a cross-appointment at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. From 2011 until 2021, he was a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2021, he joined the University of Toronto as a faculty member. He is also the Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence for Health Outcomes at North York General Hospital in Toronto.
Professor Mark Kortschot
B.A.Sc., M.A.Sc. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Cambridge), P.Eng., FCAE
Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry
University of Toronto | 200 College St., Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E5
mark.kortschot@utoronto.ca
Mark Kortschot is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto and the former Chair of the Division of Engineering Science. He obtained his B.A.Sc. (1984) and M.A.Sc.(1985) degrees in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto, specializing in mechanics and materials science. He then went to Cambridge University as a Commonwealth Scholar and obtained his Ph.D. in 1989. He joined the faculty of the University of Toronto in 1988.
Professor Kortschot is interested in both the design of materials and the design with materials. His academic research has centered on the relationship between microstructure and properties in fibrous materials, and most recently, he has focused on the mechanical properties of 3D printed composites.
Professor Kortschot is also an active designer, inventor, and entrepreneur with expertise in materials selection, manufacturing, and intellectual property, and is a co-author of “Designing Engineers”, published by Wiley. He is a co-founder and President of Légère Reeds Ltd., which makes premium synthetic saxophone and clarinet reeds that are used extensively on Broadway and in the world’s leading orchestras. He is also the inventor of the Sole Skate™, a compact skateboard licensed to Razor USA and chosen as one of TIME’s Top 10 toys of 2010.
PhD, P.Eng
Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Professor, Industrial Engineering
Associate Chair, Research
Canada Research Chair in Human Factors and Transportation
Email: donmez@mie.utoronto.ca
Tel: 416-978-7399
Office: RS305A
Research Group: Human Factors & Applied Statistics Lab
Dr. Birsen Donmez is a Professor at the University of Toronto, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, and the NSERC Canada Research Chair in Human Factors and Transportation. She received her MS (2004) and PhD (2007) in industrial engineering, and her MS in statistics (2007) from the University of Iowa. She held a postdoctoral associate position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the University of Toronto.
Donmez’s research interests are centered on understanding and improving human behavior and performance in multi-task and complex situations, using a wide range of analytical techniques. In particular, her research focuses on operator attention in multitask activities, decision support under uncertainty, and human automation interaction, with primary applications in surface transportation and healthcare. Donmez’s selected honors include her Canada Research Chair Award and renewal (2015-2025), an NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement (2016), a senior fellowship from the Massey College (2020), the inaugural Stephanie Binder Young Professional Award from the HFES Surface Transportation Technical Group (2014), and an Early Researcher Award from the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation of Ontario (2015-2020).
Donmez currently serves as the chair for the Vehicle User Characteristics Committee of the Transportation Research Board of the US National Academies, an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, an editorial board member for Accident Analysis and Prevention, and a steering committee member of the ACM Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications (AutomotiveUI). She served as the General Chair for the AutomotiveUI’18 Conference.
Joseph Heath
PROFESSOR
Joseph Heath is Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Trudeau Foundation, Heath is the author of several books, both popular and academic. His most recent, Philosophical Foundations of Climate Change Policy (Oxford, 2021) is a philosophical inquiry into the normative principles that should inform our approach to climate change mitigation. He is also the author of Enlightenment 2.0 (HarperCollins, 2014) which won the Shaughnessy Cohen prize for Political Writing in 2015, as well as The Machinery of Government (Oxford, 2020), which won the Donner Prize for best book in Canadian public policy in 2020.
Download your favourite virtual background to make this year's EAN Awards ceremony even more special!
Setting up your custom background is easy
- Click on the link below your desired background image to begin your download.
- Watch the tutorial videos below or follow these simple instructions to set up your background.
- Test your background to ensure you’re happy with how it displays.
Name: Anthea Tang | Program: Mechanical and Industrial Engineering | Graduation Year: 0T5 |
I thought I needed to know exactly how my career would map out as I was looking for my first job as I neared graduation.
Little did I know as opportunities presented themselves and I embraced learning and trying new things, these created the richest years of my career. Our years in Engineering at U of T trained our way of thinking, how to uniquely solve problems, and not lock us into a singular career path.
Know that you will do great things and have confidence to take risks – pursue new opportunities that are interesting to you that may don’t fit squarely into the Engineering degree you got. See where it will take you!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthea-tang-8372684/
Name: Manlio Staropoli | Program: Industrial Engineering | Graduation Year: 9T2 |
Congratulations on your great achievement!
The saying goes that “If I knew then what I know now”… I might have done some things differently? Is that always the implication? I would like to turn that saying around…sometimes I think of it this way: “If I didn’t know now, what I didn’t know then”… I would jump head-first into the opportunities that need to be taken… Be bold! I invite you to take every opportunity and challenge that comes your way…Take advantage of what you know, and be aware of what you may not know, but take that chance… That’s true for you on the day that you graduate, and I try to remind myself that it continues to be true for me almost 30 years after graduating…