CivMin’s Professor Emeritus Doug Hooton honoured with a Member Contribution Award by Advancing Standards Transforming Markets, as posted in the announcement by their Concrete Committee.
The award, given annually, cites Hooton’s distinguished leadership and significant contributions in multiple C09 roles since 1985.
ASTM International presented R. Douglas Hooton with its Katharine and Bryant Mather Member Contribution Award, administered by its committee on concrete and concrete aggregates (C09). The award, given annually, cites Hooton’s distinguished leadership and significant contributions in multiple C09 roles since 1985, notably advancing standards for concrete and its chemical reactions, and significantly enhancing concrete technology and its practical applications.
Hooton currently serves as professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, a position he has held since 2021. A member of ASTM International since the early 1980s, he has spent over 50 years focused on concrete sustainability, durability, and the fundamentals of cementitious materials. He has also done extensive work on the performance of concrete in service, as well as enabling lower-carbon cements and concrete.
Hooton has previously been honoured with the Bryant Mather Award (2022), the Frank E. Richart Award (2013), the Award of Merit (2003), and the Sanford E. Thompson Award (1998). Beyond ASTM, Hooton is also a member of RILEM, the American Concrete Institute, the American Ceramic Society, the Institute of Concrete Technology (UK), and several prominent engineering institutions in his home country of Canada. He earned his bachelor’s (1974) and master’s (1975) of applied science degrees in civil engineering from the University of Toronto, going on to earn his doctorate in the field from Ontario’s McMaster University (1981).
Professors Lesley Warren and Sebastian Goodfellow headlined Powering the Future – Artificial Intelligence, Critical Minerals & Energy in Ontario’s Innovation Economy event at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, exploring the critical role of minerals, energy and AI in Canada’s innovation economy. The session highlighted cutting-edge research, industry collaboration, and the need to bridge academia and commercialization to support Canada’s net-zero transition.
L to R: Shari Eli, Prof. Sebastian Goodfellow, Prof. Lesley Warren, Shah Nawaz A. and Shatha Qaqish-Clavering during Q&A session at Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, May 14, 2025 (photo by Galina Nikitina).
The Powering the Future – Artificial Intelligence, Critical Minerals & Energy in Ontario’s Innovation Economysessionat U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policybrought together experts to explore the intersection of critical minerals, energy, and AI in Ontario’s innovation economy. The May 14, 2025 event began with a presentation by Professor Lesley Warren, who emphasized the foundational role of critical minerals in achieving Canada’s net-zero goals. She highlighted the importance of aligning academic research with industry priorities to support the development of a competitive, sustainable mining sector.
Professor Sebastian Goodfellow followed, sharing advancements in AI for mining from Kore Geosystems. He spoke about the transformative potential of digital technologies and how the Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering (CivMin) is training future mining engineers to meet the sector’s evolving demands. “It was a privilege to participate in this event and showcase the groundbreaking AI technology we’re developing at Kore Geosystems for the mining industry,” he stated. “I also emphasized the pressing need to bridge the gap between fundamental academic research and commercialization, enabling innovative technologies to emerge and transform the sector—innovation that is essential to growing and strengthening the Canadian economy at this critical time.”
Both CivMin professors participated in a panel Q&A alongside other presenters, including Shatha Qaqish-Clavering, Executive Director of Climate Positive Energy; Associate Professor of Economics Shari Eli; and Shah Nawaz A. from Siemens, who discussed the role of AI in grid modernization and Siemens’ partnership with the Energy Grid Modernization Centre. Hosted as part of the New Frontiers for Policymakersseries, the event gathered stakeholders from academia, government, and industry to address the urgent infrastructure and policy challenges facing Canada’s energy and resource sectors.
Team members (L to R) with their second-place entry: Casey Ruta (Year 1 Architecture), Negin Soltanghorkhaneh (Year 3 CivE), Isabelle Ali (Year 3 CivE), Nicholas Ali (Year 1 Engsci), Margaret Boychuk (Year 2 ECE), Farwa Shahzad (Year 3 CivE). Not pictured: Aadhavan Sutharsan (Year 3 CivE).
A team of U of T students earned second-place recognition at the annual Troitsky Bridge Building Competition this year. A recent scoring amendment brought the team their delayed recognition.
Held annually at Concordia University in Montreal since 1984, this year’s February 21-24 event attracted 33 teams from 11 Canadian universities. U of T fielded seven teams, the largest delegation overall, with each constructing a bridge model made of only popsicle sticks, glue and floss.
Testing was performed of each entry’s strength using a hydraulic press. Besides the ability to take a load, scoring for the event is also based upon structural efficiency (maximum load divided by the bridge weight), presentation score (to a panel of industry professionals and faculty) and team spirit.
Team captain Isabelle Ali (Year 3 CivE) remarks, “I’m very happy with how well we were able to perform across all the categories.” Continuing, “Our team’s I-beam design was a reflection of what we learned from past competitions. This year, we focused on optimizing the joints since the bridge had to be built in pieces before being assembled in Montreal.”
The group used the theme of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax while calling their team Thneed for Speed. The 2025 second-place showing is the best since a 2020 first-place result for a U of T team.
All U of T teams at the Troitsky Bridge Building Competition in Montreal.
CivMin alumna Nancy Hill (CivE 8T1) recognized with the Entrepreneurship Medal, among other engineers who have made exceptional contributions to the profession and to society.
Left to right: Nancy Hill (CivE 8T1), Mike Branch (CompE 0T3) and Professor Emily Moore (ISTEP, ChemE) are recipients of the Ontario Professional Engineers Awards 2025. (photos courtesy of recipients)
Three U of T engineers have been honoured by the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) and Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) with Ontario Professional Engineers Awards, recognizing engineers who have made exceptional contributions to the profession and to society.
Alumna Nancy Hill (CivE 8T1) has been awarded the Entrepreneurship Medal, for applying new technologies or innovative approaches that have enabled new companies to get started. Professor Emily Moore (ISTEP, ChemE) has garnered the Management Medal, for innovative management practices contributing significantly to an engineering achievement. Alumnus Mike Branch (CompE 0T3) received the Engineering Excellence in Industry Medal, recognizing overall excellence in the practice of engineering in industry.
“These outstanding engineers have excelled as innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders in their organizations and in the engineering community,” says U of T Engineering Dean Christopher Yip. “On behalf of the faculty, I congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition.”
An award-winning licensed engineer, lawyer, and patent and trademark agent, Hill co-founded an intellectual property law firm that has successfully obtained more than 800 originating patents with clients across Canada and internationally, generating thousands of patents worldwide and enabling the development and commercialization of breakthrough research and entrepreneurial innovations in several industries. Hill has also served as a transformative volunteer and leader in the engineering profession and the community, most notably as president of Engineers Canada and president of PEO. She served on the Research Management Committee of Auto 21, a federal centre of excellence in the automotive sector, and is a volunteer at U of T and Toronto Metropolitan University.
An advocate for educating engineers on their intellectual property rights, Hill has been an instructor and keynote speaker on this subject at universities and professional engineering organizations. She has also been a lifelong supporter of and role model for women in engineering. As the chair of PEO’s Women-in-Engineering Committee, she spearheaded the inclusion of harassment in the definition of professional misconduct in the Professional Engineers Act and led the development of a policy statement and guideline on Human Rights in Professional Practice. Hill has been named one of WXN’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women and inducted as a fellow in Engineers Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering, as well as a companion in the PEO Order of Honour.
Moore has had an exceptional management career spanning nearly three decades and encompassing both industry and academia. After obtaining her PhD in Physical Chemistry from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, Moore joined the Xerox Research Centre of Canada, where she led the scale-up of new toner technology, bringing new technology and formulations into manufacturing, and authoring 21 U.S. patents. In 2008, Moore joined Hatch, a global engineering consultancy firm. During her time at Hatch, she oversaw the development of new technology, played a lead role in revitalizing their water business, and was a champion for EDI initiatives.
In 2018, she joined U of T as an associate professor and director of Troost ILead. In this role, she has developed new curricular and co-curricular programs, in addition to teaching and conducting research on engineering leadership. Moore is an active volunteer and a leader in her profession, serving on the boards of several professional and community organizations. As president of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering from 2011-2012 and a board member from 2005-2013, she was an important voice for industry in a largely academic group. Moore received the Society for Chemical Industry Canada’s Kalev Pugi Award (for industrial research) in 2016. That same year, she was named one of 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining. Moore was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2020. She has also received five best paper awards for her publications on engineering leadership education.
Branch is Vice-President, Data and Analytics at Geotab, a global leader in connected transportation solutions, providing advanced analytics and AI to drive safer, more efficient, more sustainable transportation networks. In this role, he leads the development of data and AI products and strategy across more than 4.7 million connected vehicles and over 100 billion data points per day. Since joining Geotab in 2016, he has grown the data and AI team from five people to 160, and launched Altitude by Geotab,a mobility insights platform, and Geotab Ace, the first generative AI analytics agent for commercial fleets.
Previously, Branch was the CEO of Inovex, a software development company focused on servicing the healthcare industry and municipalities, which he founded in 2003. At Inovex, he developed the award-winning map visualization product Maps BI, which was later acquired by Geotab. Over the years, Branch has garnered several awards for professional leadership and volunteerism. In 2013, he received both the Engineers Canada Young Engineer Achievement Award and the Ontario Professional Engineers Young Engineer Medal. He received two silver International Business Awards and the Cloud Innovation World Cup Award for his work on Maps BI. Branch served on the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Future of AI Council and serves on the advisory boards for the Smart Freight Centre and The Ray. He was president of the U of T Engineering Alumni Association from 2011-2013, receiving an Arbor Award for his leadership and service.
The Centre for the Sustainable Built Environment and the School of Cities recently hosted the Embodied GHG Symposium 2025, drawing more than 250 attendees, including industry professionals, academics and policy-makers. This year’s symposium, the second annual iteration, addressed the dual challenges of expanding Canadian infrastructure and housing in response to population growth, while meeting targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions.
L to R: Professors Marianne Hatzopoulou, Daman Panesar, Shoshanna Saxe, Marianne Touchie, and Aryan Rezaei Rad. (photo by Galina Nikitina)
Held May 7 at the Rotman School of Management, the event opened with remarks from Professor Marianne Hatzopoulou, Chair of the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering, and Professor Shoshanna Saxe, Director of Sustainable Urban Infrastructure and chair of the symposium.
The Sustainable Built Environment team — Professors Evan Bentz and Daman Panesar — joined discussions alongside CivMin faculty Professors Aryan Rezaei Rad and Marianne Touchie. Together with other participants, they examined the critical role of sustainable construction practices in reducing embodied GHG emissions.
The Embodied GHG Symposium presented current research, policy developments and case studies, and provided networking opportunities for attendees. A poster session showcased projects focused on reducing resource use and embodied GHG emissions across various scales—from buildings to cities—in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector.
By Galina Nikitina
Global News | May 8, 2025
Prof. Lesley Warren, Director of the Lassonde Institute of Mining
CivMin Professor Lesley Warren has been honoured by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) as one of their 2025 award winners. As a CIM Distinguished Lecturer, she is among those recognized for accomplishments in scientific, technical, management or educational activities related to the minerals industry.
Lesley Warren is an internationally recognized, innovative researcher delivering new water management and treatment technologies for the mining sector through novel discoveries of the mining microbiome. She moved to the University of Toronto (U of T) to take up the Claudette Mackay Lassonde Chair in Mineral Engineering in 2016 in the department of civil and mineral engineering, and became the first female director for the Lassonde Institute of Mining in 2018. She founded the Mining Futures Initiative at U of T in 2023. She has established a pioneering, multidisciplinary research program investigating the roles of bacteria in key processes affecting mining and resource sector waste environments that pave the way for smart, nature-based technologies to improve environmental outcomes.
At the recent American Concrete Institute Convention in Toronto, CivMin’s Professors Emeriti R. D. Hooton and F.J. Vecchio were each honoured with special technical sessions held in their names and with individual receptions.
CivMin Professors Emeriti Frank Vecchio (L) and Doug Hooton. (Photo by Phill Snel)
L to R: Nick Popoff – St. Marys Cement (ChemE 8T8), Dr. Larry Sutter – Sutter Engineering, CivMin Professor Emeritus Doug Hooton and Alain Belanger – ACI Ontario Chapter Secretary. (Photo by Phill Snel)
Doug Hooton During the ACI Conference in Toronto there were four distinct sessions honouring Professor Emeritus R. Douglas Hooton’s 50 years of research contributions in cementitious materials and concrete durability. With approximately 200 in attendance at each session, the talks were presented by 14 international and Canadian researchers. Several U of T alumni spoke, including Andrea Boddy (CivE 9T7, MASc 2T0), Savio DeSousa (CivE 9T4, MASc 9T6), Kyle Stanish (CivMin MASc 9T7, PhD 2T0), current PhD student Christian Pavlidis (CivE 2T0+PEY, MASc 2T4), and CivMin Prof. Evan Bentz.
An industry-sponsored celebration, held after the formal programming, saw numerous industry professionals and friends of Hooton gather to recognize him. Colleagues, including ACI Ontario Chapter representatives, remarked on the industry achievements, as well as numerous executive positions at ACI Ontario, the honouree has held over a long and illustrious career.
A selfie is taken with (L to R): Rodney Paull from Perth Australia, Keri Yuers – CEO of Kryton in Vancouver, Professor Emeritus Doug Hooton and his wife Barbara. Hooton is wearing a CIA (Concrete Institute of Australia) cap. (Photo by Phill Snel)
Frank Vecchio Friends, colleagues and former students from around the world gathered to celebrate the extraordinary career of Professor Emeritus Frank J. Vecchio. The event honoured Vecchio’s outstanding research contributions and his pivotal role in advancing behavioural models and analytical tools for the assessment of concrete structures.
Former CivMin PhD student Dr. Anca Ferche (CivMin PhD 2T0), who acted as the event organizer, remarks, “The reception featured tributes from former students and collaborators, who shared stories highlighting his technical brilliance, mentorship, and lasting influence. Professor Vecchio himself also offered heartfelt remarks, reflecting on his journey and expressing gratitude to the many individuals who have shaped his career. The room was filled with warmth, laughter, and deep appreciation for a career that has not only shaped a field but also touched the lives of countless people within it. Technical sessions followed, further showcasing his enduring impact. It was a fitting tribute to a legacy defined by innovation, generosity, and profound contributions to structural concrete research and education.”
A group photo from the event recognizing Professor Emeritus Frank Vecchio (centre with gold tie). Dr. Anca Ferche is to the left of Vecchio.
With simultaneous celebration events for the two CivMin professors emeriti on the same evening, several other CivMin professor colleagues gathered.
CivMin faculty members gather for a group photo (L to R): Oh-Sung Kwon, Doug Hooton, Daman Panesar, Jeff Packer, Evan Bentz, Frank Vecchio and Shamim Sheikh.
CivMin postdoctoral fellow (PDF) Dr. Asieh Hamidi on Thursday, February 27, 2025. Hamidi is with the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering at the University of Toronto. (Photo by Phill Snel / CivMin, University of Toronto)
Dr. Asieh Hamidi, a CivMin postdoctoral fellow (PDF), is the recipient of a Women in Mining Canada 2025 Research Grant. WIM Canada supports graduate students conducting EDI-related research in the mining industry, as well as women conducting technical research in the mining industry.
Hamidi’s research is in the area of Tackling Uncertain and Unreliable Rock Engineering Data in Mining: Applications of AI and Bayesian Analysis. Her research is aimed at advancing the field of rock engineering in mining by establishing a foundation for integrating AI, machine learning (ML), and Bayesian methods into geotechnical decision-making.
Understanding rock behaviour for mining geotechnical engineering design generally begins by analyzing complex datasets obtained from various sources. Often these datasets are plagued by missing data, and may be unreliable. In this work she will use advanced data imputation to develop techniques to ‘fill the gaps’, and then apply ML schemes to develop reliable predictive models of key rock properties for engineering. AI-driven models allow us to uncover intricate relationships between rock properties, governing mechanisms, and engineering performance, and has great potential to lead to safer and more optimized mining designs. However, uncertainty remains a critical factor in predictions of factors such as rock mass behaviour and in-situ stress state, and this hampers decision-making for surface and underground rock engineering designs. To address this, she will apply Bayesian inference to augment datasets with expert knowledge in a robust probabilistic fashion.
Overall, her work will contribute to a systematic data analysis approach for evaluating rock engineering behaviour, ultimately leading to more informed, reliable, and safer mining operations and designs.
