Three U of T Engineering graduate students have won three of the six RDH Research Scholarships awarded for 2024.
Our award winners include:
- CivMin PhD student Kelsey Eakin (co-supervised by Prof. Marianne Touchie and Carleton University’s Prof. William O’Brien)
- CivMin MASc student Yazan Zamel (supervised by Prof. Marianne Touchie)
- MIE PhD student Justin Berquist (co-supervised by Prof. Marianne Touchie and Carleton University’s Prof. William O’Brien).
Professor Marianne Touchie (jointly appointed with CivMin and MIE) remarks, “I’m delighted that our students’ important research is being recognized through the RDH Research Scholarship!”
“Kelsey is working on how we support Canadians aging in place by providing safe and comfortable housing. Yazan is evaluating the post-occupancy performance of North America’s first EnerPHit retrofit and Justin is undertaking the first ever side-by-side comparison of centralized and decentralized ventilation systems in occupied multi-family buildings. All of these projects will help us understand how to better operate our buildings to both protect the environment and the people in them,” Touchie continues, giving each student a nod.
RDH Building Science offers annual scholarships to students completing their research-based master’s or doctoral degrees in building science. Scholarships are awarded to coincide with each student’s program and research activities and there is an opportunity for the scholarship to be renewed for subsequent years. The opportunity to be paired with an experienced RDH-er, who is available to help support research through reviews, answering questions, recommending resources, and more, is part of the benefit provided.
Professor Touchie is a principal investigator with the Hub for Advance Buildings (HAB), one of the four founding CivMin faculty members.