The Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering has three of the 14 Engineering faculty and staff who have been honoured for their outstanding contributions to the Faculty with teaching, research and administrative staff awards.
These awards recognize exceptional faculty and staff members for their leadership, citizenship, innovation and contributions to the Faculty’s teaching, service and research missions. The recipients would normally be recognized at the Faculty’s annual Celebrating Engineering Excellence reception, which had to be cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m grateful to have this opportunity to acknowledge the amazing contributions made by our faculty and staff” said U of T Engineering Dean Christopher Yip. “On behalf of the Faculty, warmest congratulations to the awardees, and my heartfelt thanks to all our faculty and staff members for their hard work, dedication and commitment to excellence.”
The award recipients are:
Safwat Zaky Research Leader Award
Recognizing leadership in innovative interdisciplinary and multiple-investigator initiatives that have enhanced the Faculty’s research profile
Eric Miller (CivMin)
Eric Miller is a world-leading researcher in the areas of urban land use, transportation and the environment. He has also been a leader in founding and directing multidisciplinary research centres and institutes focused on transportation and other urban issues. From 2008-2012, Miller was founding director of UofT’s Cities Centre, a multidisciplinary research institute focused on crucial issues related to urban livability. In 2013 he became founding director of the UofT Transportation Research Institute, a University-wide network of transportation research expertise in support of evidence-based transportation policy, both locally and globally. Beyond the University, Miller has been an influential voice in many public policy debates regarding transportation and land use. He has provided expert advice and leadership on public policy related to transit and transportation in Toronto and the GTA.
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF AWARD
Shayni Curtis-Clarke (CivMin)
Barbara McCann Quality of Student Experience Award for Frontline Staff
Recognizing a staff member who has made significant contributions to the quality of student experience in the Faculty through their outstanding frontline service.
Shayni Curtis-Clarke has served in a number of student services roles in CivMin since joining the Faculty in 2005, and has been the Undergraduate Academic Advisor since 2013. In this role, she has demonstrated exceptional patience, compassion and professionalism in counselling and supporting CivMin students through the unique aspects of this program (such as Survey Camp). She has shown an outstanding ability to determine which students require extra support and to tailor that support to each student’s individual circumstances. As a result, students see her as someone who will always be in their corner. Curtis-Clarke is also a valued advisor and mentor for student clubs and organizations, and she actively supports initiatives that will improve the student experience across the Faculty. She was a member of the Joint Task Force on Academic Advising and Mental Health and the Dean’s Task Force on Academic Advising.
TEACHING AWARD
Elodie Passeport (CivMin/ChemE)
Early Career Teaching Award
Recognizing an early career instructor who has demonstrated exceptional classroom instruction and teaching methods.
Since joining the Faculty in 2014, Elodie Passeport has demonstrated a passion for building her skills as a teacher and developing innovative teaching techniques for the benefit of her students and colleagues. One such innovation was the joint project she recently co-designed to facilitate the connection between two second-year ChemE courses, which included the incorporation of leadership skills development in partnership with ILead. This led to a paper at Canada’s leading engineering education conference, and to receiving the 2018 Bill Burgess Best Teacher of the Year Award for Large Classes. Passeport is Chair of ChemE’s Teaching Effectiveness Committee; in this role she has organized monthly lunches and panel discussions on non-traditional teaching approaches, with the goal of creating a community of practice. She has continued these efforts by leading the organization of an early-career faculty retreat last summer.
By Carolyn Farrell
This is an excerpt from the full story, with a complete list of those honoured, appears in the Engineering News.