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.
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.