Cristina Amon is an Order of Canada recipient, University Professor, Alumni Distinguished Professor and Dean Emerita at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering. Under her leadership, Canada’s #1 ranked engineering school has become a global hub for inter-disciplinary research and education known for its strategic Faculty-wide initiatives, cross-Faculty centres and institutes, and innovative undergraduate and graduate programming.
Prior to joining U of T in 2006, she was the Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor and Director of the Institute for Complex Engineered at Carnegie Mellon University. She has pioneered the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics and the development of multidisciplinary multi-scale hierarchical modelling, concurrent design and optimization methodologies for thermo-fluid transport phenomena, with applications to thermal management of electronics and electric vehicles, renewable energy and biomedical devices.
Professor Amon was appointed to the Order of Canada and inducted into the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Hispanic Engineer Hall of Fame, Royal Society of Canada, Spanish Royal Academy and US National Academy of Engineering. She is a fellow of all major professional societies in her field and has contributed over 400 refereed articles to the education and research literature.
Among her many accolades, she received the ASEE Westinghouse Medal, ASEE Ralph Coats Roe Award, ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award, ASME InterPACK Achievement Award, EIC Sir John Kennedy Medal, and CSME Robert W. Angus Medal. She was recognized as one of Canada’s Most Influential Women in 2012, received the Engineers Canada Award for the Support of Women, was named one of the YWCA’s Women of Distinction, and received the highest honor for Engineers in Canada (2020 Engineers Canada Gold Medal) and Ontario (2015 PEO Gold Medal) for outstanding engineering public service, technical excellence and professional leadership.
Cristina Amon is the founding chair of the Global Engineering Deans Council and has served on numerous editorial and technical conference roles, advisory and review boards in North America and abroad. She received her Mechanical Engineering degree from Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela, and her M.S. and Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Robert Soden is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto. Robert’s work draws on human-computer interaction and science and technology studies to evaluate and improve the data and information that experts and communities use to respond to climate change and disaster. Recent studies include design research to make severe weather risk communications more inclusive and usable, the data practices of grassroots climate justice activists, and methodological contributions towards the development of climate and disaster risk assessments that incorporate distributional, procedural, and recognition equity. Robert leads the Toronto Climate Observatory.
Dr Soden holds a PhD in Computer Science from University of Colorado Boulder and an MA in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development from American University. Prior to joining the University of Toronto he was a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University and a visiting researcher at the Stanford Urban Resilience Initiative. His research is funded by diverse organizations including NSERC, SSHRC, the NSF, the Natural Hazards Center, and University of Toronto’s Data Science Institute.
Matthew Roorda is a Professor of Civil & Mineral Engineering and has been faculty at the University of Toronto since 2005. He completed his BEng at McMaster University, and his MASc and PhD degrees at the University of Toronto. He is a licensed professional engineer. Dr. Roorda holds the Canada Research Chair in Freight Transportation and Logistics. Dr. Roorda was the Founding Chair of the Smart Freight Centre, a five-university research centre focused on freight research and implementation of sustainable freight transportation projects across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. He is the Associate Chair of Undergraduate Programs in Civil and Mineral Engineering at University of Toronto and is an experienced teacher at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Dr. Roorda’s research interests include sustainable urban freight transportation, freight transportation planning and operations, freight and passenger travel survey methods, city logistics, agent-based simulation, parking and curbside management, emissions analysis, truck driver training and safety, activity-based travel demand modelling, and firm behaviour. Dr. Roorda has emphasized a broad research strategy including development of theoretical frameworks, methods for data collection, novel methodologies, data analytics optimization and modelling, evaluation of real world pilots studies, and scaling of research to large scale applications.
Marianne Hatzopoulou is a professor and Chair of the Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering at the University of Toronto. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Transport Decarbonization and Air Quality. She is the director of Positive Zero Transport Futures, a living lab ecosystem for testing transport decarbonization innovations with positive societal outcomes. Her expertise is in air pollution exposure assessment and quantifying the co-benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation pathways in the transport sector. Prof. Hatzopoulou served as an associate editor of the journal Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment between 2018 and 2023. She is the current chair of the Transportation Research Board Standing Committee on Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation.
Jane Howe is an Associate Professor jointly appointed in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry. Prior to her new position at UofT, Jane worked as a Senior Applications Scientist with Hitachi High-Technologies group in US and Canada for the past five years. Jane received her Ph.D. in Ceramic Science from Alfred University in 2001. After a postdoc at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Jane stayed at ORNL as a Staff Scientist and Principal Investigator until 2012. She has over 100 publications on peer-reviewed journals and holds nine US patents on electron microscopy and materials characterization and development. She won two R&D 100 Awards in research and development of the lithium battery technology and nano-structured carbon materials. Jane’s current research interest is in situ and correlative microscopy techniques.