2026 Student Awards Program Winners

Gulf-funded education initiatives in the MENA region and their contribution to SDG 4 outcomes

“Financing for development” has gained momentum as governments and institutions try to close the funding gap for achieving the SDGs, amid the growing influence of private and philanthropic actors. In the MENA region, Gulf countries’ expanding financial and geopolitical role is central, especially through investments in education framed as development or humanitarian support aligned with SDG 4. While initiatives emphasize inclusion and equitable access in conflict-affected or underserved settings, their sustainability, long-term returns, and effects on recipient education systems remain uncertain. This project examines their effectiveness and political economy implications, focusing on how donor-recipient partnerships shape education outcomes and sector governance, supporting SDG 4 and SDG 17.

Supervisor: Elizabeth Buckner

Performance-Based Design Guidelines for Biogenic Carbon in Ontario’s Low-Rise Housing

This research develops performance-based design guidelines that integrate biogenic carbon accounting into building life-cycle assessments for low-rise residential construction in Toronto. Developed in collaboration with Isha Sharma and building on her previous thesis research, the project further examines how material choices, particularly mass timber, brick, and concrete, shape embodied carbon, construction waste, and long-term climate performance. Using life-cycle modeling and Ontario-specific material data, the research translates complex carbon accounting methods into accessible, compliance-ready metrics for architects and policymakers. The project aims to support circular design practices and inform building codes that align housing development with Ontario’s net-zero-by-2050 climate goals.

Supervisor: J. Alstan Jakubiec

Integrating Equity into Biodiversity Finance: Indigenous Collaboration and the Future of Biodiversity Credits

As global biodiversity continues to experience long-term decline, biodiversity credits have been increasingly acknowledged as an emerging financial instrument to mitigate biodiversity loss and mobilize conservation finance. While biodiversity credits advance SDGs related to climate action, life below water, life on land, and partnerships – SDGs 13, 14, 15, and 17 – current projects often marginalize Indigenous governance systems, knowledge, and land relationships. Through a global case-study based comparative analysis, Celeste’s research examines biodiversity credits as an instrument for sustainable development and investigates how they can be designed to enable meaningful, equitable, and durable collaboration with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC).

Supervisor: Imre Szeman

Environmental Harm, Visibility, and Accountability in Canadian Resource Development

Large-scale resource development projects in Canada transform landscapes in ways that often escape public view, with many sites deliberately shielded from visibility. Forests are cleared, rivers dammed, and ecosystems reshaped under claims of economic necessity and sustainability. This project examines how environmental change becomes visible and politically meaningful using a mixed-method approach. Using the Site C Dam in British Columbia as a case study, we develop a convolutional neural network trained on satellite imagery to identify environmental degradation and link these patterns to institutional and policy factors. Combining computational analysis with document review, and drawing on social vulnerability work of Rufat et al. (2015), this project assesses accountability, oversight, and unequal impacts within Canadian environmental governance.

Supervisor: Laura Tozer

Community-Led Resilience after Cyclone Ditwah: Food Security and Livelihood Recovery in Sri Lanka’s Plantation Communities

This study examines how the 2025 Cyclone Ditwah unsettled plantation livelihoods and everyday food access in Sri Lanka’s tea regions, and what made recovery possible amid intensifying climate shocks. Grounded in community-based participatory research, it combines interviews with tea workers, women’s groups, and community organizers with food-system mapping that follows food through markets, transport routes, estates, relief systems, and mutual-aid networks. The analysis traces how disrupted wages, damaged gardens, and unreliable infrastructure reshaped household diet decisions and widened burdens of provisioning and care, often falling unevenly on women. By identifying both community-led recovery strategies and the gaps that persisted, the project develops feasible best practices and policy recommendations to strengthen food security and locally-led food sovereignty initiatives after disaster.

Supervisor: Beverly Essue

Family Stress and Investment: Understanding Family Well-Being among Internally Displaced Families in Nigeria

Global internal displacement is accelerating as conflict, economic instability, environmental crises, and housing precarity delay progress toward SDGs 1.0 and 3.0. Displaced families endure intersecting stressors: material deprivation, loss of social status, and displacement-related trauma. Yet, dominant frameworks such as the Family Stress Model and Family Investment Model often limit these experiences to economic hardship, potentially oversimplifying how displacement reshapes caregiver well-being and parenting. Using data from internally displaced persons camps in Nigeria, this study examines how subjective social status and displacement experiences, alongside objective poverty, shape caregiver stress, mental health, and parental engagement in their children’s education.

Supervisor: Kaja Jasinska

Assessing milkweed fitness and herbivory using remote sensing

Efficient monitoring is vital for addressing the biodiversity crisis, yet traditional field methods can be spatially biased and time-consuming. This research utilizes drone imagery and deep learning to monitor Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) in the Rouge National Urban Park. As the primary host for endangered monarch butterflies, milkweed is vital for conservation. The study employs Convolutional Neural Networks to automate plant detection across 15 sites, correlating multispectral signatures with field data on reproductive health and herbivory. By identifying spectral indicators of plant health, the project provides a scalable, efficient framework for monitoring ecologically critical species within rapidly changing urban landscapes. 

Supervisor: Scott MacIvor

Africa to North America: Decolonising Climate Adaptation by Inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge in STEM Education to Implement Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)

This project explores how integrating Indigenous Knowledge (IK) into STEM education can strengthen climate adaptation and advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Using a decolonial, qualitative approach, it develops the Climate Change–Indigenous Adaptation in Education (CCIA-E) Framework through case studies in Canada, Ghana, and South Africa, including a tri-continental Global Classroom initiative. Findings show that land-based pedagogy, community partnerships, and Two-Eyed Seeing enhance climate literacy, resilience, and educational equity. By linking Indigenous-led education with climate governance, the CCIA-E framework offers a scalable pathway to support SDGs 4 (Quality Education), 13 (Climate Action), and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).

Supervisor: Tanzina Mohsin

Resource Insecurity Among Adolescent Mothers in Nigeria

Suliat’s research focuses on the intersecting food, water, menstruation, and housing insecurities that shape the lives of adolescent mothers in Nigeria. Using nationally representative Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey data, she examines how overlapping deprivations reinforce intergenerational disadvantage. Her research explores pathways linking SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), highlighting how progress in one goal affects others. Suliat’s work aims to inform more responsive interventions that improve health and social outcomes for one of Nigeria’s most marginalized populations.

Supervisor: Carmen Logie

Economic Nationalism and Critical Minerals in Canada's Low-Carbon Transition

My research examines the political economy of Canada’s critical minerals industry, and the role of the Canadian state in the emerging extractive and industrial geographies of the green energy transition. With Trump’s threat to trade stability and China’s critical minerals dominance, the Canadian state is mobilizing narratives of economic nationalism to establish a domestic critical minerals supply chain, while simultaneously introducing de-regulatory and corporatist policies. Analyzing state policy documents and discourse, alongside conducting financial tracing for key mining firms, my project critically examines the kinds of sustainability transition pathways the Canadian state is interested in establishing.  

Supervisor: Imre Szeman

Rolling Back EV Policy Costs Lives and Weakens a Green Transition

Transportation decarbonization policy is an opportunity to advance environmental justice and public health for marginalized communities. Previous research shows that the EV transition has measurable early public health benefits, but these benefits can plateau or even backfire in certain regions. The proposed project estimates how many premature deaths could be avoided by 2050 under alternative EV-transition choices: a “100% new-EV sales by 2035” pathway, a rollback scenario, and a cash-for-clunkers program that retires the oldest, highest-emitting vehicles. The findings aim to guide policymaking to implement region-ware EV transition policy that maximizes health and advances equity.

Supervisor: Steve Easterbrook, Christoph Becker

Land (Dis)Connection as a Diasporic Social Determinant of Health: An Examination of Palestinian Canadian Runners’ Decolonial Health Praxis

Communities who have experienced land dispossession and community fragmentation due to settler colonialism have established relationships with land that are significant to their personhood, identities, and cultures. Palestinians’ understanding of land-human relationality, similar to that of Indigenous peoples in Canada, place emphasis on land as a simultaneously
sociocultural, agricultural, spiritual, and political entity. While Palestinian dispossession has been shaped by the 1948 Nakba and the ongoing settler colonial violence in Palestine, diasporic Palestinians continue to sustain their connections to land across geographies. This dissertation argues that land (dis)connection must be understood as a diasporic determinant of health for
Palestinian Canadians, who, while denied access to their homeland, carry their relationships to land into their lives in Canada through land-based movement practices. Relying on semi-structured interviews with Palestinian Canadian runners who participate(d) in runs for Palestine after October 7th, 2023, the study makes sense of running as a land-based movement practice that is a significant way for diasporic Palestinians to honour these relationships. Running reaffirms land-based connection through embodied movement, sustaining health, identity, and resilience in contexts of displacement and rising anti-Palestinian racism (APR), making it a practice through which Palestinian decolonial epistemology of sumud (steadfastness) is enacted. Through this embodied practice, diasporic Palestinians articulate a form of solidarity that links the health of the body to the health of a people, situating movement as both a human right and a
responsibility.

Supervisor: Simon Darnell

Advancing Sustainable Cardiovascular Care Through Computational Fluid Dynamics-Based Risk Stratification of Post-Surgical Aortic Dissection Patients

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, claiming over 17 million lives annually. Aortic dissection is a life-threatening cardiovascular condition involving a tear in the thoracic aorta, with over 2,000 procedures performed each year in Ontario alone. Despite surgery, up to 50% of patients develop further complications, known as aneurysmal degeneration, due to post-surgical changes in blood flow that current clinical tools cannot directly measure. To address this gap, I aim to develop a computational fluid dynamics–based biomedical engineering tool to understand why only some patients experience these complications. This work supports UN SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure).

Supervisor: Cristina Amon

Hybrid Air Quality Monitoring for Robust Exposure Assessment in Resource-Constrained Environments

Weaam’s project develops a scalable air-quality monitoring framework for Lebanon by combining mobile monitoring with fixed-site sampling to quantify ultrafine particles and black carbon. Using data-driven modeling, the project generates neighborhood-scale exposure maps in a data-scarce setting. These maps will identify pollution hotspots, characterize exposure disparities, and provide evidence to support mitigation policies, including traffic management and diesel generator emissions controls. The framework is transferable to other LMIC cities and builds local capacity through cost-effective monitoring strategies that enable exposure assessment and health research where regulatory air-quality monitors are few or absent, to inform equitable interventions.

Supervisor: Marianne Hatzopoulou

Affective Automation: Emotion and Sociotechnical Imaginaries in Artificial Intelligence Development Across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and India

This project examines how emotion shapes artificial intelligence (AI) development across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and India. Using a four-site mixed-methods design, including policy and media analysis, surveys, and arts-based interviews with AI workers, it shows how AI narratives are produced through distinct emotional registers, such as optimism, responsibility, anxiety, and developmental aspiration. Findings demonstrate that AI work relies on emotional labour, including performing alignment, absorbing ethical strain, and engaging in quiet dissent. The project advances Sustainable Development Goals 8 and 10 by identifying concrete leverage points for decent work, inequality reduction, and responsible AI governance.

Supervisor: Megan Boler

Family-Based Interventions on Blood Pressure Control in Individuals with Hypertension in Ethiopia: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

Getu’s research examines the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a community-informed family-based intervention for hypertension management among individuals living in Ethiopia. Findings from this study will inform the implementation of a multi-centre RCT aimed at optimizing hypertension management in Ethiopia and potentially in other low-income countries. The study addresses four Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): #3 Good Health and Well-being, #5 Gender Equality, #10 Reduced Inequalities, and #17 Partnerships for the Goals.

Supervisor: Monica Parry

Unjust Spaces: Exploring SDG Interdependencies Through Temporary Worker Housing in Ontario

Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program exposes migrant workers from developing countries to systemic abuse and exploitation. Their housing conditions in Ontario, frequently characterized by overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and surveillance, remain largely absent from planning, design, and sustainability discourse. My thesis explores how a human rights-based approach to housing design can play a critical role in synergizing efforts towards eradicating labor exploitation (SDG 8), reducing economic inequalities (SDG 10), and developing inclusive built environments (SDG 11). By situating migrant worker housing as a key site of SDG interdependence, the research advances design strategies promoting more just, safe, and inclusive living spaces for Ontario’s most vulnerable population.

Supervisor: Karen Kubey

Armed Conflict and Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Mali

Armed conflicts hinder progress in health and the achievement of the SDGs, yet their health effects remain insufficiently studied. This research examines how armed conflicts affect reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) in Mali. Using advanced spatio-temporal modeling approaches that integrate data on armed conflicts, health, and the social determinants, this work analyzes trends in RMNCH by comparing periods before and during conflicts, with particular attention to how conflict intensity and equity-related factors influence RMNCH. A participatory workshop with key stakeholders will support the interpretation of findings and guide context-specific strategies to reduce RMNCH disparities in conflict-affected areas.

Supervisor: Diego Bassani

Place-based Climate and Disaster Risk Data: A Codesign Project with Sherpa Communities in Khumbu, Nepal 

Shreyasha’s research draws on feminist and decolonial framework of relationality to examine and re-imagine how civic tech and community-based organizations can use data and digital technology to develop understanding of climate and disaster risk that are more place-based and representative of be more representative of the local knowledge and experiences of communities who bear the brunt of climate change.  She is currently collaborating with a Sherpa-led community organization in Khumbu (Mt. Everest) region of Nepal to to gather and visualize data about Sherpa placenames and lived experiences of climate change in the Khumbu Pasanglhamu Rural Municipality (Mt. Everest Region) in Nepal.

Supervisor: Robert Soden

Integrating the Water, Energy, Food, and Health Nexus for Climate Resilient Planning in International River Basins

Decisions in international river basins are often made sector by sector, overlooking links between climate, water, energy, food, and health. This research develops an integrated framework that embeds One Health within the Water–Energy–Food nexus. Using an open‑source Python framework, the project combines four components: trend analysis of past and future heat, wet, and dry conditions; water and allocation models to assess climate and water policies on river flows, storage, and sectoral trade‑offs; disease models to examine how meteorological and environmental factors affect water-related diseases; and an AI‑based decision tool to evaluate policy options under uncertainty. Together, these outputs support climate services, informed planning, and progress toward SDGs 2, 3, 6, 7, and 13.

Supervisor: Mohammed Basheer

Climate Change Impacts in Mekong Delta: A Comparative Study of Educational Experiences among Affected Students

This research examines how slow-onset climate change reshapes educational experiences and trajectories among young people in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, situated at the intersection of climate change, migration, and education. Using a qualitative comparative case study, the research explores how climate-induced mobility, gender norms, and cumulative environmental stressors influence schooling continuity, disruptions, displacement, and adaptation strategies. By centering the lived experiences of climate-affected youth and their families, the project generates policy-relevant insights to support more equitable, gender-responsive, and climate-resilient education systems.

Supervisor: Claudia Diaz-Rios

Designing with Near Data and Far Data: Co-designing with Communities for Reflecting and Visualizing Politics of Data for Sustainable Futures

Han’s research looks into how data shapes the ways people interact, design, and imagine sustainable urban futures. Using ethnographic and design-oriented methods, the project collaborates with urban sustainability and civic tech groups in Toronto to develop a nuanced understanding of how data is produced, abstracted, and mobilized in sustainability advocacy work. Building on these insights, the research designs reflective toolkits that reorient data practices toward alternative ways of understanding urban sustainability data that foreground power and affect. The work aims to support more just and participatory approaches to data-driven sustainability initiatives.

Supervisor: Christoph Becker

Reclaiming Environmental Data: Participatory Sensing for Gig Worker Rights and Climate Justice

Siddhant’s research explores participatory approaches to elicit and understand the lived experiences and everyday work practices of outdoor gig workers in the ongoing climate crisis in Toronto. Drawing on citizen sensing, climate data practices, and participatory design, the research aims to collaboratively constitute new forms of environmental evidence and justice with and for the workers.

Supervisor: Priyank Chandra

Replacement of Titanium Dioxide for Color-masking Premixes for Salt Fortification with Ferrous Fumarate and Ferric Pyrophosphate with Iron Absorption Enhancing Adjuncts 

My research advances salt fortified with iron, iodine as a scalable strategy to reduce micronutrient deficiency diseases by developing iron premixes that are stable, safe, and acceptable to consumers. I evaluate ferric pyrophosphate as an alternative to ferrous fumarate to reduce food discoloration, using bioavailability‑enhancing adjuncts and optimized encapsulation to improve iron delivery. Safe replacements for titanium dioxide are tested for colour masking and premixes undergo in vitro digestion studies, alongside nine‑month fortified salt stability studies. This work supports sustainable food‑system transition pathways and multiple SDGs by enabling fortified salt interventions that are cost‑effective, non‑compliance‑dependent, and suitable for large‑scale implementation in low‑resource settings.

Supervisor: Levente Diosady

Family, Face, Filial Piety: Navigating Same-Sex Marriage in Taiwan

This research examines how the legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan has influenced familial and cultural acceptance of LGB individuals. While legal recognition represents a major step toward equality, it has not consistently translated into full acceptance within families, a key social and economic unit that influences one’s well-being. Through a literature review, interviews, and reflexive thematic coding, this study foregrounds family as a key arena in which the limits of legal equality become visible, contributing evidence to support the inclusion of “family” as a sixth domain in the UNDP’s LGBTI Inclusion Index. 

Supervisor: Peter A. Newman