Three ChemE faculty members have been honoured for their outstanding contributions to the Faculty with teaching and research 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.”
Read more about the ChemE award winners:
McCharles Prize for Early Career Research Distinction
Recognizing exceptional performance and distinction in early career research, typically on the part of a pre-tenure member of the Faculty.
Gisele Azimi (MSE, ChemE) has established herself as an exceptional researcher who is not afraid to tackle big problems in several fields at once. She has built an internationally recognized multidisciplinary research program which is carving out an entirely new field at the intersection of material science and chemical engineering, with the goal of solving sustainability challenges related to materials and energy. Her work spans several areas, including; development of advanced recycling and urban mining of post-consumer electronics using supercritical fluids; the production of rare elements from e-waste; development of green electrochemical technology for iron extraction and steel refining; and the development of rechargeable batteries from aluminum as an alternative to lithium. Azimi’s research has already led to four patents, multiple industry collaborations, and prestigious awards from several professional societies.
Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award
Recognizing a faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in teaching over the course of at least 15 years.
Since joining the Faculty in 1988, Mark Kortschot (ChemE) has contributed to the Faculty’s teaching mission at every level. He has held several leadership roles, serving as Associate Chair Graduate and Associate Chair Undergraduate for ChemE, Acting Chair of First Year for the Faculty, and Chair of Engineering Science. In addition to being an outstanding teacher, Kortschot has also played a key role in developing the Faculty’s design curriculum. He was a member of the team which developed Engineering Strategies & Practice, and co-wrote the course textbook. He also participated in the development of the Faculty’s Graduate Attributes for design engineering. Kortschot founded ChemE’s Teaching Effectiveness Committee and has served on the Advisory Board of the Hatchery. He is currently chairing a makerspace committee, with the goal of improving the Faculty’s fabrication facilities. He is a co-recipient of the 2007 Alan Blizzard Award for Team Teaching.
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 (CivMin, ChemE) 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.