Our award winners

2023 

• Catherine Kineweskwêw Richardson, Director, First Peoples Studies Program in the School of Community and Public Affairs. In this role, she has demonstrated her willingness to discuss a variety of issues related to First Nations here in Canada. Her value as a fearless commentator shone especially brightly in the summer of 2022 during the Pope’s visit to Canada when Catherine declared it was time to move beyond apologies to reparations and made the case for its urgency by writing in The Conversation.

2022

• Ursula Eicker, Professor, Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering. She wrote a long list of opinion pieces in a variety of newspapers, publications and web sites, arguing in favour of green development in our cities, suggesting sustainability need not go out the window. She is always quick to respond to the MRPA team’s requests for an op-ed, making her urgent appeals and incisive analysis available to readers while the subject is hot.

2021

• Jean-Philippe Warren, Professor, Sociology and Anthropology. Warren did a special series in La Presse on fake news.
• Philippe Rioux, Postdoc, Sociology and Anthropology, with Jean-Philippe Warren, Professor, Sociology and Anthropology, on Quebec superheroes.

2020

• For their op/eds and interviews around the B/OLD conference
  • Kim Sawchuck, Professor, Communications Studies.
  • Shannon Hebblethwaite, Associate Professor, Applied Human Sciences.
  • Meghan Joy, Associate Professor, Political Science.

2019

• Nura Jubagi, PhD candidate and 2018 Public Scholar. She focused on the Teo Taxi’s doomed business model.
• Steven High, Professor, History. High focused on the linguistic impetus among working class support for the Quiet Revolution.

2023

• Michel Magnan, Professor, Accountancy. Discussed matters of governance, particularly for publicly held institutions, and he’s called upon to analyse executive pay and benefits and how they fluctuate through changing economic conditions. Michel also wrote for The Conversation, most recently analysing the relationship of executive bonuses for Equity, Sustainability and Governance and a company’s performance on these issues.
• Moshe Lander, Senior Lecturer, Economics. Lander is a regular contributor to radio programs in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta, tackling issues such as inflation, the economic impact of professional sports facilities and a variety of other subjects preoccupying Canadians.

2022

• Simon Bacon, Professor, HKAP. Bacon made appearances on popular television and radio shows sharing his calming perspective in what was a very scary time. He also founded and continues to co-direct the iCARE project, an international online survey of public attitudes around COVID-19, health and prevention measures.
• Carmela Cucuzzella, Professor, Design and Computation Arts. She advocated for stronger, bolder visions of what a city can and should be in op-eds in the Conversation and elsewhere, including attending the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. 

2021

• Ann-Louise Davidson Professor, Education. She discussed best-practices in online learning, and wrote several pieces for The Conversation dealing with how technology in teaching could help ensure wider access to education.

2020

• Moshe Lander, Senior Lecturer, Economics. He retained his reputation as a trusted expert when this pandemic hit, sharing his insights on Bank of Canada rates, border closures, CERB, Alberta’s economic plans, professional sports cancellations, Edmonton being a host city for NHL playoffs, the pros and cons of four-day work weeks, when our economy will reopen and what business owners and consumers should prepare for, and more.

2019

• Moshe Lander, Lecturer, Economics. Besides providing regular commentary on sports economics, economic impacts of hosting world jr ice hockey championships, funding for francophonie games, professional sports teams and facilities in Halifax, Calgary’s bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics, financial plans presented by politicians and their parties like Quebec Solidaire, NAFTA negotiations and the personalities involved, and so much more, also wrote an op-ed in the Globe and Mail about ticket pricing for Toronto Raptors games.

2023

• Léa Clermont-Dion, Chercheuse Postdoctorale, Centre d'étude sur l'apprentissage et la performance (CSLP). Elle est sélectionnée par La Presse parmi les 12 Vrais influenceurs de l’année. Elle est présentée comme une défenseure dévouée et optimiste du changement social, utilisant activement sa plateforme pour aborder les questions de violence sexuelle et interagir avec des publics diversifiés. Léa s’est démarquée aussi avec plusieurs entrevues dans les médias francophones comme TVA, Le Devoir et particulièrement ses passages sur toutes les plateformes de Radio-Canada, notamment sa participation à l’émission phare Tout le monde en parle qui attire tous les dimanches plus d’un million de téléspectateurs et téléspectatrices. 

2022

• Carly Ziter, Assistant Professor, Biology. Her Urban Trees Project was covered in a web series by Radio-Canada and CBC.
• Chadi Assi, Professor, CIISE and Tony Nasr, MASc. 22. They received this award in recognition of the widespread media attention their research garnered for it outlined the vulnerabilities of Internet-connected Electric Vehicle charging stations.

2021

• Ted Rutland, Associate Professor, GPE. He discussed policing, racial profiling and gun violence and took the initiative of producing several opinion pieces on these topics for La Presse and Le Devoir.

2020

• Guy Lachapelle, Professor, Political Science. Lachapelle for generally being a very willing expert on a wide variety of political subjects, including the 2019 Canadian and 2020 US elections.

2019

• Mourad Debbabi, Professor, CIISE, Dean, GCS. He interviewed by Radio-Canada about blockchain.

2023

• Sandra Martin-Chang, Professor, Education. Sandra looked at the positive impact of students reading fiction, in particular an increase in empathy as a quality shared among young readers.
• Hashem Akbari, Professor, Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering. Akbari's research was on the benefits of green roofing was quoted in a variety of publications. His work was cited in looking at measures people should adopt to mitigate the effects of rising temperatures due to climate change by these novel roofs effectiveness in lowering the cost of cooling buildings.

2022

• Muthu Packirisamy, Professor, Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering. Mohsen Habibi, Research Associate, Shervin Foroughi, PhD candidate, and Vahid Karamzadeh, MSEng 18.  Their development of a breakthrough in 3D printing technology using ultrasonic waves that was hailed by the prestigious publication Québec Science as one of their Top 10 scientific discoveries of the past year.
• Damon Matthews, Professor, GPE. Matthews published research on how Earth’s natural carbon sinks, such as forests, peat bogs and other ecosystems, play a role in removing carbon from the atmosphere. In that same study, Matthews also warns these natural wonders can’t clean things up on their own and that governments must introduce tough policies to produce significant change.

2021

• Simon Bacon, Professor, HKAP. He led a global survey on people’s attitudes to COVID which highlighted the value of clear communications as people sought to understand the nature of the virus, its impact but also the best ways of combatting its spread.

2020

• Sylvia Kairouz, Professor, Sociology & Anthropology. Her interviews about her research on gambling addicts’ spending on VLTs & influence on provincial politics. Her research led to the provincial government saying it was looking into making changes to existing laws.
• Patti Sonntag, former Journalist-in-Residence, Director, Institute for Investigative Journalism. She led the Tainted Water collaborative investigative journalism project. Tainted H2O was a year-long investigation conducted by more than 120 journalists from nine universities and six media groups and won numerous awards.

2019

• Carly Ziter, Assistant Professor, Biology. Her research into how urban trees mitigate city heat islands. Chosen as one of EurekAlert’s Top Ten stories of the year, carried by the National Science Foundation, Le Devoir, CTV and other news outlets.

2023

• Carly Ziter, Professor, Department of Biology. Carly was a media outreach award winner last year for her crowd-sourced research project of creating a portrait of the tree canopy in Montreal neighbourhoods. Carly built on that work again this past year by emphasizing the role of trees and the shade they create in mitigating the harmful effects of climate change. Her research was mentioned by media outlets the world over by the like of Sky News, Mother Nature Network and radio stations in the U.S. Her work was also highlighted as one of 2022’s best stories by the Global Investigative Journalism Network. Carly also readily offered up her expert perspective as Radio-Canada produced an in-depth series on heat islands in Montreal and when the COP conference came to Montreal at the end of 2022. Yet another of Carly’s research findings, this time about the surprising downside of urban beekeeping on domestic bee populations led to another wave of coverage from outlets including the prestigious Washington.

2022

• Seth Wynes, Postdoc, GPE. His work analysed the drop in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the cancellation or reduced travelling for teams in the four major North American leagues during the pandemic lockdown. Next, just as the federal election was kicking into high gear in the fall of 2021, Wynes’ research indicated that politicians, could, in fact, take people’s concerns about climate change to heart and respond to these concerns with policy changes.

2021

• Leon Wang, Professor, BCEE. He produced a web platform for assessing the risk of viral transmission in buildings. His work was covered by the LA Times and Nature.

2020

• Sylvia Santosa, Associate Professor, HKAP. Her Research showed how the effects of obesity mirror those of aging and was carried in local and international media and was shared widely on social media site Reddit.

2019

• Bianca Grohmann, Professor, Marketing. Grohmann's research was on variations in wine palates by geography appeared in  Food and Wine and La Presse, then picked up by many other outlets. 

2023

• Fanny Gravel-Patry, Public Scholar. Fanny quickly made a media splash writing about – and discussing – her research on a surprising upside to the social media platform Instagram. She pointed out its effectiveness in community building and support for people dealing with mental health issues. Fanny was tireless in making the rounds of media outlets such as CTV, Global, CBC, CJAD and Le Devoir, discussing her work and her findings.

2022

• Hossein Azarpanah, PhD candidate, Supply Chain and Business Technology Management. He was the lead author on a paper about cognitive biases and vaccine hesitancy, and his co-authors, Mohsen Farhadloo, Assistant Professor and Rustam Vahidov, Professor in the same department.

2021

• Marc-André Argentino, Public Scholar. His work that documented QAnon drew the attention of journalists across the globe. Following countless interviews in both English and French, Argentino’s research was covered in prominent outlets including the BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald, Washington Post and France 24.

2020

• Simon Dubé, PhD student and 2021 Public Scholar. His research into Erobotics got him an article in The Conversation, coverage from CTV, Canadian Press and Moteur de recherche.

2019

• Tomas Matthews, PhD student, Psychology. His work on the science behind what makes people groove. Appeared in the Conversation, La Presse, Psychology Today and Radio New Zealand.

2022

• Manon Tremblay, Senior Director, Indigenous Directions, Office of the Provost and Vice-President, Academic . She is recognized for all of her work in advancing the university’s Indigenous Directions Action Plan as for her moving storytelling about her mother’s and great-grandfather’s experiences.

2021

• Angelique Willkie, Chair, President’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism. Annick Maugille Flavien, Task Force member. Both shared their views on why Black History Month still remains relevant, writing opinion pieces for the Montreal Gazette and CTV News. 
• Manon Tremblay, Senior Director, Indigenous Directions. Tremblay spoke to CityNews about what it means to Indigenize the university’s practices, discussed in University Affairs magazine how Indigenous knowledge can be interwoven with traditional western practices and wrote about the importance of ensuring Indigenous Peoples have equitable access to education in The Hill Times. 

2020

• Amber Berson, Wikipedian-in-residence. She spoke to Rad-Can, Le Devoir, and many other outlets  in English and French about her unique position.

2023

• Jordan Richard Schoenherr, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology. Jordan figures among the most prolific writers on The Conversation Canada’s platform and his pieces enjoy widespread republication in a variety of media outlets. He also demonstrates a flair for addressing issues behind stories making news headlines. Just a few examples of subjects Jordan has taken a closer look into: state use of deepfakes, systemic issues revealed by generative AI and how drones are dehumanizing warfare.

2022

• Homa Hoodfar, Professor Emerita, Sociology and Anthropology. Her writing condemns the Taliban government in Afghanistan for closing girls’ schools.
• Claudine Mangen, Professor, Accountancy, for her articles about the impact of COVID on women in the workplace and the shift to working from home.

2021

• Louise Champoux-Paillé, Executive-in-Residence, John Molson School of Business and co-Director (practice) for the faculty’s recently inaugurated Barry F. Lorenzetti Centre for Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership. Her articles on women in the workplace, the impact of COVID on working women and why the world needs more women leaders in COVID times and beyond were carried by outlets including the World Economic Forum, Huff Post Quebec and L’Actualité magazine.