Media Releases

U of T scientists honoured with inventor of the year award

March 8, 2011

TORONTO, ON – Nine high­ly regard­ed Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to sci­en­tists were hon­oured in the first-ever Inven­tor of the Year com­petion yes­ter­day, March 7, 2011. The awards were pre­sent­ed at a spe­cial cer­e­mo­ny at the MaRS Cen­tre.

The awards rec­og­nize U of T inven­tors or teams of inven­tors who have made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions in three areas:

• Infor­ma­tion and Com­put­er Tech­nol­o­gy
• Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties
• Bio­med­ical and Life Sci­ences; Engi­neer­ing and Phys­i­cal Sci­ences

“The pur­pose of the Inven­tor of the Year pro­gram is to rec­og­nize the superb con­tri­bu­tions U of T sci­en­tists make to glob­al soci­ety through their inven­tions,” says Pro­fes­sor Paul Young, vice pres­i­dent (research). “By tack­ling society’s most press­ing prob­lems, these inven­tors ensure a bet­ter world for us today and in the future.”

The event rec­og­nized a vari­ety of sem­i­nal inven­tions rang­ing from high-per­for­mance earth­quake resis­tant damp­ing devices to a low-cost ultra­sen­si­tive micro­elec­tron­ic chip, used for dis­ease diag­no­sis.

The 2011 Inven­tor of the Year award win­ners were:

Bio­med­ical and Life Sci­ences
Scott Tan­ner, Depart­ment of Chem­istry
Shana Kel­ley, Fac­ul­ties of Phar­ma­cy and Med­i­cine
Andrei Yudin, Depart­ment of Chem­istry

Engi­neer­ing and Phys­i­cal Sci­ences
Yu Sun, Depart­ment of Mechan­i­cal and Indus­tri­al Engi­neer­ing
Con­stan­tin Christopou­los, Depart­ment of Civ­il Engi­neer­ing
Geof­frey Ozin, Depart­ment of Chem­istry

Infor­ma­tion and Com­put­er Technology/Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties
Nick Koudas, Depart­ment of Com­put­er Sci­ence
Ronald Baeck­er, Depart­ment of Com­put­er Sci­ence
V. Kumar Mur­ty, Depart­ment of Math­e­mat­ics

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NOTE: More detailed infor­ma­tion about the win­ners and their work is avail­able at http://www.news.utoronto.ca/campus-news/inventor-of-the-year-winners-list-2011.html

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Media Rela­tions
416–978-0100
media.relations@utoronto.ca