Researcher

The University of Toronto has a long and outstanding record of research and innovation in matters related to energy and the environment, including climate change. Over 200 U of T faculty members across our three campuses are engaged in these endeavours, many in collaboration with leading national and international institutions and organizations. They represent a wide range of disciplines – from Engineering and Physics to Biology and Public Health, Law and Political Science – and they are based in more than 30 academic units and affiliated hospitals. They also figure prominently among the University’s leading scholars and scientists, constituting almost 10 per cent of our Canada Research Chairs.

U of T’s contributions to research in relevant fields are magnified by the rare breadth and depth of academic excellence concentrated on our campuses.

This page links to a collection of stories and initiatives. If you have a story or idea you would like to see highlighted here, please contact us at email.utoronto.ca

U of T-led study finds global crop diversity on the decline

A new University of Toronto study suggests we’re growing more of the same kinds of crops around the world, presenting a major challenge to agricultural sustainability.

Original article

Oil sands emissions greatly underestimated, research shows

A new comprehensive modeling assessment of contamination in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region indicates that officially reported emissions of certain hazardous air pollutants have been greatly underestimated.

Original article

U of T scientists draw new connections between climate change and warming oceans

It happened once before, and it could happen again. That’s the warning from ocean scientists at the University of Toronto and the University of California, Santa Cruz in a study published recently in Science that shows how an increase in CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere more than 50 million years ago dramatically changed the chemistry of the planet’s oceans.

Original article

U of T team awarded major funding for greenhouse gas project

Researcher Geoff Ozin and the Solar Fuels Team at the University of Toronto have been awarded close to $1 million from the Low Carbon Innovation Fund (LCIF) to translate their greenhouse gas research to scale.

Original article

“Nobody monitors air quality here”: U of T researcher returns home to study Trinidad and Tobago emissions

A new study by a graduate student in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering measured significant concentrations of traffic-related air pollution near roadways in the small island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, reaching levels comparable to highways in major urban centres like Toronto and Detroit.

Original article

Plastic not just a problem in our oceans, also affecting the Great Lakes: U of T research

Chelsea Rochman, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto, says we should be paying close attention to what’s taking place closer to home in the Great Lakes.

“The contamination in the Great Lakes and other bodies of freshwater from plastics and microplastics is ubiquitous,” says Rochman, who looks at plastic debris and its associated chemical contaminants.

Original article