老司机直播

56 rising 老司机直播 research stars awarded Connaught New Researcher Awards

photo of UTSC library
The University of Toronto Scarborough is home to 12 of the assistant professors recognized with Connaught New Researcher Awards this year (photo by Ken Jones)

An alarming one in five university students will turn to self-harming behaviours like cutting and burning to cope with stress, anxiety and sadness. But why students choose self-harm over other coping behaviours remains a mystery, says lifespan development psychologist Chloe Hamza

Understanding and eventually disrupting this cycle of self-abuse, which increases later risk of suicidal behavior by two to four per cent among students, is the focus of an ambitious research project by the assistant professor in the department of applied psychology and human development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Her research is receiving support from the .

The annual awards are only provided to 老司机直播 assistant professors within the first five years of a tenured-stream academic appointment to help them establish strong research programs. This year the Connaught Fund is awarding a total of $994,000 to 56 researchers across a range of disciplines. See below for a full list of recipients.

鈥淐ongratulations to this year鈥檚 winners of the Connaught New Researcher Award on their well-deserved achievement,鈥 said Professor Vivek Goel, 老司机直播鈥檚 vice-president of research and innovation. 

鈥淭his funding is designed to help some of the best up-and-coming 老司机直播 researchers get their vital projects off the ground and position them to go after and secure external funding to continue and expand their research down the road.鈥

Hamza (pictured below) just joined 老司机直播 last July. She is over the moon about the funding 鈥 her first research grant to do her own independent study on such a surprisingly understudied area of mental health.

headshot of researcher鈥淚t鈥檚 very exciting,鈥 she says about receiving the $35,000 in Connaught funding. 鈥淚 think this also underscores the university鈥檚 recognition of the importance (and prioritization) of funding research that can serve to inform efforts to promote positive mental health and well-being among students on campus.鈥

Non-suicidal, self-injury refers to direct and intentional self-harming without lethal intent, Hamza explains. Although cutting by women has received a fair amount of attention by media, non-suicidal, self-harming behaviours, or NSSI for short, are used by both sexes, albeit the behaviours differ.

鈥淢en are more likely to use burning or self-hitting,鈥 she says, 鈥渨hile women are more likely to engage in cutting and scratching. That鈥檚 why when we survey people, like students, we need to ask about a whole spectrum of behaviours.鈥

And, for reasons that remain unclear to researchers at this time, university students are more likely to engage in NSSI than peers their same age who are not in post-secondary education, Hamza says, adding that鈥檚 one of the reasons it鈥檚 so important for 老司机直播 to engage in this kind of research.

Hamza hopes her search for answers, which will start this fall with a study of 老司机直播 students who have engaged in NSSI, will help clinicians create better interventions and lifelong coping strategies for struggling students.

According to emotional cascade theory, some people experience negative emotions intensely, leading to rumination and more negative emotions (an emotional cascade). NSSI may serve as one way to disrupt this 鈥渧icious feedback loop,鈥 while other healthier coping strategies may not provide enough distraction 鈥渢o interrupt that emotional cascade for some students.鈥 Finding an intervention to disrupt that feedback loop could help people engage in less destructive, more positive behaviour.

She says she also hopes to someday do a large-scale survey, arising out of this foundational study, to follow her student subjects as they age. Perhaps like binge drinking in the early years of university, NSSI behaviour tapers off with age?

In addition to Hamza, the recipients of this year鈥檚 Connaught New Researcher Award are:

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Emily Seto of the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation for 鈥淭elemonitoring in an integrated chronic disease management clinic: A new model of care for complex patients with multiple chronic conditions鈥

Faculty of Arts & Science

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Anabela Alves dos Santos Rato of the department of Spanish & Portuguese for 鈥渢he role of cross-language phonetic similarity and articulatory difficulty in L2 speech learning鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Susana Bejar of the department of linguistics for 鈥渢he syntax of Georgian pseudoclefts鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Arthur Blouin of the department of economics for 鈥渢he dynamics of diversity: evidence from ancestral migration鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Irene Boeckmann of the department of sociology for 鈥渇atherhood and men鈥檚 earnings from a cross-national perspective鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Elisa Brilli of the department of Italian studies for 鈥淒ante among Augustine's readers. Humankind, earthly city and theology of history鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Murat Celik of the department of economics for 鈥渢he effects of misallocation of resources on economic growth, innovation, and inequality鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Joseph Clarke of the department of the history of art for 鈥渙pen office design and the acoustics of the knowledge economy, 1960-1980鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Thom Dancer of the department of philosophy for 鈥渨hat we owe to children鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Roger Grosse of the department of computer science for 鈥渟calable and flexible Bayesian learning鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Alec Jacobson of the department of computer science for 鈥渞obust geometry processing for big dirty data鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  SeungJung Kim of the department of the history of art for 鈥渁 phenomenology of time in the visual culture of ancient Greece鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  David Levin of the department of computer science for 鈥渂ig data for fast and accurate numerical simulation of mechanical structures鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Aleksandar Nikolov of the department of computer science for 鈥済eometric methods in discrepancy and privacy鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Guillaume Thomas of the department of linguistics for 鈥渂uilding a Mby谩 treebank鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Yurou Zhong of the department of East Asian studies for 鈥渟ocialist scripts and scripting socialism in the early PRC鈥

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Rachelle Ashcroft for 鈥減atient perspectives of the incentives and disincentives for quality mental health care in Ontario family health teams鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Bryn King for 鈥渄evelopmental disruptions: adolescent involvement in the child welfare system in Ontario鈥

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Erin Bobicki of the department of materials science and engineering for 鈥渞educing water and energy use in mineral processing鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Eric David Diller of the department of mechanical and industrial engineering for 鈥渕inimally-invasive surgery through miniaturized magnetic surgical tools鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Tobin Filleter of the department of mechanical & industrial engineering for 鈥渕icro-mechanical studies of MoS2 dry lubricated contacts for space applications鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Jonathan Kelly of the Institute for Aerospace Studies for 鈥渟eeing the light: advancing visual sensing for robust and reliable robot navigation and manipulation鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Edmond Young of the department of mechanical and industrial engineering for 鈥渄evelopment of microfluidic airway-on-a-chip for studying lung epithelial and smooth muscle cell interactions鈥

Faculty of Dentistry

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Karina Carneiro for 鈥淒NA nanostructures as scaffolds for hard tissue regeneration鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Massieh Moayedi for 鈥渆lucidating the role of the hippocampus in pain perception鈥


Faculty of Law

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Richard Stacey for 鈥渢he privatization of honour: Delegating to industry the Crown鈥檚 duty to consult Aboriginal peoples鈥

Faculty of Medicine

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Arthur Mortha of the department of immunology for 鈥渄evelopment of anaerobic culture methods for the ex vivo study of intestinal protozoa鈥


Joseph L. Rotman School of Management

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Olivier Dessaint for 鈥渢he determinants of M&A decisions and their welfare implications鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Daehyun Kim for 鈥淐EO stock performance-based compensation manipulation through timing of news disclosure鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Azarakhsh Malekian for 鈥減artial co-operation in societies and local grim trigger strategies鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Ryan Webb for researching the question 鈥渄oes context-dependent choice arise from the principles of neural computation?鈥


Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Robert Bonin for 鈥渆lucidating molecular mechanisms of reconsolidation to reverse pathological pain鈥

University of Toronto Mississauga

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Andrew Beharry of department of chemical and physical sciences for 鈥渟mall molecular probes for fluorescence-guided photodynamic therapy鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Katharina Braeutigam of the department of biology for 鈥渢he relationship between genome, epigenome and plant performance in trees鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Jacopo De Simoi of the department of mathematical and computational sciences for 鈥渇ast-slow dynamical systems鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Teddy Erclik of the department of biology for 鈥渟patial and temporal patterning of neural stem cells in the developing fruit fly brain鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Keisuke Fukuda of the department of psychology for 鈥淓EG-based memory monitoring and intervention for older adults鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Dehan Kong of the department of mathematical and computational sciences for 鈥渘ovel statistical models for imaging genetics data鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Marie-Paule Lory of the department of language studies for 鈥渁wareness of language program: adopting a plurilingual paradigm to engage students to learn French as a second language in English elementary schools in Ontario鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Akwasi Owusu-Bempah of the department of sociology for 鈥渢he representation of black criminality and street gangs in Toronto: 2000-2015鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Xu Tian of the department of economics for 鈥渢he macroeconomic implications of financial frictions鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Liye Xie of the department of anthropology for 鈥渓abour mobilization for early Bronze Age urban construction at Erlitou, China鈥

University of Toronto Scarborough

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Sandro Ambuehl of the department of management for 鈥渋ncentives for complex transactions 鈥 bridging economics and ethics鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Stefanos Aretakis of the department of computer and mathematical sciences for 鈥渕athematical problems in general relativity鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Hilary Kathryn Brown of department of anthropology for 鈥渕aternal diabetes and perinatal mental illness: a population-based study鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Andrea Charise of the department of anthropology for 鈥渘ovel remedies: literature, health and the creative recovery of the humanities鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Mike Ekers of the department of human geography for 鈥渇inancializing forests in British Columbia: land, governance and the ecological fix鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Brett Quaid Ford of the department of psychology for researching the issue 鈥渃an emotion regulation counteract the harmful effects of stress exposure? The role of reappraisal in protecting individual's emotional and physiological outcomes鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Diana Xuan Fu of the department of political science for 鈥渞eaching for half the sky: explaining China's new wave feminist movement鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Mariana Khapko of the department of management for 鈥渕arkets of tomorrow: blockchain trade settlement and liquidity鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Pamela Milagros Medina Quispe of the department of management for 鈥渆xploring barriers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to international market access through e-commerce鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  David Bartzoon of the department of arts, culture and media for 鈥渁pp studies: exploring the political economy of mobile media platforms鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Stefan Renckens of the department of political science for 鈥渢ransnational private sustainability governance as interest community鈥

鈥&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;  Giulio Tiozzo of the department of computer and mathematical sciences for 鈥渆rgodic theory of low-dimensional dynamical systems鈥

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