CivicLabTO Discussion Series: Climate Change and Green Recovery

The discussion will be moderated by Lindsay Walker, Associate Director, Sustainability, Humber College and feature insights from Cecilia Fernandez, Acting Manager, Policy and Research, Environment and Energy Division of City of Toronto, Dr. Matt Adams, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga, Ms. Priya Patel, Graduate Student, Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment, University of Toronto Mississauga, Dr. Fatih Sekercioglu, Assistant Professor, School of Occupational and Public Health and Director of the Planetary Health Research Lab, Ryerson University, Dr. Emre Karatas, Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering, Ryerson University.

About the Speakers:

Lindsay Walker has overseen Humber College’s efforts of campus sustainability for almost 10 years. She leads the strategy to embed principles of sustainability and the interconnectedness of all things into all the College’s roles as a place of teaching and learning, and as a member of the local and global community and environment. Lindsay holds a Civil Engineering degree from McGill University and a Master of Environmental Science and Management from Ryerson University.

Cecilia Fernandez has worked at the City of Toronto for the last 12 years first in the Toronto Environment Office which eventually became the Environment and Energy Office. She has worked on a number of files over the years ranging from the publication of the City's Greenhouse Gas Inventory, electric vehicles, green bond issuance, carbon credits and consumption-based emissions. She holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Engineering and a joint Master's degree in Rural Extension Studies/Rural Planning and Development from the University of Guelph.

Priya Patel is a graduate student and engineer-in-training in the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Priya obtained a degree in engineering from the University of Guelph. She then worked as a scientist and consultant at a building science consulting firm, where she specialized in microclimate assessments of urban spaces. She has won numerous scholarships at the University of Toronto and her current research is focused on using satellite remote sensing data to model urban air pollution. She is currently collaborating with the City of Toronto to understand how air quality has changed across the city as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Matthew Adams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Dr. Adams obtained his PhD from McMaster University in the School of Geography and Earth Sciences, he also holds a HBECs degree and MES degree from Lakehead University. Dr. Adams’ research background is in environmental analysis with a research focus on increasing our understanding of human exposure to environmental pollutants. He has published 35 peer-reviewed scientific research articles. In 2019, he was awarded the University of Toronto Mississauga Annual Research Prize (Sciences).

Dr. Fatih Sekercioglu is an Assistant Professor in the School of Occupational and Public Health and Director of the Planetary Health Research Lab. Dr. Sekercioglu also holds an adjunct Assistant Professor appointment at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. Throughout his 15- year public health career, Dr. Sekercioglu worked as an environmental health manager, child and family health manager, vector-borne disease program coordinator and public health inspector. He has Bachelor’s degrees in chemical engineering from Istanbul Technical University and public health and safety from Ryerson and Master’s degrees in food safety and quality assurance from the University of Guelph and business administration from Wilfrid Laurier University and a PhD in geography at Western University.

Dr. Emre Karataş is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Ryerson University. He obtained his B.Sc. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Turkey and his M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Toronto. Dr. Karataş received the prestigious G.N. Patterson 2014 Award for the most outstanding thesis. His research interests are in combustion emissions, laser-based flame diagnostics, sustainable aviation, and respiratory flows. Dr. Karataş' research led to 21 conference proceedings and 15 journal publications including a review paper on soot emissions in Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, the highest impact-factor journal in all of Mechanical Engineering (IF = 29.394). Recently, he has been collaborating with a diverse team of Ryerson University and Unity Health researchers on two NSERC funded projects that aim to characterize respiratory flows to better understand SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

Information Collection Notice:

Thank you for registering for CivicLabTO programming. Please note the event will be digitally recorded. The information collected for the event will be used to determine the number of attendees and institutional affiliations for research and reporting purposes, and infrastructure creation as we build our network. It may be used to deliver CivicLabTO information on future events, updates on the research progress we're making together and to ask you for related feedback. All data is held within Canada by Humber College as the event producer. Any questions about the collection of this data can be sent to Jennifer Gordon, CivicLabTO Steering Committee Member and Director for the Centre for Creative Business Innovation, Humber College, by e-mail at: Jennifer.Gordon@humber.ca