Professor Liye Xie

Ten UTM faculty members receive Connaught Funds

Carla DeMarco

The annual Connaught New Researcher Awards help establish strong research programs for U of T assistant professors within the first five years of a tenured-stream academic appointment. 

“Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Connaught New Researcher Award on their well-deserved achievement,” said Professor Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation. 

“This funding is designed to help some of the best up-and-coming U of T 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.”

Along with Professor Xie, the complete list of UTM recipients is the following:

  • Professor Andrew Beharry of Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences for “small molecular probes for fluorescence-guided photodynamic therapy;”
  • Professor Katharina Braeutigam of the Department of Biology for “the relationship between genome, epigenome and plant performance in trees;”
  • Professor Jacopo De Simoi of the Department of Mathematical and Computational Sciences for “fast-slow dynamical systems;”
  • Professor Teddy Erclik of the Department of Biology for “spatial and temporal patterning of neural stem cells in the developing fruit fly brain;”
  • Professor Keisuke Fukuda of the Department of Psychology for “EEG-based memory monitoring and intervention for older adults;”
  • Professor Dehan Kong of the Department of Mathematical and Computational Sciences for “novel statistical models for imaging genetics data;”
  • Professor Marie-Paule Lory of the Department of Language Studies for “awareness of language program: adopting a plurilingual paradigm to engage students to learn French as a second language in English elementary schools in Ontario;”
  • Professor Akwasi Owusu-Bempah of the Department of Sociology for “the representation of black criminality and street gangs in Toronto: 2000-2015;” and
  • Professor Xu Tian of the Department of Economics for “the macroeconomic implications of financial frictions.”

This year the Connaught Fund is awarding a total of $994,000 to 56 researchers across a range of disciplines at U of T.

To see the full list of this year's Connaught recipients, see the UofT News website. 


To read more about Professor Xie's work, please see the profile Accidental Tourist. For more on Professor Keisuke's work, see Total Recall.
To read more about Professor Braeutigam's work see UTM biologist on the memory of trees.