Meet DSI Postdoctoral Fellows

Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher

Project Title: Equitable prioritization of active transportation infrastructure in Canadian cities

Supervisors: Shoshanna Saxe, University of Toronto, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering; Timothy Chan, University of Toronto, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, Department ofMechanical & Industrial Engineering

"Building sustainable transportation systems is one of the most important problems we face. After a decade of experiencing the combined joy and frustration of active transportation first-hand, I am thrilled to join the Data Sciences Institute to apply cutting-edge interdisciplinary techniques to a problem I care about deeply: how to support safe and equitable active transportation in cities."

Spencer Farrell

Spencer Farrell

Project Title: Can we discover conserved developmental pathways from single-cell transcriptomics data?

Supervisors: Sidhartha Goyal, University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts & Science, Department of Physics; Gary Bader, University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomedical Research

This Postdoctoral Fellow is co-sponsored with the McLaughlin Centre, University of Toronto.

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"I am very happy to receive a Data Sciences Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship. This fellowship allows me to pursue my research interests in applying data science to interdisciplinary problems in biology. Advances in experimental techniques are generating large quantities of data of single-cells, which presents exciting opportunities for data science research."

Gwen Gardiner

Project Title: Decoding Happiness: A Language-Based Analysis of Historical and Cultural Trends

Supervisors: Felix Cheung, University of Toronto, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts & Science; Sam Maglio, University of Toronto Scarborough, Department of Management.

"I am very excited to receive the DSI Postdoctoral Fellowship which will allow me to learn and apply natural language processing to psychological well-being research. This multidisciplinary project will explore the determinants and consequences of happiness using a more inclusive and representative approach."

Orhan Kibrisli

Orhan Kibrisli

Project Title: Machine Learning Accelerated High Throughput Synthesis of Novel Energy Storage Materials for Li-ion Batteries

Supervisors: Oleksandr Voznyy, University of Toronto, University of Toronto Scarborough, Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences; Gisele Azimi, University of Toronto, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry

"I feel extremely privileged to be a DSI post-doctoral fellow which allows me to pursue my academic career in one of the best scientific environments. I will make the most of this opportunity to discover novel materials for energy storage applications by combining cutting edge experimental techniques and data sciences. Output of my project will contribute to future solutions for the energy-related problems that our society is already facing."

Ryan Koh 

Project Title: A generalized model of predicting outcomes of electrical neuromodulation studies

Supervisors: Paul Yoo, Institute of Biomedical Engineering,  University of Toronto; José Zariffa, KITE Research Institute, University Health Network & Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto

"I am thrilled to receive the Data Science Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship. Through this fellowship, I will be able to tackle a variety of challenges in the neural engineering space using innovative data science techniques."

Elham Moez

Project Title: Integrative multi-omics study of pulmonary nodule malignancy based on molecular, clinical, and imaging data 

Supervisors: Rayjean Hung, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute; Michael Brudno, University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts & Science, Department of Computer Science

"I am so honoured to receive this fellowship from the Data Sciences Institute. Through this postdoctoral fellowship, I am very excited to employ my multi-disciplinary knowledge to help advance data science related to multi-omics modeling, while addressing the imminent clinical challenge related to low-dose computed tomography screening for lung cancer based on unprecedented international data."

Sean Robertson

Project Title: New Technologies and Evaluations for Novel Accented Speech Recognition

Supervisors: Ewan Dunbar, University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts & Science, Department of French; Gerald Penn, University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts & Science, Department of Computer Science

"Thanks to the DSI Postdoctoral Fellowship I am able to challenge the assumption speech recognition is one-size-fits-all. Addressing our failings is the only way that research may move forward."

Sofia Ruiz Suarez

Sofia Ruiz Suarez

Project Title: Log Gaussian Cox process to construct spatially continuous maps of disease risk

Supervisors: Patrick Brown, University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts & Science, Department of Statistical Sciences; Prabhat Jha, University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health

"I am very grateful for the opportunity to join the Data Sciences Institute. Through this postdoctoral fellowship I will be able to be part of an interdisciplinary project whose final aim is the creation of an open source to construct spatially continuous maps of disease risks from aggregated data. This opportunity is a great step forward for my professional career as a researcher in applied statistics."

Former DSI Postdoctoral Fellows

Asma Ahmed

Asma Ahmed

Project Title: Preterm birth, parental socioeconomic status, and long-term educational and economic outcomes: A novel application of multi-state modeling and causal inference methods on a national longitudinal cohort over 34 years

Supervisors: Petros Pechlivanoglou, The Hospital for Sick Children, Child Health Evaluative Sciences Labs; Eleanor Pullenayegum, The Hospital for Sick Children, Child Health Evaluative Sciences Labs

"I am delighted to receive the Data Sciences Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship to support my postdoctoral training in the Child Health and Evaluative Sciences Program at the Hospital for Sick Children. The DSI Postdoctoral Fellowship will give me the flexibility to pursue my research interests and broaden my research experiences. As a DSI fellow, I will have the chance to work with an interdisciplinary team of researchers and interact with researchers from other fields to expand my professional network. This opportunity will also allow me to develop my professional and academic skills to establish myself as an independent investigator."