Category: Grants and Awards (Page 1 of 2)

Damon Matthews ranks 266th out of 1,000 on the Reuters Hot List

May 18, 2021 By Amy Sharaf

Concordia’s Damon Matthews has landed on the Reuters Hot List, ranking him among the world’s most influential climate scientists.

Matthews, professor and Concordia Research Chair in Climate Science and Sustainability, Geography, Planning and Environment, placed fifth among Canadians and 266th globally in the Reuters list of top 1,000 climate scientists in the world. In all, only 37 Canadians made the cut.

“I recognize a lot of the names of colleagues that I know and have worked with, so it’s good company to be in,” Matthews says. “I am very happy to be recognized.”

Reuters notes the Hot List is not a measure of the “best” or “most important” climate scientists internationally but rather of influence. It ranks researchers based on a combination of factors: the number of research papers they have published on climate change–related topics, how often other researchers in similar fields of study cite those papers and how often their papers are referenced in the media, policy papers, social media and other sources.

The list’s data is provided through Dimensions, British-based technology company Digital Science’s academic research portal. The database includes hundreds of thousands of climate science–related papers, most published since 1988.

‘Not a complete list’

Matthews runs Concordia’s Climate Scenarios, Impacts and Modelling Lab and also heads the Leadership in Environmental and Digital Innovation for Sustainability (LEADS) program funded by a $1.65-million Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). He says that although it’s great to be recognized, other researchers were left off the list, and he was struck by how male-dominated it was.

“This is a nice measure of science influence, but it’s certainly not a complete list,” he points out. “There are lots of really excellent scientists in Canada who were not picked up, and of the 37 Canadians on the list, only four are women. There is obviously still work to be done to equalize opportunities for female scientists and have their research be recognized and influential.”

Matthews’s distinction comes after Concordia placed 62nd out of 1,115 institutions worldwide in the newly released 2021 Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings for its institutional commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Craig Townsend, associate professor and chair of the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, is thrilled by Matthews’s growing catalogue of accomplishments, which are drawing students and researchers to his work.

“Damon has been incredibly successful in attracting students to the department’s graduate programs, as well as overseeing numerous postdoctoral researchers from around the world,” Townsend says. “His work is impressive, and we really look forward to seeing how it evolves.”]

See original article post here: https://www.concordia.ca/news/stories/2021/05/18/concordia-professor-named-among-worlds-most-influential-climate-scientists.html

Concordia University’s MFA graduate students have recently been invited to the Arctic Circle Residency as participants of the Leadership in Environmental and Digital Innovation for Sustainability (LEADS) program.

The collaborative work of Dimo Ivanov and Sonya Stoeva took shape in 2010 as the duo IvanovStoeva following several collaborative projects in Canada and Europe. Currently they are completing their Master’s in Intermedia (Video, Performance and Electronic Arts).

During their participation in the Leadership in Environmental and Digital Innovation for Sustainability (LEADS) program, they hope to reach out to a large collaborative sphere in order to contribute to actions towards climate change and sustainability solutions. LEADS will give them the opportunity to develop their knowledge for interdisciplinary collaboration, with the goal of creating a bridge between science and society using art and digital technology.

Their proposed project will evolve during a research residency. The Arctic Circle Residency, which brings together international artists and scientists on an exploratory journey. It will start with a departure from Longyearbyen, Svalbard, and will be carried out on a sailboat travelling to the Arctic Circle. The objective of the residency program is to offer to the participants a common experience to stimulate exchange and collaboration. IvanovStoeva’s goal as researchers-artists is to inform, inspire and stimulate actions. For them, the combination of technology, science and art has great potential, and they are eager to contribute to this field. The project will help build a broader understanding of the many positive effects that the natural environment provides for us as natural beings.

MFA alumni and current Elastic Spaces’ visiting scholar, Daniela Ortiz Sanchez, along with the author and her brother, Diego Ortiz, are the recipients of the 10th edition of the 2019 International Competition of Illustrated Books, with their book titled, ‘La mano del señor Echegaray’, in collaboration with the Library Insular Gran Canaria and the Catalan publisher, A Buen Paso.

Click here for more information

We are happy to announce that Santiago Tavera, project manager of the Elastic Spaces lab, has been awarded a Research and Creation grant from the Canada Council for the Arts for his upcoming  project, Expanded Bodies in Hyper-Virtualities. He has also been awarded the Vivacité grant from Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec with his collaborator Laura Acosta, for their upcoming exhibition at MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)  in February 2020. 

Elastic Spaces is happy to announce that among the recipients of this year’s Hexagram Research-Creation Grant is Anastasia Ferguson and duo-collective, Sonya Ivanov & Dimo Stoeva.

AWARDED PROJECTS

Anastasia Ferguson – Conjuring Optics is an audio/visual installation and artist book looking at the cinematic apparatus of modernity and its relationship to the illusions produced by the stage magic of 19th century Europe, as well as the sociological impact of illusions on perception.

Sonya Ivanov & Dimo Stoeva – Le projet Light-scape formation consiste dans une installation cinétique, qui utilise l’illusion comme technique, pour la construction des environnements paysagère par l’entre mise de la lumière et la matière. Le projet explore le rapport humain vers le paysage naturel en évoquant les notions du sublime dans l’art.

DETAILS ON THE HEXAGRAM GRANTS

With the help of student grants, Hexagram wishes to provide concrete support to the research of its student members. Added to this is access to state-of-the-art infrastructure and equipment, integration into the governance of its network, and training.

This year again, about fifty projects were analyzed by a jury of members-researchers and an external expert. We thank the many candidates who submitted a project and we also thank the members of the 2019 jury: Jean-François Renaud, Lynn Hughes et Katharina Meissner, responsable développement stratégique du festival MUTEK.

More information 

We are excited to announce that Anthony Head, our Co-Investigator and Associate Director at our partner institution Bath School of Art and Design, has been awarded an Academic Fellowship from the South West Creative Technology Network as part of their call for Fellows on the theme of Immersion.  Anthony will be part of a group of 24 fellows, from industry and academia on a year long project, starting with three months of Research and Development deep-dive, exploring ideas for prototypes.

Anthony has immediately started work on converting a past project, Light Years: Coast, into virtual reality, as he begins to explore how experiencing an immersive project compares through different forms of immersive media.

=

Light Years: Coast VR. Anthony Head 2018