The GEMM Steering Committee draws on the expertise from each faculty at the University of Waterloo to advise and set direction for the GEMM initiative.
Eihab Abdel-Rahman
Professor, Associate Chair
Faculty of Engineering, Dept. of Systems Design
Eihab Abdel-Rahman's research interests are in the nonlinear dynamics of electromechanical systems, particularly Micro- and Nano-Electronic Mechanical Systems (MEMS/NEMS) sensors and actuators. His group is a leader in applying inertial micro sensors to air and water monitoring to detect gas such as methane and sulfur dioxide in air and metals, such as mercury, in water.
Jennifer Clary-Lemon
Professor
Faculty of Arts, Dept. of English Language and Literature
Jennifer Clary-Lemon studies the ways that humans persuade nonhumans to action, focusing specifically on mitigations for species at risk. Her research interests in the environmental humanities, and in particular the ways that the biodiversity and climate change crises are communicated, have informed her work with the City of Kitchener’s Committee on Climate Change and the Environment, her role as co-chair of Bird Friendly City Kitchener, and her membership in the University of Waterloo Water Institute and the University of Waterloo Climate Change Institute.
Peter Crank
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Environment, Dept. of Geography and Environmental Management
Peter Crank studies urban climate and impacts of neighborhood scale urban design on microclimates and human health. Centered in hot cities, Peter's research seeks to address questions of modelling urban spaces to understand the impact urban climate mitigation strategies have on the thermal environment as well as on all facets of human health. His research has included extreme heat and air quality impacts on the elderly, neighborhood planning and design, city park designs, and school renovations through field measurements, remotely sensed measurement via helicopter, and numerical modeling.
Simon Glauser
Managing Director
Waterloo Climate Institute
Simon Glauser oversees the University of Waterloo's Climate Institute strategic planning, programs and partnerships. For the past 15 years, Simon has managed large-scale strategic research initiatives at the intersection of sustainability, water and food security, and climate change, including roles at the Canadian Water Network, University of Guelph, and University of Waterloo. In previous roles with federal and provincial governments and conservation authorities, he supported the connection between water management policy, practice and science, and facilitated input from a diverse range of communities, including municipalities, health authorities, farmers and businesses.
Vassili Karanassios
Professor
Faculty of Science, Dept. of Chemistry
Vassili Karanassios' interests are in the area of micro- and nano-analysis (e.g., metrology), in micro- and nano-technology (e.g., micro- and nano-fluidics, nano-materials), and in development of miniaturized instruments that can be used on-site (i.e., in the field). Such instruments can be fabricated on-chips so that they can fit in the palm of a hand, allowing users to take "the lab to the sample". The sample may be a "patient" (for early diagnosis of disease) and the field may be a health clinic or the environment (e.g., the air we breathe or the water we drink). They are being developed to have wireless-capabilities so that they can be included in the Internet of Things (IoT) and to have smarts via Artificial Intelligence.
Richard Kelly
Professor
Faculty of Environment, Dept. of Geography and Environmental Management
Richard Kelly’s research focuses on measuring the cryosphere to better understand how cold regions are responding to climate change. He is especially interested in the variability of seasonal snow accumulation and how it impacts water resources around the world. His research group develops and uses novel Earth observing satellite and airborne microwave instruments to observe terrestrial snow water storage. They conduct fieldwork and apply numerical models to simulate their remote sensing observations and with empirical and geospatial models, they are helping to advance our understanding of snow water storage on the Earth's surface.
Mohammad Kohandel
Professor
Faculty of Mathematics, Dept. of Applied Mathematics
Dr. Mohammad Kohandel is a member of the Waterloo AI Institute and the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology. His research focuses on the application of advanced mathematical and computational modeling, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, to address challenges in health sciences. He also explores physics-informed neural networks for predictive modeling in complex systems.
Bruce MacVicar
Associate Professor
Faculty of Engineering, Dept. of Civil and Environmental
Bruce MacVicar teaches and conducts research in hydraulic engineering and fluvial geomorphology with particular interests in managing urban water runoff and the dynamics of rivers. His research uses field measurements, physical experiments and computer simulations to understand various aspects of urban drainage and river processes such as sediment transport and flow turbulence. The ultimate goals are to improve river engineering practice, design urban water systems that make us more resilient to climate change, protect and restore critical habitats in rivers and floodplains, and preserve the integrity of these complex systems.
Sushanta Mitra
Professor
Faculty of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering
Sushanta Mitra is the Executive Director of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology. His research interests are interfacial science and the fundamental understanding of fluid transport in micro and nano-scale confinements with applications in energy, water, and bio-systems. He has worked extensively on developing the Mobile Water Kit that detects pathogens in potable water. For his contributions to science and engineering, he is an elected Fellow of several professional bodies, including the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the American Physical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Electrochemical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Plinio Morita
Associate Professor
Faculty of Health, School of Public Health Sciences
Cross Appointment with Systems Design Engineering
Plinio Morita is the Director of the Ubiquitous Health Technology Lab (UbiLab) at the University of Waterloo with research interests in the areas of population-level surveillance using IoT data, mHealth and wearable technology design, ubiquitous sensors for smart homes, usage data and health data analytics, precision medicine, and technology for aging. The UbiLab develops algorithms and systems of systems that combine data from mHealth and IoT sensor technology that can satisfy clinical standards while also providing meaningful use for the patient to the ocean of data currently collected by these smart technologies.
Donna Strickland
Professor
Faculty of Science, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Donna Strickland is one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 for developing chirped pulse amplification. Her ultrafast laser group develops high-intensity laser systems for nonlinear optics investigations. Donna served as the president of Optica in 2013 and has been an important advocate for the international Global Environmental Measurement and Monitoring (GEMM) Network, a joint initiative of Optica and the American Geophysical Union. Donna led the formation and serves as Director of the GEMM initiative at the University of Waterloo.
Philippe Van Cappellen
Professor
Faculty of Science, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Philippe Van Cappellen studies the biogeochemistry of soils, sediments and aquatic ecosystems, the cycles of water, carbon, nutrients and metals, global change, geobiology, chemical hydrology, water-rock interactions and environmental modeling. He leads the Ecohydrology Research Group, a program focusing on the biogeochemical processes that control water quality, ecosystem functions and environmental change, from local to global scales. His group studies the role of stormwater ponds and bioretention systems as both a source of the greenhouse gases and their ability to sequester of carbon and reduce of surface runoff of nutrients such as phosphorus.
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