University of Toronto’s Lawson Climate Institute (LCI) is pleased to announce the awardees of the Lawson Climate and Sustainability Awards for multi-disciplinary students for the 2025–2026 academic year. These awards are generously supported by the Brian and Joannah Lawson Family Foundation. These awards support world-class multi-disciplinary research within LCI pillars of Sustainable Innovation and Technology and Climate Policy and Sustainable Finance, and attract distinguished early career researchers to the University of Toronto. Recipients will be part of a growing network of Lawson Climate Institute Scholars and receive support for programming, experiential learning opportunities, and internships. The awardees represent more than 10 different departments across the three U of T campuses.
Learn more about the LCI researchers and their projects below.
PhD Awardees
Ethan Agena
Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry
“My work integrates synthetic biology and chemical engineering to improve a novel bioprocess called microbial chain elongation. Through chain elongation, we convert organic waste into platform chemicals called medium chain fatty acids. Specifically, I am developing metabolic engineering tools to optimize chain elongation and will pair this with technoeconomic and environmental impact assessments to inform technology development. Driven by a long-term commitment to sustainability, I strive to advance a regenerative bioeconomy through my work!”
Anchalya Balasubramaniam
Biology
“My research examines how climate change affects photosynthesis and stress tolerance in boreal forests, with a focus on drought and warming impacts on conifer trees. By integrating physiological and molecular perspectives across scales, I aim to understand how trees acclimate to environmental stress. This work improves predictions of forest resilience and carbon uptake under future climate conditions.”
Miriam Castillo Orozco
Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences (DPES)
Miriam’s research within the Environmental Science in Society Lab explores a pluralist transition that supports Indigenous epistemologies from Abya Yala – Latin America (LAC-AY) in international climate politics. She will develop a tool to assist LAC-AY Indigenous Peoples in achieving their desired participation at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), based on interviews and participant observation during climate negotiations. Her work is grounded in frameworks such as the pluriverse and Indigenous reciprocal relationships.
Davey Elder
Civil and Mineral Engineering
“I work with energy systems optimisation models, rethinking how we use these models to inform decisions for the energy transition under deeply uncertain futures. I am developing new energy modelling methods and practices to uncover robust insights about how the future energy system might respond to uncertain outcomes like climate change or the emergence of new energy technologies. These insights can inform decisions today, despite not knowing how these uncertainties might unfold in the future.”
Abdul-Salam Ibrahim
Human Geography
“My research uses community-driven approaches to reshape urban climate resilience in Sub-Saharan African cities toward greater equity and justice. Focusing on the member cities of the Resilience Cities Network in Africa, I will work alongside climate-vulnerable communities to co-create a toolkit for equitable resilience planning. By integrating local priorities, cultural contexts, and grassroots knowledge, my project seeks to enhance the inclusiveness, legitimacy, and effectiveness of future urban climate-resilience efforts across SSA.”
Min (Minna) Jiang
Rotman School of Management
When the carbon permit price is known with certainty, green investment decisions follow a simple net present value (NPV) rule—firms invest when the NPV becomes 1 positive. However, when the carbon price is volatile and uncertain, the investment de- cision becomes more complex. This raises the central research question of this project: How does carbon price uncertainty affect firms’ green investment decisions, and through what mechanisms? The findings will provide evidence-based insights to regulators on how to manage carbon market volatility in ways that enhance—rather than deter—green investment.
Khandaker Mohammed Rezaul Karim
Forestry
“My research examines how rising temperature and atmospheric CO₂ alter methane exchange between leaves and the atmosphere. Using controlled experiments with plants leaf, I measure CH₄ flux responses and identify the physiological and microbial processes driving them. This work addresses a major gap in methane budgets by determining whether leaves act as sources or sinks under future climate conditions, improving predictions of biosphere–climate feedbacks and informing global methane mitigation efforts.”
Eric Nussbaum
Economics
“My research evaluates the European Union’s CO2 emission standard for new passenger cars, focusing on manufacturer pooling arrangements that allow firms to jointly meet their targets. I study how this system compares to credit trading programs used in other jurisdictions, and the inefficiencies present. Using a structural model of firm behaviour, I will assess how pooling affects emissions, compliance costs, and other aspects of welfare to inform climate policy design.”
Maddalena Simeon
Sociology
“My research examines how experts and non-experts have historically forecast electric vehicle development as a case study for understanding sustainable innovation adoption. Using computational text analysis and qualitative methods, I investigate how different groups shift their attention to various features, employ different prediction timelines, and draw associations between topics and specific time horizons. This work reveals how expert knowledge and public expectations co-produce sustainable futures, informing when innovations receive investment, policy support, and market acceptance.”
Ashique Ali Thuppilikkat
Faculty of Information
“My project examines how outdoor gig workers, particularly food delivery and ride-sourcing drivers, navigate precarity alongside climate risks such as heatwaves, flooding, and air pollution. It investigates how workers experience and respond to these risks and explores technological interventions that can support their collective action. Using Participatory Action Research and environmental sensing techniques in India and Canada, the research aims to support both labour and climate justice movements.”
Sarah Urquhart
Curriculum, Teaching & Learning (OISE)
“I am researching how immersive professional learning supports K–12 teachers in climate change education. The study focuses on Climate Camp, a multi-day professional learning experience where teachers engage with climate science, Indigenous knowledge, and justice-oriented pedagogy. By examining educators’ experiences and potential impacts on practice, this research aims to inform equitable and effective models for climate change education.”
Andrew Wang
Chemistry
“Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini contain an extraordinary amount of scientific knowledge but have been lacking the necessary environment, tools, and context for carrying out simulations and experiments. Building on the rapidly developing El Agente ecosystem, I am developing and testing an LLM-based agentic framework geared towards materials modelling that can assist researchers around the world with accelerating the development of sustainable technologies.”
Undergraduate Awardees
Vera Allue
Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy (ISUP)
“My research explores alternative climate pedagogies beyond traditional lectures at UofT. By mapping current courses, interviewing faculty, and testing interactive approaches such as storytelling, debates, and art, it aims to identify barriers and opportunities for innovation in climate education. The project will generate actionable recommendations to integrate interdisciplinary and participatory teaching methods across UofT, enhancing student engagement, climate literacy, and the university’s global leadership in sustainability.”
Joah Faria
Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
“I am conducting an Undergraduate Research Thesis in my Fourth Year at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Advanced Coating Technologies (CACT) laboratory on wickless vapor chambers. Using a porous asymmetric sawtooth microstructure, bubbles nucleate on the pores and are driven by unbalanced buoyancy and surface tension forces.”
Adele Furman
Forestry
This project tests hybrid white-green roofs that combine biochar amended substrates with recycled porcelain mulch. By integrating circular waste materials into green roof systems, the research examines how these hybrid white-green roofs influence albedo, temperature, water retention, and plant performance. Conducted at the University of Toronto, it aims to develop scalable strategies for urban heat-island mitigation and sustainable rooftop design.
Riya Osti
Human Geography
This research is a continuation of a project that has identified policy as the primary barrier limiting the socioeconomic benefits of electrification in rural Nepal. The goal of this project is to enable collaborative workshops between various stakeholders, including community-based organizations, civil society, and government actors, to collectively build a roadmap for what an effective energy policy would look like in the context of rural Nepal. The end goal of this project is to produce a policy brief that assesses the strengths and weaknesses of existing rural energy policies, identifies key barriers, and proposes a co-developed roadmap to guide policymakers in advancing equitable and sustainable energy growth in rural Nepal.
Camila Villa Escobar
Global Development Studies
Climate change calls for a transition towards sustainable, climate-adapted, and resilient food systems. This research seeks to clarify how regenerative agricultural practices can be effectively incorporated into territorial planning processes as part of this broader transformation. Costa Rica will serve as a case study for examining the socio-ecological dynamics and institutional arrangements that enable or limit the emergence of regenerative food systems within a territory.
Yaolin Wang
Chemistry
Green hydrogen has the potential to lower CO₂ emissions as it can be used for many energy intensive processes, including producing fertilizer, heat, and electricity. Lowering the cost of green hydrogen produced from water and solar energy is an important open challenge for a sustainable future. To this end, low cost, efficient photocatalysts are critical. This project will test broadband super absorbers (BSA) system made from molecule-linked nanoparticle films as potential photoelectrocatalysts. Such photocatalysts can be fabricated using low cost, bench-top methods and equipment. By efficiently capturing sunlight across a wide range of wavelengths, the BSA system aims to achieve high efficiency. As such, the project will contribute to the Lawson Climate Institute’s efforts for sustainable energy solutions.
Ruoxuan (Sunny) Zhang
Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry
The project has three main objectives: 1. Feedstock Identification: Collaborate with the Sustainability Office to source WCO from campus facilities and assess its suitability for biodiesel production; 2. Process Development: Design and validate a reproducible workflow for biodiesel synthesis and purification using impure WCO, including kinetic analysis and separation techniques; and 3. Educational Integration: Develop hands-on lab modules and case studies for engineering courses, enabling students to explore sustainable fuel production and its environmental benefits.