Congratulations Prof Pfeiffer - Sep 2020

Christian Pfeiffer

Congratulations to assistant professor Christian Pfeiffer (UTSC) for ranking among the 56 U of T scholars awarded a 2020 Connaught New Researcher Award. The award recognizes junior professors within the first five years of a tenure-stream academic appointment and aims to help recipients establish a strong research program and increase their competitiveness for external funding. It forms part of U of T’s commitment to fostering excellence in research and innovation by supporting faculty members at the beginning of their academic careers.

Pfeiffer’s project, Aristotle’s Metaphysics H, seeks to provide an original and more accurate interpretation of Aristotle’s theory of hylomorphic substances in Metaphysics H. Pfeiffer will here establish that book H contains the authoritative Aristotelian account of hylomorphic substances, which is based on Aristotle’s theory of scientific definitions. Pfeiffer’s work will also seek to clarify whether these considerations imply that Aristotle proposed two different models of hylomorphism.

The funding for the Connaught New Researcher Award comes from U of T’s Connaught Fund, founded in 1972 when the university sold the Connaught Medical Research Laboratories for $29 million. This year, the Connaught New Researchers program has awarded funding to 14 researchers in the humanities, 9 in life sciences, 8 in physical sciences and engineering, and 25 in social sciences.