DPES Graduate Student Best Paper Award
Purpose of the Award
To recognize an outstanding peer-reviewed journal article publication authored by a DPES or DPES-affiliated graduate student.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the award, a graduate student must be enrolled in the Graduate Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences or in any graduate program at the University of Toronto, where the primary supervisor (a faculty member in the Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences) is affiliated. The student must have produced a first-authored paper published within the academic year (May 1-April 30) in a peer-reviewed journal.
Nomination Process
Only primary supervising professors may nominate graduate students for this award. Nomination letters must clearly state 1) the significance of the paper to the discipline, 2) the student’s role in conceiving and carrying out the research, and 3) any other evidence (e.g., quality of the journal) for why the paper should be considered for the award.
Award Evaluation
Evaluation of the award will be based on both the student’s journal article and the supervising professor’s nomination letter. The award will be evaluated by members of the DPES research committee. Papers will be evaluated in relation to their overall quality and potential significance to the discipline. The recipient of the award will receive $1,000 that could be used to attend a conference or to support any other activity pertinent to his/her research.
DPES Graduate Student Best Paper Award
Robert Lang - “Unitary transformation of the electronic Hamiltonian with an exact quadratic truncation of the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff expansion” -Journal of Chemical Theory and Computations
| Ignacio Loaiza-PhD |  |
He wins for the paper “On the breakdown of the Ehrenfest method for molecular dynamics on surfaces”, by Ignacio Loaiza and Artur F. Izmaylov, which was published in Volume 149 the Journal of Chemical Physics in late 2018. The selection committee was impressed by the originality and potential importance of the work, and by the independent nature of the student’s contribution. |
| Abha Parajulee-Ph.D Physcial and Environmental Science |
The study described in Abha’s paper is the first to make a link between plastic pollution and freshwater contamination with one such class of additives, benzotriazole UV-stabilisers (UV-BT). Abha was able to make this connection, because hers is the first study (i) in fresh water systems not influenced by sewage, and (ii) to adopt an approach aimed at understanding processes and sources of the UV-BTs in freshwater systems. |
| Ioana Fugariu -Ph.D Chemistry |  |
Ioana was the lead author on a paper titled "In Phase Ultra Resolution In-vivo NMR" that was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition (Impact Factor 11.7, arguably one of the top journals in chemistry). Ioana is conducting her research under the supervision of Prof. Andre Simpson. |