The year in review: top 10 University of Toronto stories for 2012
Published: December 21, 2012
In 2012, stories and images from the University of Toronto captured imaginations here at home and around the world. From Australia to the United Kingdom, readers logged on to learn about everything from tiny solar cells to the relationship between semi-conductors and Scotch tape and meet everyone from Canada’s only Olympic gold medallist of 2012 to three inspiring students chosen to be Rhodes Scholars in 2013.
The university will be closed from Dec. 24 - Jan. 6. In the meantime, these are Թϱ’ biggest stories from the past year, as chosen by you.
Early birds are happier and healthier than night owls. That’s according to a Թϱ study, led by psychology PhD student Renée Biss, which riffs on the consequences of “social jetlag.”
Appearances aren’t that deceiving—not on Facebook anyway. A paper co-authored by UTM lecturer Amy Muise, UTM professor Emily Impett, and others, revealed that Facebook users’ online lives reflect their personalities and lives offline fairly accurately… and that profile pictures of couples can be a significant indicator of relationship satisfaction. Smile!
Thinking about time in terms of money "changes the way you actually experience time," said Professor Sanford DeVoe, describing this study from Թϱ’s Rotman School. The work revealed that those who attach monetary value to their time feel anxious when they’re not actively using it to earn money.
Թϱ-developed software that offers near-instant translation of English to Chinese, while still maintaining the character of the speaker’s voice, is in demand with major tech companies including Microsoft.
A big breakthrough in a tiny package: Թϱ Engineering Professor Ted Sargent led an international team that developed the most efficient CQD solar cell to date, only a few nanometers in size but 37% more efficient than its predecessor.
Թϱ scored top spots with prestigious ranking reports again this year. And every time another ranking was announced, readers wanted to learn more.placed Թϱ 21st in its ranking of the world’s top 200 universities.
“Toronto has done very well to hold relatively firmly onto a spot very much up there among the world’s absolute elite,” said Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education Rankings. “It is particularly impressive that Toronto has cemented its place as number one in Canada – widening the gap on its national competitors.”
Թϱ also snagged 16th place in the world from the in which leading international academics also rated the university to be the top institution in Canada. The university also placed higher than any other Canadian university, with a 27th spot worldwide, in the prestigious report from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
This Թϱ graduate bounced her way to the top of the podium in London. In our feature, ѲԲԲ’s training partner and Թϱ PhD candidate Sarah Gairdner, and Թϱ alumnus and Olympic canoeist, Norman Lane-- who won bronze in London in 1948-- weighed in on Rosie’s win.
The prestigious Rhodes Scholarships—postgraduate awards for Oxford University—were awarded to three Թϱ students this year: , studying medicine; , studying women and gender studies and sociology; and, studying biochemistry and global health. Թϱ was the only Canadian university with more than one Rhodes Scholar named for 2013.
“Our review — which shows no clear evidence that PMS exists — will be surprising to many people, including health professionals,” said Gillian Einstein, director of Թϱ’s collaborative program in Women’s Health. She and other Թϱ experts reviewed studies that tracked women’s daily moods through their menstrual cycles, with results that could begin to unpack some of the cultural baggage of PMS.
“Who would have thought simply sticking things together can generate entirely new effects?” asked Թϱ physicist and international team leader Ken Burch. But his team’s use of good old-fashioned Scotch Tape to induce high-temperature superconductivity in a semi-conductor resulted in a physics first… and the story caught the attention of , users, and more.
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