Five University of Alberta researchers in diverse fields have been recognized by the Royal Society of Canada, the country’s oldest and most prestigious scholarly institute.
Joining the 2024 class of Royal Society fellows is political science professor Cressida Heyes.
In addition, recognizing high levels of achievement early in their academic careers, biological sciences professor Stephanie Green and computing science professor Martha White have been named to the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. They are joined by art and design research associate Narges Noori, who was nominated through the Royal Society of Canada’s At-Risk and Displaced Academics and Artists program.
Also inducted as a specially elected fellow is Tee Guidotti, who served from 1984 to 1998 as an administrator, professor and researcher of environmental and occupational medicine in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. He founded the occupational health program at the U of A, which under his guidance became the leading training program in Canada and a centre of research and professional excellence.
Cressida Heyes: At the intersection of the political and personal
As a globally recognized scholar in feminist philosophy, Cressida Heyes is always mulling “wicked problems,” whether they appear in thick academic books or pop up on Netflix.
Mixing theoretically ambitious analysis with popular culture, Heyes, a professor of political science and philosophy in the Faculty of Arts, looks at how “the personal is political, but how the political also makes us as persons.”
She is the author of several books, and her work has included exploring the cultural anxiety around getting enough sleep, and how and why people change themselves through avenues like cosmetic surgery. “I wanted people to watch those types of TV shows as philosophers — asking why someone would think that getting surgical procedures to look different could be a way of becoming a better or more authentic person.”
Using formats like blogs, she strives to make her work accessible to everyone.
“I try to break down complex ideas into bite-sized portions and show how clearer understanding can change the way we think about everyday things.”
Proud of the many students she’s taught to be “better thinkers,” Heyes notes many of them have gone on to apply the skill of critical thinking in careers beyond academia, including law, social work, health care administration and teaching.
“Understanding how to think politically is central to so many things,” she notes, adding that arts degrees teach those skills in a structured and practical way. “The state of the world should show us that we all need to have excellent critical thinking skills not just to work, but to be citizens.”
Stephanie Green: Informing action to protect ocean ecosystems
As climate change, biological invasion and habitat loss stress the world’s oceans, Stephanie Green works to understand the impacts and finds ways to manage them.
Working with governments, non-profit organizations and coastal communities in Canada and internationally, Green, an associate professor in the Faculty of Science and Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Global Change Ecology and Conservation, uses methods like underwater experiments and ecosystem modelling to uncover how these stresses affect marine food webs, and ultimately, ecosystems.
“The aim is to provide tools and information that help natural resource managers assess how restoration and conservation actions affect the ecosystems they steward and the economies these systems support,” she says.
Her work, based partly at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, explores pressing issues such as how to manage invasive species, as well as how changing ocean climate affects fisheries shared in Canadian and U.S. coastal waters. Her team also investigates how coral restoration programs can be designed to rehabilitate degraded reef ecosystems in the Caribbean Sea.
Recognized with the Earth Leadership Fellowship and a Sloan Research Fellowship in Ocean Sciences for collaborating with scientists, policy-makers and organizations in more than 20 countries, Green says developing partnerships is one of the most rewarding aspects of her work.
“To inform ocean resource management and conservation decisions, we co-produce knowledge with government agencies, First Nations and non-profits. These relationships are key for generating information that our partners can use to identify solutions to the problems they face.”
Narges Noori: Helping children imagine a better future
Having grown up in a society where girls often face limitations, Narges Noori understands first-hand the importance of empowering the next generation.
As an illustrator or author of several published picture books for children, the former University of Kabul fine arts professor is using her skills to continue that mission as a research associate in the Faculty of Arts.
Awarded a fellowship from the Royal Society of Canada’s At-Risk and Displaced Academics and Artists program after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Noori is working on her third children’s book about the empowerment of girls and women.
“In many cultures and societies throughout history, efforts have been made to limit girls and ignore their abilities,” she says. “In this book, I aim to tell them to believe in themselves and remind them that tradition and culture are not always right.”
Wanting deeply to make a better Afghanistan, she believes that starts with educating children as future leaders. Using illustrated books to do that “amplifies the power of words and meanings, to stimulate children’s imagination,” Noori believes. “Kids embark on adventures with the images and see themselves in the shoes of the story’s main character.”
She hopes her work “encourages them to think critically before accepting anything, not to overlook their own abilities, and to recognize that they can have a significant impact on society. And I hope that this book prompts parents to think as well, as they read it to their children.”
Grateful for the opportunities provided by the fellowship to connect with a community of scientists, artists and researchers at the U of A and beyond, Noori is excited about future collaborations on projects “that can drive real change. I’m eager to connect with others who share a similar passion for making a positive impact.”
Martha White: Building better algorithms for smart systems
By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, Martha White works to improve water treatment and other vital industrial control systems, helping them become more energy-efficient and sustainable.
Through research based in the U of A’s Reinforcement Learning and Artificial Intelligence Lab, White, an associate professor of computing science in the Faculty of Science, is improving data efficiency of algorithms used in automated decision-making.
“By developing techniques that help software programs — autonomous agents — learn and adapt in real time, we can reduce energy use and make systems more effective,” says White, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Reinforcement Learning and Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute.
Her research aims to create new methods for reinforcement learning that remove some of the limitations on its widespread application, with a particular focus on algorithms that can learn from interaction during deployment, without needing a simulator.
White and her research team are applying this research by developing prediction and control systems that would enable autonomous systems to adjust and adapt to changing circumstances with minimal input from human operators, while continually learning and improving.
By developing algorithms to learn from data generated by previous operations, her lab’s latest work has been able to explore the nuances involved in using such historical data. “Our work has helped understand the pitfalls, to move towards reliable and trustworthy performance.”