The Rotman Institute is the home for interdisciplinary training the sciences and humanities. In the summer of 2023, 13 of our graduate student members were awarded funding to support their wide ranging research projects from Artificial Intelligence to Quantum Spacetime; from Children’s Medical Decision-Making to the Study of Psychedelic Experiences. View the summaries below to read about project descriptions and outcomes. As in years past, these projects have resulted in a range of scholarly impacts: helping students to refine goals for their doctoral theses, resulting in conference presenta ..read more

Rotman 2022 Catalyst Grant Recipients Last fall, the Rotman Institute of Philosophy invited members to submit innovative and early-stage research projects to the 2022 Rotman Catalyst Grants Program Competition.   The program promises to award up to $50,000 with a maximum of up to $20,000 per grant for a funding period of 2 years. These grants are offered once per year and are intended to support new projects among interdisciplinary teams for which external funding would otherwise be difficult to obtain due to the early-stage nature of the proposed project.   In its first yea ..read more

The Rotman Institute is the home for interdisciplinary training the sciences and humanities. In the summer of 2022, ten of our graduate student members were awarded funding to support their wide ranging research projects from  Mental illness to AI; from psychedelics and Psychiatric Disorders and Bioethics. View the summaries below to read about project descriptions and outcomes. As in years past, these projects have resulted in a range of scholarly impacts: helping students to refine goals for their doctoral theses, resulting in conference presentations, and leading to the successful dr ..read more

Member Awards & Achievements Jackie Sullivan was named a Graham and Gale Wright Distinguished Scholar for 2022-23. This award goes to early or mid-career faculty members in Arts & Humanities who are internationally recognized researchers in their field and have made important contributions to research and graduate education. Learn about her current SSHRC Insight Grant research project, The Philosophy of Neuroscience in Practice, and please join us in congratulating her on this well-deserved award! Two of our members have wonderful job news to share. Nicole Fice, who works in the are ..read more

We have several exciting announcements to share in this bi-monthly update! First, two of our faculty members were recently recognized for scholarly excellence by the Office of the President at Western University: Pauline Barmby was one of three Western Researchers named a 2022 Distinguished University Professor. Established in 2005, the Distinguished University Professor Award recognizes sustained excellence in scholarship over a substantial career at Western. Scholarship is broadly defined to include research, teaching and service to the community. Rotman Director Chris Smeenk was named a We ..read more

The Institute welcomed two new members this past month! Dan Lizotte joined us as our newest faculty member, with interdisciplinary research interests in machine learning, biostatistics, and health. Lizotte is jointly appointed to the Department of Computer Science in the Faculty of Science, and to the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. He is also appointed to the Schulich Interfaculty Program in Public Health and cross-appointed to the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences. Farshid Soltani is our newest graduate stude ..read more

We’ve welcomed three new postdocs to the Institute over the past couple months. Please join us in welcoming them & be sure to visit their profiles to learn more about their research! Kerry O’Neill and Michael Montess will both be working with Maxwell Smith and contributing to his research project, “Ethical Pathways for Therapeutics and Vaccine R&D in the Context of Public Health Emergencies of International Concern: An Analysis of the 2013-16 Ebola Outbreak to Rapidly Inform COVID-19 R&D”. Both have interests in bioethics, social and political philosophy, and public health.&n ..read more

Despite the challenging year, three of our graduate students successfully defended their doctoral theses in 2021. Please join us in congratulating each of them on this accomplishment! Their posters listed below include links to their full-length theses on the Scholarship at Western website. Mark Baker (May 12, 2021) View Thesis Becky Ellis (April 15, 2021) View Thesis Craig Fox (March 18, 2021) View Thesis Since fall 2016, Rotman doctoral thesis posters have been presented to each of our resident members following their defence. Styled to look like our event series posters, a ..read more

We’re very excited to begin this post with three exciting achievements from our members. First, in October our postdoc Bartek Chomanski accepted a tenure track position in the department of philosophy at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland, his home country. Please join us in congratulating Bartek & wishing him all the best in his new position! Second, Heather Stewart was one of three students at Western awarded the prestigious Governor General’s Academic Medals in October. Stewart was a recipient of a Gold Medal awarded for academic excellence at the graduate level. Read m ..read more

Providing distinctive interdisciplinary training in the sciences and humanities is a central aim of the Rotman Institute. During the summer of 2021, we were very pleased to offer funding to support a variety of research projects that included ten of our graduate student members. Project supervisors included three Rotman postdoctoral associates and faculty members from the departments of philosophy, physics & astronomy, law, health studies, and occupational therapy. View the summaries below to read about project descriptions and outcomes. As in years past, these projects have resulted in ..read more