Dr. Leeat Granek, of the School of Health Policy & Management in the Faculty of Health at York University, studies the emotional, psychological, and contextual factors that shape how healthcare workers do their jobs. Her research has helped thousands of oncologists and neurosurgeons understand how they process grief and how their emotional connection to patients influences life-or-death decisions that they face every day.

Siobhan Angus, Athina Peidou, and Stephanie Raposo are York University grad students and the 2020 recipients of the Governor General’s Gold Medal for academic excellence. Angus, an art historian, studies the visual culture of resource extraction in Canada. Peidou, an earth and space scientist, studies gravitational maps produced from satellite-based measurements. Raposo, a psychologist, studies sexual satisfaction and intimate relationships.

Prof. Ellen Bialystok is a psychologist who studies the bilingual brain. Her work traces the development of the brain from infancy to old age, looking at the effect of bilingualism on our ability to pay attention to things. Her work has tremendous implications for public policy in an age of increasing immigration and increasing xenophobia.

Prof. Debra Pepler studies bullying. Her direct observation of bullying in schoolyards has changed how we help children deal with aggression towards their classmates. Her work also examines dating violence and online bullying.