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Alumna Donna Vakalis completed her master’s degree in architecture in 2009 and is set to begin her PhD in civil engineering at the University of Toronto this fall. As a member of the Varsity Blues she was a versatile athlete competing in fencing, cross country and track and field. On Sunday, August 12, Vakalis will use her impressive skills to compete in the Modern Pentathlon.

Before leaving for London, Vakalis spoke with writer Gavin Au-Yeung.

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Rebecca Ghent, Associate Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, is a planetary scientist who works with NASA and researchers at various institutions to study geological processes on terrestrial planets.

As the latest Mars rover, Curiosity, hurtles towards the Red Planet and scientists around the world watch and wait, U of T News spoke with Ghent about why it's important to dig in the dust of planets and explore their rocky terrain.
 

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Today it’s the peaceful, suburban landscape of Ontario’s Whitchurch-Stouffville. But in 1500 AD it was an ancient city known as Mantle – wielding all the significance of a bustling modern metropolis.

“[Mantle] is the largest, most complex, cosmopolitan village of its time,” says Ron Williamson, adjunct professor in the University of Toronto’s Department of Anthropology.

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It’s a research breakthrough that moves the world closer to reliable, low-cost solar energy.

An international group of researchers led by U of T Engineering Professor Ted Sargent has created the most efficient CQD solar cell the world has ever seen – with a record-breaking 7.0% efficiency.

CQD stands for colloidal quantum dot – a type of semiconductor only a few nanometres in size which is used to harvest electricity from the entire solar spectrum, including both visible and invisible wavelengths.

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An international collaboration led by a team from the University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Kids (SickKids) may spark a major shift in treating children with certain brain cancers.

“This is exciting but also daunting,” says Dr. Eric Bouffet, professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. “What we found suggests a huge shift in the way clinicians work and think about medulloblastoma.”