Five Osgoode Hall Law School professors and one Osgoode postdoctoral fellow have been honoured with 2022 York University Research Awards for outstanding research achievements that have helped to create positive change.
Janet Walker was recognized in the Extraordinary Research Honours category for her appointment to the Order of Canada in December 2021. Walker was cited by Governor General Mary Simon for her expert legal authority in commercial arbitration and conflict of laws and for advancing legal procedural standards in Canada.
Two Osgoode professors received York University Research Awards for recognition from the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) in the past year. Philip Girard was elected as an RSC fellow for his prize-winning work on the legal history of Canada. Poonam Puri received the RSC’s Yvan Allaire Award for her work as one of the world’s leading scholars on corporate governance, corporate law, securities regulation and investor protection. The Ottawa-based RSC promotes academic and artistic excellence in Canada, carries out research and advises governments, non-governmental organizations and Canadians on matters of public interest.
In a remarkable year, Puri was also honoured in the Prestigious Discipline-Specific Fellowships & Awards category for receiving the 2021 Mundell Medal from the Ontario Attorney General’s Office for excellence in legal writing and a Law Society Medal, which are presented annually by the Law Society of Ontario to those who have made a significant contribution to the legal profession. In its award citation, the law society described Puri as “one of Canada’s most respected and influential legal scholars in the fields of corporate law, corporate governance and securities regulation.”
Steven Hoffman, a professor cross-appointed with Osgoode Hall Law School and York University’s Faculty of Health, was also awarded in two categories: Prestigious Discipline-Specific Fellowships & Awards and Outstanding Knowledge & Mobilization Impact.
Hoffman, who holds the Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance & Legal Epidemiology and serves as director of York University’s Global Strategy Lab, was recognized for his election as a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, one of the highest honours in the Canadian health sciences community. His awards also cited his invitation as a member of the Inter-American Dialogue Health Task Force, which is developing a post-COVID-19 plan for the Americas, and his overall leadership in global health law and global health governance.
In the Major Grants category, assistant professor Heidi Matthews was recognized for co-leading a successful application to the federal Feminist Response and Recovery Fund for her project “Creating Space: Precarious Status Women Leading Pandemic Responses,” which she is carrying out for Women and Gender Equality Canada.
Osgoode postdoctoral fellow Godwin Dzah was presented with a York University Research Award for his work as one of the inaugural four recipients of the new Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship for Black and Indigenous Scholars. In his research, the recent University of British Columbia doctor of laws graduate is undertaking a fundamental re-evaluation of how international environmental law deploys concepts of crisis in ways that limit the potential for more sustained and complete forms of transformation.
“Thank you for your continued contributions to Osgoode’s research strength and reputation,” Dean Mary Condon said in an e-mail to the award recipients, “and sincere congratulations on all of your remarkable accomplishments in 2021, as well as on the acknowledgement of them by the university.”
In a message to all award winners for the 2022 York University Research Awards Celebration, held via Zoom on April 19, York University President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton and Vice-President Research & Innovation Amir Asif thanked the recipients for their visionary leadership, bold ideas and dedicated efforts.
“We are immensely proud of the calibre, breadth and depth of our researchers’ outputs,” they wrote, “and the many ways their unrelenting pursuit of open-minded inquiry has played a critical role in driving positive change in our local and global communities.”