Research

Professor R. Paul Young, PhD, FRSC Vice President, Research The University of Toronto

Professor R. Paul Young is a renowned engineering geophysicist. He was previously Chair of U of T’s Department of Civil Engineering. An outstanding scientist and teacher, Young was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2007. A native of Britain, Young was recruited to U of T in 2002 as the Keck Chair of Seismology and Rock Mechanics and the founding director of the Lassonde Institute, an international centre of excellence that draws on expertise across multiple disciplines within geosciences and engineering. As chair of Civil Engineering, he led the development of the department’s new framework for urban engineering, building cities that work for people. His leadership of the department was singled out for high praise by external reviewers in 2005 and 2006. He was previously chair of Earth Sciences at the University of Liverpool and head of Earth Sciences at Keele University in the U.K. He also established the Geomechanics and Rock Physics Laboratory at Queen’s University and the Rock Fracture Dynamics Laboratory at U of T. He is on the Board of several national and provincial organizations notably; Chair of TRIUMF, Canada’s National Nuclear and Particle Physics Laboratory, The Fields Institute for Mathematics, Mars Discovery District (an organization helping to build Canada’s next generation of growth companies), Mars Innovation (Federal Government Centre of Excellence for Commercialization of Research) and Executive Committee of the Ontario Council of University Research. During the last several years as U of T’s Vice President (Research) he has worked collegially with university colleagues, funding agencies, government departments and the private sector to enhance research excellence, innovation and U of T’s international standing as one of the world’s great research intensive universities.