Professors Scott Prudham and Marla Sokolowski awarded the 2022 JJ Berry Smith Award for Doctoral Supervision
Dr. Scott Prudham & Dr. Marla Sokolowski
Dr. Scott Prudham and Dr. Marla Sokolowski are the recipients of this year’s JJ Berry Smith Award for Doctoral Supervision.
The awards are presented by the School of Graduate Studies to a faculty member who, over a minimum 15-year period, has demonstrated graduate supervision excellence at the University of Toronto. Two awards are given annually, one in the Humanities/Social Sciences and one in the Physical/Life Sciences.
Dr. Scott Prudham, Department of Geography & Planning and School of the Environment
Professor Scott Prudham has been recognized with a prestigious 2022 JJ Berry Smith Doctoral Supervision Award.
A professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science’s department of geography and planning, cross-appointed to the School of the Environment, Prudham’s research is situated at the intersection of environmental politics, environmental change and political economy. He is especially interested in the intersecting dynamics of social justice, environmental change and the commodification of nature, including in natural resource and extractive industries and in certain branches of agriculture.
Prudham is known for his tireless commitment to supporting and supervising graduate students. Since 2001, across the social sciences and specifically geography and environmental studies, he has supervised many graduate students, and especially doctoral students. He has acted as the sole or co-supervisor of 17 master’s students and a further 15 PhD students.
Says one former PhD student: “Scott demands academic rigour, but not without guidance. He is always generous and reliable with his support: offering thoughtful feedback on written drafts; suggesting reading materials; discussing theoretical or methodological works in depth. He holds his students to high expectations, which is both a mark of his confidence in our abilities and his investment in our academic development.”
Read the full story on the Faculty of Arts & Science website.
Dr. Marla B. Sokolowski, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University Professor Marla Sokolowski has been recognized with a prestigious 2022 JJ Berry Smith Doctoral Supervision Award.
According to her former student, Ina Anreiter – now an assistant professor at U of T Scarborough’s department of biological sciences – Sokolowski is a mentor for life. “When Professor Sokolowski believes in someone,” says Anreiter, “she goes out of the way to support them in every way possible – and Marla Sokolowski always believes in her students.”
A member of the Faculty of Arts & Science’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology, Sokolowski is a pioneer in the field of behaviour genetics and has conducted foundational research into the interaction between genes and the environment, and how genetic tendencies are affected by the environment and experience. Her groundbreaking investigations into the genetic and molecular basis of individual differences in behaviour include the discovery of the foraging gene in Drosophila melanogaster, or fruit flies.
Over her career, Sokolowski has supervised 22 post-doctoral researchers, 23 PhD students and 15 master’s students. Of 168 refereed papers published by her research laboratory, 112 have included graduate student co-authors. Six of her former PhD students have gone on to faculty positions at U of T, Washington University in St Louis and Brown University. As a testament to her role in their careers, her students organized a special issue of the Journal of Neurogenetics in her honour.
Read the full story on the Faculty of Arts & Science website.