Doctoral Examinations & Schedule

The Final Oral Examination (FOE) is the capstone experience of your doctoral studies. General information about the FOE is outlined in the SGS Calendar. A Doctoral Exam Schedule (see calendar below) listing current thesis defenses is updated periodically.

Additionally, you may find helpful the Guidelines for the Doctoral Final Oral Examination (FOE), a document that outlines the responsibilities of the graduate unit, SGS, the Examination Committee, and the Chair of the Committee in the planning and conduct of a Final Oral Examination. Faculty and Staff can access additional resources on the SGS Final Examinations webpage.

Academic fees for continuously registered Ph.D. candidates in the final year of the program are pro-rated over the 12–month academic year, based on the date of the final approved thesis submission to SGS. Incidental fees are charged on a sessional (term) basis. More information on the pro-rated fees and schedules can be found in Graduate Fees and on the Student Accounts website under Current Fall–Winter Fee & Refund Schedules.


In-Person Examinations at the School of Graduate Studies

Requests to book the rooms at 63 St. George Street are covered by the following guidelines.

  • Exam rooms are available for blocks of up to three (3) hours between 9:30 AM and 4:30 PM ET, Monday to Friday.
  • Exam rooms have maximum capacities as indicated on the Book a Meeting Room website.
  • All participants should bring their laptop or tablet with them; the computer, camera, and microphone in the room can be used to provide a full room view for remote participants. The computer is currently configured for anyone to sign into their Zoom or Microsoft Teams account. Teleconference is also available for a maximum of two participants.
  • All signature files and forms will be administered electronically.

Doctoral Examination Schedule

Exam DateStudent NameExam Information
(Thesis, Supervisor(s), Graduate Unit)
Apr 3Name: Nidhi Sachdeva Designing Evidence-Informed Microlearning for Graduate-Level Online Courses
Supervisor(s): Prof. Clare Brett
Graduate Unit: Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning
Apr 3Name: Adelaida Kolaj Investigating the mechanisms of perinatal neuron degeneration, survival, and their differentiation from neural precursor cells of the V-SVZ
Supervisor(s): Prof. Freda Miller
Graduate Unit: Department of Physiology
Apr 3Name: Mirkamal Abliz Tolend Towards Establishing and Validating an MRI Scoring System for Assessment and Interval Monitoring of Temporomandibular Joints in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
Supervisor(s): Prof. Andrea Doria
Graduate Unit: Institute of Medical Science
Apr 3Name: Matthew Carl Todd Room 41, Pictures From.
Supervisor(s): Prof. Norbert Palej
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Music
Apr 3Name: Henrjeta Mece Theorizing artist residencies in the 21st century: globalization, transnationalism, and contemporary art education
Supervisor(s): Prof. John Portelli
Graduate Unit: Department of Social Justice Education
Apr 3Name: Nicole Rachel Lindsay-Mosher Pigment Cells MOdel Lineage Regulation and Cell Clearance in the Planarian Schmidtea mediterranea
Supervisor(s): Prof. Bret Pearson
Graduate Unit: Department of Molecular Genetics
Apr 3Name: Yong Wook Lee Essays on Evaluations and Inequality
Supervisor(s): Prof. Anne Bowers, Prof. Andras Tilcsik
Graduate Unit: Graduate Department of Management
Apr 4Name: Frances Jessica Ruth Maddeaux Individual Differences as Predictors of Participation in Sound Change
Supervisor(s): Prof. J Chambers
Graduate Unit: Department of Linguistics
Apr 4Name: Pooja Gandhi Swallowing Physiology and Impairment in Individuals with Parkinson Disease
Supervisor(s): Prof. Catriona Steele
Graduate Unit: Rehabilitation Sciences Institute
Apr 4Name: Elyse Digby The Development of Targeted Photosensitizers to Enhance the Efficacy and Selectivity of Photodynamic Therapy Against Cancer
Supervisor(s): Prof. Andrew Beharry
Graduate Unit: Department of Chemistry
Apr 4Name: Mark Peter Croxall Towards Understanding Heterogenous Interactions in Photocatalysis
Supervisor(s): Prof. M Cynthia Goh
Graduate Unit: Department of Chemistry
Apr 4Name: Hamed Ghazisaidi The effect of using Bioflocculants as Conditioners on Dewatering of Biosludge
Supervisor(s): Prof. D Grant Allen, Prof. Honghi Tran
Graduate Unit: Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry
Apr 4Name: Jacob Clewell The Relevance of Casimir Ney’s 24 Preludes pour l’alto to the Contemporary Violist
Supervisor(s): Prof. Robin Elliott
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Music
Apr 5Name: Fiona Laverne Purton “Under the guise of change, but not with the intent of change”: Relationship Repair and Renewal in a Mandatory Indigenous Studies Bachelor of Education Course
Supervisor(s): Prof. Ruben Gaztambide-Fernandez
Graduate Unit: Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning
Apr 5Name: Sandy Che-Eun Serena Lee The Role of Oxygen and Oxygen-Dependent Enzymes in Protein Folding, Metabolism, and Redox Homeostasis
Supervisor(s): Prof. Marianne Koritzinsky
Graduate Unit: Institute of Medical Science
Apr 5Name: Olivia Hannah Hough Strategies to Prolong Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion
Supervisor(s): Prof. Mingyao Liu, Prof. Shaf Keshavjee
Graduate Unit: Institute of Medical Science
Apr 5Name: Lex Konnelly The Right Story: Discursive Strategies in Gender-Affirming Healthcare Access
Supervisor(s): Prof. Atiqa Hachimi, Prof. Sali Tagliamonte
Graduate Unit: Department of Linguistics
Apr 5Name: Maayan Shvo Theory of Mind Reasoning in Explanation, Plan Recognition, and Assistance: Theory and Practice
Supervisor(s): Prof. Sheila McIlraith
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
Apr 5Name: Denise Estelle Rebello The Role of Collagen 11a2 in Zebrafish Vertebral Development
Supervisor(s): Prof. Brian Ciruna
Graduate Unit: Department of Molecular Genetics
Apr 6Name: Anila Zainub Socio-economic Integration and Labour Market Outcomes of Highly Skilled Muslim Immigrants in the Canadian Knowledge Economy
Supervisor(s): Prof. George JS Dei
Graduate Unit: Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education
Apr 6Name: Siyin Chen Art for Whose Sake: Occupational Identity, Commercialization, and Innovation in the Porcelain Capital of China
Supervisor(s): Prof. Chenbo Zhong
Graduate Unit: Graduate Department of Management
Apr 6Name: Jia Yuan Liu Structure of the Human VPS33B/VPS16B Complex
Supervisor(s): Prof. Walter Kahr
Graduate Unit: Department of Biochemistry
Apr 6Name: Simon Hoffman Gut hormone regulation of hepatic and intestinal lipoprotein production
Supervisor(s): Prof. Khosrow Adeli
Graduate Unit: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology
Apr 10Name: Darren Marcel Hamilton How Gospel Pianists Learn Black Gospel Music: Developing Gospel Music Education in Postsecondary Institutions Beyond Choral Music
Supervisor(s): Prof. Lori Anne Dolloff
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Music
Apr 10Name: Matthew John Sourisseau Statistics of the synchrosqueezing transform
Supervisor(s): Prof. Hau-tieng Wu, Prof. Mary Pugh
Graduate Unit: Department of Mathematics
Apr 10Name: Danielle Celina Linda Alvares Mechanisms Underlying the Modulation of Hepatic Lipid and Lipoprotein Metabolism in Insulin Resistant States: Examining the Contribution of the Gut and Adipose Tissue
Supervisor(s): Prof. Khosrow Adeli
Graduate Unit: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology
Apr 11Name: Samira Omar Confronting and Addressing Institutionalized Racism in Rehabilitation Research and Practice for Black People with Traumatic Brain Injury: A Critical Race Perspective
Supervisor(s): Prof. Angela Colantonio, Prof. Prof. Charmaine Williams
Graduate Unit: Rehabilitation Sciences Institute
Apr 11Name: Kunga Sherab Incarnation on the Roof of the World: A History of Practices to Identify Trulku (sprul sku) in Tibetan Buddhism
Supervisor(s): Prof. Frances Garrett
Graduate Unit: Department for the Study of Religion
Apr 11Name: Wei Cui Generalizable Machine Learning for Mathematical Optimizations
Supervisor(s): Prof. Wei Yu
Graduate Unit: Edward S. Rogers Sr. Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engin.
Apr 11Name: Xinyi Zhang Improving statistical analysis of modern data applications
Supervisor(s): Prof. Dehan Kong, Prof. Linbo Wang
Graduate Unit: Department of Statistical Sciences
Apr 11Name: Shengrui Feng Epigenetic Profiling and Therapy for Brain Cancer
Supervisor(s): Prof. Daniel De Carvalho, Prof. Cheryl Arrowsmith
Graduate Unit: Department of Medical Biophysics
Apr 11Name: Kirk Thomas Geier Role of the Anterior and Mediodorsal Thalamic Nuclei in Cognitive Processes
Supervisor(s): Prof. Rosanna Olsen
Graduate Unit: Department of Psychology
Apr 12Name: Sonja Olivera Stojanovski The Effect of Traumatic Brain Injury on Attention, White Matter Microstructure and Organization in the Developing Brain
Supervisor(s): Prof. Anne Wheeler
Graduate Unit: Department of Physiology
Apr 12Name: Khaled Ramadan Photodynamic Therapy During In Vivo Lung Perfusion for Treatment of Lung Metastases
Supervisor(s): Prof. Marcelo Cypel
Graduate Unit: Institute of Medical Science
Apr 12Name: Die Hu Validating the WD Repeat Protein CDC40 as a Potential Therapeutic Target for Lung Cancer
Supervisor(s): Prof. Rima Al-awar, Prof. Masoud Vedadi
Graduate Unit: Department of Pharmacology
Apr 12Name: Oscar Geovani Martinez Cortes The Colombian Forest Sector Model- An analysis of forest plantation policy in Colombia.
Supervisor(s): Prof. Shashi Kant
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Forestry
Apr 12Name: Oscar Geovani Martinez Cortes The Colombian Forest Sector Model- An analysis of forest plantation policy in Colombia.
Supervisor(s): Prof. Shashi Kant
Graduate Unit: Graduate Department of Forestry
Apr 12Name: Laura Koek Role of calcium stores in different forms of plasticity
Supervisor(s): Prof. Graham Collingridge
Graduate Unit: Department of Physiology
Apr 12Name: Aly Abdelaziz Stress, Strain, and Failure in Heterogeneous and Anisotropic Rock
Supervisor(s): Prof. Giovanni Grasselli
Graduate Unit: Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering
Apr 12Name: David Jesus Acuna Marrero Visual Learning Using Synthetic Data
Supervisor(s): Prof. Sanja Fidler
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
Apr 12Name: Ruichi Xiong Essays on Urban Economics and International Trade
Supervisor(s): Prof. Nathaniel Baum-Snow
Graduate Unit: Graduate Department of Management
Apr 12Name: Jessica Bruce Inflammasomes in the Intestinal Epithelium
Supervisor(s): Prof. Dana Philpott, Prof. Stephen Girardin
Graduate Unit: Department of Immunology
Apr 13Name: Dawn Cowling Occupational Stress in Animal Shelter Workers.
Supervisor(s): Prof. Margaret Schneider
Graduate Unit: Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development
Apr 13Name: Hanna Catherine Wickstrom Meeting in the middle: Teacher-facilitation of play and math learning in contemporary kindergarten
Supervisor(s): Prof. Angela Pyle
Graduate Unit: Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development
Apr 13Name: Alexander David Cameron Edmonds Sample-Complexity Optimality Under Local Differential Privacy and Related Models
Supervisor(s): Prof. Aleksandar Nikolov, Prof. Toniann Pitassi
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
Apr 13Name: Jessica Campbell A Multi-Frequency Perspective on Galactic Magnetism and Dust Extinction
Supervisor(s): Prof. Peter Martin, Prof. Bryan Gaensler
Graduate Unit: Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Apr 13Name: Dmitri Segal Systematic characterization of human 14-3-3 paralogs reveals highly similar interaction specificities and uncovers their role as chaperone-like molecules
Supervisor(s): Prof. Mikko Taipale
Graduate Unit: Department of Molecular Genetics
Apr 13Name: Liam Doherty Hendrikse Integrative Genomics of Human Cerebellar Developme nt and Group 3/4 Medulloblastoma
Supervisor(s): Prof. Michael Taylor
Graduate Unit: Department of Medical Biophysics
Apr 13Name: Juncheng Wang Online Learning and Optimization in Communication Networks
Supervisor(s): Prof. Ben Liang, Prof. Min Dong
Graduate Unit: Edward S. Rogers Sr. Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engin.
Apr 13Name: Jessica Alice Leivesley Evolution and Ecological Consequences of Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination in Long-Lived Reptiles
Supervisor(s): Prof. Njal Rollinson
Graduate Unit: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Apr 14Name: Jordana Lise Lobo-Pires Judicial Rhetoric and Its Discontents: The Critique of Forensic Oratory in Shakespeare, Jonson, and Spenser
Supervisor(s): Prof. Mary Nyquist, Prof. Paul Stevens
Graduate Unit: Department of English
Apr 14Name: Jennifer Lynn Sparks Parental Involvement in the Lives of College Students in Ontario
Supervisor(s): Prof. Stephanie Waterman
Graduate Unit: Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education
Apr 14Name: Tamara A Cohen Yoga in the Mokṣopāya
Supervisor(s):
Graduate Unit: Department for the Study of Religion
Apr 14Name: Sepideh Sheybani Deloui Investigating the Cooperative Functions of Iroquois Homeobox Genes 1 and 2 in Development and Energy Homeostasis
Supervisor(s): Prof. Chi-Chung Hui
Graduate Unit: Department of Molecular Genetics
Apr 14Name: Blair Laurence Bilodeau Contributions to Minimax Statistical Theory
Supervisor(s): Prof. Daniel Roy
Graduate Unit: Department of Statistical Sciences
Apr 17Name: Laurel Michele Schollen Third-party Arrangements between Private and Public Colleges in Ontario: Benefits, Threats, Implications for Policy
Supervisor(s): Prof. Leesa Wheelahan
Graduate Unit: Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education
Apr 17Name: Yiying Li ENERGY LEVEL ALIGNMENT AT ORGANIC SEMICONDUCTOR INTERFACES
Supervisor(s): Prof. Zheng-Hong Lu
Graduate Unit: Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Apr 17Name: Mufan Li Analysis of Learning Algorithms via Diffusion Limits
Supervisor(s): Prof. Daniel Roy, Prof. Murat Anil Erdogdu
Graduate Unit: Department of Statistical Sciences
Apr 17Name: Nikhil Mistry Evaluation of Strategies for Managing Anemia and Transfusion in Cardiac Surgery and Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Health
Supervisor(s): Prof. Cyril David Mazer
Graduate Unit: Institute of Medical Science
Apr 17Name: Amanda Aleong A Machine Learning Approach to Real-time MRI Guidance for Robotic Needle-Based Procedures
Supervisor(s): Prof. Robert Weersink
Graduate Unit: Institute of Biomedical Engineering
Apr 17Name: Maria Alkurdi-Alzirkly ACQUISITION DE L’OBJET DU VERBE ET DE LA PREPOSITI ON EN ARABE SYRIEN L1
Supervisor(s): Prof. Yves Roberge, Prof. Mihaela Pirvulescu
Graduate Unit: Department of French
Apr 17Name: Kristopher Poulin-Thibault Selfhood at the Nexus of Word and Image: Memory and Identity in Autobiographical Texts with Photographs
Supervisor(s): Prof. Julie LeBlanc
Graduate Unit: Centre for Comparative Literature
Apr 17Name: Nila Christine Wu 3D Microgels to Quantify Tumor Dynamics for Identifying Therapeutic Targets
Supervisor(s): Prof. Alison McGuigan
Graduate Unit: Institute of Biomedical Engineering
Apr 17Name: Daniel DeGraaff Pepler Modelling Additively Manufactured Material for Applications in Topology Optimization
Supervisor(s): Prof. Craig Steeves
Graduate Unit: Institute for Aerospace Studies
Apr 17Name: Duncan Kirby Mesoscopic models of cellular signaling reveal strategies for specificity in crosstalk signal pathways.
Supervisor(s): Prof. Anton Zilman
Graduate Unit: Department of Physics
Apr 17Name: Alexey Vasilenko Essays in Household Finance and Education Finance
Supervisor(s): Prof. Claire Celerier, Prof. Mikhail Simutin
Graduate Unit: Graduate Department of Management
Apr 17Name: Wenzheng Chen BOOSTING 3D RECONSTRUCTION WITH DIFFERENTIABLE IMAGING SYSTEMS
Supervisor(s): Prof. Kiriakos Kutulakos, Prof. Sanja Fidler
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
Apr 18Name: Jon Albert Obnamia Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Renewable Jet Fuels Produced in Canada
Supervisor(s):
Graduate Unit: Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry
Apr 18Name: Yu Wang Mitigating Greenwashing Concerns in the Green Bond Market
Supervisor(s): Prof. Jeffrey Callen, Prof. Hai Lu
Graduate Unit: Graduate Department of Management
Apr 18Name: Yagnesh Ladumor Investigation of Therapeutic Vulnerabilities in Me astatic Neuroblastoma
Supervisor(s): Prof. Meredith Irwin
Graduate Unit: Department of Medical Biophysics
Apr 18Name: Ramin Forouzandeh Shahraki Essays on Urban and Labor Economics
Supervisor(s): Prof. Nathaniel Baum-Snow, Prof. William Strange
Graduate Unit: Graduate Department of Management
Apr 18Name: Fernando Ramon Avila The scars remain. Power, solidarity and punishment in an atypical Latin American prison
Supervisor(s): Prof. Kelly Hannah-Moffat
Graduate Unit: Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies
Apr 19Name: Justin Yonghui Kim Power Efficient Voltage-Mode RF Front-End using Quantized Analog Signal Processing
Supervisor(s): Prof. Antonio Liscidini
Graduate Unit: Edward S. Rogers Sr. Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engin.
Apr 19Name: Rebecca Rooke Identifying the Genetic and Environmental Factors that Impact Social Network Structure in Drosophila melanogaster
Supervisor(s): Prof. Joel Levine
Graduate Unit: Department of Cell and Systems Biology
Apr 19Name: Sabrin Mishel Characterization of SIRPa Signaling Mechanisms in Macrophages
Supervisor(s): Prof. Jayne Danska
Graduate Unit: Department of Immunology
Apr 19Name: Adrian Mihai Rotaru Developing Fluorescent Chemosensors and Activatable Photosensitizers for Cancer Biology
Supervisor(s): Prof. Andrew Beharry
Graduate Unit: Department of Chemistry
Apr 19Name: Carly Knuth The role of white adipose tissue remodeling in mediating burn-induced hypermetabolism
Supervisor(s): Prof. Marc Jeschke
Graduate Unit: Institute of Medical Science
Apr 19Name: Alaa Alsaafin Associations Between Genetic Variation with Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Drinking
Supervisor(s): Prof. Rachel Tyndale
Graduate Unit: Department of Pharmacology
Apr 20Name: Lauren Erdman Deep transferable models for prediction from ultrasound
Supervisor(s): Prof. Anna Goldenberg
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
Apr 20Name: Amirnikan Eghbali Tehrani From Suicidality to Psychological Growth: Understanding the Role of Affective Processing
Supervisor(s): Prof. Jeffrey Ansloos
Graduate Unit: Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development
Apr 20Name: Mengdi Guo Molecular, Metabolic, and Functional CD4 T Cell Paralysis Impedes Tumor Control
Supervisor(s): Prof. David Brooks
Graduate Unit: Department of Immunology
Apr 21Name: Elias Haddad Introverted Reflections
Supervisor(s): Prof. Christos Hatzis
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Music
Apr 25Name: Dalia Barayan Mechanisms and Consequences of White Adipose Tissue Remodeling and Aging in Response to Thermal Injury
Supervisor(s): Prof. Marc Jeschke, Prof. Robert Screaton
Graduate Unit: Institute of Medical Science
Apr 26Name: Daniel Lee A Nitrone-Olefin [3+2] Cycloaddition and O-Phenylenediamine Conjugation with 1,5 -dialdehydes as Bioconjugation Methods
Supervisor(s): Prof. Mark Nitz
Graduate Unit: Department of Chemistry
Apr 26Name: Huntley Hung Chih Chang Exploring beta cell NADPH production using organelle-trageted Apollo-NADP+ sensors
Supervisor(s): Prof. Jonathan Rocheleau
Graduate Unit: Institute of Biomedical Engineering
Apr 26Name: Andreea Alexandra Gheorghita Structural Insights into Modification and Export the Pseudomonas aeruginosa Alginate Exopolysaccharide
Supervisor(s): Prof. Lynne Howell
Graduate Unit: Department of Biochemistry
Apr 27Name: Sheril Jane Hook The Political Economy of Information Literacy: A Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis of UNESCO’s Media and Information Literacy: Policy & Strategy Guidelines
Supervisor(s): Prof. Brett Caraway
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Information
Apr 27Name: Michael Patrick Rupcic Martin Anatomical and Functional Characterization of the Larval Zebrafish Periaqeuductal Gray Through the Development of Novel Experimental Tools
Supervisor(s): Prof. Tod Thiele
Graduate Unit: Department of Cell and Systems Biology
Apr 28Name: Christine Ibrahim Insula Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Varenicline for Smoking Cessation & The Effect of Nicotine Dependence on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Supervisor(s): Prof. Bernard Le Foll
Graduate Unit: Department of Pharmacology
Apr 28Name: Theophile Gaudin Algorithms for Self-Driving Chemistry Labs
Supervisor(s): Prof. Alan Aspuru-Guzik
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science