“This has made my decision to come to U of T and return to grad school so much easier and more comfortable, knowing I will be able to live in Toronto without having to worry about all of the financial implications that come with that.”

Torrealba graduated from Dalhousie University with a BSc Honours (Co-op) in Environment, Sustainability & Society and Psychology in 2024 and received both the Deborah Buszard Prize and ESS Thesis Prize that same year. He was working for a renewable energy company in Halifax when a program at U of T piqued his interest.

It was the Master of Environment and Sustainability (MES), an intensive 12-month research program that would allow them to build on the work they did on climate vulnerability (how climate change impacts people and the environment) during their undergrad.

But the native of Cole Harbour, N.S., says making the decision to leave his job and move to an expensive city like Toronto was a difficult one – until he got the news he had received a Naylor Fellowship.

“When I got this Naylor Fellowship, I knew I couldn’t pass this up. I wanted to do a master’s at some point in my life, and I was really passionate about this research, so it got me excited about a future potential career in academia,” says Torrealba.

Their current research is focused on how climate change will affect wind energy, a timely area of study. Torrealba says they are interested in environmental research because it is connected to so many aspects of society including racial, social and financial inequities.

“All of these things are heavily connected so that’s something that’s very interesting to me. And in a program like this, where it’s interdisciplinary, I get to work with a lot of different folks who are taking different approaches to address some of these challenges.”

Torrealba is extremely grateful to the donors for giving them this opportunity to take the leap and pursue their research aspirations.

Read more about the U of T’s 2025 Naylor Fellows committed to making a difference in youth mental health, paediatric care and the environment