April 13, 2023
By Betty Zou
The Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC) has announced its inaugural cohort of Doctoral Awards recipients.
These 31 PhD students are engaged in innovative and collaborative research on infectious diseases. Their work spans from fundamental research uncovering the inner workings of microbes and their interactions with hosts, to applied research focused on improving diagnostics and vaccines, to community-based research on the social and economic impacts of infectious diseases.
With representation from all three University of Toronto campuses, including five faculties and fifteen departments, as well as four hospital partner research institutes, the award recipients highlight the depth and breadth of infectious disease research taking place at U of T and its hospital partners.
“A core part of EPIC’s mandate is to help build and empower the next generation of infectious disease research leaders. I’m thrilled that we are supporting this talented and diverse group of students whose work tackles the burden of infectious diseases from multiple angles,” said Scott Gray-Owen, academic director of EPIC and a professor of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
EPIC Doctoral Awards provide $10,000 in stipend support over one year to outstanding students who successfully achieved PhD candidacy in the previous calendar year. The students must be pursuing an infectious disease-focused research project and have a supervisor whose primary affiliation is at one of EPIC’s partner institutions (Hospital for Sick Children, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Unity Health Toronto, University Health Network and University of Toronto).
Learn more about the 2023 Doctoral Awards recipients on our funding results page.