University of Toronto's Lawson Climate Institute has announced the recipients of the Lawson Climate and Sustainability Awards for multi-disciplinary students for the 2025–2026 academic year.
Andrew Wang, a graduate student in the Aspuru-Guzik research group currently engaged in developing and testing an LLM-based agentic framework geared towards materials modelling and Yaolin Wang, a 4th year Chemistry Specialist in Professor Al-Amin Dhirani's lab, studying green hydrogen and its potential to lower carbon dioxide emissions, are the two department students recognized by the LCI.
According to the LCI site, these awards—funded by the Brian and Joannah Lawson Family Foundation—advance world-class, multidisciplinary research within LCI’s pillars of Sustainable Innovation and Technology and Climate Policy and Sustainable Finance, while attracting distinguished early-career researchers to the University of Toronto.
Yaolin Wang expressed gratitude both for the recognition by the LCI and the support within the Department of Chemistry. "I would like to sincerely thank my supervisor, Professor Al-Amin Dhirani, for his mentorship and support throughout the whole time. I am also very grateful to the Brian and Joanna Lawson Family Foundation at Lawson Climate Institute for their generous support and for creating an inspiring environment at the intersection of climate science, innovation, and sustainability."
Andrew Wang agreed. “It’s really an honour to be recognized by this award. I’m deeply thankful to the Lawson Climate Institute and the Brian and Joannah Lawson Family Foundation for their recognition and support, as well as Prof. Aspuru-Guzik, Dr. Bernales, and Prof. Ozin for their mentorship. I look forward to meeting and learning from the LCI’s cohort of scholars!”
Recipients of the LCI Sustainability Award become part of a growing network of Lawson Climate Institute Scholars and receive support for programming, experiential learning opportunities, and internships. To read the full story about the research that earned these students this recognition, and to view the other awardees, visit the LCI Award Site.