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. The Final Oral Examination schedule (see calendar below) lists current thesis defenses, and 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.
  • Please avoid the use of perfume, cologne, hairspray and other scented products when you visit the School of Graduate Studies. Refer to the University’s Guidelines on the Use of Perfumes and Scented Products.

Doctoral Examination Schedule

Exam DateStudent NameExam Information
(Thesis, Supervisor(s), Graduate Unit)
May 1Name: Rajat Sawanni A combined experimental and numerical study of pressure dependence of sooting processes in a counterflow diffusion flame
Supervisor(s): Prof. Omer Gulder
Graduate Unit: Institute for Aerospace Studies
May 1Name: Sanskriti Sasikumar Split-belt treadmill training to rehabilitate freezing of gait in Parkinsons disease
Supervisor(s): Prof. Antonio Strafella
Graduate Unit: Institute of Medical Science
May 1Name: Kyla Lynn Greenham Synergistic Impact of Climate Change and Aquatic Invasive Species on Native Fish Communities
Supervisor(s): Prof. Nicholas Mandrak
Graduate Unit: Dept. of Physical & Environmental Sci (UTSC)
May 1Name: Bradley DeMatteo American Samleng: Voices of Cambodian Diaspora
Supervisor(s): Prof. Joshua David Pilzer
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Music
May 1Name: Bradley DeMatteo American Samleng: Voices of Cambodian Diaspora
Supervisor(s): Prof. Joshua David Pilzer
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Music
May 2Name: Cheuk Yi Jovy Chan Managing the Human Herd in the Digital World
Supervisor(s): Prof. Joseph Heath
Graduate Unit: Department of Philosophy
May 2Name: Shezadi Khushal Dissonance between Human Rights Policies & Practice: An Examination of the Implementation of Human Rights Policies in Ontario Schools
Supervisor(s): Prof. Ann Lopez
Graduate Unit: Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education
May 2Name: Giovanni Jason Mastromarco Mechanisms of stress-induced biomolecular condensate disassembly and ALS-associated protein aggregation
Supervisor(s): Prof. Hyun Lee
Graduate Unit: Department of Biochemistry
May 2Name: Jaykumar Harshadkumar Patel Advancing MRI-guided Cardiac Interventions using 3D Cone Imaging
Supervisor(s): Prof. Graham Wright
Graduate Unit: Department of Medical Biophysics
May 2Name: Jingcheng Niu Towards the Renormalization of Transformer Language Models
Supervisor(s): Prof. Gerald Penn
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
May 2Name: Shai Bonen Devices, Circuits, and Architectures for Monolithic Quantum Computing Processors in Advanced Production CMOS Technologies
Supervisor(s): Prof. Sorin Voinigescu
Graduate Unit: Edward S. Rogers Sr. Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engin.
May 3Name: Xuan Shi Global Resolvent Analysis and Spectral Proper Orthogonal Decomposition of SDBD Plasma Actuator Effects on Airfoil Flow Dynamics
Supervisor(s): Prof. Pierre Sullivan
Graduate Unit: Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
May 5Name: Yalin Sun Dopamine and Endocannabinoid System Interactions in Sex- and Age-Specific Neuropsychiatric Vulnerability
Supervisor(s): Prof. Susan George Bahl
Graduate Unit: Department of Pharmacology
May 5Name: Robin Swanson Computational Imaging for Extremely Large Telescopes
Supervisor(s): Prof. Kiriakos Kutulakos
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
May 5Name: Xincheng Zhang TASEP and the KPZ fixed point in half-space
Supervisor(s): Prof. Jeremy Quastel
Graduate Unit: Department of Mathematics
May 6Name: Daniel Dun-ning Woo Johnson Building Representations and Quantifying Uncertainty with Pairwise Consistency
Supervisor(s): Prof. David Duvenaud, Prof. Christopher Maddison
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
May 6Name: Tanya Elizabeth Bandula-Irwin The Determinants and Dimensions of Armed Group Taxation
Supervisor(s): Prof. Wilson R.S Prichard
Graduate Unit: Department of Political Science
May 6Name: Raeid Saqur Dynamic Adaptation to Financial Market Regimes Through Filtering and Reward Engineering of LLMs
Supervisor(s): Prof. Frank Rudzicz
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
May 6Name: Steven Patrick Ryan Three Essays in Public Economics
Supervisor(s): Prof. Kory Kroft
Graduate Unit: Department of Economics
May 6Name: Maryam Zanjir Developing a Core Outcome Set in Endodontics
Supervisor(s): Prof. Amir Azarpazhooh, Prof. Carilynne Yarascavitch
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Dentistry
May 6Name: Maryam Zanjir Developing a Core Outcome Set in Endodontics
Supervisor(s): Prof. Amir Azarpazhooh, Prof. Carilynne Yarascavitch
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Dentistry
May 7Name: Eduardo Gutierrez Cornelius Car Wash Legacies: Lawyers, Globalization, and the the Restructuring of the Brazilian Penal Field
Supervisor(s): Prof. Ron Levi, Prof. Sida Liu
Graduate Unit: Department of Sociology
May 7Name: Camille Intson Gay Dreams and Feeling Machines: Queering Mediating Technologies in Performance
Supervisor(s): Prof. Patrick Keilty
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Information
May 7Name: Camille Intson Gay Dreams and Feeling Machines: Queering Mediating Technologies in Performance
Supervisor(s): Prof. Patrick Keilty
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Information
May 7Name: Daniel Sibley Surgical prehabilitation: expansion to a novel outcome and population target
Supervisor(s): Prof. Daniel Santa Mina
Graduate Unit: Department of Kinesiology (Graduate)
May 7Name: Calder David Sheagren Evaluation of MRI Methods for Ventricular Radio- Frequency Ablation Planning in Patients With Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators.
Supervisor(s): Prof. Graham Wright
Graduate Unit: Department of Medical Biophysics
May 7Name: Charmaine Elizabeth Condy Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Black Widow Spiders (Latrodectus, Theridiidae)
Supervisor(s): Prof. Maydianne Andrade, Prof. Nathan Richard Lovejoy
Graduate Unit: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
May 8Name: Patricia Elizabeth Lenz Making (Radical) Change Real: Understanding the Relational Elements Necessary to Undertake Transformational Social Innovation Between Nonprofits and Local Governments
Supervisor(s): Prof. Micheal Shier
Graduate Unit: Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work
May 8Name: Patricia Elizabeth Lenz Making (Radical) Change Real: Understanding the Relational Elements Necessary to Undertake Transformational Social Innovation Between Nonprofits and Local Governments
Supervisor(s): Prof. Micheal Shier
Graduate Unit: Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work
May 9Name: Adithya Shankara Subramanian Mechanisms of Exopolysaccharide Modification and Export by Synthase-Dependent Systems
Supervisor(s): Prof. Lynne Howell
Graduate Unit: Department of Biochemistry
May 9Name: Meysam Roodi Accelerating the DNA Sequencing Pipeline
Supervisor(s): Prof. Andreas Moshovos
Graduate Unit: Edward S. Rogers Sr. Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engin.
May 9Name: Shengbo Zhang Evaluation and control of window shading for occupant comfort and energy efficiency in a residential context
Supervisor(s): Prof. Marianne Touchie Windisch
Graduate Unit: Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
May 12Name: Amirmehdi Salehi In-situ Nanofibrillation for Advanced Manufacturing of High-Performance Polypropylene-based Polymer Composites via Spun-bond Technology
Supervisor(s): Prof. Chul Park
Graduate Unit: Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
May 12Name: Kyu Min Ju Peace in Saint Augustine
Supervisor(s): Prof. Ryan Balot
Graduate Unit: Department of Political Science
May 12Name: Angela Zavaleta Bernuy A/B Testing in Computing Education Research
Supervisor(s): Prof. Joseph Williams, Prof. Andrew Petersen
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
May 12Name: Jun Gao Machine Learning for 3D Content Creation
Supervisor(s): Prof. Sanja Fidler
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
May 12Name: Ashkan Mirzaei Leveraging Image Generative Priors for 3D Editing
Supervisor(s): Prof. Igor Gilitschenski, Prof. Jonathan Kelly
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
May 12Name: Joseph Bud Roach Digital Media as a Tool of Rhetorical Amplification in Historical Performance
Supervisor(s): Prof. Jeffrey McFadden
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Music
May 12Name: Joseph Bud Roach Digital Media as a Tool of Rhetorical Amplification in Historical Performance
Supervisor(s): Prof. Jeffrey McFadden
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Music
May 13Name: Jeffrey Alexander Zuccato Leveraging DNA methylation signatures in tissue and biofluids for the prognostication and non-invasive detection of CNS tumours
Supervisor(s): Prof. Gelareh Zadeh
Graduate Unit: Institute of Medical Science
May 13Name: Stephen Tino Essays in the Economics of Immigration
Supervisor(s): Prof. Kory Kroft
Graduate Unit: Department of Economics
May 13Name: Jacqueline Watkins Member Perspectives: Understanding How Beliefs and Attitudes Relate to Elementary Teachers Union Member Engagement in Ontario, Canada.
Supervisor(s): Prof. Carol Campbell
Graduate Unit: Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education
May 13Name: Connie He Yang Homeland Insecurities: Imaginative Geographies of Terrorism and the United States Israel Relation
Supervisor(s): Prof. Matthew Farish, Prof. Emily Gilbert
Graduate Unit: Department of Geography and Planning
May 14Name: Caleb Labbe Phelan Performance as Translation: Virtuosity in Musical Modernity
Supervisor(s): Prof. Sherry Lee
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Music
May 14Name: Caleb Labbe Phelan Performance as Translation: Virtuosity in Musical Modernity
Supervisor(s): Prof. Sherry Lee
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Music
May 14Name: Alexandria Samson Longitudinal Sex Differences in Brain and Cognitive Function in Older Adults: Multivariate Analyses of Alzheimers Disease Risk Factors and Mild Cognitive Impairment
Supervisor(s): Prof. Anthony Randal McIntosh
Graduate Unit: Department of Psychology
May 15Name: Jotthi Bansal ASSESSING IMPACTS ON CAREER HUMAN AGENCY AND COUNSELLING NEEDS OF PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES DURING A PANDEMIC.
Supervisor(s): Prof. Charles Chen
Graduate Unit: Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development
May 15Name: Aditi Bhatia Rise of the Digital Financial Ecosystem in India: The Political Economy of Platforms, Gaps and Trends for Development
Supervisor(s): Prof. Brett Caraway
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Information
May 15Name: Aditi Bhatia Rise of the Digital Financial Ecosystem in India: The Political Economy of Platforms, Gaps and Trends for Development
Supervisor(s): Prof. Brett Caraway
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Information
May 15Name: Maria Eduarda Mendes Martins Time Sculptures for Orchestra
Supervisor(s): Prof. Gary Kulesha
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Music
May 15Name: Maria Eduarda Mendes Martins Time Sculptures for Orchestra
Supervisor(s): Prof. Gary Kulesha
Graduate Unit: Faculty of Music
May 16Name: Grayson Tilstra Design and Synthesis of Ionizable Lipids for mRNA Delivery
Supervisor(s): Prof. Omar F. Khan
Graduate Unit: Institute of Biomedical Engineering
May 20Name: Qianfeng Shen A Three Layer Lossless and Low Latency Network Protocol Stack Implemented Using FPGAs
Supervisor(s): Prof. Paul Chow
Graduate Unit: Edward S. Rogers Sr. Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engin.
May 20Name: Jeremy Ko On Lock-Free Data Structures for Dynamic Sets and Their Amortized Step Complexities
Supervisor(s): Prof. Faith Ellen
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
May 20Name: Quin Yuhui Xie The Role of Gut Microbiota and Immunity in Risk fo r Youth-Onset Diabetes
Supervisor(s): Prof. Jayne Danska
Graduate Unit: Department of Medical Biophysics
May 20Name: Kristi Kerford Having It All? A Phenomenological Exploration of Women’s Sense of Fulfilment
Supervisor(s): Prof. Charles Chen
Graduate Unit: Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development
May 21Name: Diana Nakib Single-Cell and Spatial Transcriptomic Profiling of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis and Healthy Livers: Defining Myeloid Dysregulation and Epithelial Identity in the Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis Niche
Supervisor(s): Prof. Sonya MacParland
Graduate Unit: Department of Immunology
May 21Name: Karly Franz Interbrain synchrony during a novel dyadic tracing task: analytical methods and socio-cognitive differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Supervisor(s): Prof. Tom Chau
Graduate Unit: Institute of Biomedical Engineering
May 21Name: Ava Danialy Preclinical Evaluation of an MR-guided High ntensity Focused Ultrasound Platform for in-utero Therapy
Supervisor(s): Prof. James McKenzie Drake
Graduate Unit: Institute of Biomedical Engineering
May 21Name: Mingyue Yang Application of Machine Learning in Program and Malware Analysis
Supervisor(s): Prof. David Lie, Prof. Nicolas Papernot
Graduate Unit: Edward S. Rogers Sr. Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engin.
May 21Name: Anna Mandel Selective targeting of epigenetic regulators in primary and metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma
Supervisor(s): Prof. Rebecca Gladdy
Graduate Unit: Institute of Medical Science
May 23Name: Seyed Ali Jokar Jandaghi Methods to Improve Server Utilization by Analyzing Large-Scale Public Cloud Datasets
Supervisor(s): Prof. Bianca Schroeder
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
May 23Name: Alessio Aletta A World of Paper. Geography and spatiality in the Works of Luigi Pirandello
Supervisor(s): Prof. Luca Somigli
Graduate Unit: Department of Italian Studies
May 23Name: Erich Daniel Luna Jacobs Decoloniality and the Critique of Modernity: An Interpretive Study on Walter Mignolo, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, and Arturo Escobar
Supervisor(s): Prof. Margaret Kohn
Graduate Unit: Department of Political Science
May 23Name: Bruno Staffa On density and equidistribution of stationary geodesic nets
Supervisor(s): Prof. Yevgeny Liokumovich
Graduate Unit: Department of Mathematics
May 23Name: Khashayar Namdar Non-invasive MRI-based Pipelines for Pediatric Low-Grade Gliomas Molecular Biomarker dentification and Beyond Using Machine Learning
Supervisor(s): Prof. Farzad Khalvati
Graduate Unit: Institute of Medical Science
May 23Name: Zhixiang Chi Towards Model Adaptation at Test-time in Open-World Environments
Supervisor(s): Prof. Konstantinos Plataniotis
Graduate Unit: Edward S. Rogers Sr. Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engin.
May 23Name: Amin Dadashzade Protection of Transmission Lines in Power Systems with High Penetration of Inverter-Based Resources
Supervisor(s): Prof. Ali Hooshyar
Graduate Unit: Edward S. Rogers Sr. Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engin.
May 23Name: Valeria Ratsch Harassment and Violence Faced by Latinas on Ontario Construction Industry Work Sites
Supervisor(s): Prof. Kiran Mirchandani
Graduate Unit: Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education
May 26Name: Sujay Nagaraj Reconciling with Noise in Machine Learning for Health
Supervisor(s): Prof. Anna Goldenberg
Graduate Unit: Department of Computer Science
May 26Name: Somayyeh Kamalou Relating Process to Outcome: Resolution of Self-Criticism Process, Client Post-Session and Post-Treatment Changes, and Working Alliance in Emotion-Focused Therapy for Depression
Supervisor(s): Prof. Jeanne Watson
Graduate Unit: Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development
May 27Name: Anna Kozak Gender and Genre in Queer American Autobiography
Supervisor(s): Prof. Naomi Morgenstern
Graduate Unit: Department of English
May 27Name: Edna Lopez Avila Systematic Noise Trading, Social Media, and the Impact on Equity and Options Markets
Supervisor(s): Prof. Chay Ornthanalai, Prof. Charles Martineau
Graduate Unit: Graduate Department of Management
May 27Name: Edna Lopez Avila Systematic Noise Trading, Social Media, and the Impact on Equity and Options Markets
Supervisor(s): Prof. Chay Ornthanalai, Prof. Charles Martineau
Graduate Unit: Graduate Department of Management
May 28Name: Shahrzad Mirzaei Acquisition du placement de l’accent tonique en francais L2 chez les apprenants persanophones : etude des effets eventuels des contraintes morpho-phonologiques de la L1
Supervisor(s): Prof. Jeffrey Steele
Graduate Unit: Department of French
May 28Name: Weiyi Xiao USING REVISION PROMPTS TO FACILITATE KNOWLEDGE CREATION IN THREADED DISCUSSIONS: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY
Supervisor(s): Prof. Shelley Stagg Peterson
Graduate Unit: Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning
May 28Name: Samer Hamamji Development Evaluation of a Food Choices Assessment Score according to 2019 Canadas Food Guide, and its association with Cardiometabolic Risk, Socioeconomic Status, and 10-Year Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Findings from the Canadian Health Measures Survey
Supervisor(s): Prof. Mary L’Abbe
Graduate Unit: Department of Nutritional Sciences
May 28Name: Nicole Isabelle George Pathways for decolonial FSL literacies in Teacher Education
Supervisor(s): Prof. Diane Farmer
Graduate Unit: Department of Social Justice Education
May 29Name: Jennifer Gutberg Navigating an Epoch-Shaping Crisis: Exploring Top Management Teams’ Sense- and Decision-Making through COVID-19
Supervisor(s): Prof. G. Ross Baker
Graduate Unit: Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation
May 29Name: Wenyangzi Shi Growing as English language teachers: A case study of international graduate students in Toronto
Supervisor(s): Prof. Normand Labrie
Graduate Unit: Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning
May 29Name: Xiaomeng Ma The Development Pattern of Multimorbid conditions Accompanying Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Associated Disease Management
Supervisor(s): Prof. Walter Wodchis
Graduate Unit: Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation
May 29Name: Mohammad Reza Talebi Bidhendi Multiscale modeling of materials and structures under extreme conditions
Supervisor(s): Prof. Kamran Behdinan
Graduate Unit: Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
May 30Name: Gianluca Villani Multistability Analysis in Networks of Positive Loop Motifs
Supervisor(s): Prof. Luca Scardovi
Graduate Unit: Edward S. Rogers Sr. Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engin.
May 30Name: Samantha Burns Supporting Children’s Development Through Caregiver Responsivity in Early Childhood Education
Supervisor(s): Prof. Michal Perlman
Graduate Unit: Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development
May 30Name: Brady Park Effect of Semaglutide on Vascular Regenerative Cells in People at Risk of Atherosclerosis
Supervisor(s): Prof. Subodh Verma
Graduate Unit: Department of Pharmacology