Professor Rob Allison

Interim Vice Dean

Professor Rob Allison is the Interim Vice Dean of the Lassonde School of Engineering.

The Vice Dean provides leadership and direction for the continuous development of Lassonde’s academic enterprise in three priority areas. In the first he is responsible for initiating and coordinating the development of innovative academic initiatives, including the Renaissance Engineering™ curriculum and experiential education. In the second area he oversees the continued excellence of student services, including student advising, awards and counseling. And in the third, he works to recruit outstanding new faculty members, and to coordinate resources, opportunities, and mentorship.

Previously Professor Rob Allison was the Vice Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and Undergraduate Program Director for Computer, Software and Electrical Engineering.

Rob is a well-respected professor, administrator and researcher.

He is passionate about engineering education and is an an active researcher in the Virtual Reality and Perception Laboratory at Lassonde.

Professor Spiros Pagiatakis

Associate Dean, Research & Graduate Studies

Professor Spiros Pagiatakis is Lassonde’s Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies.

The position of Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies builds on the Lassonde School’s leadership in research and graduate education on campus and beyond. In his role, Professor Spiros Pagiatakis guides the School’s interdisciplinary research enterprise, international expansion and industrial partnerships. His mandate includes the development of the long-term vision of the School’s research via the formulation of a white paper on our ‘Research Strengths, Ambitions & Aspirations’ and the development of a new model for Lassonde’s graduate school.

A former President of the Canadian Geophysical Union, his research interests include global, regional and local dynamics of the Earth as observed by geodetic techniques, which has been supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the GEOIDE National Centre of Excellence.

Spiros researched and taught in Greece and China, and at the University of New Brunswick as well as York University, where he has received the Merit Award for nine consecutive years, and was most recently Chair of the Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering. A widely respected educator and innovative administrator, he has designed entire curriculums which utilize the most cutting-edge technology and learning environments. He is responsible for the new graduate school model, ensuring that truly groundbreaking work is done at Lassonde.

Spiros’ own research concerns the Earth’s dynamics, globally and locally, seen through the lens of geodetic techniques. For a project supported by NSERC and the GEOIDE National Centre of Excellence, he is determining the glacial isostatic adjustment signature from 50 years of terrestrial gravity observations in Canada and GRACE gravity mission level-2 data.

His other current projects include: determining atmospheric properties using GPS and Low Earth Orbiting satellite missions; determining the geoid and the sea surface topography; studying the response of the Earth to ocean tide loading; and the application of spectral methods to the analyses of superconducting gravimeter, Very Long Baseline Interferometry, and GPS time series. Spiros also recently worked on a program monitoring geological CO2 storage funded by Carbon Management Canada.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Albert Einstein