Carswell Family Foundation donates $1M to researchers at Lassonde

On May 31 at a special announcement ceremony, YorkU’s President Mamdouh Shoukri announced a $1-million donation from distinguished York University researcher and scientist Allan Carswell. The donation will support graduate students and researchers at the Lassonde School of Engineering and the Faculty of Science.

The Carswell Family Foundation’s will allow the Lassonde School of Engineering to recruit top talent into labs and classrooms, and to reward the hard work of graduate students.

The donation will create both a permanent endowment and scholarships, which will be given out as early as this September to newly-selected Carswell Scholars.

“With this gift, we can guarantee that more of our young talent will have the resources and the support to get started on their journeys into the unknown,” said Founding Dean Janusz Kozinski. “It will be up to them to show the courage, the skill, the perseverance and the will it takes to get to the top of their fields. We have no idea where their journeys will take them or where they will end. What we do know, is that for many of them here at Lassonde – thanks to the Carswell Foundation – it started here today.”

Prof. Carswell developed LIDAR technology while working at York University, a ground-breaking invention that uses high-powered lasers for remote sensing and environmental diagnostics.

At the time of Carswell’s research, the implications of lasers were virtually unknown and undeveloped. Prof. Carswell’s work has led a whole new generation of researchers to explore new things about the atmosphere and space.

He later founded Optech, a company that commercialized LIDAR technologies and had since had many successful years of business in technology solutions for surveyors, researchers and governments.