Christopher Yip, Dean

Biography

Professor Christopher Yip began his term as Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering on July 2, 2019, after serving two years as the inaugural Associate Vice-President, International Partnerships in U of T’s Office of the Vice-President, International. He was reappointed Dean for a second term, from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2029.

Under Dean Yip’s direction and leadership, U of T Engineering continues to build on its reputation as a top-ranked engineering school globally. The Faculty’s strong focus on the impact of engineering solutions in building equitable and sustainable communities worldwide — whether through experiential learning opportunities for students or collaborative research initiatives with partners in industry — has been key to its success on the world stage.

Central to his commitment to students is the belief that the next generations of engineering leaders should reflect the communities they serve and bring a wide-ranging perspective to their work. To this end, several unique programs have been launched during his first term as Dean, including certificates in Public Policy, Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, as well as a tri-campus minor in Global Leadership.

Beyond his leadership role as U of T Engineering’s Dean, he is an internationally renowned scholar for his work on molecular imaging. Dean Yip is a faculty member with the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and he holds cross-appointments to the Donnelly Centre and the Department of Biochemistry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

As a former director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (BME), he provided leadership to more than 100 research engineers and scientists engaged in discovery and product development in the areas of neuroscience and sensory stimulation, biomaterials and tissue engineering, molecular systems biology and nanotechnology, as well as medical device and drug delivery system design.

During his tenure as Associate Vice President, International Partnerships, he established numerous international initiatives including a large MITACS Globalink Research Award grant, the Toronto base for the National University of Singapore’s Overseas College, and catalyzed the University of Toronto International Entrepreneurship Highways.

He served on the CIHR Institute of Genetics Advisory Board (2000-2021) and has been a standing member on grant panels at NSERC, CIHR and NIH. He has served as Section and Group Chair for NSERC’s Discovery Grant Program and is the Chair of NSERC’s Advisory Committee on Discovery Program Modernization. He serves on the Board of Directors of IC-Impacts, is the Chair of the Age-Well Epic-AT Advisory Board and serves on the MITACS Research Council. He is one of the inaugural Centre Nationale de la Research Scientific (CNRS – France) – U of T Twin Scholars. He is currently the Vice-Chair of Engineering Deans Canada. He was the first recipient of the Molecular Imaging’s Outstanding Young Biological Scanning Probe Microscopy Investigator of the Year award (1996), and has been honoured with a Premier’s Research Excellence Award (1999), Faculty Teaching Award, (2000) and Graduate Faculty Teaching Award for Sustained Contribution to Excellence in Graduate Teaching (2008). He was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009), a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (2014) and held a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Molecular Imaging (2000-2010).

Dean Yip received his BASc in Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry from the University of Toronto in 1988 and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1996. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry in 1997 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2002 and to Full Professor in 2007.