Congratulations to CMHC-SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow Hannah Brais who was recently awarded the Royal Society of Canada's (RSC) Alice Wilson Award, given annually to three women of outstanding academic qualifications in the arts and humanities, social sciences, or sciences who are entering a career in scholarship or research at the postdoctoral level. The primary criterion for selection is demonstrated excellence in the candidate’s work and research. The award is named after Alice Wilson, a world-renowned paleontologist and geologist who studied at U of T and, in 1938, became the first woman elected to the RSC.
Award winners are chosen from the current year’s top-ranked female recipients of postdoctoral fellowships from the three federal research funding agencies—the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.
Currently working with UTM's Professor Alison Smith, Hannah received her PhD from the Department of Geography at McGill University (2025) and is currently Head of Research at the Old Brewery Mission. Her postdoctoral research investigates the gaps in homelessness service delivery and public policy with regards to homelessness prevention.
Of this recognition Hannah said: “It’s an honour to be recognized among an already inspiring community of SSHRC postdoctoral researchers. Being allocated the Alice Wilson Award also highlights the value of critical research around housing and homelessness, while many of our communities turn their backs on our neighbours in need. It is in the spirit of Dr. Alice Wilson’s legacy that I am encouraged to pursue research that challenges the status quo.”