Catalyst Fellowship Program
The Catalyst Fellowship Program is a major initiative dedicated to advancing the Catalyst’s mission — to empower Canadians and Canadian businesses to seize the opportunities and tackle the challenges of cybersecurity — through original research and industry engagement.
To learn more, please download the Fellowship Program Package.
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Overview
Selected from academics at Canadian Universities and professionals working in a wide variety of organizations and sectors, Catalyst Fellows will undertake original research and other projects related to the Catalyst’s work; engage closely with Catalyst program participants and staff; and share their expertise in an environment dedicated to innovation and collaboration in cybersecurity.
There are two streams in the Catalyst Fellowship Program: the Industry Stream and the Academic Stream.
Fellowship Streams
The Catalyst Fellowship Program offers two distinct streams to advance cybersecurity research and industry engagement. Both streams are designed to cultivate a collaborative environment where original research and industry engagement come together to solve today’s most pressing cybersecurity challenges.
Industry Stream
This stream is open to professionals from all industry sectors and across all career stages, including private industry, government and government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations. Catalyst Fellows in this stream will advance projects of their own design in cybersecurity or related topics while engaging with the Catalyst’s work, program participants and staff.
2025-26 Fellows
Academic Stream
This stream is open to any faculty member currently employed at a Canadian University. Catalyst Fellows in this stream will advance their academic research in cybersecurity or related topics, while engaging with the Catalyst’s work, program participants, and staff.
2025-26 Fellows
Webinar
AI Automation in Business:
A Risk Assessment
Your company is deploying AI agents faster than you can assess them. The business wants answers yesterday. And in the space between ‘this tool is amazing’ and ‘wait, what data is it touching?’, that is where things get interesting and real challenges emerge.
Join the Catalyst Fellows for a virtual webinar on Tuesday, March 3 from 11:00 AM–12:00 PM to hear a deep dive into the risk assessment of a real AI automation system. We’re not talking theory: we’re walking through a practical tool you can build at home, pulling back the curtain on its vulnerabilities, and showing you how seemingly simple automations can expose organizations to data leakage, prompt injection, untrusted output, and system compromise.
This session provides a practical examination of how cybersecurity professionals assess and categorize risk in emerging AI ecosystems, and identifies the key safeguards that matter most as these tools become increasingly accessible.
Tuesday, March 3
2026
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
EST (UTC-5)
Virtual Event
Hosted on Zoom
Have questions?
Fellowship Alumni
Catherine Middleton
Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management
Richard Wang
Associate Professor of Computer Science at Toronto Metropolitan University
Pamela Robinson MCIP RPP
Professor at the School of Urban and Regional Planning – Toronto Metropolitan University
Pamela Robinson MCIP RPP
Professor at the School of Urban and Regional Planning – Toronto Metropolitan University
Jordan Shaw-Young
Chief of Staff for Security Services – BlueVoyant
Jordan Shaw-Young
Chief of Staff for Security Services – BlueVoyant
Jordan Melzer
Senior Engineer at TELUS Communications
Jasbir Kooner
Director of Cybersecurity at Englobe Corp.
Fellows in Focus
Below is a selection of work from the Catalyst Fellowship Program, including publications, opinion pieces, webinars, and more. Visit our Publications page for further insights from this group of experts.
