Awards and accolades: Spring 2024

faculty excellence

Congratulations to the winners of the annual ALES Faculty Awards:

• Graduate Student Mentoring Award: Brent Swallow (RENR)
• Faculty Teaching Award: Debra Davidson (REES)
• International Engagement Award: Megan Strickfaden (HECOL)
• NACTA Teaching Award: Guillermo Hernandez Ramirez (RENR)
• Research and Innovation Award: Boyd Mori (AFNS)
• Tyrchniewicz Innovative Teaching Award: Malinda Thilakarathna (AFNS)
• Dean’s Distinguished Service Awards: Stephanie Dickie, Tonia Harris, Brandi Kobes, Robin McClelland, Charlotte Bowman, Natasha Wismark

Thank you to the departmental committees and members of the ALES Award Committee for their efforts to adjudicate these awards.

In the most recent round of new and renewed Canada Research Chairs at U of A, Guanqun Chen (AFNS) was renewed as a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Plant Lipid Biotechnology. 

Debra Davidson (REES) was recognized with a Staff Award from the GSA Recognition Awards.

ALES would also like to recognize our faculty members, librarians and ATS and GTA staff for helping us achieve the second-highest number of Zero Textbook Cost classes by faculty in Winter 2024, increasing textbook affordability for students.

Student Success

We applaud everyone who took part in the annual ALES Research Symposium hosted by the ALES Graduate Student Association. Congratulations to the following winners:

Oral presentation 

• 1st place: Sarah Parsons (AFNS)
• 2nd place: Abhijeet Pathy (RENR)
• 3rd place: Michele Tran (AFNS)
• Honourable mentions: Jemma Forgie (HECOL) and Jennifer Beaudette (HECOL)

Poster presentation

• 1st place: Orsolya Welch (HECOL)
• 2nd place: Sarah Namiiro (RENR)
• 3rd place: Caroline Wade (AFNS)
• People's Choice of Poster: Yuanyuan Lou (AFNS)

Congratulations to the AFNS Graduate Student Teaching Award recipients:

• PhD Students: Emilee Storfie, Emanuele Goes and Jo Ann Chew
• MSc Student: Aaron Brinkman

We celebrate the graduate students who made it into the final round of the U of A 3MT Competition, including two from ALES:

• Janani Radhakrishnan (AFNS)
• Haley Wolgien (AFNS)

The U of A Graduate Student Association recognized a number of ALES graduate students at the 2024 GSA Recognition Awards:

• Graduate Student Service Award: Pauline Chan  
• Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Award: Emanuele Goes  
• Graduate Student Research Assistant Award: Yuzbashian Sharifabad  
• Graduate Student Rising Star Award: Camila Estefani Orsso 

The 2024 U of A Range Team competed for top honours with university teams from the U.S.A, Mexico and Canada at the Society for Range Management Annual Meeting! The team – Damon Bectell, Sarah Johnson, Jordan Perron and Katy Sopotyk (AFNS) – won the following awards:

• 2nd Place Undergraduate Range Management Exam – out of 20 teams
• 3rd Place Plant Identification Exam – out of 22 teams

Two team members also won individual awards:

• 3rd Place URME, 1st Place Combined Award (high scores on both exams): Damon Bectell
• 1st Place Plant Identification Exam, 2nd Place Combined Award: Jordan Perron

At the Western Canadian Dairy Seminar, the following AFNS students placed in the student research competition: 

Oral presentation 

• 1st place: Diego Martinez Mayorga 
• Runner up: Rui Liu 

Poster presentation 

• 2nd place: Ali Wolfe
• Audience favourite: Matheus Narciso

Belated congratulations to the winners of the MacGregor Smith Public Speaking Competition for ALES undergraduate students!

• 1st place: Lois Schultz
• 2nd place: Lance Sunderwald
• 3rd place: Hannah Whittal

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