Killam Laureates

Patricia Dekeseredy

Nursing

Patricia (Pat) DeKeseredy is a PhD student in the Faculty of Nursing whose research focuses on improving care for people who survive opioid poisoning and live with a hypoxic/anoxic brain injury. She is supervised by Dr. Heather Morris (Faculty of Nursing) and Dr. Elaine Hyshka (School of Public Health). A registered nurse with many years of clinical, research and leadership experience, she is dedicated to ensuring equitable, evidence-informed care for individuals living with the intersecting challenges of substance use, disability and stigma.

Drawing on qualitative methods and interdisciplinary collaboration, Pat examines how health and social systems could better support people who are frequently overlooked by traditional models of care. Her doctoral research intends to inform integrated care pathways that bridge substance use treatment, rehabilitation and community services, with the goal of improving long-term outcomes for survivors and reducing barriers to care. Recognizing that recovery is not an individual process, she partners with people with lived experience, family caregivers, clinicians and community organizations to improve outcomes for survivors while trying to ensure that caregivers receive the information, support and services they need.

She has authored nearly 40 refereed publications and has presented her research at national and international conferences. Her scholarship has contributed to growing conversations about stigma, substance use, chronic pain and rural health, while helping establish an emerging area of research focused on the long-term needs of drug poisoning survivors with hypoxic/anoxic brain injury.

Ryaan EL-Andari

Surgery

Dr. Ryaan EL-Andari is a fifth-year cardiac surgery resident and currently in the third year of his PhD in the Department of Surgery, with his project focused on experimentation to address limitations in ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) and static preservation for lung transplantation. Ryaan’s work during his residency and PhD has been recognized through several honours, including the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, American Association of Thoracic Surgeons Resident Investigator Award and now, the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship.

Ryaan’s research addresses a critical gap in lung transplantation. Up to 80% of donor lungs are rejected for transplantation based on prespecified criteria, resulting in a waitlist mortality that can be as high as 15-20%. This is, in part, due to challenges associated with recovering and matching marginal donor organs. Ryaan's PhD projects aim to improve lung preservation by addressing the ischemia-reperfusion injury that occurs during traditional static preservation, and by refining EVLP protocols to better recover marginal donor organs. These projects aim to enable prolonged preservation and improved function of donor lungs prior to transplantation. Following the completion of his PhD and cardiac surgery residency training, Ryaan plans to pursue a fellowship in heart and lung transplantation.

Junyi Yang

Mechanical Engineering

Junyi Yang is a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta. Originally from Nanjing, China, she received her BSc (with distinction) and MSc degrees from the same department at the University of Alberta.

Her research investigates fluid flow in porous media, with broader applications to carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), particularly CO₂-enhanced oil recovery (CO₂-EOR). CO₂-EOR enables oil production while also allowing a portion of the injected CO₂ to remain stored underground, offering a potential pathway to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions.

Junyi uses a high-pressure microfluidic platform to directly visualize fluid behavior and investigate how CO₂ moves, mixes and interacts with other fluids in subsurface porous media under reservoir-relevant conditions. Her work seeks to uncover the underlying fluid and interfacial mechanisms governing these processes, providing insights that can inform more effective CO₂-based oil recovery and geological storage.

Eleyan Sawafta

Political Science

Trained across civil engineering and political science, Eleyan Sawafta is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. His interdisciplinary journey across Palestine, the United States and Canada has been shaped by a central question: how do the large systems organizing contemporary life shape political power and human rights? He holds a BSc in Civil Engineering, an MA in Planning and Development and an MA in Peace and Conflict Studies. This trajectory gradually shifted his attention from how systems are designed and structured to examining whom systems serve and how their consequences are experienced.

His doctoral research examines technoscientific regimes — institutional arrangements through which scientific knowledge, technological systems, innovation and political authority interact to shape human rights. Across three domains — migration governance, protest policing and AI-assisted warfare — his research asks how technologies (re)organize how people become visible to institutions and able to exercise rights. Through multi-level sociotechnical analysis, Sawafta seeks to bring science and technology studies into conversation with political science, human rights and social justice.

Supervised by Professor Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Sawafta has served as Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP), a graduate research assistant, with the University of Alberta’s interdisciplinary Bridging Divides program, working in a research lab co-led by Professor Yasmeen Abu-Laban and Professor Geoffrey Rockwell. He is also an Associate Fellow at York University’s Institute for Technoscience and Society. Recognized through prestigious awards — including the SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship and Killam Grand Challenges Scholarship for Interdisciplinary Research — his research has been presented internationally across North America, Europe and West Asia and published in various interdisciplinary journals.

Andrea DeKeseredy

Sociology

Andrea DeKeseredy is a Vanier scholar and PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology. She received her BSW from Toronto Metropolitan University, her MSW from West Virginia University and her MA in sociology from the University of Alberta. She is a registered social worker in the province of Manitoba. Her research interests include organizational inequality, labour and care work, and child care. Her doctoral dissertation explores how the implementation of the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) plan has shaped the lives of mothers living and working in Canada.

DeKeseredy has published several peer-reviewed articles in journals including the Journal of Child and Family Studies, Critical Criminology, The Sociological Quarterly and Canadian Review of Sociology. Her first edited book, Celebrity Mothers: Negotiating Fame, Gender and Mothering was released in the summer of 2026. During her doctoral studies, she successfully secured two research grants through the Killam Research Fund to support research related to children’s health and parental decision-making. Her work has also been featured in national media outlets including The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Global News and CBC National.

Patricia Dekeseredy

Nursing

Patricia (Pat) DeKeseredy is a PhD student in the Faculty of Nursing whose research focuses on improving care for people who survive opioid poisoning and live with a hypoxic/anoxic brain injury. She is supervised by Dr. Heather Morris (Faculty of Nursing) and Dr. Elaine Hyshka (School of Public Health). A registered nurse with many years of clinical, research and leadership experience, she is dedicated to ensuring equitable, evidence-informed care for individuals living with the intersecting challenges of substance use, disability and stigma.

Drawing on qualitative methods and interdisciplinary collaboration, Pat examines how health and social systems could better support people who are frequently overlooked by traditional models of care. Her doctoral research intends to inform integrated care pathways that bridge substance use treatment, rehabilitation and community services, with the goal of improving long-term outcomes for survivors and reducing barriers to care. Recognizing that recovery is not an individual process, she partners with people with lived experience, family caregivers, clinicians and community organizations to improve outcomes for survivors while trying to ensure that caregivers receive the information, support and services they need.

She has authored nearly 40 refereed publications and has presented her research at national and international conferences. Her scholarship has contributed to growing conversations about stigma, substance use, chronic pain and rural health, while helping establish an emerging area of research focused on the long-term needs of drug poisoning survivors with hypoxic/anoxic brain injury.

Shanda Duggleby Wenzel

Rehabilitation Medicine

Shanda Duggleby Wenzel is a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) and a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta. She has worked clinically with children and families since 2002. Her work with families, and her experiences as a parent advocating within the health and education systems, led Shanda to her research interest: parents’ experiences with speech and language services.

Shanda’s groundbreaking PhD research explores speech-language assessments from the point of view of parents. Working together with a group of parents, and under the supervision of Drs. Monique Charest and Lesley Pritchard, Shanda is learning what it is like for parents when their young child has a speech-language assessment. Her research highlights the relational nature of assessments and the impact that policies and systems can have on SLPs and parents. By learning from parents about the helpful, the hurtful and everything in between, Shanda hopes to help SLPs create more positive assessment experiences for parents, thereby setting the stage for stronger, more collaborative relationships - and thus, better treatment outcomes for children.

Shanda’s meaningful and excellent research has been recognized through many awards, including the Alberta Strategic SPOR Support Unit Graduate Studentship, a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award, the President’s Doctoral Prize of Distinction and the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship. Beyond her work as a researcher, Shanda is also a longtime clinical educator; she is proud to teach future SLPs as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the University of Alberta’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Shanda is profoundly grateful to the parents who have helped guide her study, and to the friends, family and colleagues who have supported her, including her wonderful partner and their two children.

Ryaan EL-Andari

Surgery

Dr. Ryaan EL-Andari is a fifth-year cardiac surgery resident and currently in the third year of his PhD in the Department of Surgery, with his project focused on experimentation to address limitations in ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) and static preservation for lung transplantation. Ryaan’s work during his residency and PhD has been recognized through several honours, including the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, American Association of Thoracic Surgeons Resident Investigator Award and now, the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship.

Ryaan’s research addresses a critical gap in lung transplantation. Up to 80% of donor lungs are rejected for transplantation based on prespecified criteria, resulting in a waitlist mortality that can be as high as 15-20%. This is, in part, due to challenges associated with recovering and matching marginal donor organs. Ryaan's PhD projects aim to improve lung preservation by addressing the ischemia-reperfusion injury that occurs during traditional static preservation, and by refining EVLP protocols to better recover marginal donor organs. These projects aim to enable prolonged preservation and improved function of donor lungs prior to transplantation. Following the completion of his PhD and cardiac surgery residency training, Ryaan plans to pursue a fellowship in heart and lung transplantation.

Maged Kharouba

Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Maged Kharouba earned his Bachelor of Clinical Pharmacy from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Alexandria, Egypt, and is currently pursuing his PhD in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Sherif Mahmoud. As the senior graduate student in the Neuro-CPK lab and lead student researcher for the Neuro-ARC study, Maged investigates augmented renal clearance (ARC), a super kidney phenomenon in which critically ill patients eliminate medications from their bodies far faster than expected. Standard dosing guidelines were never designed with these patients in mind, so conventional regimens can leave drug concentrations too low to work, risking breakthrough seizures, treatment failure and antimicrobial resistance among neurocritical care patients who are already the most vulnerable in the hospital. Through a prospective clinical study, Maged is characterizing how frequently ARC occurs in this population, what risk factors are associated with ARC, how it alters exposure to commonly used medications, what dosing adjustments are needed to achieve effective treatment and improve patient outcomes and to understand the possible pathophysiology underlying this phenomenon. His approach combines laboratory assay development, pharmacokinetic modelling and systematic evidence synthesis. To date, Maged has authored 12 peer-reviewed publications, delivered 30 presentations and earned 20 awards at the faculty, university, provincial and international levels.

Jamie Leckie

Medical Genetics

Jamie Leckie is a PhD student in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of Alberta. She previously earned a Bachelor of Health Sciences in Medical Sciences from the University of Calgary, where her research investigated a potential founder effect for the rare neuromuscular disorder spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) within Western Canadian Indigenous populations through haplotype analysis.

As a graduate researcher in the Yokota laboratory, Jamie is developing and evaluating novel therapeutic strategies for SBMA, a progressive inherited neuromuscular disease with no cure. Her research explores two approaches. The first uses antisense oligonucleotides to selectively target the mutant androgen receptor RNA responsible for the disease. To improve the clinical translation of this therapy, she is also investigating lipid nanoparticle delivery systems to enhance the safe and effective delivery of these therapeutics to patient-derived cells and preclinical mouse models. Her second research focus uses an engineered CRISPR activation system to increase expression of a naturally occurring androgen receptor isoform that can regulate the activity of the mutant androgen receptor. By combining this gene-regulatory approach with lipid nanoparticle delivery, her work aims to develop a broadly applicable therapeutic strategy for individuals living with SBMA.

In addition to her work on SBMA, Jamie investigates the roles of aquaporin 1 and aquaporin 4 in skeletal muscle biology and their contribution to the progression of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Through this research, she seeks to advance our understanding of neuromuscular disease mechanisms while contributing to the development of innovative therapies that improve the lives of patients.

Kelsey Lindquist

Native Studies

Kelsey Lindquist is a doctoral student in Indigenous Studies at the University of Alberta and a citizen of the Métis Nation within Alberta. She completed her BA (2019) and MA (2022) in Sociology at the University of Alberta.

Her doctoral research examines grief as a relational and embodied practice shaped by social, historical and political conditions. Focusing on grief within settler colonial contexts, her research asks how dominant understandings of grief can reproduce colonial ways of relating to ourselves, others and the world, while also exploring how grief may create possibilities for resistance and transformation. Drawing on Indigenous scholarship and sociological theories of practice, her dissertation develops an understanding of grief grounded in enduring relationships among humans, land, ancestors and more-than-human beings. Through this work, she hopes to contribute to new ways of thinking about grief, relationality and culturally grounded approaches to loss.

Javiera Navarrete

School of Public Health

Javiera Navarrete is a PhD candidate in Public Health (health services and policy research) at the University of Alberta. She holds an MSc in Pharmacy Practice from the University of Alberta and a BSc in Pharmacy from the Universidad Católica de Chile. Javiera is interested in the intersection of pharmacy and public health, and believes different perspectives are key to advancing pharmacy practice.

Her PhD research focuses on understanding the roles of community pharmacists in the public health response to the drug overdose crisis. The objectives are to examine contextual conditions and the mechanisms driving community pharmacists' engagement in the care of people who use drugs. Using a realist approach, her doctoral project will generate transferable, context-responsive recommendations to help systems strengthen and sustain community pharmacists’ engagement in caring for people who use drugs. This work will help ensure that community pharmacists' scope is leveraged to address urgent public health challenges, such as the drug overdose crisis.

A motivated and passionate scholar, Javiera has received several awards and scholarships, including the competitive national CIHR Canadian Graduate Award - Doctoral. She was also awarded the 2026 Mitacs Globalink Research Award and the Canada Research Training Awards Suite - Research Travel Supplements Award, which support international research training opportunities. These recognitions will support an upcoming research placement at Aston University in Birmingham, UK.

Beyond her research, Javiera is committed to community engagement, equitable access to healthcare and building supportive networks, values that also drive her work as a doctoral researcher. Outside of school, she enjoys volunteering alongside her dog Luna, advocating for kidney care and sharing a good cup of coffee with family and friends.

Laura C. Petrich

Computing Science

Laura C. Petrich is a PhD candidate in Computing Science at the University of Alberta, co-supervised by Dr. Patrick M. Pilarski in the Bionic Limbs for Improved Natural Control (BLINC) Laboratory and Dr. Matthew E. Taylor in the Intelligent Robot Learning (IRL) Lab. She previously earned her Bachelor of Science with Honors and Master of Science in Computing Science from the University of Alberta. Her interdisciplinary research brings together artificial intelligence, robotics and human anatomy to tackle a major challenge in assistive healthcare: many individuals with upper-limb amputations stop using their robotic prostheses because current devices often misinterpret movement commands during everyday activities. Most modern smart prostheses rely on static algorithms that do not adapt when muscle signals change due to arm movement, sweat or muscle fatigue. To solve this, Laura's research focuses on adaptive machine learning models inspired by the branching structures of biological brain cells. This design allows the prosthetic limb to update its decision-making directly on the device. Her approach helps the robotic arm understand the context of a movement, recognize when its own prediction is uncertain to prevent accidental movements, and adapt to changing conditions in real time. Supported by the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship, Laura is testing these adaptive algorithms in virtual reality and clinical studies to create reliable prosthetic limbs that learn alongside the people who wear them.

Amir Rahmati

Dentistry

Amir Rahmati is an MD/PhD candidate at the University of Alberta, where he previously completed a master's degree in medical sciences with a focus on cancer immunology and an undergraduate degree in biological sciences. His doctoral research investigates the mechanisms driving breast cancer progression to identify novel immunotherapy targets for patients with triple-negative breast cancer, a disease for which effective treatment options remain limited. Amir's research integrates immunology, cellular biology and computational biology with the aim of connecting scientific discovery with clinical practice through research questions grounded in patient needs. His contributions to this field have earned recognition at institutional, provincial and national levels, including the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Award, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Doctoral Award and the University of Alberta Dean's Doctoral Student Award.

Beyond research, Amir is actively involved in community service, advocacy and knowledge translation. He has taken on several leadership and advocacy roles, including co-organizing conferences that foster collaboration between researchers and clinicians, advocating for student mental health and expanding access to education for underserved communities.

Amir aims to build a career as a physician-scientist in which clinical practice and research inform one another, using insights from patient care to identify unmet needs, addressing those gaps through research and translating discoveries back into improved care for patients.

Andrew Simon

Biological Sciences

Andrew Simon is a PhD candidate in Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta whose research examines how we understand and respond to biodiversity change. His work spans ecology, conservation science, biodiversity informatics and genomics, with a particular interest in developing approaches that support robust inference and conservation action in the face of uncertainty.

In his doctoral research, Simon investigates lichens as model symbiotic systems for understanding biological responses to environmental change. By combining field ecology with molecular and genomic approaches, he studies how interactions among the organisms that form lichens shape their ecology, geographic distributions and vulnerability in a changing world. More broadly, his research asks how diverse sources of biodiversity evidence can be integrated to understand ecological change and its underlying causes.

A recurring theme across Simon’s research is the translation of biodiversity knowledge into practical tools for monitoring, conservation and community action. In 2026, Simon and his colleagues received the J. Stan Rowe Award from the Canadian Botanical Association for their research on local species extirpation and won the GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge for innovative work in biodiversity informatics. Simon’s contributions to community biodiversity research have also been recognized with the Islands Trust Community Stewardship Award and by Member of Parliament Elizabeth May. He continues to contribute to biodiversity assessment and community-engaged research through the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada and as founding member and president of the Institute for Multidisciplinary Ecological Research in the Salish Sea.

Junyi Yang

Mechanical Engineering

Junyi Yang is a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta. Originally from Nanjing, China, she received her BSc (with distinction) and MSc degrees from the same department at the University of Alberta.

Her research investigates fluid flow in porous media, with broader applications to carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), particularly CO₂-enhanced oil recovery (CO₂-EOR). CO₂-EOR enables oil production while also allowing a portion of the injected CO₂ to remain stored underground, offering a potential pathway to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions.

Junyi uses a high-pressure microfluidic platform to directly visualize fluid behavior and investigate how CO₂ moves, mixes and interacts with other fluids in subsurface porous media under reservoir-relevant conditions. Her work seeks to uncover the underlying fluid and interfacial mechanisms governing these processes, providing insights that can inform more effective CO₂-based oil recovery and geological storage.

Natasha Klappstein

Biological Sciences

Natasha Klappstein is a statistical ecologist interested in animal movement and habitat selection modelling. Her PhD research, conducted at Dalhousie University, focused on developing statistical models to better understand the spatial behaviour of a wide range of wildlife species. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta, Natasha will apply these new tools to assess how vulnerable polar bear populations may be affected by climate change and anthropogenic disturbance, with a focus on shipping and oil spill risks.

Oyeyemi Ifeoluwa Bamidele

Campus Saint-Jean

Oyeyemi Ifeoluwa Bamidele is a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta's Campus Saint-Jean, working under the supervision of Dr. Samira ElAtia. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics and TESOL and specializes in multilingual education, translanguaging and equity in language assessment. Her postdoctoral research examines how translanguaging strategies can support fairer, more accurate assessment of bi/multilingual immigrant children, extending Dr. Samira ElAtia's Transformative Assessment Matrix. Beyond academia, Oyeyemi is the author of the children's picture book Who Knows What Smart Is?, which celebrates multilingual thinking for young readers. Alongside her academic research, she is active in policy discussions and public engagement around linguistic diversity in education.

Sebastian De Line

Music

Sebastian De Line is a theorist, curator and Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Music at the University of Alberta. His research focuses on a critique of racial capitalist values and economies that transform the agency of global Indigenous, Black and Asian human and beyond-human ancestors into labouring “objects” of extraction, accumulation and consumption determined by acquisition criteria within museum collections.

Building upon a case study from my dissertation now forthcoming monograph, Postmortem Economies, my current research project The Sugary Dew of Our Sores: Global Plantocracy and Museum Philanthropy encompasses interdisciplinary research that discloses how the foundation of two of the oldest museums in Canada and England, the Redpath Museum at McGill University and the Tate Galleries in the United Kingdom, were established and continue to benefit from philanthropic support of Canadian, British and American sugar plantocracy from the nineteenth century into the present.

By investigating this monopolized network of sugar trade, including their intertwined relationships and successive takeovers, I locate colonial intimacies between sugar plantocracy and the unique contributions that Afro-Asian and Asian Caribbean painters and musicians imparted in the development of 1920s to 1940s surrealism as well as 1960s Ska and Rocksteady genres in popular music. By understanding the social influences and roles that Wifredo Lam (Afro-Taino-Chinese Cuban painter), Byron Lee (Afro-Chinese Jamaican musician and producer), Stephen Cheng (Taiwanese-American singer), Tom Wong (Afro-Chinese Jamaican sound system pioneer) and Joseph Hoo-Kim (Chinese Jamaican Reggae producer) had on Caribbean art and music, I aim to intervene with art historicity which attributes an idea of modernity as being solely Eurocentric, rather than Caribbean in its worlding.

Publications include the Journal of Visual Culture, Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas and C Magazine. Forthcoming texts include edited volume, The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Sound Studies, Volume Two: Arts, Practices, Theories, and book, Postmortem Economies in Art and Culture expected to be published in 2027.

William D. O’Connell

Political Science

William D. O’Connell is a Killam postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. His research focuses on international finance, global governance and the political economy of multinational corporations. His book project analyzes the history of international cooperation in the management of financial crises. His other projects explore financial regulation, the intersection of finance and technology, European economic integration, American financial hegemony and the rise of China. Prior to joining the University of Alberta, he was a postdoctoral research scholar in the Center for Political Economy at Columbia University. His research has been published in International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Political Economy and the Journal of Financial Regulation, while his policy commentary has been published in The Conversation and The Globe and Mail. He completed his PhD at the University of Toronto.

Hao Wang

Mathematical & Statistical Sciences

Professor Hao Wang is the 2026 recipient of the Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring, recognizing his outstanding commitment to developing the next generation of researchers, educators and leaders. He is a Professor in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at the University of Alberta, a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Mathematical Biosciences and Director of the Interdisciplinary Lab for Mathematical Ecology and Epidemiology. Since joining the University of Alberta in 2009, Professor Wang has built an internationally recognized research and training program grounded in intellectual ambition, interdisciplinary collaboration, inclusivity and mutual respect.

Professor Wang’s research demonstrates the power of mathematics to address complex biological, environmental and public-health challenges. His work brings together applied mathematics, ecology, epidemiology, artificial intelligence, data science and environmental monitoring to study subjects such as harmful algal blooms, aquatic ecosystems, animal movement, infectious-disease transmission, invasive species, ecological tipping points and greenhouse-gas emissions from oil-sands environments. By combining mathematical theory with empirical data, machine learning, remote sensing and interdisciplinary partnerships, he has contributed important insights into disease outbreaks, methane emissions, ecosystem sustainability and the responses of natural and human systems to environmental change.

Mentorship is central to Professor Wang’s scholarly leadership. He has supervised and supported a remarkably diverse and international community of undergraduate researchers, master’s and doctoral students, postdoctoral scholars, visiting scholars, research associates and early-career faculty. He encourages trainees to become active intellectual partners rather than simply participants in established projects, supporting them as they formulate original questions, develop new mathematical and computational methods, lead collaborations, publish influential research and establish independent scholarly identities. His trainees have received prestigious scholarships, teaching and research awards, dissertation prizes, travel awards and competitive postdoctoral fellowships.

The lasting impact of Professor Wang’s mentorship is evident in the accomplishments of those he has guided. His former trainees have become professors, Canada Research Chairs, postdoctoral scholars at leading international institutions and professionals in government, technology, finance and industry. They have continued to build influential research programs and mentoring communities of their own, extending his impact far beyond the University of Alberta. Previously recognized with the University of Alberta Great Supervisor Award and the Josephine Mitchell Mentoring Award, Professor Wang exemplifies mentorship as an enduring investment in people. His legacy lies not only in his research discoveries, publications and grants, but also in the confidence, independence, generosity and sense of purpose he inspires in others.

Evelyn Steinhauer

Education

Dr. Evelyn Steinhauer is a nêhiyaw iskwew from Saddle Lake Cree Nation and a Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. She is currently on a one-year sabbatical and will return to her role as Associate Dean, Indigenous Teacher Education in July 2027. She served concurrently as Associate Dean, Indigenous Teacher Education and Director of the Aboriginal Teacher Education Program (ATEP) until October 31, 2025, following many years of leadership as ATEP Director.

Dr. Steinhauer's research is grounded in nêhiyaw ways of knowing, being and doing and is dedicated to advancing Indigenous teacher education, Indigenous research methodologies, language revitalization, relational leadership and community-engaged scholarship. Her work explores how Indigenous knowledge systems, relational accountability and Indigenous pedagogies can transform education while strengthening Indigenous student success, language resurgence, educational equity and Indigenous self-determination. Her research is undertaken in partnership with Indigenous communities and is supported through provincial and national funding, including projects funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Rideau Hall Foundation, the Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) and Alberta Education.

Dr. Steinhauer's scholarship is distinguished by its integration of research, teaching, leadership and service. Mentorship is woven throughout her work and extends well beyond the university, reflecting a lifelong commitment to walking alongside students, educators, researchers, leaders and Indigenous communities. Grounded in relational accountability and nêhiyaw ways of knowing, being and doing, she seeks to create spaces where others are supported to grow, lead and contribute to their communities.

Persephone Blue (PB) Berge

Women's and Gender Studies

Dr. Persephone Blue (PB) Berge (they/her) is a media scholar, game maker breaker, self-described ludoarsonist and an Assistant Professor of Experimental Game Design in amiskwacîwâskahikan at the University of Alberta. Their research falls at the intersection of trans game studies and feminist platform studies and can be found in JCMS, New Media & Society, Game Studies, Games & Culture and elsewhere. She is the Director of the Discord Academic Research Community and the CRYPT Lab (Critical Research Yielding Playful Technologies).

Tamzin Blewett

Biological Sciences

Dr. Tamzin Blewett is a Professor in Biological Sciences and Canadian Research Chair in Environmental Physiology and Toxicology. She obtained her BSc from Wilfrid Laurier University, and her MSc and PhD in integrative biology from McMaster University. She was then an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta, ultimately being appointed to a faculty position in 2019. Her research focuses on how environmental contaminants affect aquatic organisms and ecosystems. Ongoing projects are focused on water sustainability and include investigating the impacts of a warming Arctic climate, mining effluents and wildfire ash run-off on aquatic biota.