Awards and Accolades - August 2018

Celebrating the achievements of faculty, staff and students

Kirsten Bauer - 16 August 2018

As summer comes to a close, we celebrate the accomplishments of faculty, staff, learners and alumni in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. Congratulations on the many achievements that help our faculty shine.


Alumni Recognition

Isabelle Barrette-Ng, '03 PhD in Biochemistry, has been awarded a 3M National Teaching Fellowship.

(Above: Isabelle Barrette-Ng, '03 PhD and University of Calgary Teaching Scholar received a 3M National Teaching Fellowship)

Leonard Barry Smith, '68 DDS, was recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Pinnacle Professional Member in the field of Dentistry.

James Waddell, '67 MD, was named member of the Order of Canada for "his sustained leadership within the field of orthopaedic surgery and for his dedication to advancing best practices in orthopaedic care across Canada."


Vincent Lee, '16 MD and current resident in the Department of Psychiatry, received the Misericordia Hospital Trainee of the Year award in psychiatry.


Faculty Achievements

The Centre for the Studies of Asphyxia and Resuscitation, led by Georg Schmölzer, Department of Pediatrics and Women and Children's Health Institute (WCHRI) member, received Gold level Green Spaces certification for a second consecutive year.

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Grants

Congratulations to the Principle Investigators and their team members who have received 2018 CIHR project grants (listed by name, department, project title and amount):


Alan Wilman, Department of Biomedical Engineering - New quantitative MRI for human stroke - $768,826.


Sean Bagshaw, Department of Critical Care Medicine and Women & Children's Health Research Institute (WCHRI) member - A pragmatic cluster, randomized, crossover, registry embedded clinical trial of proton pump inhibitors vs. histamine-2 receptor blockers for stress ulcer prophylaxis therapy in the Intensive Care Unit (PEPTIC Study) - $317,475.


Jason Acker, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and WCHRI member - Enabling liver cryopreservation by controlling ice recrystallization with small molecule - $100,000.


Janet Elliott, Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology - Cryobiology of Cardiomyocytes and Engineered living cardiac tissue - $711,450.


David Evans, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology and Cancer Research Institute of Northern Alberta member (CRINA) - Poxvirus replication and recombination as drivers of genome evolution - $841,500.


Edan Foley, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology member- Characterization of the relationship between innate immune activation and Intestinal stem - $765,000.


Matthias Götte, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology member- RNA-dependent RNA polymerases of negative-sense RNA viruses - $879,750.


Maya Shmulevitz, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, CRINA and WCHRI member- Understanding and exploiting post-entry steps of oncolytic reovirus replication and assembly - $787,950.


Sangita Sharma, Department of Medicine, Alberta Diabetes Institute (ADI), WCHRI and CRINA member - Implementing culturally appropriate, evidence-based, and community-driven interventions to improve maternal health among Indigenous women in Northern Canada - $1,082,476.


Jack Jhamandas, Department of Medicine and Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute (NMHI) member - Amylin receptor: A potential therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease - $443,700.


Armin Gamper, Department of Oncology, WCHRI and CRINA member - Cancer therapy exploiting conditional synthetic lethality based on genotoxic agents - $918,000.


Lynne Postovit, Department of Oncology, Co-director of CRINA and WCHRI member - Epigenetic coordination of transcriptional and translational programs in hypoxia - $1,109,250.


Jason Dyck, Department of Pediatrics, ADI and WCHRI member - The role of ketones in heart failure - $478,125.


Justine Turner, Department of Pediatrics, Alberta Transplant Institute (ATI) and WCHRI member - Revolutionizing the treatment of neonatal short bowel syndrome by novel therapeutic approaches to intestinal growth - $478,125.


Peter Light, Department of Pharmacology and ADI member - Novel protective roles for ATP-sensitive potassium channels in the heart - $755,440.


Gregory Funk, Department of Pharmacology, WCHRI and NMHI member - Unravelling the contribution to the hypoxic ventilatory response of purinergic and glial signalling in the preBötzinger complex - $852,976.


Elaine Leslie, Department of Physiology, WCHRI and CRINA member - The influence of selenium on human arsenic metabolism and transport pathways - $680,850.


Adetola Adesida, Department of Surgery and WCHRI member- Precision Engineering of Cartilage Grafts for nasal reconstruction - $478,126.


Students, Residents and Trainees

Yuli Berlin-Broner, PhD candidate in the School of Dentistry, with supervisors Ysidora Torrealba and Liran Levin, earned second place in the International Association of Dental Traumatology Case Report Competition for her project Autotransplantation and restoration of an avulsed anterior tooth: A multidisciplinary approach.

(Above: Yuli Berlin-Broner, PhD candidate in the School of Dentistry, with supervisors Ysidora Torrealba and Liran Levin)


Vineet Rathood and M'Lynn Fisher, PhD candidates in the Department of Biochemistry, received 2018 University of Alberta Doctoral Recruitment Scholarships.


Rebecca Gibeault, '17 PhD, Department of Biochemistry, received the 2017 Madsen Thesis Prize for her thesis The Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Transcription Activator ICP4 Modulates Histone Dynamics.


Laine Lysyk and Rabih Abou Farraj, MSc candidates in the Department of Biochemistry, received the 2018 Stephen Campbell Award for teaching, given to one first-year and one second-year graduate student annually.


2018 Alumni Awards Ceremony


Please join us in celebrating the outstanding achievements of the FoMD's alumni award winners at the 2018 Alumni Awards Ceremony. Register now.


Monday, Sept. 24, 2018 at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium


Doors: 6:30 p.m.

Ceremony: 7 p.m.

Reception: 8:30 - 10 p.m.


Free, public event, guests are welcome


For more information or to register groups of twenty or more: alumni.awards@ualberta.ca