Awards and Accolades - January 2018

Celebrating the achievements of faculty, staff and students.

Kirsten Bauer - 17 January 2018

Happy New Year from the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, and congratulations to all honoured colleagues this month.


Order of Canada

The Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry is delighted to recognize our talented faculty and alumni who were appointed to the Order of Canada. The 2018 cohort of Order of Canada honorees include:

  • Paul Armstrong, officer of the Order of Canada, professor of medicine and director of the Canadian VIGOUR Centre, for his "contributions to the advancement of cardiology, pioneering research in acute cardiac care, and leadership in health care institutions";

  • Tom Feasby, member of the Order of Canada, former Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs (now neurologist at the University of Calgary), for his "for his visionary leadership at multiple Albertan academic and health institutions, and notably for fostering excellence in neuroscience";

  • Eric Schloss, member of the Order of Canada, '59 BA, '63 MD, clinical professor of dermatology for his "regional and international philanthropic initiatives and humanitarian work supporting education and health care";

  • and Joseph B. Martin, officer of the Order of Canada, '62 MD, former Dean of Harvard, U of A Distinguished Alumni Award recipient in 2007 and U of A Honorary Degree recipient in 1988, for his "sustained and influential leadership in academic medicine, and for his contributions to building health research institutions in North America."


Specialty Awards

Andy Mason, co-director of the Centre of Excellence for Gastrointestinal Inflammation and Immunity Research and the director of the U of A's Applied Genomics Core, is the inaugural recipient of the annual Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver/Canadian Liver Foundation Visiting Professorship. Congrats!

Ron Oswald, Department of Psychiatry, Brian Sonnenberg, Cardiologist in the Department of Medicine, and Helen Steed, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, are recipients of the 2018 CAME Certificate of Merit Award for the contributions to medical education.



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


Georg Schmolzer, Department of Pediatrics, and Glen Jickling, Department of Medicine, have received Early Career Investigator Awards from Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).


Congratulations to the following Women and Children's Health Research Institute (WCHRI) Researchers who received CIHR New Investigators in Maternal, Reproductive, Child and Youth Health Awards:

  • Michael Hawkes --New anticancer drugs that can be repurposed to protect the brain of children with cerebral malaria (Department of Pediatrics)

  • Amit Bhavsar - Using genomics to improve the safety of cisplatin chemotherapy in children (Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry)

  • Kate Storey - Sleeping soundly: Understanding the translation of sleep promotion at school to sleep behaviours at home. Insights from children
    and parents (School of Public Health)

  • Shokrollah Elahi - How the immune system of a newborn allows for a swift adaptation to good bacteria in the gut (School of Dentistry, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry)

  • Valerie Carson - Early Movers: The role of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in the healthy growth and development of infants (Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation)


Israel Amirav and Michael Hawkes, Department of Pediatrics, have won $100,000 from Grand Challenges Canada for creating an innovative diagnostic tool to detect pediatric vital signs.

Vijay Daniels, Department of Medicine, is the winner of the 2018 AFMC Clinical Teaching Award.


Students & Trainees

Brianna Greenwood, biochemistry graduate student, has been awarded the FoMD/AHS Graduate Student Recruitment Studentship (GSRS) for 2018.

Biochemistry graduate student Andrew Fang was awarded a University of Alberta Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship for 2018.


Jennifer Wang, biochemistry graduate student, has been awarded the Charlotte Pokotilo Ovarian Cancer Research Award for the academic year 2017-18.


MD Student Derek Fehr has received Alberta Council for Global Cooperation's Top 30 Under 30 award. Great job!


Congratulations to MD class of '21 student Esther Lee on her publication "Leukotriene B4-Mediated Neutrophil Recruitment Causes Pulmonary Capillaritis during Lethal Fungal Sepsis" in Cell Host & Microbe. Great job!



Know someone inspiring? Consider nominating them for an honorary degree.

The University of Alberta welcomes the nomination of worthy individuals for honorary degrees. Any member of the public can nominate individuals who inspire the human spirit through outstanding achievements in learning, discovery and citizenship in a creative community, building one of the world's great universities for the public good. This vision will be reflected in the individuals who receive honorary degrees from the University.


Help us celebrate our inspiring role models!


Nomination deadline: February 15 and June 30 annually


Questions: kbauer@ualberta.ca