Awards and Accolades - June 2018

Celebrating the achievements of faculty, staff and students.

Kirsten Bauer - 21 June 2018

The end of an academic year marks many accomplishments worth celebrating. Congratulations to the FoMD's class of 2018 and award-winning staff, students, and alumni for all that you have achieved.


Alumni Recognition


Lorne Tyrrell, '68 MD, Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, received the Friends of CIHR Award of Honour.


Leah Gramlich, '87 MD, Department of Medicine, received the Canadian Nutrition Society's Khursheed Jeejeebhoy Award.

Above: Leah Gramlich accepts her award from the Canadian Nutrition Society

Robb Kerr, '08 PhD and former neurosurgery resident, was named one of 2018's Top Doctors in New York, USA.

Lana Bistritz, '00 MD, Department of Medicine, was recognized with the Alberta Society of Gastroenterology Distinguished Educator Award.


Richard Fedorak, '78 MD, Department of Gastroenterology and dean of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, received the Sherbaniuk/Hershfield Award for Distinguished Service from the Alberta Society of Gastroenterology.

B. Brett Finlay, '86 PhD in Immunology, was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

U of A Alumni Awards

Congratulations to our faculty's winners of the U of A's 2018 Alumni Awards:


  • Marcia Boyd, '69 DDS, 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award


  • Charles Lee, '96 PhD, 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award


  • Lindsay (Linden) Crowshoe, '95 MD, Alumni Honour Award


  • Ronald Moore, '86 MD, '91 PhD, Alumni Honour Award


  • Barbara Romanowski, '73 MD, Alumni Honour Award


  • Brenda Walker, '71 Dental Hygiene, Alumni Honour Award


  • Lisa Hartling, '90 BScPT, '10 PhD, Alumni Innovation Award


Killam Awards


Gregory Funk, Department of Pharmacology, WCHRI and NMHI member, received the 2018 Killam Award for Excellence in Mentorship.


Jason Acker, Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, is the recipient of the 2018 Killam Professorship.


Lindsay Blackstock, Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, Maryam Kebbe, Department of Pediatrics, Cody Lewis, Department of Oncology and Jenna-Lynn Senger, Department of Surgery, are winners of the 2018 Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize.


Specialty Awards

Richard Fox, Department of Surgery, has received the William A. Shandro Award for Teaching Excellence in Clinical Surgery.


Vivien Wulff, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry staff, was appointed fellow of the Chartered Professional Accountants (FCPA).


Samina Ali, Department of Emergency Medicine, was awarded the Helen Karounis Memorial Award for Professionalism in Emergency Medicine from the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians.


Michael Mengel, Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, has received the American Society of Transplantation's Clinical Science Established Investigator Award.


Lonnie Zwaigenbaum, Department of Pediatrics and member of the Women and Children's Health Research Institute (WCHRI), is among the inaugural Fellows of the International Society for Autism Research, and the only Canadian in the group.


Satyapal Rathee, Department of Oncology, received Best Reviewer Award for the journal Physics in Medicine and Biology.


Congratulations to MJ Fell, former communications associate at the Alberta Diabetes Institute, and Richard Siemens, University of Alberta Photographer, on winning Gold in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) 2018 Circle of Excellence Awards for photo series Portraits of Diabetes, marking the 10-year anniversary of the institute. The Portraits of Diabetes campaign also won two International Association of Business Communicators Capital Awards in the categories of communications management and special events.


Students, Graduate Students and Trainees

Adam Kinnaird, '11 MD, '18 PhD, Department of Medicine grad student and Department of Surgery resident, was awarded the Governor General's Gold Medal for the Spring 2018 convocation.


Ryan McCoy, School of Dentistry Class of 2018, is the recipient of the Alberta Premier Silver Medal and the Alberta Dental Association & College Gold Medal.

Above: Ryan McCoy, School of Dentistry Class of 2018

Megan Fowler, Department of Emergency Medicine, won the Resident Research Abstract Award at the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians.


Jayme Kosior, postdoctoral fellow, Department of Medicine (supervisor: Ken Butcher), received the Paul Mann Award at the Department of Medicine Research Day.


Hamid Moghadas, postdoctoral fellow, Department of Medicine (supervisor: Vivian Mushahwar), has received a CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship.


Kahir Rahemtulla, MSc candidate, Department of Medicine (supervisor: Vivian Mushahwar), has received an NSERC MSc Scholarship.


Allison Forbes, Department of Oncology, (supervisor: Cheryl Nekolaichuk and Robin Fainsinger) was awarded the 2018 Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians Resident Research Award.

Above: Allison Forbes, Department of Oncology

Zafrina Poonja, Department of Emergency Medicine, won the inaugural Dr. Marnie Hinton Award for Resident Physician Health.


Julianna Deutscher, MD Class of 2018, received the Leonard Tow Humanism Award (student category).

MBA/MD students Brendan Kunimoto and Michael Taylor were named 2018 Case Challenge Champions at the University of Warwick, UK, alongside their School of Business Vital Consulting team members.

Above: MD/MBA student team Vital Consulting celebrate their success