Awards & Accolades: March 2022

Join us in celebrating some of the recent achievements of our Faculty of Science faculty, staff, students and alumni.

News Staff - 31 March 2022

Faculty & Staff Excellence

Maya Evenden, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.

Congratulations to Maya Evenden, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, being awarded the 2021 Faculty of Science Graduate Mentoring Award! Each year, this award recognizes an instructor’s sustained dedication to the personal and professional success of both their own graduate students and of graduate students throughout their department. Evenden’s research focuses on how insects use chemical signalling to communicate for a variety of functions, including mate finding, habitat and host selection, foraging and egg-laying decisions — and how ecological factors influence this communication. She is also the instructor of the popular Bugs 101 massive open online course.

Ratmir Derda, professor in the Department of Chemistry.

Congratulations to Ratmir Derda, professor in the Department of Chemistry, on receiving the 2021 Award for Scientific Achievement and Innovation from BioAlberta! This award recognizes an individual or a team responsible for a breakthrough innovation with commercial application, and recognizes Derda’s use of machine learning to accelerate new drug discovery through spinoff 48 Hour Discovery. The company, founded by Derda in 2018, leverages the University of Alberta’s strengths in glycomics and AI, including machine learning, to offer rapid discovery of leads on new therapeutics through the use of proprietary algorithms and molecular libraries.

Student Success

Every year, the Festival of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (FURCA) Awards

celebrate the talents of University of Alberta students, providing a place for the sharing of ideas between students, faculty, and the broader community. These awards are given in several categories, and this year we are thrilled to celebrate six award-winning students from the Faculty of Science who have been recognized for their research.

Outstanding Communication

This FURCA award recognizes students who are best able to communicate the results and impact of their research to an interdisciplinary audience. Congratulations to the following three students, who have all been recognized with a 2021 FURCA award for outstanding communication.

  • Shaina Corrick, for the research project “The role of sex and gender in concussion outcome differences among patients presenting to the emergency department: A mixed method project”
  • Parth K. Patel, for the research project, “Widespread Healthcare Avoidance Amongst Canadian Pilots: A Cross-Canada Survey Study”
  • Casey Wong, for the research project “Characterizing Reovirus’ Adaptation To Laboratory Cell Culture Environments”

Outstanding "Early Career" Research

This FURCA award recognizes a first or second-year student for outstanding research undertaken during their first or second year of study. Congratulations to Manav Batta on receiving this prestigious award for his research project “The dynamics of ATM localization following cellular stress.”

Outstanding International Student Researcher

Finally, this FURCA award category recognizes outstanding research performed by an international student at the University of Alberta. Congratulations to the two following students from the Faculty of Science, who have both received 2021 Outstanding International Student Researcher awards:

  • Liye Fang, for the research project “Comparing proteome of wild type Methylomicrobium album BG8 vesicles other non-vesicle secreting methanotrophs and novel experimental approach for rescuing loss-of vesicle phenotype”
  • Bhawyanth Duvvuru, for the research project “Convenient Metal-Free Synthesis of 3-Aryloxyphenols”