One of the victims of Flight PS752, Saba Saadat worked under the supervision of Dr. Meghan Riddell and Dr. Denise Hemmings, both members of the Women and Children's Health Research Institute.
The Mojgan Daneshmand, Pedram Mousavi & Victims of Flight PS752 Memorial Fund
Academic communities across Canada remember and reflect on the estimated 50 people―students, alumni, staff and faculty―we collectively lost as a community in this devastating tragedy. They came from 19 universities and four colleges, and include 10 members of the University of Alberta community.
Friends, community members and colleagues have worked to create a lasting legacy that will honour all of the victims of this tragedy, in particular the members of our own U of A family: professors Dr. Mojgan Daneshmand and Dr. Pedram Mousavi, and students and alumni Pouneh Gorji, Elnaz Nabiyi, Arash Pourzarabi, Nasim Rahmanifar, Saba Saadat, Sara Saadat, Amir Saeedinia, and Mohammad Mahdi Elyasi.
In their memory, the university has established a memorial fund to create two graduate-student scholarships, with the goal to endow these student awards in perpetuity. They will enable future graduate students to fulfil their aspirations, and uphold the legacy of the individuals honoured by this memorial fund.
Donate to the fund here.
Of national note
Congratulations to Dr. Steve E. Hrudey (professor emeritus, Division of Analytical and Environmental Toxicology, Laboratory Medicine & Pathology) for his appointment as a Member of the Order of Canada. The announcement came on Dec. 29, 2019, recognizing his contributions to environmental health sciences and advocacy of safe drinking water.
Dr. Brian Rowe (Emergency Medicine) has been renewed as the scientific director of the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH) at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for four years (Jan. 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2023). His first term was Jan. 1, 2016 - Dec. 31, 2019. The institute involves six mandate areas: cardiac, respiratory, critical care, stroke, sleep and blood disorders, crosses all four CIHR research themes, is the only CIHR institute at the U of A, and has funding of $8.6 million per year for strategic initiatives.
Dr. Samina Ali (Emergency Medicine) is co-author of a new position statement published Nov. 1, 2019 by the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS): Managing pain and distress in children undergoing brief diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Currently, there are no nationwide standards for acute pain management for brief procedures in children. The recently published CPS position statement presents the most current evidence and provides clinicians with guidance on how to minimize children's pain and distress.
Congratulations to Dr. Narmin Kassam (Medicine) on being awarded $50,000 by Choosing Wisely Canada for the project The Effectiveness of a Sequenced Multi-component intervention: Reducing Urea Utilization and Laboratory Test Order Frequency in Alberta.
Associate clinical professor Dr. Gurmett Singh (Critical Care) has been elected as the inaugural chair of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Affiliate Senate.
Great news from our departments
The School of Dentistry
The School of Dentistry recognized Dr. Bill Preshing with the Bulyea Cup on Nov. 20 at the school's annual awards night. The prestigious Bulyea Cup is the highest honour the school confers on its members.
Dr. Preshing was celebrated for his outstanding contributions to improving oral health through his expertise in special needs dentistry, and for his excellent teaching services at the school over an impressive 32 years.
Department of Family Medicine
The Alberta College of Family Physicians proudly celebrated physicians, students, residents and clinics who demonstrate what "Excellence in Family Practice" means. Congratulations to UAlberta family physicians honoured with awards in 2019:
Recognition for Excellence
Dr. Carla Laidlaw
Dr. Suzanne Squires
Patient's Medical Home - Outstanding Family Practice
Westgrove Clinic, Spruce Grove
ACFP Student Leadership - Rising Star Award
Kerry Howell
Family Medicine Resident Leadership Award
Dr. Charissa Ho
Department of Medicine
In honour of Dr. Gerald Stewart, his family recognizes faculty members and residents who exemplify his characteristics of caring, compassion and enthusiasm with the Dr. Gerald Stewart Memorial Award for Well-being and Morale. Congratulations to this year's recipients Dr. Peter Ao (Division of Internal Medicine, faculty award) and Dr. Dominic Mudiayi (resident award).
Department of Pediatrics
Best wishes to Mary Ellen Davison for an awesome retirement and much appreciation for her work as assistant chair for the past five years.
Warm welcome to Asha Rao as the new assistant chair. She brings to the team nearly 20 years of experience at the U of A from a variety of roles, most recently as acting assistant chair of administration in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Thank you to the Department of Pediatrics members who generously donated to Youth Empowerment and Support Services (YESS) in December.
Learners as leaders
Trevor Barss, postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Vivian Mushahwar's lab (Canada Research Chair in Functional Restoration and Killam Annual Professor) was successful in securing an Alberta Innovates postdoctoral fellowship.
Congratulations to our medical students and residents awarded the Alberta Medical Association's Emerging Leaders in Health Promotion grants:
Uilst Bat-Erdene (MD program)
Claudine LeBosquain (MD program)
Mentor: Dr. Sue Chandra
Project: Multilingual perinatal video and website by and for Edmonton immigrant women
Dr. Rebekah Baumann (resident, Pediatrics)
Mentors: Dr. Tami Masterson and Dr. Dawn-Ellen Young
Project: Empowering children in the foster care system: A needs assessment and toolkit to improve care
Dr. Lindsay Drummond (resident, Obstetrics & Gynecology)
Dr. Kristin Black (resident, Obstetrics & Gynecology)
Dr. Anneline Slabbert (resident, Family Medicine)
Mentor: Dr. Rebecca Rich
Project: Women's reproductive health: Self-empowerment through art and education
Dr. Stephen Macumber (resident, Obstetrics & Gynecology)
Mentor: Dr. Rebecca Rich
Project: Agency through words: An integrated knowledge translation partnership between literacy instructors and women's health experts
Angela Messer (MD program)
Daphne Cheung (MD program)
Sabrine Garrison (MD program)
Mentor: Dr. Jill Konkin
Project: The Re:Pro Health Podcast discussing pro-health topics in women's reproductive and general health
The grant program is funded by the Alberta Medical Association, the Canadian Medical Association, Joule and MD Financial Management.
Pediatric resident Dr. Chris Novak was chosen by the medical class of 2020 to receive the Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award from the FoMD and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. He was one of six residents selected as role models and exceptional teachers.
Congratulations to Emily Zehner (MSc candidate, Pediatrics, supervisor George Schmölzer) for her award-winning poster presentation at the IDEAS Office Health Professionals Education Scholarship Day.
Postdoctoral fellow Qutuba Karwi (Pediatrics) has agreed to serve as vice-chair external on the executive board of the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars for 2020.
75th Anniversary Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry Graduate Student Award Recipients
Luis Arce, MSc, Biochemistry (Supervisor: David Westaway)
Charbel Baaklini, MSc, Neuroscience (Supervisors: Jason Plemel and Brad Kerr)
Kiandokht Bashiri, MSc, Medicine (Supervisor: Andrew Mason)
Matthew Benson, MSc, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (Supervisor: Ian MacDonald)
Ashmita De, PhD, Biomedical Engineering (Supervisor: Alan Wilman)
Nicole Dittman, MSc, Neuroscience (Supervisors: Anastasia Voronova and Sipione Simonetta)
Sayed Himmat, PhD, Surgery (Supervisors: Jayan Nagendran and Darren Freed)
Ray Ishida, MSc, Medical Microbiology and Immunology (Supervisor: Tom Hobman)
Kevin Joannou, MSc, Medical Microbiology and Immunology (Supervisor: Troy Baldwin)
Wisdom Kate, MSc, Oncology (Supervisor: Michael Weinfeld)
Justine Kniert, MSc, Medical Microbiology and Immunology (Supervisor: Maya Shmulevitz)
Shae Komant, MSc, Medical Microbiology and Immunology (Supervisor: Troy Baldwin)
Larissa Lautner, MSc, Surgery (Supervisors: Jayan Nagendran and Jason Acker)
Lauren Lindsey, PhD, Medicine (Supervisor: Karen Goodman)
Zabed Mahmud, PhD, Biochemistry (Supervisors: Peter Hwang and Richard Schulz)
Devi Priyanka Maripuri, MSc, Medical Genetics (Supervisor: Daniel Graf)
Brian Marriott, MSc, Neuroscience (Supervisor: Jesse Jackson
Siavash Mashhouri, MSc, Dentistry (Supervisor: Shokrollah Elahi)
Mohammad Moharrami, MSc, Dentistry (Supervisor: Maryam Amin)
Alexandra Oulette Zuk, MSc, Neuroscience (Supervisor: Craig Chapman and Anthony Singhal)
Mazhar Pasha, PhD, Physiology (Supervisors: Sandra Davidge and Christy-Lynn Cooke)
Catherine Paulsen, PhD, Medicine (Supervisor: Alexander Doroshenko)
Samantha Perreault, MSc, Psychiatry (Supervisors: Bao Cao and Andrew Greenshaw)
Simran Pherwani, MSc, Pediatrics (Supervisor: Gary Lopaschuk)
Aaron Purchase, PhD, Oncology (Supervisor: Boguslaw Tomanek)
Isha Ralhan, MSc, Physiology (Supervisor: Maria Ioannou)
Nayiar Shahid, MSc, Pharmacology (Supervisor: James Hammond)
Yishi Shen, MSc, Pediatrics (Supervisor: Dawei Zhang)
Reshma Sirajee, MSc, Pediatrics (Supervisor: Michael Hawkes)
Shubham Soni, MSc, Pediatrics (Supervisor: Jason Dyck)
Hongwei Sun, PhD, Oncology (Supervisor: Jonathan Sharp)
Gina Sykes, MSc, Medicine (Supervisor: Glen Jickling)
Gregory Vallee, MSc, Medical Microbiology and Immunology (Supervisor: David Evans)
Emily Zehnder, MSc, Pediatrics (Supervisor: Georg Schmölzer)
Ziyan Zhu, PhD, Biomedical Engineering (Supervisor: Alan Wilman)
Dean's Doctoral Student Award Recipients
Parnian Alavi, PhD, Medicine (Supervisor: Nadia Jahroudi)
Francisca Cristi Munoz, PhD, Medical Microbiology and Immunology (Supervisors: Mary Hitt and Maya Schmulevitz)
Alison Do, PhD, Physiology (Supervisor: Jesse Jackson)
Esha Ganguly, PhD, Physiology (Supervisor: Sandra Davidge)
Brianna Greenwood, PhD, Biochemistry (Supervisor: David Stuart)
Sophie Keegan, PhD, Cell Biology (Supervisor: Sarah Hughes)
Evan Kerek, PhD, Pharmacology (Supervisor: Basil Hubbard)
Hamid Maadi, PhD, Medical Genetics (Supervisors: Zhixing Wang and Sarah Hughes)
Krista Metz, PhD, Neuroscience (Supervisors: Monica Gorassini and Dave Bennett)
Suad Rashid, PhD, Biochemistry (Supervisor: Leo Spyracopoulos)
Shima Shahbaz, PhD, Dentistry (Supervisor: Shokrollah Elahi)
Christopher Tsui, Phd, Biomedical Engineering (Supervisor: Kathryn Todd)
Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry / Alberta Health Services Graduate Student Recruitment Scholarship Recipients
Simran Ghoman, MSc, Pediatrics (Supervisor: Georg Schmölzer)
Brittany Hope, PhD, Neuroscience (Supervisor: Allan Chan)
John Monyror, MSc, Pharmacology (Supervisor: Simonetta Sipione)
Midhat Rizvi, MSc, Physiology (Supervisor: Emmanuelle Cordat)
Reed Sutton, PhD, Medicine (Supervisors: D.C. Baumgart and R.G. Goebel)
Jeffrey McDonald, MSc, Biochemistry (Supervisor: Andrew MacMillan)
Anissa Viveiros, PhD, Physiology (Supervisor: Gavin Oudit)
Kaiming Wang, MSc, Medicine (Supervisor: Gavin Oudit)
Violet Kilburn Award Recipient
Pranidhi Baddam, PhD, Oral Biology (Supervisor: Daniel Graf)
Lawson Award Recipients
Brittany Fedor, PhD, Neuroscience (Supervisor: Frederick Colbourne)
Mahdieh Khodaei Jalalabadi, Phd, Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging (Supervisors: Edmond Lou and Lawrence Le)
Delnor Award Recipient
Reshma Sirajee, MSc, Pediatrics (Supervisor: Michael Hawkes)