Awards & Accolades - May 2021

Outstanding in their field

Dr. Marc Curial, Department of Emergency Medicine, and Chris Terriff, co-founder of University of Alberta spinoff company MACH32, developed a new device called the Aerosol Containment Tent (ACT), which offers an additional layer of protection against COVID-19 for health-care workers. Dubbed the “virus vacuum by Curial, the device has recently been approved for use in Alberta hospitals. Read more. 

Dr. Basil Hubbard, Canada Research Chair in Molecular Therapeutics, Department of Pharmacology, was recently named a delegate for the Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) Science Meets Parliament Program. 

Dr. Quentin Durand, Department of Medicine, was appointed a member of the Council of Scientific Affairs of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, for a three-year term.

Dr. Neil Gibson, Department of Medicine, was a recipient of the Canadian Society of Physician Leaders (CPSL) Excellence in Medical Leadership Award.

Dr. Sudha Koppula, Department of Family Medicine, was named president of the Alberta College of Family Physicians (ACFP), and recipient of the 2021 Professional Association of Resident Physicians of Alberta (PARA) Clinical Teaching Award. Well done!

The Women and Children's Health Research Institute (WCHRI) was awarded a Gold Quill Award of Merit from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) for their 2019-2020 Annual Report. 

Research excellence

Brain Canada and ALS Canada announced the awarding of a $2,850,000 2019 Platform Support Grant (PSG) to Dr. Sanjay Kalra, Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute (NMHI) researcher, and team, for their Comprehensive Analysis Platform To Understand, Remedy, and Eliminate ALS, or CAPTURE ALS. 

Dr. Bo Cao, Department of Psychiatry and NMHI member, received support from Alberta Innovates mCannabis.RealWorld program for the project “Predicting the risk of opioid misuses in patients using cannabis-based medicine and opioids.”

Congratulations to Dr. Sheri Koshman, Department of Medicine, and co-authors for winning Canadian Pharmacists Journal’s Best Paper of 2020 for “Use of low-dose acetylsalicylic acid for cardiovascular disease prevention.” 

The Department of Pediatrics hosted the annual Pediatric Research Day with keynote speaker Tim Caulfield, Faculty of Law, on April 28. The abstracts and winners are available here. Congratulations to all of the winners. 

Top teachers

Dr. Terri Aldred, ’11 MD, received the Resident Doctors of Canada Mikhael Award for Medical Education. 

Dr. Mang Ma, Department of Medicine, was awarded the 2021 CASL Education Excellence Award. 

Dr. Puneeta Tandon, Department of Medicine, received the 2021 Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver (CASL)/Canadian Liver Foundation (CLF) Visiting Professor Award. 

Dr. Yuqi Gu, Department of Anesthesia & Pain Medicine, was voted 2021 Teacher of the Year by the residents in the department. 

Learners as leaders

Nozima Fayzieva, MSc student (supervisors Dr. Janani Kassiri and Dr. Ravi Bhargava, Department of Pediatrics) was the runner-up in the U of A Three Minute Thesis (3MT) contest. 

Shubham Soni, PhD student in the Department of Pediatrics (supervisor Dr. Jason Dyck), received the U of A 3MT People’s Choice Award. 

Dr. Qutuba Karwi, post-doctoral fellow (supervisor Dr. Gary Lopaschuk) received the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry March 2021 Med Star Award for Postdoctoral or Clinical Fellows.

The Women & Children's Health Research Institute (WCHRI) has awarded three trainees from the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry with a post-doctoral fellowship. Congratulations to: 

• Dr. Hamid Maadi, Department of Oncology (supervisor Dr. Roseline Godbout): The role of DDX1 gene amplification in resistance of neuroblastoma to chemotherapeutic drugs
• Dr. Linn Moore, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology (supervisor Dr. Maria B. Ospina): The impact of pregnancy events and exposures on asthma control in early childhood
• Dr. Forough Jahandideh, Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine (supervisor Dr. Stephane Bourque): Understanding how iron deficiency during pregnancy in combination with early-life sepsis affects developmental and long-term cardiovascular health in the offspring