Awards & Accolades - May 2021

Celebrating the achievements of our faculty, staff and students.

Kirsten Bauer - 18 May 2021

Outstanding in their field

Dr. Marc Curial, Department of Emergency Medicine, and Chris Terriff, co-founder of ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ spinoff company , 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 ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ hospitals.

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

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

Dr. Neil Gibson, Department of Medicine, was a recipient of the Canadian Society of Physician Leaders (CPSL) .

Dr. Sudha Koppula, Department of Family Medicine, was named president of the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ College of Family Physicians (ACFP), and recipient of the 2021 Professional Association of Resident Physicians of ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ (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 . 

Research excellence

Brain Canada and ALS Canada announced the awarding of a $2,850,000 (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 ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ Innovates 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 “.” 

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

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 (WCHRI) has awarded three trainees from the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry with a post-doctoral fellowship. Congratulations to: 

  • Dr. , Department of Oncology (supervisor Dr. Roseline Godbout): The role of DDX1 gene amplification in resistance of neuroblastoma to chemotherapeutic drugs
  • Dr. , Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology (supervisor Dr. Maria B. Ospina): The impact of pregnancy events and exposures on asthma control in early childhood
  • Dr. , 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