2016 Killam Scholars and award winners celebrated at annual reception

The annual Killam reception held on Oct. 26 was a chance for the Killam
Trustees and honoured guests to meet the University of Calgary’s Killam Laureates and learn more about their innovative research and academic achievements.

The event, co-hosted by Lisa Young, vice-provost and dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies, and Killam Laureate Kyle Wilson, was also a chance for the recipients to thank the trustees one-on-one.

“The University of Calgary has benefited from the Killam Trusts for many years,” says Young. “As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, we’re very excited for the future of research and scholarship excellence at the university.”

Prominent Canadian businessman Izaak Walton Killam and his wife Dorothy J. Killam established the Killam Trusts to support advanced education and to help in the building of Canada’s future by encouraging advanced research and study. The Killam Trusts constitute the largest private endowment in Canada and the University of Calgary is privileged to be one of the five Killam universities.

Awarded to International and Canadian doctoral students from across all disciplines, the primary Killam award is the Predoctoral Killam scholarship, valued at $36,000 per year and is granted for up to two years. It was Dorothy Killam’s desire to award the scholarship to those students who are most likely to become leaders in their field, or profession. This scholarship will allow them opportunity to reach and even exceed their research and professional goals.

Wilson, a second-year recipient of the Killam doctoral scholarship, says, “Being a Killam recipient has opened up tremendous opportunities to expand the impact and scope of my research. It has given me the ability to afford, both in time and finances, to take international workshops where I learned cutting-edge skills that I adopted for my research on sustaining inland fisheries.”

Muhammad Omer, a predoctoral Killam Laureate, also won the Donald N. Byers Memorial Killam Prize. Omer earned this distinction for having the best statement and best presented plan of study and research among all of the successful first-year Killam Laureates. A doctoral student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Omer aims to improve medical imaging technology for breast cancer diagnosis and monitoring treatment.

The Killam Trusts also awarded prizes to faculty members and researchers who have achieved high levels of success and distinction in their research, or who have made meaningful contributions in education. The awards include the Killam Postdoctoral Laureates, Annual Killam Professors, Killam Memorial Chair, awarded last year to Walter Herzog in the Faculty of Kinesiology , and the Killam Research and Teaching Awards.

Ann McCaig, University of Calgary Chancellor Emeritus, was present to hand out the university’s second annual McCaig-Killam Teaching Award. Canada’s Killam Trust named the award in her honour after she stepped down from her role in 2015 as a trustee after 22 years. McCaig has also been part of the university’s community for over 30 years, making this award for excellence in teaching an appropriate tribute to her contributions.

Campbell Teskey, professor and education director at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, was selected to receive the McCaig-Killam Teaching Award for outstanding contributions to teaching and learning at the university. Teskey continually receives outstanding ratings from his students praising his work as lecturer and as a role model. Furthermore, his work with the Cumming School of Medicine Global Health and International Partnerships program has enabled him to successfully extend his teaching and mentorship to medical students at the Catholic University for Health and Allied Sciences in Mwanza, Tanzania.

Visit the Killam Trusts for more information. This year’s Killam Scholars and Killam award holders are:

First-Year Scholarships

Second-Year Scholarships

 

Killam Postdoctoral Laureates

Georgia Balsevich, physiology and pharmacology

Yaser Maddahi, clinical neurosciences

 

Killam Annual Professors

• Nelson (Daniel) Berger, neuroscience
• Valentina Bertolani, music
• Clayton (Ford) Burles, psychology
• Lauren Doyle, chemistry
• Colin Dubreuil, anthropology
• Elena Favaro, geography
• Mark Girard, mathematics and statistics
• Hyoun (Andrew) Kim, clinical psychology
• Jessica Kupper, mechanical and manufacturing engineering
• Crystal Kwan, social work
• Maurice Mohr, kinesiology
• Muhammad Omer, electrical and computer engineering
• Scott Seamone, biological sciences
• Tushar Sharma, electrical and computer engineering
• Daniyil Svystonyuk, cardiovascular and respiratory sciences
• Simrika Thapa, veterinary medicine
• Jacqueline Zorz, geoscience
  • Oscar Aleuy Young, biological sciences
  • Briana Cassetta, clinical psychology
  • Jane Chamberlin, english
  • Matthew Jordan, medical sciences
  • Ian MacNairn, anthropology
  • Brendan McAllister, psychology
  • Krysta Powers, biomedical engineering
  • Kyle Wilson, biological science
  • 2016-2018 
  • 2015-2017 

  Killam Research and Teaching Awards

  Killam Memorial Chair

  • Bart Beaty, English
  • Andrew Demchuk, clinical neurosciences
  • Raafat El-Hacha, civil engineering
  • Brenda Hemmelgarn, medicine
  • Barry Sanders, physics and astronomy  
    • Matthew Hill, cell biology and anatomy, Killam Emerging Research Leader Award
    • Steve Liang, geomatics engineering, Killam Emerging Research Leader Award
    • Julie Drolet, social work, Killam Emerging Research Leader Award
    • Paul Kubes, physiology and pharmacology, Killam Research Excellence Award
    • Aritha van Herk, english, Killam Graduate Supervision and Mentorship Award
    • Guido van Marle, Microbiology, immunology and infectious diseases, Killam Award in Undergraduate Mentorship
    • Campbell Teskey, cell biology and anatomy, McCaig-Killam Teaching Award
    • Walter Herzog (awarded in 2015 for a five-year term)