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Awards

Both HPI trainees and faculty have been very successful in receiving a variety of awards.

Trainee Awards

  • Congratulations to Affan Siddiq, MSc student in the Buret lab for being awarded an ASIP 2021 Trainee Scholar Award. Affan will be recognized for his achievement at the upcoming The American Society for Investigative Pathology 2021 Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology which will be held virtually, April 27-30.

  • Congratulations to Elena Fekete, PhD student in the Buret lab for receiving an ASIP EPIGT Merit Award. The American Society for Investigative Pathology 2021 Experimental Pathologist-in-Graduate Training (EPIGT) Merit award comes with a monetary award plus registration for the upcoming ASIP 2021 Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology which will be held virtually, April 27-30.

  • Congratulations to Vicki (ShuHua) Li, MSc student in the McKay lab for receiving an NSERC studentship for her project on Tuft cells and the regulation of Peyer’s patch form and function.

    Congratulations to Blanca Callejas Pina, PDF in the McKay lab for being awarded the Alberta Innovates Postgraduate Fellowship in Health Innovation.

  • Congratulations to Sarah Hirtle, MSc. student in the Goater lab, University of Lethbridge for receiving a University of Lethbridge 2020-21 Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship

  • Congratulations to ShuHua (Vicki) Li, MSc. student in the McKay lab for being awarded a Beverley Phillips Entrance Scholarship through the Snyder Institute for Chronic Disease
  • Congratulations to Sruthi Rajeev, PhD student in the McKay lab who received a University of Calgary 1-year Eyes High Doctoral Award.
     
  • Congratulations to Camila de Queiroz, PhD candidate in Dr. John Gilleard's lab for winning the Zoetis-UCVM 2020 Outstanding Achievement by a Graduate Student Award (Oct. 2020).
  • Congratulations to Camila de Queiroz, PhD candidate in Dr. John Gilleard's lab for being awarded the Alberta graduate excellence scholarship (AGES) – International (2020)

  • Congratulations to Ashley Pidwerbesky, MSc student in the Detwiler lab (UManitoba) for receiving a Master's Award for Indigenous Students from the University of Manitoba for the coming year (2020-21)

  • Congratulations to Anupama Ariyaratne (HPI Alumni - Finney lab) for receiving the Jim and Josie Grey Award (Biological Sciences Teaching Award) and also for being runner up for the Dr. R. E. Huber Thesis Award.

  • Congratulations to Affan Siddiq, MSc student in Dr. Andre Buret's lab for receiving an NSERC CGS-M award (2020).

  • Congratulations to Abhinaya Venkatesan, PhD student in the Gilleard lab for receiving (March 2020) a a “Dean's International Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship" from the Graduate Scholarship Office, University of Calgary (2020).

  • Congratulations to Thibault Allain, PDF in the Buret lab for being a recipient of the American Society for Investigative Pathology Trainee Travel Award 2020

  • Congratulations to Rebecca Chen in the Gilleard lab for being awarded  an Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (AGES). (2020).

  • Congratulations to Nidhi Sharma and Camila de Queiroz from the Gilleard lab who won runner up prizes for best talk and poster respectively at UCVM grad student research day on February 27, 2020.

  • Congratulations to Sruthi Rajeev, MSc student in the McKay lab, Affan Siddiq, MSc student, Elena Fekete, PhD student and Thibault Allain, PDF, all in the Buret lab for having their abstracts accepted for presentation at the Experimental Biology Meeting in San Diego in April, 2020.

  • Congratulations to Adam Ranson, MSc student in the Peters lab for receiving a Faculty of Graduate Studies Master's Scholarship.
  • Congratulations to Sruthi Rajeev MSc student in the McKay laboratory for receiving (November 2019) a scholarship from Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (AGES) - International from the Faculty of Graduate studies.
  • Congratulations to Matheus Carneiro, PDF in the Peters lab for receiving the Beverley Phillips Research Excellence Award 2019" given by the Snyder Institute for Chronic Disease.
  • Congratulations to Abhinaya Venkatesan, PhD student in the Gilleard lab for receiving (November 2019) a 10K scholarship from Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (AGES) - International  from the Faculty of Graduate studies.
  • Congratulations to Drue Nooyen, summer student in the Gilleard lab who presented her poster at the SU Research Symposium on November 27, 2019 and was awarded the runner up for the GSA Future Innovator Award.
  • Congratulations to Susan Wang, who successfully defended her MSc on the potential immunomodulatory role of serotonin following infection with the tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta on 18th November, 2019.
  • Susan is now enrolled in medical school at McGill University, and we wish her every success.
  • Congratulations to ShuHua (Vicki) Li for being awarded a Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) Summer Studentship to work in the McKay lab on H. diminuta regulation of colitis.
  • Congratulations to Matheus Carneiro for winning 3rd place for the Poster Pitch Presentation at the Woods Hole Immunoparasitology Meeting (WHIP) 2019. The poster pitches were short oral presentations that needed to convey the key findings of his study to attract the attendees to visit his poster during the poster section. His presentation needed to be under 2 minutes, only 1 slide, and only 3 animations. Matheus contextualized his data under the host immune system/parasitism co-evolution perspective, using the Red Queen Hypothesis to explain his work.
  • Congratulations to Adam Shute, Ph.D. student in Dr. McKay’s laboratory, for winning the senior trainee research presentation prize at the Shaffer/Davison Research Day for his talk on the role of bacteria in helminth-evoked suppression of colitis.’
  • Congratulations to Hayley Gorman, PhD student in the Chadee lab for receiving an NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship-Doctoral award
  • Congratulations to Abhinaya Venkatesan, PhD student in the Gilleard lab for winning the People's Choice award at the UCalgary 3-Minute Thesis Competition. The 2019 heats were held on March 20th at Foothills Campus.  Abhinaya's title was "Mass deworming programs: a saint or sinner in controlling worm infections?".
  • Congratulations to Camila de Queiroz, for winning best platform presentation and to Abhinaya Venkatesan and Nidhi Sharma who won runner up for best poster prizes at the UCVM graduate student research day. That was 3 out of the 6 prizes to HPI !
  • Congratulations to Russell Avramenko (Gilleard lab) for receiving the Outstanding Graduate Student award for 2018 from the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists.  Russell will give a 25 minute plenary talk at the AAVP annual conference in Denver, Co.
  • Congratulations to Micky Ahn (Goater lab at UofL) for winning first prize at the University of Lethbridge 3-Minute Thesis competition.  Micky will represent the University of Lethbridge at the Western finals at the University of Regina in April.
  • Congratulations to Micky Ahn (Goater lab at UofL) for being awarded the Alberta Conservation Association (ACA) Grants in Biodiversity Award.
  • Congratulations to Adam Shute in the McKay laboratory for a 2-year PhD award from the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology for his doctoral research on “Helminth-microbiota interactions: is there a role for the microbiota in helminth-induced suppression of colitis?”
  • Congratulations to HPI Alumni, Steve Cornick (Chadee lab) for receiving the MDMI Graduate Program Award for Thesis Excellence.  This award recognizes the quality of Steve's thesis for both research excellence and the effort put in to writing and presenting the data.
  • Congratulations to Micky Ahn (Goater lab at UofL) for being awarded the "Oldman River Chapter Research in Conservation Scholarship."  As part of the award, Micky will be presenting his work on March 1st at their Annual General Meeting.
  • Congratulations to Micky Ahn (Goater lab at UofL) for placing second in the oral presentations at the 7th Annual Biology Graduate Research Symposium at the University of Lethbridge.  The title of his talk was: "Long-term changes in trematode parasitism of minnow populations in southern Alberta."
  • Congratulations to Sarah Unrau (Goater lab at UofL) for placing first in the poster presentation at the 7th Annual Biology Graduate Research Symposium at the University of Lethbridge.  The title of her poster was: "Flower choice and aggregation in host decision-making in zombie ants infected with Dicrocoelium dendriticum."
  • Congratulations to Colin MacFarland (Melin/Buret lab) for receiving a Sigma Xi award.  The title of his awarded proposal is: "An integrated approach at uncovering the parasitome in wild mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata). "
  • Elena Rae Fekete, a Master’s sutdent in Dr. Buret’s laboratory, has been awarded a Canadian Associaition of Gastroenterology graduate student prize. Her abstract entitled “THE ROLE OF PROTEASE-ACTIVATED RECEPTOR-2 IN GIARDIA INDUCED DISRUPTIONS OF THE INTESTINAL MUCUS LAYER” was selected for one of the 4 prizes given from over 320 submissions. As a laureate, Elena will deliver 2 oral presentations, one as a trainee at the Research Topics meeting, and one at the international Canadian Digestive Disease Week conference, in Toronto February 9-12, 2018. Congratulation for this tremendous achievement Elena!
  • Bayer Best Student Paper Competition - Camila de Queiroz (University of Calgary) (3rd from left) was awarded 3rd place and $150!
  • Congratulations to Susan Wang, MSc student in Dr. Derek McKay's lab, for receiving the 2017 Henry Koopmans Memorial Entrance Scholarship in Gastrointestinal Nutrition, Metabolism and Inflammation. 
  • Congratulations to Chelsea Matisz, PDF, HPI Alumni for receiving an AI-HS postgraduate fellowship for her new project at the University of Lethbridge, supervisor Dr. Aaron Bruber.  Her new project will be "The effect of a prevalent Albertan parasite on brain health."
  • Congratulations to Chelsea Matisz in Drs. McKay and Sharkey's lab for receiving her PhD.  Her thesis title is:  "The adoptive transfer of helminth antigen-pulsed dendritic cells as a novel therapy for colitis." For the next 6 months, Chelsea will be working on a project with Drs. Keith Sharkey and Mark Swain before returning to parasitic research (exploring Toxoplasma gondii) at the Canadian Center for Beharvioural Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge.
  • In addition, Chelsea's thesis was awarded the MDGI Program award for research excellence and had a paper accepted in Scientific Reports, entitled "Suppression of colitis by adoptive transfer of helminth antigen-treated dendritic cells requires interleukin-4 receptor-a signaling"....well done Chelsea!
  • Congratulations to Shruti Srivastava in Drs. Wasmuth and Mckay lab for receiving her MSc.  Her thesis title is: "A bioinformatics analysis to identify parasite proteins that mimic host immune proteins."
  • Congratulations to Camila Meira (Gedamu lab) for receiving the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, Master's 2 year Scholarship. 
  • Congratulations to Sydney Rudko (University of Alberta - Hanington lab) for receiving the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, 2 year Scholarship. 
  • Congratulations to Chelsea Matisz, PhD candidate in Drs. McKay and Sharkey's lab who was awarded the best senior talk for the 2016 Joe Davison awards and for also being awarded the Dean's Doctoral Scholarship.
  • Congratulations to Christina Amat, PhD student in Dr. Buret's lab for receiving a graduate student poster display award in the Department of Biological Sciences 2016 Student Research Symposium.
  • Dr. Fernando Lopes (McKay Laboratory), was awarded an Alberta Innovates–Health Solutions (AI-HS)Post-doctoral Fellowship.  Congratulations Fernando!
  • Congratulations to Dave Curran, PhD Candiate (Wasmuth/Gilleard lab) for being awarded a one-year sholarship through the Alberta Innovates-Technology Futures (AITF).
  • Congratulations to HPI Alumni, James Cotton, PhD from Dr. Andre Buret's lab in receiving a American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2015 Ben Kean Travel Fellows Award for his project in Ethiopia: "Giardia duodenalis modulates host inflammatory responses to other gastrointestinal pathogens during co-infection."
  • Congratulations to Steve Cornick for winning "Best Oral Presentation" at the 15th Annual Quebec Molecular Parasitology Symposium at McGill University; June 8-9, 2015.
  • Congratulations to Michelle Gordy (Hanington Lab) and Brad van Paridon (Gilleard lab) who co-won the Murray Fallis Prize for Best talk in the Parasite, Immunology and Environment (PIE) section at CSZ 2015.
  • Congratulations to Oscar (Ale) Aleuy Young, PhD candidate (Kutz lab) for being awarded the Killam Scholarship.
     
  • Congratulations to Steve Cornick, PhD candidate (Chadee lab) for being awarded the Alexander Graham Bell NSERC CGS Scholarship.
  • The following HPI trainees presented at the 2014 Joseph S. Davison Awards on May 21, 2014:
    • Jose Luis Reyes, PDF (McKay lab) - Unraveling the anti-inflammatory potential of Hymenolepis diminuta antigens. 
    • Fernando Lopes, PDF (McKay lab) - The Src kinase, Fyn, is protective in acute chemical- induced colitis and promotes recovery from disease. 
    • Steve Cornick, PhD Student (Chadee lab) - Unraveling the mechanism on how Entamoeba histolytica evokes MUC2 exocytosis.
    • Chelsea Matisz, PhD Candidate, (McKay lab) - Adoptive transfer of helminth antigen-pulsed dendritic cells: a novel therapy for colitis.
       
  • Congratulations to Jean-Paul Motta, PDF (Dr. Andre Buret's lab) for being awarded a Eyes HIgh Postodoctoral Scholar award. Click here to see full UToday article.
     
  • Steve Cornick, a PhD student in Dr. Kris Chadee's lab, received the PhD presentation award at the inaugural 2014 Dr. Joseph Davison Research Day Awards on May 21, 2014.
     
  • Steve Cornick, through a partnership with American Society for Investigative Pathology Annual Meeting (ASIP) was awarded the Histochemical Society Travel award to the Experimental Biology 2014 meeting in San Diego from April 26-30, 2014.  Steve was selected to give an oral presentation and a special interest group poster presentation at this meeting under the topic of Human pathogen interactions: fungus and Protozoa, with his talk entitled "Unraveling the mechanism of how Entomoeba histolycia eokes MUC2 exocytosis".
  • Russell Avramenko, a Masters student in Dr. John Gilleard's lab received 1st Prize ($250) for his poster at the Calgary ACGRI Next-gen sequencing (NGS) Symposium.  His poster was entitled "Development of a “Nemabiome” Sequencing Assay for the Relative Quantitation of Parasitic Gastrointestinal Nematodes in Cattle".
  • Russell received best student poster presentation at the Anthelmintics: From Discovery to Resistance Conference in San Francisco, February 5-7th, 2014.
  • Dave Curran, a PhD Student co-supervised by Dr. James Wasmuth and Dr. John Gilleard received  2nd Prize ($100) for his poster at the Calgary ACGRI Next-gen sequencing (NGS) Symposium.  His poster was entitled "FiGMoP: a profile HMM to identify genes and bypass troublesome gene models in draft genomes".
  • Dave received Eyes High Travel Funding; University of Calgary.
  • James Cotton, a PhD student in Dr. Andre Buret's lab gave a talk on April 27, 2014 at Experimental Biology 2014 in San Diego for the session entitled "Host-Pathogen Interactions: Fungus and Protozoa". James also chaired a mini symposium and presented a poster of the same topic at the American Society for Investigative Pathology Annual Meeting (ASIP) on April 29, 2014 in San Diego.
  • James was awarded Poster of distinction at CDDW 2014 in Toronto.
  • Marie Halliez, a PhD Student in Dr. Andre Buret's lab, attended the Experimental Biology 2014 conference in San Diego, April 26th-30, 2014. In the session, "Highlights graduate student research", Marie gave a talk entitled: "Novel mechanisms of post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome in experimental giardiasis."
  • Marie received a Top CCFC trainee Award (1 of 4 from 270) at the CDDW 2014 in Toronto.
  • Marie received Best poster award at the Banff Inflammation Workshop, Banff, Alberta, Canada
  • Marie was awarded Poster with distinction at the Canadian Digestive Disease Week, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
  • Marie won Best oral presentation award at the Schaffer awards during Alberta Digestive Disease Summit, Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada.
  • Chelsea Matisz, PhD Candidate, working under the supervision of Dr. Derek McKay, was awarded a 12 week graduate student Health Solutions Media Fellowship  where she will have the opportunity to join CBC Radio in communicating science and health news to the public.
  • Chelsea gave an oral presentation - Highlights: Graduate Students Research Symposium for the American Society for Investigative Pathology at the Experimental Biology conference in San Diego, CA, April 26-30, 2014.
  • Jeanie Quach, a PhD Student in Dr. Chadee's lab, Jeanie was Invited to co-chair for the American Society for Investigative Pathology Symposium Human Pathogen Interactions: Fungus and Protozoa at the upcoming Experimental Biology 2014 meeting in San Diego from April 26-30, 2014. At the ASIP/EB 2014 conference, Jeanie received the Intersociety Council for Pathology Information Trainee Travel Awards from ASIP.  Jeanie's talk was entitled, "Entamoeba histolytica induces caspase-4 activation in inflammasome signalling". 
     
  • Jeanie Quach received the Faculty of Graduate Studies Travel Award 2014 Kananaskis Inflammation Workshop 2014.
  • Jeanie served on the Microbiology, Immunology, and Infectious Diseases Departmental Graduate Association as treasurer for 2013-2014.
     
  • EB 2014 Award Recipients: Jeanie Quach (HPI), Dr. Joelle St-Pierre, Maria Fernando, Dr. Teklu Gerbaba (HPI) Steve Cornick (HPI), Pat Schenck, Vadim Lablokov.   
  • Congratulations to Jennifer Beatty, PhD student in Dr. Andre Buret's lab for being admitted to the University of Calgary Medical School and the Leaders in Medicine program!
  • Jennifer Beatty received a Top CCFC trainee Award (1 of 4 from 270) at the CDDW 2014 in Toronto.
  • Jennifer Beatty received an HPI Travel Award in for the October 2013 competition.
  • Congratulations to Jennifer Beatty for receiving the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships (PGS).  This award  provides financial support to high calibre scholars who are engaged in master's or doctoral programs in the natural sciences or engineering.
  • Congratulations Alec Campbell, Masters student in Dr. Derek McKay's lab for being admitted to the University of Calgary Medical School and the Leaders in Medicine program!
  • Alec Campbell presented a poster at the Leaders in Medicine symposium.
  • Alec Campbell was awarded Poster of Distinction at Canadian Digestive Disease Week (CDDW).
  • Umer Naveed Chaudhry, a PhD student in Dr. John Gilleard's lab, received Eyes High Funding, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Canada for attending 1st Anthelmintics: From Discovery to Resistance Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA - February 5-7, 2014.
     
  • Umer Naveed Chaudhry was awarded URGC, Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Calgary, Canada for attending Anthelmintics: From Discovery to Resistance Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA - February, 5-7th, 2014.
  • Aude Gilabert, a Post Doctoral Fellow in Dr. James Wasmuth's lab, received a Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Travel award to attend the American Society of Parasitology meeting.
  • Keyu Li, a Masters Student in Dr. James Wasmuth's lab, received a UCVM travel award for the Anthelmintic conference, San Francisco  Feb. 2014.
  • Fernando Lopes, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Derek McKay's lab, did a Oral presentation Research Topics in GI Disease meeting and CDDW/CASL conference.
  • Fernando Loopes was awarded Poster of distinction at Poster Session I - CDDW – Toronto 2014.
  • Congratulations to Andrew Rezansoff who is a PhD student working in Dr. Gilleard's lab for receiving the UofC Veterinary Medicine Eyes High - "Raise your Game Award" an d"Top Flight conference Award.
  • Russell Avramenko received an HPI Travel Award in for the October 2013 competition.
     
  • Steve Cornick received a 2013 Histochemical Society Sponsored Travel Award for Experimental Biology.
  • Congratulations to James Cotton for being awarded a 2013 travel award from the American Society of Investigative Pathology with his experimental biology abstract.
     
  • James Cotton also received the CCFC Student prize for his abstract and presentation entitled, "A Giardia cathepsin B-like cysteine protease cleaves interleukin-8 and attenuates neutrophil chemotaxis", at the Canadian Digestive Disease Week (March, 2013), the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology.
  • Teklu Gerbaba, a PDF in Dr. Andre Buret's lab received a travel award from the American Society for Investigative Pathology Annual Meeting (ASIP) for outstanding research in Experimental pathology.  He used this award to travel to the Experimental Biology 2014 meeting in San Diego from April 26-30, 2014.  Telku was selected to give an oral presentation entitled "Enteropathogen-induced toxicity of gut-microbiota in C. elegans: a new model to investigate mechanisms of post-infectious intestinal disorders."
     
  • Teklu Berbaba received a travel award from Genetics Society of America to present poster at the19th International C. elegans Meeting, June 26-30, 2013, Los Angeles, California.
  • Chelsea Matisz received an HPI Travel Award in for the October 2013 competition.
     
  • Chelsea Matisz received a CAG/CCFC student prize and received an honorable mention and runner-up prize for her abstract and presentation entitled, "Helminth antigen-pulsed dendritic cells protect against colitis" at the Canadian Digestive Disease Week (March, 2013), the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology.
  • AlecCampbell helped teach a 2-week course in molecular biology laboratory techniques at UNAN-Managua, Nicaragua in partnership with the Department of Global Health.
  • Umer Naveed Chaudhry was awarded the Louisiana State University USA Travel Award Fund for attending 24th International Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology, Perth Australia - August 25-29, 2013.
     
  • Umer Naveed Chaudhry received Eyes High Funding, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Canada Top Flight Conference award for attending 24th International  Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology, Perth, Australia 25-29 August 2013.
  • Keyu Li received a UCVM travel award for a workshop of Computational Systems Biology at the European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge, UK in June 2013.
  • On September 26, 2013, Gui Verocai, PhD student in Dr. Susan Kutz's lab, UCVM was awarded the "Associate Dean's Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Graduate Student" at the UCVM 5th Annual Awards Night.
     
  • Gui Verocai received a UCVM Travel grant to support participation in Public Practice, Corporate, NGO and/or International Experiences.
     
  • Gui Verocai received the UCVM Eyes High Top Flight Award.
  • Congratulations to Bradley Van Paridon, PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Gilleard, for winning the second prize in the AAVP-Bayer Best Student Paper Presentation Awards held at the 58th annual meeting of the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists, Chicago 2013.
  • Jeff Wintersinger, a summer student in Dr. James Wasmuth's lab was offered the Markin USRP in Health & Wellness;University of Calgary.
     
  • Jeff Wintersinger was accepted into the Program for Undergraduate Research Experience (PURE); University of Calgary.

 

 

Faculty Awards

  • Congratulations to Dr. Lash Gedamu who was a recent recipient of the Career Achievement Award of the 2021 University of Calgary International Achievement Awards.
     
  • Congratulations to Dr. Nathan Peters for being awarded a National Institute of Health R21 Grant. The title of the project is: “Defining a role for monocyte licensing in the regulation of Leishmania-specific T cell immunity following short- and long-term pre-exposure to sand fly blood feeding.”
     
  • Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay who has been elected as a Fellow of the American Physiological Society (FAPS).

 

  • Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay who has been elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. See the UToday article for more details.
     
  • Congratulations to HPI Faculty member, Dr. Mindi Summers for receiving the 2020 Faculty of Science Awards of Excellence - Early Career Teaching Excellence Award, Biological Sciences.  Click here for more details.

  • Congratulations to Dr. John Gilleard for receiving a total of $500,000 from the National Institutes of Health Sciences as co-applicant with Dr Erik Anderson , Northwestern University, Chicago  to fund a 5 year project on the  “Discovery of novel benzimidazole resistance mechanisms”

  • Congratulations to Dr. Jillian Detwiler, University of Manitoba, for being elected as an officer to the American Society of Parasitologists Council for a 4-year term.

  • Congratulations to Dr. James Wasmuth for being awarded an Animal Health Research Grant from the Margaret Gunn Endowment.

  • Dr. James Wasmuth is serving on the new Committee of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) for the Canadian Society of Zoologists.

  • Congratulations to Dr. James Wasmuth for receiving a renewal for his NSERC Discovery Grant. This will enable him to do further work on how helminths modulate the behaviour of their hosts. Dr. Wasmuth was also awarded the prestigious accelerator supplement.

  • Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay for receiving an honorary doctorate from Linkoping University, Sweden.

  • Press release:  "This weekend (May 20th), six international researchers would become honorary doctorates at Linköping University. But the corona pandemic came in between and the Academic celebration has moved to the fall. The six selected researchers work closely with LiU researchers in language and literacy, climate policy, AI, organic electronics, medical imaging and inflammatory diseases. The honorary doctor of medicine has been appointed to Dr. Derek McKay, a professor at the University of Calgary. McKay is a well-established researcher in physiology and pathophysiology of the gastrointestinal tract, especially in relation to inflammatory diseases. McKay's research is primarily about how infections in the gut can affect the immune system of the intestinal mucosa in inflammatory disease. The scientific collaboration between McKay and research groups at Linköping University was established in the early 2000s and through his methodological and immunophysiological knowledge, McKay has deepened gastrointestinal research in Linköping."  

  • Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay who has been selected as the 2020 recipient of the C.P. Read Mentorship Award from the American Society of Parasitologists. "The award is to honor an individual who, during his or her career, has demonstrated extraordinary leadership in the training of young scientists who have successfully pursued the independent study of parasites or aspects of the host-parasite relationship. Further, the individual shall have influenced the research and/or graduate education of a department, college or institution to significantly increase the number of students completing graduate level training in the various disciplines of parasitology" (ASP website).

  • Congratulations to Dr. Dylan Pillai for receiving a CIHR Grant (2020) based on "Development and implementation of rapid metagenomic sequencing coupled with isothermal amplification point of care testing for viral diagnostics".

  • Congratulations to Dr. Andre Buret and Dr. Kris Chadee for being elected as Fellow of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG).  The recognition as Fellow (CAGF) will be conferred at the CAG annual conference in Montreal in February 2020.

  • Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay who is the 2020 recipient of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology's (CAG) Distinguished Service Award.  The award will be presented at the Association's annual conference, Canadian Digestive Disease Week (CDDW) in Montreal in February 2020. 

  • Congratulations to HPI faculty member, Dr. Susan Kutz for her induction to the Canadian Academy of Health Science (2019).  Click here for the complete  story.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Andre Buret, who is the 2019 recipient of the  “Stoll-Stunkard Memorial Lectureship Award” from the American Society of Parasitologists, an award that “is to honour someone whose prominence in basic research is evident, and whose research might enhance investigations on parasites, hence fostering cross-fertilization of ideas and approaches” (ASP website). Dr. Buret gave his presentations at the annual ASP meeting in Rochester in July 209.This is an outstanding honor and one of which Dr. Buret is highly deserving.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Constance Finney for receiving a 2-year (2019), internal Margaret Gunn Grant.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay for being awarded awarded a 5 year (2019-2024) CIHR grant on “Gut Microbiota: the overlooked component of helminth therapy”.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Cam Goater for receiving a NSERC research grant for the Ecology of host/parasite Interactions in 2019.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Patrick Hanington for receiving NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplements Program and research grants in 2019 for the Characterization of the determinants of snail-schistosome.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Kris Chadee for receiving a 5-year NSERC Discovery Grant as well as a 5-year renewal in 2019 for his CIHR grant entitled: "Characterization of the SNARE machinery in colonic goblet cells that regulates MUC2 mucin exocytosis in innate immunity."
  • Congratulations to HPI faculty member, Dr. Jocelyn Poissant for receiving a 5-year NSERC Discovery Grant, as well as a Discovery Launch Supplement in 2019, for a project entitled “Evolutionary and ecological genetics of fitness related variation in wild animals”
  • Congratulations to Dr. Cam Goater, as the 2019 awardee of the Wardle Medal from the Parasite, Immunology and Environment section of the Canadian Society for Zoologists (CSZ) for outstanding contributions to parasitology.  As the 2019 Wardle Medalist, Cam gives an address to the CSZ membership attending the Society's annual congress in May 2019. Cam joins HPI members John Gilleard (2018),  Derek McKay (2013), Andre Buret (2008) and Kris Chadee (2005) as recipients of the Wardle Medal.  Well done Cam, a well deserved recognition for your dedication and contributions to advancing parasitological research.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Amanda Melin for receiving a SEM Faculty Seed Grant based on the research proposal: "Health response to drought in free-ranging primates: assessing metabolomics, parasite infection, inflammation and the gut microbiome."  This grant was issued from the University Research Grants Committee.
  • Congratulations to Professor Dr. John Gilleard John is the 2018 recipient of the Wardle Medal from the Parasitology, Immunology and Environment (PIE) section of the Canadian Society for Zoologists (CSZ).  This award is given to an investigator in Canada that has made an outstanding contribution to Parasitology. John will receive his award and give a lecture at the annual CSZ meeting in May in St. John’s Newfoundland. Dr. Gilleard’s award brings the HPI tally to four, as he joins past recipients of the Wardle medal: Dr. Derek McKay (2013), Dr. Andre Buret (2008) and Dr. Kris Chadee (2005).
  • Congratulations to Dr. Amanda Melin for receiving a 2017 Killam Emerging Research Leader Award.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay for receiving a 5-year CIHR Operating grant for analysis of epithelial mitochondrial dynamics in response to microbial infections.
  • Congratulations to HPI Faculty member, Dr. Amanda Melin for receiving a Canadian Foundation for Innovation award. Dr. Melin's  research includes parasite-microbiome interactions and effects of short and long term climate change.  For the full story go to the UToday article.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Lash Gedamu Facult Awards in the category of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Award. The event for the ceremony is on March 11, 2016.
  • Dr. Derek McKay has been elected a Fellow of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAGF), in recognition of sustained service to the CAG.  Dr. McKay will receive this distinction at an Awards Ceremony at the Canadian Digestive Disease Week (CDDW) in Feb., 2016 in Montreal.
  • Dr. Derek McKay was awarded a 3 year grant (2015-2018) from Crohn's Colitis Canada to assess the potential of IL-4-treated macrophages to treat IBD.
  • Congratulations to Dr. James Wasmuth, HPI Faculty member for being awarded an NSERC discovery award.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Susan Kutz for receiving a 1 year Morris Animal Foundation grant and a 3-year ArcticNet (Network of Excellence) grant.
  • Dr. Derek McKay and Chadee were recognized as "GREAT SUPERVISORS" by the University of Calgary Faculty of Graduate Studies on September 17, 2014).  Awardees were recognized as individuals who went that extra step in supervising graduate students and received the award based on nomination from Graduate Program Directors.
  • Crohn’s and Colitis Canada awards $1.5 million in grants  Posted July 30, 2014 – section taken from Med Digest article; July 31, 2014.  “Crohn’s and Colitis Canada has awarded four research grants, totaling $1,485,310, to University of Calgary researchers. This is part of the organization’s investment of $3.4 million this year to support innovative research on Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, debilitating chronic diseases that affect more than 233,000 Canadians. These grants, worth over $370,000 each, will support a number of exciting projects at the University of Calgary’s Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases. The projects of Dr. Wallace MacNaughton, Dr. Andre Buret, Dr. Simon Hirota and Dr. Kris Chadee are investigating a broad range of important topics, from understanding and reducing inflammation to the role of gut flora in the development of Crohn’s and colitis.”
  • Congratulations to Dr. Derek McKay in being appointed Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) President for 2014-2016.
  • Dr. Derek McKay renewed his Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Intestinal Immunophysiology in Health and Disease (2013-2020).
     
  • ​​​​​​​Dr. Derek McKay was awarded the RA Wardle Medal from the Parasitism, Immunity and Environment section of the Canadian Society of Zoologists (CSZ) which "recognizes outstanding contributions to Canadian parasitology and/or outstanding contributions by a Canadian to parasitology".  Award will be presented at the annual meeting of the CSZ in Guelph, May 2013.
  • May 2013 -  Dr. Susan Kutz, Veterinary Medicine has been awarded a NSERC Discovery Grant for her work in "Theoretical and Empirical Approaches to Understanding Evolutionary and Ecological Drivers of Parasite Invasion, Establishment, and Range Expansion in the Arctic".
  • May 2013 -  Dr. Kris Chadee, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases has been awarded a NSERC Discovery Grant for his work in "Modeling Entamoeba histolytica hots-parasite interactions.
  • April 2013 - Dr. Andre Buret will receive the Order of the University of Calgary. He is a model of community service and outreach and has a talent for communicating the importance of science, research and innovation to students of every age from elementary to high school and beyond.