Introducing UCalgary’s 2026 Killam Annual Professors

Five University of Calgary researchers have been named Killam Annual Professors for their outstanding international achievements in research, teaching and mentorship, and community service. 

Killam Annual Professors are part of the Killam Trust awards, the university’s most prestigious internal recognition of research excellence, celebrating scholars whose paradigm-shifting work is shaping Canada’s future. 

The 2026 Killam Annual Professors are: Dr. Christopher Clarkson, PhD; Dr. Gina Dimitropoulos, PhD; Dr. Stephen Freedman, MD; Dr. Fadhel Ghannouchi, PhD; and Dr. Deborah Kurrasch, PhD.

“Congratulations to our 2026 Killam Annual Professors whose exceptional scholarly work, knowledge impact and innovation efforts highlight UCalgary as a top five research university in Canada,” says Dr. William Ghali, MD, vice-president (research). “Their achievements are truly exceptional and demonstrate research excellence at our university.”

Dr. Christopher Clarkson, PhD, PEng

Professor and Associate Head (Research and Innovation), Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment, Faculty of Science. Adjunct associate professor, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering. Tamaratt Research Professor in Transitional Energy, and ARC/Ovintiv Chair in Subsurface Transitional Energy Pathways.

Dr. Christopher Clarkson is a globally renowned innovator in techniques for evaluating unconventional subsurface energy reservoirs in both the field and laboratory. His research has developed tools and methods that are efficient in the field while addressing environmental challenges and our energy future. 

He brings his industry experience to his teaching practice by incorporating real-world knowledge and research findings, helping to enrich student learning experiences, and co-developing the free Subsurface Evaluation for Clean Energy microcredential. Clarkson’s ability to supervise both geoscience and engineering students creates a multidisciplinary collaborative training environment allowing his students to be in demand after graduation.

Clarkson co-developed DFTI-FBA (diagnostic fracture injection test — flowback analysis), a new well-test analysis method that has been adopted by the Alberta and BC energy regulators, and his advancements in rate-transient analysis has earned him recognition from the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Clarkson received the 2024 NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation for his work establishing the Tight Oil Consortium, which brings industry and government together with academia to develop new technologies.

Dr. Gina Dimitropoulos, PhD, MSW, RSW

Professor, Faculty of Social Work; Departments of Psychiatry and Paediatrics, Cumming School of Medicine. Member of the Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute; Member of the Owerko Centre and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, and member of the O’Brien Institute for Public Health, Cumming School of Medicine.

Dr. Gina Dimitropoulos is a global leader in transformative mental health research who has influenced clinical practice and policy in health care, integrated youth services and post-secondary institutions. As a research leader and registered social worker, she works with and holds leadership positions with community partner agencies and national initiatives: Kickstand, Hull Services and Kindex.  

She specializes in research developing and testing innovative interventions and improving system-level responses to youth mental health, complex health conditions, eating disorders and child abuse. She is the UCalgary Research Excellence Chair in Transdisciplinary System-level Interventions for Equitable, Accessible Youth Mental Health Services.

Dimitropoulos is also recognized internationally as a subject matter expert in eating disorders as a Fellow of the Academy of Eating Disorders and the research lead for the Eating Disorders Program in the Calgary zone. She is also dedicated to supporting early career clinician-scientists and researchers and is the National Mentorship Chair for ENRICH.

Dr. Stephen Freedman, MD

Associate dean, clinical trials and professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine. Member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, and the O’Brien Institute for Public Health, Cumming School of Medicine.

Dr. Stephen Freedman is a world-leading clinician scientist in child health and wellness whose research has transformed the care of children with acute illness. His work has informed clinical practice and international treatment guidelines, improving the care and outcomes for paediatric patients worldwide.

His research focuses on developing better treatments for children with acute infectious illnesses, including vomiting and diarrhea, COVID-19, and other paediatric respiratory infections. Freedman leads the SPRINT-KIDS surveillance network that tracks real-time trends in respiratory viruses among children seeking hospital care across the country. He has also introduced innovative, patient-centred models of care for children and youth presenting to emergency departments with mental health concerns. An internationally recognized leader in paediatric emergency medicine, he has advised the World Health Organization, led landmark clinical trials that have changed practice, and has helped lead Pediatric Emergency Research Canada for nearly two decades.

Freedman also serves as a leader of the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Research Team, which oversees the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Research Associates Program helping prepare the next generation of clinical researchers. As associate dean (clinical trials), he has strengthened the infrastructure and institutional supports required to advance industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated trials, helping position Alberta as a leading destination for high-quality clinical research.

Dr. Fadhel Ghannouchi, PhD, PEng, FIEEE, FRSC, FEIC, FCAE 

Professor, Department of Electrical and Software Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering.

Dr. Fadhel Gannouchi is an internationally recognized leader in microwave and wireless engineering. He is the founding director of the iRadio Lab and a Distinguished Invited Professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Ghannouchi is well known for his contributions to microwave electronics, wireless communications, radio signal processing, and related fields, including RF power amplifiers, behavioural modelling of communications systems, digital predistortion, and impairment-compensation techniques applied to wireless, satellite and optical communications. His research has fundamentally shaped the design and functioning of every modern wireless communication system in use today. He holds 39 U.S. patents and seven foreign patents, and has founded four successful spinoff companies.

Ghannouchi has received the 2025 Distinguished Educator Award from the IEEE-MTT Society, the 2023 R. A. Fessenden Award from IEEE Canada, and a Special Lifetime Achievement Award (2019) and Outstanding Leadership in Alberta Technology Award (2014) from the ASTech Foundation. He is a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Dr. Deborah Kurrasch, PhD

Professor, departments of Medical Genetics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Cumming School of Medicine. Member, Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the Owerko Centre and Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Cumming School of Medicine.

Dr. Deborah Kurrasch is a neuroscience researcher and entrepreneur who has built an internationally recognized research program that moves discoveries along the commercialization pipeline. Her research explores how hypothalamic neurons become organized into distinct neuronal clusters (nuclei), and how the cellular and molecular mechanisms guide the movement into nuclei to identify novel disease pathways that can open new avenues of drug discovery. She has founded two companies based on her translational research, Path Therapeutics and Stream Neuroscience. 

Kurrasch is dedicated to educational excellence as the deputy director of the neurosciences graduate program and engages with multiple educational leadership committees within the Cumming School of Medicine and with international professional societies. Mentorship is a key component of her work with more than 100 mentees from high school to the postdoctoral level. In addition to supporting her trainees with research excellence in the lab, she also helps them develop leadership and business skills.

Kurrasch is currently a visiting professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore; deputy head, Department of Medical Genetics; and program lead of the Brain Circuitry Keystone Program with the Azrieli Accelerator. She has received many awards and distinctions for her work including Science’s Board of Reviewing Editors, Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 2024, and the ASTech Foundation Women in Innovation award.