select

Ken Dryden didn’t mince words as he spoke to a crowd of 400 young athletes, coaches and parents who had come to hear him speak at the MacEwan Ballroom Monday night. “Each of us needs to do something extraordinary,” he told the audience attending the University of Calgary forum, Sport Concussions: From Problems to Answers, Where We Go Next. “We need to push this agenda forward.” The forum was presented by the HBI, the Faculties of Kinesiology and Medicine, and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI).

Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions (AI-HS) recently announced the results of the February 2013 competition for Summer Studentship Awards. Of the 186 summer studentships that were awarded, 70 went to the University of Calgary and of those, 35 were awarded to labs belonging to HBI full members and 7 were awarded to labs belonging to HBI associate members. 

HBI member Dr. Garnette Sutherland was among those chosen by a peer-review panel of Canadian and international experts for the impact of his work on the health and well-being of Canadians and others worldwide. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Medical Association Journal are acknowledging the top achievements in Canadian health research that have had a significant impact on health, health care and health research.

Congratulations to the successful applicants of the October 2012 Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions (AIHS) Training and Early Career Development Competitions. The HBI received two fellowships and six studentships. These awards focus on the development of the individual and provide opportunities for trainees to gain broad experience within the health research environment to facilitate success in launching careers in academia, industry, government, or elsewhere.

Professor Samuel Weiss, PhD, director of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute in the Faculty of Medicine, has been appointed to lead the University of Calgary’s brain and mental health initiative, one of six research themes outlined in the university’s 2012 Strategic Research Plan.

The plan is a roadmap for achieving the university’s Eyes High strategic direction to become one of Canada’s top five research intensive universities by our 50^th anniversary in 2016.

Alberta Innovates - Health Solutions recently announced the results of the 2012 Collaborative Research and Innovation Opportunities (CRIO) Collaborative Project full application competition. Of the 21 applications approved by CRIO, four projects led by HBI full members and four projects led by HBI associate members received support. Congratulations also to Dr. Richard Frayne, with co-principal investigator Dr. Eric Smith, who received support from the June 2012 Alberta/Pfizer Translation Research Opportunity.

Last month, President Elizabeth Cannon announced plans to recruit 60 new postdoctoral scholars to the University of Calgary. To help meet this new challenge, Hotchkiss Brain Institute member Dr. Naweed Syed was appointed Postdoctoral Program Director in the Office of the Vice-President (Research).

The Hotchkiss Brain Institute’s Dr. Gregory Cairncross was recently honoured at the prestigious Alberta Science and Technology (ASTech) Foundation annual awards. Dr. Cairncross was chosen in the category Outstanding Leadership in Alberta Science for his leadership role in a scientific innovation or breakthrough. 

Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 is an annual selection of Calgary’s brightest and most active leaders under the age of 40. This year, HBI members Drs. Christophe Altier, Shelagh Coutts, Deborah Kurrasch and Minh Dang Nguyen were among the exceptional Calgarians celebrated on this distinguished list. 

The University of Calgary's latest recipients of the prestigious Killam Trusts  awards were honored at a gala dinner on October 17. HBI members: Drs. Richard Frayne, V. Wee Yong and Gerald Zamponi, along with PhD student Jordan Engbers (from the lab of Dr. Ray Turner), were among this year’s winners of the Killam awards, which celebrate excellence in teaching and research.