good afternoon everyone give it a couple of second for the last two people standing at the bar to grab their drinks but welcome to the faculty of science 2023 alumni Awards celebration and thank you very much for joining us at the University of watero As We Gather to celebrate five outstanding science alumni recipients the recipients of our 2023 alumni achievement awards for those of you who I have not met yet my name is Chris Hower and I'm the dean for the faculty of Science and it is an absolu
te pleasure to celebrate with you all today and honor some incredible science graduates one of the highlights of being a Dean is the opportunity to acknowledge the successes and talents of alumni who chew water loop as their educational institution I see family friends and colleagues here and we welcome each one of you to the University of waterl your support of today's celebrated alumni is much appreciated for that we offer we offer you a heartfelt thank you I'm pleased to welcome back to campu
s as well all the alumni in attendance including previous alumni award recipients thank you for joining us in this celebration which is only made Stronger by all of your continued success the science alumni Achievement Award awards were established when the university commemorated its 50th anniversary in 2007 at that time science launched the prestigious distinguished alumni award and 50 alumni of Honor anniversary Awards those were done in for the purpose of honoring and recognizing significant
contributions and achievements of our alumni but today we are here to celebrate as a collective our five newest alumni achievement award recipients and we are so fortunate that several of our recipients have traveled to celebrate us with us today traveling everywhere from around here in Southwestern Ontario Michigan North Carolina and as far away as Washington State thank you for making the journey and allowing us to celebrate your achievements we are going to get into the awards celebration he
re shortly but before we do that I would like to welcome Dr Kirsten Mueller chair of the department of biology to give our land [Applause] acknowledgement thank you very much we acknowledge that much of our work at the University of watero takes place on the traditional territory of the neutral Anish schab and honi peoples our main campus is situated on the halman tract the land promised to the Six Nations that include six miles on each side of the Grand River I strongly feel that part of doing
a land acknowledgement is to personally recognize the land that we live work and carry out our research on and so today I would like to note that I have lived and I'm currently carrying out research in nista which is the land where the three rivers meet what today we call the Athabasca the clear water and the hanging Stone Rivers nista is an ancient Gathering Place to many indigenous peoples for many thousands of years today it is also called Fort McMurray and falls in the region of wood Buffalo
Wood Buffalo resides on treaty 8 land which is the traditional territory of the cre the den and the unseated territory of the mateti thank [Applause] you it is now my distinct pleasure of introducing to you all nonon Donaldson the vice president advancement for the University of [Applause] waterl hi everybody thank you Chris um so I'd like to express my appreciation to Dean haer I just called you Chris but Dean haer and the faculty of science for inviting me here today uh one of the high points
of my role is actually the opportunity to meet with our alumni all over the world uh and especially when you're back on campus it's so great to see everybody here today um and it's also my chance to thank you for everything you do as alumni for this University um your brand is our brand and so we really appreciate uh you out in the world celebrating waterl um you really do contribute to our success in so many ways you share the knowledge skills and experiences you gain dur during your time at w
aterl by participating in mentorship programs for science students in new alumni you support students and researchers financially through donations and fundraising efforts helping to enhance programs facilities and student awards and maybe you hire Co-op students hopefully all do ensuring they have the same valuable work learning experience you may have enjoyed all of you are ambassadors for watero and for Science and fostering that sense of Pride and creating a strong Alumni network that benefi
ts everyone is really important so thank you I truly do enjoy meeting with alumni because hearing about your achievements is really why we are all here we are here so that you can go out into the world and do great things and I'm especially pleased to be here to celebrate those achievements of the five of you today um so as the past few years have clearly shown us scientists like you play a crucial role in both protecting and advancing in society your efforts help us better understand complex pr
oblems and make informed decisions your Quests for excellence drives Innovation that creates connection well-being and prosperity to the faculty of Sciences 2024 alumni or 23 it is 23 I was thinking it was the wrong number but it is about last year alumni award recipients I wish you continued success as you seek to Build a Better World for Humanity and the planet you are shaping the future and everyone at the University of water's proud of you [Applause] congratulations thank you nonon and you h
ad me look back at the actual pamphlet to make sure it was 2023 we are now going to celebrate our recipients by their categories beginning with our contributions to science recipients this award was created to honor and recognize significant service support and contributions of alumni and it is bestowed upon alumni who demonstrate significant contributions to the faculty in their proven and significant citizenship to the University of waterloop which includes but is not limited to increasing the
profile and accessibility of science generating and supporting science knowledge and awareness volunteering mentoring and advocacy to help me with acknowledging our first 2023 contributions to science Award winner I would like to welcome Dr Graham Murphy associate professor in the Department of Chemistry to it's [Applause] you good afternoon all Claudia I'm sorry I was asked if I could do this in song and dance I will not be a so it is my pleasure to both nominated um Dr Stevenson for this awar
d um and it's an honor to actually present him with uh this distinguished alumni award for his contributions to science Cory Corey comes from Callingwood Ontario he completed his bachelor's degree here at the University of watero in 1998 he completed his doctoral studies in Pittsburgh he went on to the eth in zurk for his post-doctoral studies he began his independent career at Boston University and he spent the last 10 years as professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan he was recentl
y named Canada Excellence research chair at the University of British Columbia cross-appointed between the faculty of Science and the faculty of medicine for the numerically inclined Dr Stevenson Dr Stevenson has trained nearly 100 students in Poston he has published over 130 papers and his work has been cited more than 14,000 times CH he's recognized as one of the pioneers of the field of photo redox catalysis using light to develop chemistry that efficiently constructs molecules of broad socie
tal relevance and in recent years this is expanded to include electrochemistry achieving the same goals while Dr Stevenson's lab routinely publishes their scientific achievements in top tier journals including science and nature he's also an award-winning lecturer recently he and his Partners Dr Karina Schindler have also developed and published educational articles about an organic chemistry summer camp I kid you not that focuses on the principles of sustainability solar energy and green chemis
try his dedication to science and scientific learning is profound and will surely be an asset to the Canadian chemistry Community going forward so I'll wrap up by mentioning that nearly half of the chemistry dep department is here today um to join us in celebrating Corey and Mike m went um for their Awards so in regard to Corey whether these colleagues fall under the category of people who taught him during his time here at waterl or people like myself who arrived here after his departure but ha
ve been fans of this science ever since I feel I can speak on everyone's behalf in saying that this dis distinguished alumni award for contributions to science is most clearly [Applause] of the fa of [Laughter] s all right I just would like to just say a couple of words uh first to the otheres if I have to chase my daughter out of the room I apologize um but it's been a really wonderful day and to be back here and thanks for everyone for putting that together particularly Patricia Megan and Shar
on for also organizing a wonderful day for my daughter the only updates we received throughout the day were pictures of her doing fun stuff at the Museum which was ideal good for me so I'm really honored to to be here to receive this and my former research mentee and some of the faculty that that taught me in classes when I was here it's really great that that you're able to be here for this of course these are the kind of wordss that um when we get them it's not really anything that I did I not
run a single experiment in these things they're all the the work of those 100 plus people that have done the hard work in the lab and they really deserve all so thanks again really appreciate the effort and we're really happy to be here honor to receive this [Applause] award thank you Corey and congratulations on your award and our best wishes to you for your continued success at UBC to recognize our second contributions to science recipient I'd like to welcome Dr Kirsty Mueller back to the pod
ium thank you Chris um I'd like to invite Lori to come up where where's Lori oh there you are thank you um so just a few words of introduction um so Professor Lori Weidman graduated with her Bachelor of Science degree here at waterl in 1990 she went on to earn her Masters in exercise physiology from Ball State and her PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Virginia shortly after in 2000 she began as faculty for the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she is now the safre
and is distinguished professor in kinesiology Professor wiesman research looks at the effects of exercise on growth hormone release the use of physical activity to reduce risk factors in chronic disease obesity and body composition and she has published in many journals such as the American Journal of physiology metabolism diabetes um journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism and so many more I had a really amazing conversation with Lori this morning we talked about our first day here at
waterl standing in front of the SLC looking kind of lost and but feeling kind of overwhelmed and amazed um and then we talked about faculty here in biology who have retired uh but those in biology know their names well like Nels BS and George Dixon um and it was really fantastic as chair of biology to hear how Lori took her experience here in our biology classes and in her Co-op terms and along with her strong commitment to Athletics and propelled her into graduate school and her career in human
physiology I am so glad Lori that your time here learning in biology helped you in the incredible work that you do today [Applause] congratulations I just want to say that um you feel old when you walk around here I didn't recognize anything and I said said to Patricia I'm so glad I didn't count on my previous knowledge of this institution to get anywhere today because I would have been completely lost um it's been years since I've been back here and it's wonderful to be back here and to just s
ee how this institution has growing and changed um it's amazing really is um and it's an amazing honor to receive this reward award thank you so much to everyone who organized today and for my family and my friends who are here and and uh gave time of their very crazy life to be here and to honor me and I just want to say that my husband um is at home holding on the fort with my kids in uh North Carolina and he was very upset that he couldn't be here but if he wasn't there I wouldn't be here um
and so I'm very grateful to him for that I'm also as as kson said incredibly grateful for my time as a co-op student here at waterl I cannot tell you how many times I've sat students down in my office and said listen there is no straight path to the end of your academic career because I'm definitely somebody who went all over the place before I ended up where I was and part of that was really The Cooperative program who gave me the work experience and my coursework here at the institution which
is still the basis of almost all of my research work and all of my accomplishments today um and as the previous um recipient said nothing in science gets done without great collaborators and amazing graduate students and when you look at my CV what you see is the success if you had to read all the failures you probably wouldn't bother to look at the CV um but the bottom line is that what defines us as scientists is not our success but our response to our failures so thank you very much for this
award I appreciate so much my friends and family who are here with me today and I told Denise that it's amazing when I walk around this uh this campus that all the buildings are still standing because her lack of willingness to read organic chemistry details I'm actually surprised we didn't blow anything up so thank you Denise for keeping on me on my [Applause] toes thank you Lori and congratulations and I guess thank you Denise for the next award category we are going to recognize is the facult
y or the early alumni Excellence award this award was created to honor and recognize significant service contribution and achievements of alumni within the first 10 years following graduation it is bestowed upon alumni who demonstrate significant contributions in professional or academic achievement or Community contributions to help me with acknowledging our 2023 early alumni Excellence Award winner I would like to introduce Dr Oki eoli director of the science and business program to the [Appla
use] podium thank you Chris as that can you join me up there please I guess we didn't used to do this in s 1 2 and 4 all right um as moved from Nigeria in 2016 with the goal of exploring her interest science business and art it's been challenging but rewarding and I can you know relate to her you know challenges as an immigrant student myself as since graduating from the University of waru she has established herself as a visual artist under the name AB the artist while working as a project mana
ger at huge a creative Consulting agency with various clients including McDonald's Google Lego and Panton as a visual artist she creates vibrant art inspired by her EUR cultural heritage what happened to ebo that talk by the way I have a fir side CH coming up on Friday so I will I I will throw you some cff balls so she does this through a contemporary lens her work depat black women and Ori which translates to head in EUR so in it will be easy but also refers to one's essense and purpose she rei
magines or as other worldly that embody the soul her work also celebrates extended African features such as thick hair full lips and Broad noses like mine as his 's ultimate goal is to preserve her cultural history by telling afro infused visual stories on an amplified skill and this is quite timely given that this is black African Moon our 2023 collaboration with raptor 905 featuring her signature is a reflection of this go and we are proud to call you C Al and [Applause] congratulations I gues
s it's my turn to say a few words um first of all I am so so so honored to be here this was extremely unexpected but so grateful um I first want to start off by saying thank you so much to the University of waru um coming here moving from Nigeria like Dr said like completely changed my life in ways that I truly didn't understand when my mom and I were dropped off right in front of like the entrance of uu for reference I lived at rev but we didn't know the way there so we're dropped off there she
had to drag my luggage all the way there to rev that's like a 20 minute walk but that was such a memorable day because I didn't know at the time that that was the beginning of an amazing journey um my education here my experiences here the clubs I joined the friends I made really made an impact in terms of who I am now today and have really made me Bloom into this interesting character that you see before you um I think the other thing here as well as like above all I want to say thank you to m
y parents my parents aren't here today but my parents have been working tirelessly to provide my siblings and ie the opportunity to become the people that we want to be and this award is ultimately for the because they're the unsung heroes here not me I'm here working but they're they're there working a thousand times harder so I want to say thank you so much to them they're not here today but this award is really for them and thank you so much to everyone that's here to celebrate us alumni winn
ers um thank [Applause] you thank you a and congratulations and I'm I'm particularly excited about this the award this year to that because this is the year that we are starting a brand new program called science meets art or smart and it's a way in which we then blend the Arts and the Sciences together and I think you're a great role model for that program and and for those of you who are going to be on campus on Friday she's also doing a fireside chat for side business students and uh we'd wel
come you to attend it'd be a great opportunity to hear from her and her experiences so now the last category we are going to recognize in today's program is the distinguished alumni category this award was created to honor and recognize the significant service contribution and achievements of our alumni and this prestigious award is bestowed upon alumni who demonstrates significant contributions in one or more of the following areas professional or academic achievement which recognizes the accom
plishments of water loose science alumni relating to Career Success significant recognition leadership or advisory roles invisible success beyond the industry segment and contributions to the community which recognizes the accomplishments of water loose signs alumni in volunteer leadership humanitarian Endeavors and proven impact on the community and within public service to help me recognize our first 2023 distinguished alumni award recipient I would like to reinvite Dr Oki aboli back to the po
dium thank you again chis um Simone can you join me up here please thank you I had the pleasure of having a what was supposed to be 45 minute coffee chat with Simon and he went by like 45 seconds just so much to catch up on I'm seriously Blown Away with your accomplishments okay Simone has dedicated her career to driving transformative changes in healthcare her unique blend of skills in strategy project management and policy change positions her as a driving force behind Health System transforma
tion aiming to create a healthier future for communities and regions Simone is a critical member of the team that developed designed and then implemented the largest voluntary Hospital major in Canada acum heal Partners thp thp is a world leading full system of care in missa and West Toronto servicing over 1.7 million patients annually she has progressed through several critical leadership roles including thp's first director of strategy and project management then associate vice president of pe
ople strategy and volunteers currently Simon is vice president at Institute for Better Health ibh a national leader in Health Services Research and supporting creation of thp solutions which will drive Innovation and create new revenue streams for trailing to drive sustainability in healthcare and to lead traum Health Partners as an edge partner within the $30 million Federal Innovation Network can Health Network in her role at Institute for Better Health she has been instrumental in bridging re
search and Innovation Ambitions with Sound business strategies from Human Resources to finance to project management to build success this culminated last year with tr's recognition for the first time as one of Canada's top 40 research hospitals in 2022 Simone was honored as one of Canada's 100 most powerful women by the women's executive Network she also serves as a board member at Sheridan College in the role of Vice chair since 2023 Simone holds a Bachelor of Science and business from the Uni
versity of War cor program and an MBA from the sh School of Business at University and I can't wait to see what she will accomplish in the years ahead congratulations [Applause] Simon you it's my turn to say a few words um thank you Opie so much and I also felt like it went by in 45 seconds earlier today I wasn't sure if that's because I can talk too much or you're a fabulous listener maybe both um it's so lovely to see everyone thank you all for making time today to join us and celebrate all of
these incredibly accomplished individuals to my fellow recipients congratulations um I wanted to start by thanking the faculty of Science and the University of watero I've long been a proud waterl alumni and so this I will say distinction is particularly special to me um also I wanted to thank the science and business program what a great day for C is today amazing congratulations to my fellow cyz alumni um I will share that I was a high school student who really wasn't sure which path to take
I was interested in science I was interested in business I really would have loved if there was some program that combined those two things and I was very fortunate to have a guidance counselor in my high school who called me down one afternoon and said Simone have you heard about this science and business program I think it would be well suited to your interest so a big thank you to guidance counselors because I certainly wouldn't be here um sharing this moment with you all without that incredi
ble individual um in my work at Trillium I I definitely am more the business side than the science side on a day-to-day basis I like to describe the work that I do as I live to make the dreams of my scientists come true to help them find funding to help them find people to help them build facilities and in my mind it is the perfect way to describe the power of a science and business degree from the University of waterl so um I'm incredibly grateful to the program for the launching pad that it's
offered me um there's a few few folks that te be or Trillium health partners that I would love to thank um SLC used to mean the Student Life Center for me and now means the senior leadership committee and the work that I do day to day so I would like to thank my SLC colleagues at thp and particularly um my boss Dr Dante Mora who leads our Innovation practice and our CEO D Karli phoh who has been a staun supporter of mine for a long long time um I'd also like to thank a incredible woman who found
me as a co-op student student offered me one of my first Co-op jobs Mary sand again um and she saw in me I think potential I wasn't even certain was there so big thank you to those folks um and lastly I want to thank Megan and Patricia and Chris like your team has just been so incredibly welcoming and kind uh thank you for showing an incredible time to uh my family over the past week um I uh I'm really grateful it's been very very wonderful to experience camp Camp again I share in feeling a bit
aged walking around the campus as one of my fellow recipients mentioned um but really it's been lovely to be back and see the incredible growth at the University as well so congratulations um I lastly want to thank my parents who have been the co-presidents of the Simone fan club since its Inception um they do fabulous work and I would not have done very much of anything without their incredible support and just to my husband and my son who who's hard to miss today and his bright yellow um our
daughter who's at home and my entire extended family just thank you guys all so much and I'm really really grateful thank [Applause] you congratulations Simone and we're excited that you're going to be back here in November to share some of your insights and successes with our side Biz students but I'd also would like to to recognize that bright yellow Warrior St over there and the bucket hat too bad you weren't wearing that when you got on the Maple Leaves Jumbotron six times on Monday night ou
r final recipient being awarded or recognized today he also being recognized for a distinguished alumni award and to introduce him I would like to welcome Dr will power associate professor and previous chair of the Department of Chemistry to the podium and I meant Bill power not will power thank you [Applause] thank you Chris uh it's a great pleasure to be here to recognize Dr mik Houston and if I could ask him to come to the front so it's appropriate we have water blue yellow showing up here fr
om an early age Mike enjoyed strong ties to the University of waterl as the sun of a longtime Kinesiology Professor Michael Senor he and his family lived on campus for a number of years including in the tutor houses that some of you may remember he regularly attended Warrior hockey and basketball games so it was no surprise that he chose to attend the University of waterl first receiving his BSC in 1987 and then his PhD in chemistry in 1993 uh after those degrees he pursu careers that fed his fa
scination with biotechnology that started here Mike initially focused on peptides and proteins but in the early 2000s became hooked on new therapeutic modalities based on nucleic acids during this time he was involved in developing Delivery Systems that were licensed to multiple companies he pursued an interest in mRNA leading R&D departments to develop drugs for Orphan liver diseases when covid-19 arrived global interest in the use of mRNA exploded which resulted in the need for companies to ma
ke mRNA as well as the novel reagents and raw materials required for these new vaccines while working as the chief scientific officer for trink biotechnologies in San Diego one of TR Link's cap analoges was selected for fizer's covid-19 vaccine it required a complete overhaul of the manufacturing of this comp compound as well as the need to SC SC up production by a h hundredfold ensuring his company could Supply this reagent so fizer could start production of the vaccine and I think in that time
he took the company from $20 million to $800 million now semi-retired Mike turns to a variety of hobbies to keep him busy he's an avid mountain biker recently completed a 100 mile race he also enjoys hiking photography has a disting uish career as a runner and in an even greater demonstration of endurance stamina perseverance in the face of adversity he continues to cheer on the Toronto Maple Mike you spent much of your first 30 years here on campus I did you spent 30 years away it's a great pr
ivilege to welcome you back today as a new [Applause] speaker [Applause] can you see the science L okay I deserve that wow um this was unexpected and um I'm truly humbled and U it's actually um pretty emotional because I did grow up on campus and back in the early to mid 7s you might have seen me playing ball hockey from the the tutor houses in the parking lot there or chasing down pucks at Warrior games I think my record was six Pucks in one game it's it's really been interesting coming back wh
ile I been back maybe 15 years ago for a day or two I really hadn't been back for 30 years and just walking around this morning and just seeing the growth of the city seeing the growth of the University itself um I did feel a little bit lost as I was walking around here but you know this University's always had a really interesting feel to it and this growth I think is an example of that um I would say that this is not a university that's an Tower you know growing up on campus friends and famili
es were uh professors but you know we didn't call them drct so and so or whatever they were Mr mcna or Mr Walker or whatever so it had a more you know sedate relaxed field to that I've always appreciated just a a couple of stories when I when I think about my time in water um I remember sitting in a first year chemistry um course that was taught by Dr cheer and He Turned the Lights Off got a blue light out put his lab coat on and showed us how Optical brighteners worked in detergents and I thoug
ht how cool is that so that was kind of my first thing getting into um you know how cool science was and then um that summer I got to work with Dr banatha um and got to interact with a lot of the grad students students played on their soccer team and just saw the dedication and the hard work that it took to be a grad student and I think the the final thing that I think about is um I took a course with John hanik and in that course he um talked about am Jen and jentech and they just thought man t
hat is so cool and that sort of made my mind up that I was going to move into uh biotechnology so thank you for for all that um yeah this is this has been truly a remarkable experience and um you know I look back in my um degree at waru I've got the emotional peace having lived on campus but when I think of the more practical side of it of the actual education I got I think it really enabled me to have this long and winding path the ability to you know work in multiple therapeutic modalities and
then to take take on a whole set of different roles in companies from operations to Business Development to you name it running a GMP facility so I think what this University stands for is a well grounded education and I think you can do anything with it so lastly Megan and team thank you very much it's been good to know you when I was living in San Diego and I'm truly proud to be alumni of waterl and the science department so thank you very [Applause] much thank you Mike and congratulations an
d I'll note that we had dinner last night and I learned that his definition of semi-retirement means working eight hours a day intense mountain biking and running and so I'm a little worried about retirement coming up so we're at the end here and our sincere congratulations to all of our recipients recognize today all of you and indeed all of the alumni in the room today are a testimony and an inspiration to all of us in the faculty of science your accomplishments are diverse and a testament to
the quality of Education here at the University of watero and in the faculty of science we are except exceptionally proud of your contributions every one of you has made and continues to make our world a better place place and we look forward to seeing all you are able to do and achieve in the future this now concludes the formal part of our program I would like to thank you once again for being part of the celebration and if you know any Rockstar science Alum like the ones we recognize today wh
o are deserving of an alumni Achievement Award please consider nominating them so that we can celebrate their accomplishments in the future thank you so much to the family the friends friends and colleagues for joining us today and we welcome you and actually encourage you to continue celebrating and enjoy refreshments and conversation as you congratulate our newest suai suai just made up a word science alumni award recipients before I say thank you I would like to then ask all of the award winn
ers and all of the ones who presented the awards to come up to the front for uh photographs but again thank you and enjoy the refreshments and [Applause] food
Comments