Dr. Ryan Mailloux visited us in February as part of his interview process for an assistant professor job in Biochemistry.  He has since accepted the offer and will start in September 2015.  Congratulations on your appointment!

The Douglas and Beatrice Hall Biochemistry Bursary for 2014-2015 was awarded in March to Martin Hurley, a third year Biochemistry student in this department.  There are a number of academic prizes awarded in the department each year, but this one has special meaning to employees as we established it in memory of two deceased staff members.  Most of the funds raised for the award came from employee donations and this was the fifth awarding of this prize.
 
Planning meetings for the new Core Science Building continued over the winter and spring.  Our part of the process is determining space usage and we are in the finalization phase.
 
The Biochemistry Society had their end of year formal dinner and dance on Thursday April 2nd. This event also serves as a farewell gathering for the graduating class and they celebrated with numerous fun awards for achievement in academics, sports, and other areas of class involvement.  The new executive for the Society for the 2015-16 academic year was named at the dinner.  Justin Upshall as president will lead the society through the coming year.
 
We learned in April that six students who applied for summer jobs in Biochemistry research labs under the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) program were successful in being placed.  In addition, four students were successful in finding summer placements under the Dean of Science program Science Undergraduate Research Awards (SURA).  We also were funded for one Undergraduate Student Summer Internship Program (USSIP) award, in this the program's inaugural year.  Congratulations to you all!

MUCEP results were announced in late April.  We have 46 funded positions for 2015-16, a significant increase from the 35 funded positions we had for 2014-15.  As this program provides paid work experience in our students’ field of study, the increased number of jobs is appreciated.  Most of the jobs are held in the fall and winter semesters.  Hiring is done online for this, arranged by CDEL who also fund the program.
 
Alex Brannan and Jiaur Rahman joined the department as new Master of Science students, starting in May.  Alex is jointly supervised by Drs. Brown and Booth and Jiaur is with Dr. Shahidi.

The big event in May was Convocation as we said goodbye to 14 B.Sc. (Hons.) graduates, 49 B.Sc. graduates, and 10 students from other departments with Minors in Biochemistry.  Maha Ayoub, Wael Demian, Jonathan Moulton, and Nishani Perera each received their M.Sc. degree.  Laura McBreairty, Matt Nosworthy and Jason Robinson each received their PhD degree.

In addition to their degrees, some students received special awards at Convocation:
-Ian Lehr, who won the Governor General’s Medal (Undergraduate), the University Medals for Academic Excellence in Biochemistry and in Behavioural Neuroscience, and the Society of Chemical Industry Merit Award (Biochemistry)

-Andrew O’Dea, who won the University Medal for Academic Excellence in Biochemistry (Nutrition) and the Grace Morgan Prize in Biochemistry (Nutrition)

At the department’s annual Convocation Reception on May 27, the following book prizes were given to students:  the Head’s Prize was awarded to Peter Gregory, Cody O’Brien, and Andrew O’Dea; the Brosnan Prize was awarded to Ian Lehr; and the Mookerjea Prize was awarded to Taylor Anderson, Alexander Brannan, Michael Gardiner, Peter Gregory, Ian Lehr, Sean Leonard, Kaitlin Mcgrath, Emily Moores, Cody O’Brien, Jeremy O’Brien, Andrew O’Dea, Rebecca Quilty, and Jillian Vallis. Each of these prizes are awarded for academic excellence as outlined in our awards page.

There’s been a longstanding tradition that each May at our convocation reception the head or deputy head donates a special prize to the student in 499B (the honours project course) who has their thesis submitted first.  There are usually about 15 – 20 students in the class who are eligible to win.  This year’s winners were Jeremy O’Brien (Fall 2014 submission) and Peter Gregory (Winter 2015 submission).

Five employees were recognized at the Employee Service dinner held May 13.  This event is hosted by the President for those with at least 30 years of service.  Employees are invited at five year intervals.  Marie Codner, Mike Murphy, Anne Sinnott, and Craig Skinner received 30 year service awards, and Dr. Margaret Brosnan received a 40 year service award.

Summer student hiring continued into May, with students funded from various programs as well as from supervisor’s research grants.  By the end of May, 24 students were working in research labs for the summer in either part-time or full-time positions.