June – July – August – September – October – November - December  2015 News

In June the department participated in the Campus Food Bank’s Twelve Days of Giving food drive, an event we are long-standing participants in.  In July we found out  that we had won the prize for giving the most food of all the offices and departments who gave.  This is the ninth year in a row that we won this prize, fully because of  the generosity of our people.  The prize is a coffee break funded by the food bank and that event was held later in the fall.

Our former graduate student Kangai Thillayampalam started as a Research Assistant in July.  He will be working with Drs. Bertolo and Brunton.

Our Research Associate Jenn Stevens and her husband Tom welcomed new son Morgan to their family in July.
 
The fifth Biochemistry Summer Student Research Symposium took place on August 11th at The Rooms.  This event is organized by the department’s graduate students each year.  It included posters and talks by graduate and summer undergraduate students, as well as an invited guest speaker, Dr. Petra Kienesberger from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick.  The L.M. Stead Award for an M.Sc. student oral presentation was won by Alex Brannan, and the L.M. Stead Award for a Ph.D. student oral presentation was won by Craig Ayre.  Prizes were also awarded for the best undergraduate posters.  Recipients were 1st place, Shannon Hart and 2nd place, Travis Pickett.

Betty Ann (Lewis) Gaslard from our General Office was married on August 15th.  Her new husband is Patrick Gaslard and we wish them many years of happiness together.

On September 1, our new assistant professor, Dr. Ryan Mailloux, started his employment with us.  Congratulations on your appointment!

Our long time Student Laboratory Supervisor, Mike Murphy, retired on September 1st.  Over the fall replacement hiring occurred and Mike was replaced by his former assistant, Marie Codner.  Marie was then replaced by Natalie Webber, who started with us on January 5th.  Natalie has worked with us previously, but more recently had been employed in Faculty of Science stores.  In the interim Stephanie Leger, who is also a graduate student in Biology, held a staff position in the lab. Congratulations to all three of our people as they embark on these new roles.

We welcomed two new graduate students this fall, enrolled in our MSc program, Taylor Anderson and Viswa Swaminathan.   We also had a number of students hired in MUCEP and ISWEP positions for the fall semester, mostly placed as lab assistants.

The annual Faculty of Science awards ceremony was September 22nd.  At this event the Dean of Science honours students named to the dean’s list for the prior academic year, and we always see many Biochemistry students on this list.  In addition, other student awards were announced and some students from our department were recipients of book prizes.

Our winners’ prize for the Campus Food Bank’s 12 Days of Giving was a donated coffee break.  We again collected the most food of any department participating, an achievement we’ve reached many times before.  The coffee break was held on October 9th and was well enjoyed by attendees.  At that coffee we collected for the Alzheimer Society, and raised $160.

Our long-time faculty member Dr. Sue Ghazala retired in October.  We wish her well as she moves onto this new chapter in her life.

Kindness Friday was held during MUNDays in October.  We normally collect for some deserving group on this day, and this year Marie Codner organized a collection for the Campus Food Bank.

October ended with Halloween, and a potluck lunch was organized for the Friday the 30th.   Some of our people dressed up making for an interesting assortment of characters at our event.

In early December members of the department collected the food and money needed to fill about three hampers for the Campus Food Bank Christmas hamper drive.

Our department will turn 50 years old in 2017 and we want to celebrate that with some special events during the fall of that year.  A reunion committee was struck in December to start the process going.  Further details will emerge as planning occurs.

A number of events were held pre-Christmas, getting all in the festive spirit. There was a Carol Sing hosted by the General Office, a Secret Santa gift exchange, and a luncheon out at Bally Haly. In addition, the graduate students had a Christmas potluck for their group.