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May 2012 news

The big event in May was Convocation as we said goodbye to 19 B.Sc. (Hons.) graduates, 44 B.Sc. graduates, and 14 students from other departments with Minors in Biochemistry.  Chandani Dinesh, Korrina Fudge and Raniru Randunu each received their M.Sc. degree, and Robin da Silva was awarded his Ph.D. Degree.

Other awardees at Convocation included:

-Kayla Furlong, who won the University Medal for Academic Excellence in Biochemistry, and the Grace Morgan Prize in Biochemistry (Nutrition);

-Maria Powell, who won the University Medal for Academic Excellence in Behavioural Neuroscience after completing a joint degree in Nutrition/ Behavioural Neuroscience, and the Captain Robert A. Bartlett Science Award;

- Timothy Hynes, who won the Society of Chemical Industry Merit Award (Biochemistry); 

- Claire Woodworth who was awarded the Captain George C. Whiteley English Prize.  Claire received her B.Sc. in Biochemistry in 2011, and at this convocation graduated with a B.A. (Hons) in English, Biochemistry minor.

At the department’s annual Convocation Reception on May 30, the following book prizes were given to students:   the Head’s Prize was awarded to Kayla Furlong, the Brosnan Prize was awarded to Lisa Pinto and Maria Powell, and the Mookerjea Prize was awarded to Alexander Dias, Kayla Furlong, Timothy Hynes, Sinead Mercier, Jeffrey Nippard, Lisa Pinto and Maria Powell. 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 reception the 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 winner was Gina Hamilton.

At the University Service Awards Ceremony on May 17, Dr. Sue Ghazala was recognized for 20 years of service at Memorial, Drs. Phil Davis and John Robinson were each recognized for 25 years, and Donna Jackman was recognized for 30 years.

We welcomed several new graduate students at the start of the Spring semester.  Luke MacMillan joined our M.Sc. program after finishing his B.Sc. (Hons) with us in April, and Chandani Dinesh started her PhD after finishing her MSc with us this winter.  New to Memorial are Mervt Almostafa in our Ph.D. program, and Nehal Alshikh and Maha Ayoub, both in our M.Sc. program.

Dr. Kelley Bromley-Britts started as postdoctoral fellow in the Bertolo lab in May.  Kelley had been a per course instructor with us over the winter, and also is a graduate of our B.Sc. (Hons) program from 2005.

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, 20 students were hired to work in research labs for the summer in either part-time or full-time positions.