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Welcome – Students

We would like to welcome some new graduate students. Five students have started in the Spring 2019 semester:

• David Barnes, Masters student in Dr. Berry’s lab
• Renan Da Silva Lima, Doctoral student in Dr. Shahidi’s lab
• Sheyla Montero Vega, Masters student in Dr. Booth’s lab
• Efe Obade, Doctoral student in Dr. Harding’s lab and
• Kyla Walsh, Masters student in Dr. Harding’s lab

We hope you all enjoy your time in Biochemistry and wish you well with your studies. Welcome back as well to Mahesha Asiriwardhana who has rejoined Dr. Bertolo’s lab.

Congratulations to Rasanjali Egodage (Dr. Banoub/ Dr. Shahidi) on successfully defending her PhD thesis and receiving a pass with distinction. 

Congratulations to the following students who have completed their Masters programs:

• Shrushti Shah (Dr. Cheema)
• Jenika Marshall (Dr. Brown)
• Nidhi Kuksal (Dr. Mailloux)

A number of Biochemistry students were recipients of various awards as shown below

The Barrowman Biochemistry Graduate Travel Awards 2018/2019 

• Olatunji Anthony Akerele (Dr. Cheema) 
• Mahesha Asiriwardhana (Dr. Bertolo) 
• Abul Hossain (Dr. Dave/ Dr. Shahidi) 
• Martin Hurley (Dr. Brunton) 
• Dalshini Kirupananthan (Dr. Brunton) 
• Modeline Longjohn (Dr. Christian)
• Han Peng (Dr. Shahidi) 
• Shreyasi Sarkar (Dr. Berry)
• Tharindu Senadheera (Dr. Dave/ Dr. Shahidi)

Dr. Kevin Keough Graduate Scholarship in Biochemistry 

• Julia White (Dr. Brunton)

Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies 

• Olatunji Anthony Akerele (Dr. Cheema) 
• Rasanjali Egodage (Dr. Banoub/ Dr. Shahidi) 
• Shrushti Shah (Dr. Cheema)

Congratulations to both Zack Clancy and George Guirguis who won first and second place in the Undergraduate student competition at the Inaugural Science Atlantic Nutrition & Food conference.

Congratulations to all of our students who participated in the Aldrich conference in March. Special congratulations to Shreyasi Sarkar and Tharindu Senadheera who received awards for best oral presentation (Shreyasi) and best poster presentation (Tharindu). Shreyasi is in Dr. Berry’s lab and Tharindu with Dr. Dave and Dr. Shahidi.

Congratulations to Julia White and Robert Gill on receiving federal scholarships. Julia has received a CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master’s Program (CGS M) scholarship, and Robert a NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master’s Program (CGS M) scholarship. Julia is in Dr. Brunton’s lab and Robert is in Dr. Mailloux’s lab.

Congratulations to Peter Isesele in Dr. Cheema's lab who won the second place award in the Nestle Graduate Student Oral Presentation competition at the recent Canadian Nutrition Society meeting held in Niagara Falls.

Thank you to all those who assisted with Science Rendezvous held on May 11, 2019. The event was a great success again this year. Photos from this years event can be viewed here.

The BCGS is hosting the annual Biochemistry Summer Symposium on Thursday, August 15th at the Fluvarium. Dr. René Jacobs from the University of Alberta will be the keynote speaker.

The Departments of Biochemistry, Biology, and Chemistry partnered together to host a school outreach program to provide “Laboratory Experience for Public School Students”. During the month of May our department will be hosting almost 600 junior high students in our labs. The goal of the project is to expand and enhance the connection of expertise at MUN with public school science programs.

Faculty Achievements

Congratulations to Dr. Sherri Christian who led a successful NSERC-RTI application to obtain a nanoparticle analysis system. Co-applicants from the department included Dr. Berry, Dr. Booth, Dr. Brown, and Dr. Cheema.

Congratulations to Dr. Sean Brosnan who has been appointed as an Honorary Research Professor for a three year period in order to continue his research activities. 

We received a thank you for Dr. Shahidi's donation to Heritage NL for their Red Ochre project. See the article here.