Honours, Awards & Achievements

Subodh Verma (CardSurg) was selected as the recipient of the 2010 Howard Morgan Award from the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences.

Gilbert Tang (CardSurg) was a recipient of the 2011 Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Detweiler Travelling Fellowship ($21,000). The fellowship will be for Gilbert to pursue his one-year specialization in complex valve repair and transcathether valve therapy at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.

Osami Honjo (CardSurg) was awarded the Roscoe Reid Graham Scholarship in Surgical Science from the University of Toronto.

Mitesh Badiwala (PGY5 CardSurg- Supervisor: Vivek Rao) won the prestigious Vivien Thomas Young Investigator Award from the Council of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery at the 2010 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association. His paper was entitled "Epidermal Growth Factor Like Domain 7 (EGFL-7) is a novel inhibitor of neutrophil adhesion to coronary artery endothelial cells injured by calcineurin inhibition"

Jonathan Yeung (GenSurg resident) received the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.

Charles de Mestral (GenSurg resident - Supervisor: Avery Nathens) has been awarded Canadian Association of General Surgeons Research Grant for his proposal titled "Early versus delayed cholecystectomy for acute calculous cholecystitis: Decision and cost-utility analysis."

Andres Lozano (NeurSurg) was the recipient of the 2010 Winn Prize Award from the Society of Neurological Surgeons.

Karen Davis (NeurSurg) received a Champion of Change Award at the 4th National Spinal Cord Injury Conference, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.

Karen also received a 5 year Canadian Institutes of Health Research Grant for her work on "Pain-Attention Interactions and the Descending Pain Modulation System".

Michael G. Fehlings (NeurSurg) was awarded a 2-year McEwen Acceleration Award from the McEwen Centre for Molecular Medicine for the project, "iPS neural stem cells and bioengineered strategies to treat chronic spinal cord injury".

Michael also received a 1-year CIHR Proof of Principle grant for his project "Commercial development of bioengineered therapeutic strategy for spinal cord injury".

Gelareh Zadeh (NeurSurg) received the Annual Clinician Scientist Award at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.

Gelareh also received the 2010 Best of the Best Scientific Abstract Award from the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology (ASTRO) at the Annual Meeting.

Brian Drake (NeurSurg) was congratulated for the 2010 New York Academy of Medicine Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Award for his contribution to the award winning article "Y. H. Yücel, M. G. Johnston, T. Ly, M. Patel, B. Drake, E. Gümü, S. A. Fraenkl, S. Moore, D. Tobbia, D. Armstrong, E. Horvath, N. Gupta. Identification of lymphatics in the ciliary body of the human eye: a novel "uveolymphatic" outflow pathway. Experimental Eye Research, 89: 810-819, 2009", as a summer student.

Scellig Stone (NeurSurg) received the American Academy of Neurosurgery resident award for his Ph D related work on deep brain stimulation inducing neurogenesis. This international award is the most prestigious given to a resident by a neurosurgical body and we can all be proud that it has been conferred once again on a resident from the University of Toronto.

Howard Ginsberg and Cari Whyne (NeurSurg) received a Commercialization grant from MaRS Innovation for their project entitled: Spinous Process Less Invasive Extendable fusion (SPLINE).

Shobhan Vachharajani (NeurSurg) received the Exceptional Trainee Award from the Sick Kids Research Institute.

Ab Guha (NeurSurg) received a 2 year grant from the Cancer Research Society for his work on "Aberrations in EGFR in Human GBMs: Novel Diagnostic and Biomarker Strategies".

David Cadotte (NeurSurg) is the recipient of two U. of T. Postgraduate Awards from The Miriam Neveren Memorial Fund and the Joseph M. West Family Memorial Fund.

David Cadotte was also awarded the prestigious Starr Medal.

Betty Kim (NeurSurg) was chosen by the EANS-CNS as one of 5 residents in North America to attend The EANS-CNS course on Brain Tumors in Halkidiki, Greece, September, 2010

Jeff Wilson (NeurSurg) was selected for a Cervical Spine Research Society Resident/Fellow grant for his project entitled, "Determinants of outcomes from traumatic spinal cord injury: Development of a novel classification system to facilitate clinical trials and improve therapeutic strategies".

Teresa Purzner (resident in NeurSurg) won the second prize in the Horsey competition for work on outpatient craniotomy and lumbar surgery - a controversial and cutting edge topic. First prize went to Jeff Wilson for his presentation of the STASCIS trial on early versus delayed spinal decompression surgery in trauma. Congratulations Jeff and Teresa and all neurosurgery residents for a tremendous showing.

Mark Erwin (OrthoSurg) was awarded a HansJorg Wyss Foundation Start-up grant (CHF 30,000) in July 2010. Michael Fehlings is a co-investigator on this grant, entitled: "A cellular and molecular strategy to unlock the regenerative reservoir of the notochordal cell: A novel approach to treat intervertebral disc degeneration". It represents a continuation of Mark's contributions to he field of restorative/regenerative strategies to treat degenerative disc disease. He is the recipient of two prior AO-Spine awards.

Richard Holtby (OrthoSurg) was the 2010 winner of the Surgical Skills Centre Award for Outstanding Educational Contributions which demonstrates the Centre's commitment to surgical skills education. The award recognises those individuals who have made exemplary contributions to teaching and learning in the Surgical Skills Centre. This is given out annually at the Gallie Day event.

Hitesh Modi (OrthoSurg Fellow) received the Russel Hibbs Award for the best paper in the Basic Science category "Effect of spinal column shortening on motorevoked potentials and spinal cord blood flow in pigs".

Ralph T Manktelow (PlasSurg) received the Pioneer of Hand Surgery Award by The International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand at the 11th Triennial Congress on Oct 31, 2010 in Seoul Korea. Since its inception 25 years ago this is the fourth time that the award has been received by a Canadian surgeon. In June, Ralph received the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons Lifetime Achievement Award at the Society's annual meeting in Halifax.

Siba Haykal (PlasSurg) has been awarded the CIHR Training Program in Regenerative Medicine Graduate Fellowship for 2010-2011 for her research on transplantation. Siba is in her second year of the Surgeon Scientist Program pursuing a PhD with Tom Waddell and Stefan Hofer as her supervisors.

Joao L. Pippi Salle (UrolSurg) has been named Herbie Doctor of the Year from the Hospital for Sick Children's Herbie Fund. The Herbie fund is a non-profit fund bringing children from all over the world to Sick Kids for treatment that is not available to them in their home country.