Honours & Awards

Congratulations to the following individuals who have been promoted this academic year. The University of Toronto holds a high standard with regards to academic promotion and so these promotions are a product of a lot of hard work and extreme dedication.

R.K. Reznick

FULL PROFESSOR

Terry Axelrod - Orthopaedic Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Lee Errett - Cardiac Surgery, St. Michael's Hospital
Michael McKee - Orthopaedic Surgery, St. Michael's Hospital
Avery Nathens - General Surgery, St. Michael's Hospital

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

David Backstein - Orthopaedic Surgery, Mount Sinai Hospital
Nancy Baxter - General Surgery, St. Michael's Hospital
Peter Chu - General Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Robert Cusimano - Cardiac Surgery, UHN / Toronto General Hospital
Abhaya Kulkarni - Neurosurgery, Hospital for Sick Children
Calvin Law - General Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Robert Nam - Urology Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Albert Yee - Orthopaedic Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

George Vincent - Orthopaedics Surgery, St. Joseph's Health Centre
Paul Wong - Orthopaedics Surgery, Toronto East General Hospital

Dimitri Anastakis (PlasSurg) is the recipient of the 2008 Canadian Association for Medical Education Certificate of Merit Award. The aim of this award is to promote medical education in Canadian medical schools and to recognize and reward faculty's commitment to medical education.

Michael Cusimano (NeurSurg) is this year's winner of the John Provan Award given by the Canadian Association of Surgical Chairs. The award recognizes Dr. Cusimano's long standing contributions to the field of education.

Michael is also the recipient of the 2008 Alan R Hudson Neurosurgery Faculty Teaching Award.

Rod Davey (OrthSurg) has been awarded a 2007-2008 Wightman-Berris Academy Individual Teaching Award in the Postgraduate Category.

Michael Fehlings (NeurSurg) and colleagues from the Mayo Clinic received a 5 year award ($1.7 million) from the National Institutes of Health for a study entitled "Regulation and Function of Kallikreins in Spinal Cord Injury and Repair".

Michael has also been awarded a 2007-2008 Wightman-Berris Academy Individual Teaching Award in the Allied Health Category.

Michael Jewett (UrolSurg) has been awarded a Wyeth Pharmaceuticals/CIHR R&D Clinical Research Chair in Oncology ($1.1M) for studies on "Understanding the Nature and Improving the Treatment of Kidney Cancer".

Shaf Keshavjee (ThorSurg) has been awarded a Wyeth Pharmaceuticals/CIHR R&D Clinical Research Chair in Transplantation ($1.1M) for studies on "Ex-vivo Gene Repair of Injured Donor Lungs for Transplantation".

Thomas Lindsay (VascSurg) has been awarded a 2007-2008 Wightman-Berris Academy Individual Teaching Award in the Undergraduate Category.

Andres Lozano (NeurSurg) was appointed to the International Advisory Board, Danish Neuroscience Centre, Aarhus University Hospital 2008-2009.

Andres has also been appointed to the The Lifeboat Foundation Scientific Advisory Board 2008.

Loch Macdonald (NeurSurg) has been appointed an External Evaluator for Appointments and Promotions Committee of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Loch has also been appointed an External referee, National Institutes of Health National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Intramural Program quadrennial review of faculty, 2008.

Robert Nam (UrolSurg) has been named the recipient of the 2008 Medal in Surgery from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Robert is receiving this award for his work in the TMPRSS2:ERG ene fusion and prostate cancer.

Andrew Pierre (ThorSurg) has been presented with the following awards for the 2007 -2008 academic year:

• The Ross Fleming Surgical Educator Award. This Award is given by the Surgeon-in-Chief for excellence in surgical education.
• The Robert J. Ginsberg Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Teaching.
• The Gail E. Darling Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Sid Radomski (UrolSurg) has been awarded a 2007- 2008 Wightman-Berris Academy Individual Teaching Award in the Postgraduate Category.

James Rutka (NeurSurg) has been appointed to a CNS Special Committee for Governance and Administration of Neurosurgery, and is Editor Designee of the journal Neurosurgery.

Charles Tator (NeurSurg) has been presented with the Distinguished Service Award in appreciation of his vision and leadership in establishing ThinkFirst Canada (National Injury Prevention Foundation) as a model program, and for his guidance and commitment to the global development of ThinkFirst. Dr. Tator served on the Board of Directors 1992 - 2008. The award was presented by Dr. Russell Amundson, Chairman, Board of Directors, at the 2008 ThinkFirst Conference on Injury Prevention and at the Board of Directors meeting, April 27, 2008.

Congratulations Charles! The Campeau Chair in Neurosurgery at the Toronto Western Hospital will be renamed as The Robert Campeau Family Foundation / Dr. C.H. Tator Chair in Brain and Spinal Cord Research effective July 1, 2008.

Michael Taylor (NeurSurg) was appointed to the Data Safety Monitoring Committee of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium.

Michael has also been appointed to the Scientific Program Committee for the Society of Neuro-Oncology Annual Meeting and promoted to Scientist in the Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children.

Christopher Wallace (NeurSurg) is this year's recipient of the Aikins Award in the category of Individual Teaching Performance - Small Group. The W.T. Aikins Award is the most prestigious Faculty award for commitment to and excellence in undergraduate medical education. Winners of this award are selected from nominees identified in a Faculty-wide process. The criteria for the awards are extremely rigorous, and each nomination requires extensive support from both peers and students. The award honours Chris' invaluable contribution to the Faculty of Medicine's educational mission.

We are pleased to report the results of:

The 2008 Annual Laparoscopic Competition, Surgical Skills Centre held on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 for PGY I surgical residents at UofT. Participants on a team of 2 residents were required to complete 3 laparoscopic tasks (Bean Drop, Cobra Rope and Triangle Transfer). The winners were determined based on the team with the lowest total time of both participants, for all 3 tasks.

Winners: Bharat Sharma (GenSurg Resident) and Kengo Asai (GenSurg Resident)

Runners Up: Melise Keays (UrolSurg Resident) and Steve Kim (UrolSurg Resident)

Douglas Cook (NeurSurg Resident) is the recipient of the 2008 Alan R. Hudson Neurosurgery Resident Teaching Award.

Betty Kim (NeurSurg Resident) and Paul Kongkham (NeurSurg Resident) won 1st place for this year's Morley Prize.

Betty has also received the 2008 K.G. McKenzie Memorial Prize for Basic Science Research. Her research project is entitled "Engineered Nanoparticles for Enhancing Therapeutic and Cellular Responses", and was selected as a participant to attend a Cold Spring Harbor Course funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Karim Mukhida (NeurSurg Resident) is the recipient of the Stem Cell Network Cross-Disciplinary Internship Award.

Ann Parr (NeurSurg Resident) presented at the AANS/ CNS Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves in Orlando as the winner of the Mayfield Basic Science Award, her project entitled "Transplanted Adult Spinal Cord Derived Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells Promote Early Functional Recovery through Neuroprotection after Rat Spinal Cord Injury" on March 1, 2008.

Demitre Serletis (NeurSurg Resident) won 2nd place for this year's Morley Prize.

Scellig Stone (NeurSurg Resident) is the recipient of the 2008 Warren Ho Memorial Scholarship Award.

Patrick Tawadros (GenSurg Resident) was awarded first place for best scientific paper oral presentation at the Surgical Infection Society Annual Meeting in South Carolina, May 2008.

Vanessa Wong (PlasSurg Resident, Supervisor: Robert Cartotto) won the Best Abstract Presentation at the Canadian Special Interest Group of the American Burn Association for her abstract entitled "Objective Estimation of Survival in Burn Patients Re-visited". The Canadian Special Interest Group is a representation from physicians, nurses, therapists (physical, occupational, respiratory), nutritionists, pharmacists, and social workers from Canadian burn centres who attend the annual meeting of the American Burn Association.