U of A Killam scholars charged to help build better world

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by Michael Davies-Venn

Lorne Babiuk, U of A vice-president, research, speaks at the presention of the 2009 Killam Prizes.

"I suggest to you that your vision should be to keep your sights high and to use the gifts that Dorothy and Izaak have given to you to help build a larger and a better world," Cooper said to the latest benefactors of the fund. "You will be larger in space than you are at the university because this is a Canada-wide trust. You will be larger in circumstance because the whole of the Killam enterprise is about excellence...It's about reaching for the stars."

Cooper made the remarks Oct. 15 at a dinner organized by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research to recognize the more than 30 U of A postdoctoral fellows, doctoral students and professors who received the 2009 Killam prize.

Cooper said Dorothy Killam wanted to increase the scientific and scholastic attainments of Canadians, develop and expand the work of Canadian universities and promote sympathetic understanding between Canadians and the peoples of other countries. The U of A is one of five universities benefitting from a $100 million bequest by Izaak and Dorothy Killam. All told, the university has received more than $67 million from the bequest by the Killams since 1967.

"My prediction is that the university is going to achieve its aim to be amongst the top 20 universities in the world by 2020," Cooper said. "I will tell you that business people don't give money like that to any place, except a world-class university, and the U of A is certainly that."

Chemistry PhD student Fumie Sunahori was singled out for the first major honour of the night, the Dorothy J Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship, given to the most outstanding postdoctoral nominee. The graduate prize recipients were Zackie Mohamed Aktary for cell biology, Erika Goble for secondary education, Viktoria Reiswich-Dapp for music and Hassan Moghimi for civil and environmental engineering.

Jean Clandinin, professor of elementary education, and George Pemberton, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, were the recipients of the Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring, recognizing outstanding performance in mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in research.

The Killam Annual Professorships were handed out to six U of A professors in recognition of their distinguished scholarship: computer scientist Osmar Zaïane, physicist Don Page, library and information studies professor Margaret Mackey, physical education and recreation professor Wendy Rodgers, chemical and materials engineer Biao Huang and biochemist Larry Fliegel.

"We're looking toward the next 100 years, when we'll make an even bigger impact, and it will be because of the individuals that these contributions are going to," said Lorne Babiuk, U of A vice-president, research. "They're truly helping the university become one of the best in the world and achieve the goal that we've set for the university-the uplifting of the whole people."

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