Student Awards




Nov. 10, 2009

iGEM wins GOLD MEDAL

The University of Lethbridge iGEM team won a Gold Medal at the iGEM International competition in Boston on October 31 - Nov 2, 2009. 112 teams competed in the competition for Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. Only 10 Canadian teams received gold medals, and three of which went to teams in Alberta - Lethbridge, Calgary and Alberta Team (UofA). Gold is given for the fulfillment of the complete judging criteria, listed under judging criteria (see link below).

UofL team members were led by Dr. Hans-Joachim Wieden and included: Jeffrey Fischer, Alix Blackshaw, Lisza Bruder, Mackenzie Coatham, Ashley Duncan, Kirsten Rosler, Roxanne Shank and Megan Torry.

"The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) is the premiere undergraduate Synthetic Biology competition. Student teams are given a kit of biological parts at the beginning of the summer from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Working at their own schools over the summer, they use these parts and new parts of their own design to build biological systems and operate them in living cells. This project design and competition format is an exceptionally motivating and effective teaching method." For full details, see the iGEM page at http://2009.igem.org/About.

3rd Annual Chinook Symposium for Chemistry and Biochemistry

The 3rd Annual Chinook Symposium for Chemistry and Biochemistry was held on October 2, 2009. The Symposium is sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Lethbridge. The mandate of the symposium and associated poster prize is to recognize undergraduate and graduate students performing original research in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The Chinook Poster Prizes have been established at the undergraduate and Master’s levels. This year a new component was added, the Loren Hepler Gold Medal for PhD research excellence. Two people gave presentations about their PhD research.

We are proud to announce the winners of this year's competition!

Chemistry Undergraduate
First - Cassandra Churchill
Second - Shayne Rybchinski

Chemistry Masters
First - Jennifer Przyblski
Second - Kevin Johnson

Biochemistry Undergraduate
First - Mackenzie Coatham
Second - Michael Shields

Biochemistry Masters
First - Evelina De Laurentiis
Second - Jessica Durand

PhD Presentations
First - Craig Wheaton
Second - Jeffrey Fischer

Thanks to our judges
Chemistry - Peter Dibble, Gary Knox & Jared Nieboer (Richardson Nutrition)
Biochemistry - Steven Mosimann, James Thomas, Sandor Dudas (ADRI)
PhD - Rene Boere, Brent Selinger

For more information contact Peter Dibble or HJ Wieden .