Awards and Recognition Committee Terms of Reference
Terms of Reference, Awards and Recognition Committee
Overview:
The mandate of the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM)’s Awards & Recognition Committee is to facilitate the nomination of faculty members for external and university-wide awards (medical education, research, or service) and to celebrate their successes. Recipients of external awards not nominated through the Awards and Recognition Committee will be equally celebrated. We seek to promote and foster a culture of excellence at the CSM across the University and in our extended community. We work closely with faculty members to develop, process and submit nominations. It is our goal to grow and maintain awareness around the nominations and successes, and to increase the national and international recognition of the outstanding achievements of our faculty members.
Sitting members of the Awards and Recognition Committee will be appointed, in consultation with the Dean, from faculty and staff of academic divisions of the CSM. It is not feasible, nor intended, to include delegates from every unit or discipline. However, all CSM Institute Directors and Department Heads, and/or their designated representatives, will be approached through regular e-mails to propose nominees for forthcoming awards. Where there are multiple candidates forwarded by the Institutes and Departments for a restricted number of nominees, the members of the Awards and Recognition Committee will adjudicate and determine which files will be submitted.
It is important to note that submissions of nominations are encouraged not only through the Awards and Recognition Committee, but also through other means. Faculty members are encouraged to nominate their colleagues outside of the Awards and Recognition Committee, except in circumstances where the Awards and Recognition Committee is charged by the Dean to submit a restricted number of nominees (e.g., the University’s Killam awards).
The celebration of successful external or university-wide competitive award recipients at an annual Celebration of Excellence is a key role of the Committee. The list of celebrants will include not only candidates submitted by the Awards and Recognition Committee, but also those nominated outside of the committee. Since all successes of external and campus-wide competitive awards are to be celebrated, all awards received should be brought to the attention of the Chair of the Awards and Recognition Committee. Note that we will celebrate faculty members who are principal or joint-appointees of CSM.
Status:
The Awards and Recognition Committee is a committee in the CSM that reports directly to the Dean.
Membership of the Awards and Recognition Committee:
Members will include Award-winning faculty selected to represent basic and clinical sciences, and with good knowledge of the accomplishments of their colleagues within and outside of their specialty. The Chair is appointed by the Dean. Committee members will be expected to play a critical role in expanding awareness and enthusiasm for awards and honors across our faculty. Members of the committee may be asked to champion specific nominations and to help edit files as needed. The committee may strike subcommittees or specialty groups from time to time to facilitate the implementation of its activities. Representatives from the CSM’s Communications and Media Relations Department are key collaborators in activities of the Awards and Recognition Committee.
Membership (updated July 2023)
Dr. V. Wee Yong, Departments of Clinical Neurosciences and Oncology
Dr. Tom Feasby, Department of Community Health Sciences
Dr. Quentin Pittman, Department of Physiology & Pharmacology
Dr. Richard Leigh, Department of Medicine
Dr. Fiona Clement, Department of Community Health Sciences (Chair)
Dr. Jocelyn Lockyer, Professor Emeritus
Dr. Kirsten Feist, Department of Critical Care Medicine
Dr. Fiona Schulte, Department of Oncology
Dr. Antoine Dufour, Department of Physiology & Pharmacology
Dr. Martina Kelly, Departments of Community Health Sciences and Family Medicine
Past Members:
Dr. Kamala Patel, Departments of Biochem & Mol Biology and Physiology and Pharmacology
Dr. Marvin Fritzler, Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Dr. Jocelyn Lockyer, Department of Community Health Sciences
Dr. Frans van der Hoorn, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dr. David Keegan, Department of Family Medicine
Dr. Brenda Hemmelgarn, Department of Community Health Science
Dr. Maria Bacchus, Department of Medicine
Dr. Donald Addington, Department of Psychiatry
Dr. Gil Kaplan, Department of Medicine and Community Health Sciences
Dr. Maureen Topps, Department of Family Medicine
Dr. Jayna Holroyd-Leduc, Departments of Community Health Sciences and Medicine
Dr. Bev Adams, Department of Psychiatry
Dr. Jim Kellner, Department of Pediatrics
Dr. Janet de Groot, Departments of Psychiatry and Oncology
Dr. Mark Anselmo, Department of Pediatrics
Dr. Lara Cooke, Department of Clinical Neurosciences
Dr. Savraj Grewal, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Dr. Rachel Ellaway, Department of Community Health Sciences
Dr. Juliet Guichon, Associate Professor, Community Health Sciences
Dr. Frank Jirik, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dr. Sofia Ahmed, Department of Medicine
Dr. Sarah Hall, Department of Pediatrics
Frequency of Meetings:
The committee will meet at the call of the Chair to share best practices, discuss strategies, and review highly prestigious awards. The committee will be considered to have reached a quorum when at least half of the members are present at a meeting.
Reporting and Accountability:
The Committee will be advisory, reporting directly to the Dean of Medicine.
Responsibilities:
The responsibilities of the committee are to:
- Identify and formalize a list of major local (outside of the University of Calgary), provincial, national and international awards; these awards may be in the areas of medical education, service or research, or a combination of these facets;
- Create a process to nominate faculty members for these awards, and when appropriate, work closely with and assist department heads, institute chairs and other leaders to nominate deserving faculty
- Develop a process to facilitate the application for awards
- Edit the nominations to improve competitiveness
- Ensure that strong candidates are nominated for appropriate awards
- Develop the means of tracking successful nominations
- Recognize and celebrate recipients of awards
Award Categories as identified by the Awards and Recognition Committee:
- Category A. These Distinguished Achievement Awards (major national and international) usually require institutional nomination and are championed by the Awards and Recognition Committee but signed off by the President’s office, VP Research, or Faculty leadership. The call for suggestions of nominees usually antedates the deadline by 2-3 months. These awards will be celebrated in several ways through specific announcements via the Communications Office. All category A awards will be celebrated at the annual Celebration of Excellence, and will have a picture/plaque on the “Distinguished Awards Wall of Fame”. Category A awards include the Nobel Prize, Order of Canada, Gairdner Awards, Royal Society of Canada fellowship or Medals, Canadian Academy of Health Sciences fellowship, Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, 3M National Teaching Fellowship, Canadian Medical Association Medal of Service, CIHR Health Researcher of the Year, Canadian Association for Medical Education’s Ian Hart Award for Distinguished Award in Medical Science, Manning Innovation Award – Encana Principal Award, Canada Council Killam Prize, and others of top international standing.
- Category B. These include international (e.g. specialty society), national, provincial and local awards not identified in the Category A list. The call for suggestions usually antedates the deadline by 1-2 months. Award winners in this category are celebrated through specific announcements via the Communications Office and at the annual Celebration of Excellence.
Progression: The categories above help to demonstrate that there is a continuum of recognition opportunities from field and discipline awards up to national and international prizes. One of the goals of the CSM’s Award and Recognition Committee is to increase our success in the most highly prestigious Category A awards. In order to do that, we recognize that early and mid-career faculty needs to be nominated as they progress through their career. These stepping-stone awards are key to the progression of faculty members into the top prizes.
Available awards can be viewed at www.ucalgary.ca/research/funding/awards (you require your UCID to log in).
For information, please contact:
Dr. Fiona Clement, Chair, (403-210-9373 fclement@ucalgary.ca)
Tanna Giroux, Coordinator, External Awards and Recognition Committee (403-220-4592, tgiroux@ucalgary.ca)