2023 Highlights
A Year in Review
During the past year, EpiBio adeptly navigated transitions, hosted various events, and achieved a multitude of successes. Additionally, EpiBio enjoyed another successful year, with some notable highlights including:
We are delighted to welcome the newest member to the EpiBio family – Dr. Egide Kalisa. Before joining us, Dr Kalisa was a Research Scientist in the Atmospheric Science and Technology Directorate, Air Quality Division, Environment Canada and Climate Change and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on individuals’ exposure to air pollutants in indoor and outdoor environments, understanding how much pollution people breathe, and how to reduce those exposures.
We look forward to the meaningful contributions and accomplishments that our diverse group of cross appointees and adjunct members you will contribute to EpiBio.
In June we celebrated the many achievements of Drs. Kathy Speechley and Mark Speechley and wished them well in their retirement.
Notable achievements from our Faculty:
- Dr. Shehzad Ali is leading a project focusing on maximizing population health while integrating equity into policy evaluations.
- Dr. Saverio Stranges was elected as the new President of the Chronic Disease Section for the European Public Health Association, which is the largest organization of public health associations and institutes in Europe with nearly 40,000 members.
- Dr. Nicole Redvers highlighted the growing global conversation about incorporating planetary health into climate-resilient healthcare systems. She also emphasized on the increasing recognition of the significance of inclusive indigenous leadership in the context of community and planetary health during the WHO Global summit on TM and has been named to a World Health Organization TAG on Ethics and Climate Health.
Welcomed Guests
Dr. Monica Taljaard, professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa and Senior Scientist in Ottawa Hospital Research Institute presented the 2023 Allan Donner Lecture “Cluster Randomized Trials: Past, Present and Future”
This summer, the Western Epidemiology and Biostatistics Student Council (WEBSC) organized a workshop on the Design and Analysis of Randomized Control Trials with Likert Data, hosted by Dr. Guangyong Zou. During the workshop, Dr. Zou guided participants through statistical analysis techniques for Likert data, encompassing the analysis of raw scores and rank information.
In September, EpiBio welcomed 32 new graduate students and 16 new undergraduate students into Year 3.
Dr. Joel Gagnier successfully organized the inaugural EpiBio/Surgery Research Symposium.
We had the honour of hosting Alessandro Gialluisi a visiting professor from University of Insubria, Varese, Italy.
We were fortunate to welcome a number of esteemed scholars for our Winter and Fall seminar series.
Dr. Ashok Malla, Professor Emeritus in McGill University presented the Annual Carol Buck Lecture “From Early Intervention in Psychosis to Designing an Inclusive Youth Mental Health Service for all.” Congratulations to Emily Boyko, MSc Candidate, who was awarded the Carol Buck Graduate Scholarship.
