University of Ottawa researchers and students took front stage as the Ottawa Life Sciences Council announced its award winners as part of the BioNorth 2003 conference held in Ottawa, November 17-19, 2003.
Dr. Shawn Aaron, an assistant professor affiliated with the Ottawa Health Research Institute, received the Dr. Michael Smith Promising Scientist Award for his research on cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The Career Achievement Award went to Dr. Robert Korneluk, a professor in the Department of Paediatrics and director of the Apoptosis Research Centre at the Children’s Hospital of EasternOntario. Korneluk is an internationally recognized expert in apoptosis and through his leadership has positioned Ottawa as one of North America’s leading centres for research in this area.
Two former University of Ottawa student researchers, Paul Lem and Jamie Spiegelman, won the Research Institute Entrepreneur Award. After securing a first place finish at the Ottawa Life Sciences Council’s BioNorth 2002 Business Case Competition, Lem and Spiegelman went on to land $1.2 million in start-up funding for Plexagen Diagnostics, a company based on a discovery in molecular diagnostics that they made at the University of Ottawa.
