The Ed Kroeger Mentorship Award

The Ed Kroeger Mentorship Award is provided by the HSGSA to recognize excellence and distinction in mentorship, teaching, and research.  This award is named after Dr. Edwin A. Kroeger [Professor of Physiology and Pathophysiology in the Max Rady College of Medicine and Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies in Medicine (1987-2017)], who has set the highest example of  mentorship by providing an environment for students to reach their fullest potential; supporting them with wisdom, guidance and patience; and for being an example to which they can aspire, as researchers and as people within the community.

The student-governed Ed Kroeger Mentorship Award acknowledges current professors who have exemplified excellence in graduate and professional teaching, have been portrayed as noteworthy mentors, and strive to enhance student abilities and potential. We define a mentor as: Advisors, people with career experience who is willing to share their knowledge and provide feedback on one’s performance; Supporters, people who give emotional and moral encouragement; Tutors, people who give specific instruction and guidance to one’s activities; Leaders, employers to whom one is apprenticed who exhibit leadership through knowledge, professionalism, collaboration and communication; Sponsors, sources of information in obtaining opportunities; and Models, of identity, generating mutual respect, trust, understanding and empathy.

2021 Recipient Dr. Pingzhao Hu 

Dr. Pingzhao Hu is a tenured Associate Professor in bioinformatics and statistical genetics in The University of Manitoba (UM). Prior to joining UM in 2014, Dr. Hu received his Ph.D. in computer science from York University (Canada). His group develops and applies novel computational and statistical algorithms for integrative analysis of high-throughput multimodal (genomic, electronic medical records and imaging, etc) data to understand the causal association between the human genome and phenome for better disease diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Hu has published over 130 peer-reviewed scientific articles with over 5100 citations and H-index 33. Dr. Hu is Associate Editors of Frontiers in Genetics (Section of Statistical Genetics and Methodology) and Annals of Medicine (Section of Medical Genetics and Genomics).

Media Acknowledgements

“A strong student advocate”: Dr. Silvia Alessi-Severini wins mentorship award

General Information

Nomination period: 2021

Announcement:  annually at CSHRF (June 11 – 15; specific date TBD, presented at CSHRF Award Ceremony)

Number of awards: one per year

Award type: award plaque including commemorative plaque located in BMSB Mezzanine

Eligibility

Nominees

  • Must be a member of the graduate faculty
  • Must have served on the University of Manitoba Bannatyne campus & St. Boniface Research Centre for at least two (2) calendar years
  • May be a Department Chair or Head
  • Must not have received this award within the previous three (3) years

Student nominators

  • Must currently be a full-time and part-time registered graduate students and those who have graduated within one (1) year before the competition deadline. Nominations from undergraduate students and  post doctoral fellows are not eligible.
  • Must be supporting only one (1) nomination per year
  • Multiple students can write letters to support one (1) nominee. This is encouraged!
  • We highly encourage using specific examples to highlight your nominee’s mentorship skills

Previous Award Recipients

2006 Dr. David Eisenstat, Dept. of Biochemistry & Medical Genetics

2007 Dr. James Davie, Dept. of Biochemistry & Medical Genetics

2008 Dr. Jude Uzonna, Dept. of Immunology

2009 Dr. Karmin O, Dept. of Physiology and Animal Sciences

2010   Dr. Andrew Halayko, Dept. of Physiology

2011 Dr. Thomas Netticadan, Dept. of Physiology

2012 Dr. Sharon Bruce, Dept. of Community Health Sciences

2013 Dr. Peter Cattini, Dept. of Physiology

2014 Dr. Kevin Coombs, Dept. of Medical Microbiology

2015 Dr. Prashen Chelikani, Dept. of Oral Biology

2016 Dr. Jude Uzonna, Dept. of Immunology

2017 Dr. Soheila Karimi, Dept. of Physiology & Pathophysiology

2018 Dr. Lisa Lix, Dept. of Community Health Sciences

2019 Dr. Neeloffer Mookherjee, Dept. of Immunology

2020 Dr. Silvia Alessi-Severini, College of Pharmacy

Nomination Process

  1. Download the Nomination Form
  2. For section 1: Enter your (nominating student) information
  3. For section 2: Attach a 1-2 page composition describing your nominee including a statement of your/their mentoring philosophy.  See form for more details.
  4. Scan and email to HSGSA VP External, Toby Le (vpexternal@hsgsa.org)
  5. DeadlineMarch 28th, 2022 at 11:59 pm CST