Alberta Innovates Health Solutions awards postdoctoral fellowships to 11 university researchers

Alberta Innovates Health Solutions (AIHS) has announced the results of its 2013 Postdoctoral Fellowship Competition and awarded 11 of the 21 fellowships it approved province-wide to researchers at the University of Calgary. They are pictured above; front row, from left: Franz Zemp, Joe Lemire, Channakeshava S. Umeshappa, Bo Sun. Back row, from left: Andrew Caprariello, Jordan Engbers, Darren Brenner, Erin Mazerolle, and Anil Zechariah. Missing: Lindsay Naef, Bas Surewaard.

The AIHS supports highly competitive and internationally recognized training awards for undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral and clinical fellows in the area of health and translational research. There were 96 applications for its postdoctoral fellowships from across the province for 2013, and fewer than a quarter were successful for a province-wide success rate of 22 per cent. The 11 fellowships awarded to postdoctoral fellows from the University of Calgary represents a success rate of 52 per cent.

Fellows receive a salary of $50,000 per year plus a research allowance of $5,000 annually for a maximum of three years.  The net result for the University of Calgary is approximately $1.7 million over three years in support of its postdoctoral fellows.

Following are the recipients of the October 2013 competition, together with their sponsoring supervisors (in brackets):

2013 AIHS Postdoctoral Fellows                                   

• Darren Brenner (Christine Friedenreich)
• Andrew Caprariello (Peter Stys)
• Jordan Engbers (Samuel Wiebe)
• Joseph Lemire (Raymond J. Turner)
• Erin Mazerolle (Bruce Pike)
• Lindsay Naef (Stephanie Borgland)
• Bo Sun (S. R. (Wayne) Chen)
• Bas Surewaard (Paul Kubes)
• Channakeshava Umeshappa  (Pere Santamaria)
• Anil Zechariah (Donald Welsh)
• Franz Zemp (Paul Kubes)

“We are very pleased with our most recent success in the Canadian Institute Health Research and AIHS fellowship competitions,” said Naweed Syed, postdoctoral program director, office of the vice-president (research). “To ensure continued success in future competitions, a series of professional and career development strategies and an internal peer review process will be made available to candidates by the postdoctoral office. I look forward to the university’s continued success.”