2014 Dean’s Awards Ceremony for Medicine

McGill’s School of Medicine held its annual Dean’s Awards ceremony and reception on the morning of May 29 in the McIntyre Medical Building. Dr. Robert Primavesi, Associate Dean for Medical Education and Student Affairs served as MC for the event, which included remarks from Dr. David Eidelman, Vice-Principal (Health Affairs) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Christos Karatzios who was selected by the students to receive the Osler Award for Outstanding Teaching and Dr. Gilles Brousseau who received the MSW Excellence in the Learning Environment Award.

Joshua Vorstenbosch, Class President also addressed the audience during the ceremony. Vorstenbosch would later address the entire Health Sciences graduating Class in the afternoon Convocation ceremony as Class Valedictorian.

“It’s a very special day. We’ve worked so hard – all 175 of us,” said Vorstenbosch after the event. “Two and a half years ago when we got our short white coats, how far we thought we had come and then going further to see how much further we had to go and the appreciation that this isn’t necessarily the end of medical school but the beginning of residency and we are going to keep transitioning as we move forward to become healers. It’s an enormous responsibility and such an honour to be a McGill grad and to be among the group of great McGill alumni. Looking around at my class I am confident that there will be people here that will go on to do great things that will have broad, international, national and local implications.”

The event also offered an opportunity for the students to show their appreciation for the Undergraduate Medical Education Staff who have helped them successfully navigate four years of medical school. “It’s a very special experience that we get to experience once in our lifetime. Thanking our families for their support and also being here with our friends, our classmates – it’s such a close knit group,” said Esli Osmanlliu, “but I also would like to really thank the Faculty for their support, it’s exceptional to have felt that kind of support throughout four years of medical school and that’s something that we need to acknowledge.”

The following is a list of award and prize recipients honoured during the ceremony:

John H. Altshuler Prize in Family Medicine: Douglas Slobod

J. Francis Williams Prize in Medicine and Clinical Medicine: Jasmine Grenier

E. David Sherman Award in Geriatric Medicine: Guillaume Leclair

Brian Newton Memorial Award in Obstetrics and Gynecology: Vanessa Martelli

Newell W. Philpott Prize in Obstetrics and Gynecology: Maya Harel-Sterling

Montreal Children’s Hospital Prize in Pediatrics Excellence: Marie-Hélène Gagnon & Audrey Ann Kim Labrecque

Mona Bronfman Sheckman Prize in Psychiatry: Mira Zein

Psychiatry Prize: Laura Chertkow

Robert Forsythe Prize in Surgery: Cvetan Trpkov

Campbell Keenan Memorial Prize in Clinical Surgery: Julie Hébert

H.S. Birkett Memorial Prize in Otorhinolaryngology: Mark Bastianelli & Yelda Jozaghi