Celebrating our 2024-25 Excellence Awards winners
There are many talented and hardworking faculty and staff whose contributions help make the Faculty of Science excel. Each year, we recognize a few exceptional faculty and staff members for their outstanding contributions in three categories: teaching excellence, research excellence and staff excellence.
The 2024-25 Faculty of Science Excellence Award winners are Trefor Bazett (Teaching Excellence), David Leitch (Research Excellence) and Kimberley Ladret and Monica Lee-Bonar (Staff Excellence).
A star in the classroom and on YouTube
If you’re looking for someone with a passion for math, allow us to introduce Trefor Bazett, associate teaching professor of mathematics and winner of the 2024-25 Faculty of Science Award for Teaching Excellence.
Bazett joined the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in Fall 2019 and quickly had a major impact. Known for his enthusiasm and passion for math, he improves every course he is assigned to teach.
While teaching the second-year calculus sequence, he incorporated flipped classrooms, effectively used tutorials and developed open educational resources for the course. When teaching first-year calculus, he collaborated with colleagues to develop new materials for MATH 100, 101, and 109 using the open-source homework system WeBWorK. He has also revamped MATH 377 to include new topics and be a project-based course.
“Trefor has an enormous positive impact on each and every single student who is lucky enough to end up in his classroom. He has an undeniable unique talent as a communicator and an educator that radiates throughout every aspect of his teaching.”
– a former student
Bazett is also an experienced online educator, and his YouTube channel, which teaches math concepts to students worldwide, has over half a million subscribers. During the pandemic, he was a major contributor in helping the department shift to online learning and mentored colleagues in what was, at the time, a new skill.
Bazett was also the recipient of the 2024 PIMS Education Prize in recognition of outstanding contributions to education in mathematical sciences.
Exploring chemical space
David Leitch has only been at UVic for seven years, but in that short time, he’s managed to rack up five different major awards. The latest award on his shelf is the 2024-25 Faculty of Science Award for Research Excellence.
Leitch is a chemist whose research program falls under the banner of ‘chemical cartography’. He uses high-throughput experimentation to map and explore chemical structure and reaction space. His unique mix of fundamental and applied science allows him to simultaneously invent practical solutions to industry-relevant problems and to generate insights into chemical reactivity that will likely find their way into textbooks someday.
According to colleagues in his area, David has a “highly creative research program,” is “at the forefront of exciting developments” and “his papers are scholarly, informative and fun to read.”
Since coming to UVic, Leitch has published high-impact papers in four different focus areas, an incredible achievement for an early-career researcher.
Leitch is also a 2023 Cottrell Scholar, a 2025 Dorothy Killam Fellow, the winner of the 2024 REACH Award for Early Career Excellence in Research and the winner of the 2025 Keith Fagnou Award from the Canadian Society of Chemistry’s organic division.
The people at the foundation of our departments
Every department has employees who are foundational to its operations, but the names of those who work behind-the-scenes are often unknown. Kimberley Ladret and Monica Lee-Bonar, administrative officers for Biochemistry & Microbiology and Physics & Astronomy respectively, are two of those employees, and they shared this year’s Faculty of Science Award for Staff Excellence.
Ladret has been the administrative officer for BCMB since 2017 and is widely regarded as the bedrock of the department. During a time of significant challenge and transition within the department, which included the COVID-19 pandemic, institution-wide budget cuts and the loss of several senior faculty and staff members, Ladret was a source of stabilizing and reassuring support for the department. She is known for her extraordinary organizational skills, institutional insight, generosity of spirit and tireless energy, and leads the department with foresight that is based not only in administrative efficiency, but in values-driven management that has had a lasting impact on BCMB research and programs.
“Her "roll up the sleeves" attitude for solving difficult problems has been a source of admiration for faculty, staff, and students alike and her pleasant and calm demeanor has on multiple occasions taught me to approach challenges in the same (healthy) way.”
– Caren Helbing, professor biochemistry and microbiology
Lee-Bonar has been the administrative officer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy since 2023, and has previously worked as both the graduate assistant (2008-11) and chair’s assistant (2011-23). She is known for her exceptional communication skills and willingness to help, her ability to foster relationships, both within and external to the department, and as an intuitive problem solver with innovative solutions. She has injected fresh ideas and energy into the department on many fronts, including office and lab space optimization and renewing the department’s yearly social gatherings.
“Monica provides invaluable support not only to faculty but also to students and staff. Monica does not just fulfill her job duties; she consistently goes above and beyond in every aspect. I am confident I speak for the entire department when I express our immense gratitude for Monica’s contributions.”
- Magdalena Bazalova-Carter, professor of physics