Legacy Awards honour UVic's best

Frances Oldham Kelsey, who attended Victoria College in 1930 and became known for refusing to allow the harmful sleeping aid thalidomide to be distributed to pregnant women in the United States, is the UVic Alumni Association's selection for the 2010 Alumni Legacy Award.

The award will be presented along with Legacy Awards for sport, teaching and research at the annual gala Nov. 23 at the Victoria Conference Centre. About 500 guests are expected to attend.

Kelsey was a recently-hired drug evaluation officer at the US Food and Drug Administration in 1960 when–concerned about the side-effects of thalidomide–she resisted corporate pressure to approve the drug. Shortly thereafter, thalidomide's devastating effects became clear: more than 10,000 infants were born with birth defects worldwide.

In recognition of her work, Kelsey received the President's Medal for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service from President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

Kelsey was born and raised in Cobble Hill and studied biology at Victoria College with Prof. Jeffree Cunningham, for whom UVic's Cunningham Building is named. Kelsey is now 96, and resides near Washington, DC. One of her daughters will accept the Legacy Award on her behalf.

Retired BC Supreme Court Justice Robert Hutchison, Victoria College '49, is being honoured in the Legacy Sport category. An accomplished athlete, he ran as a sprinter for Canada at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

He has remained involved in Victoria athletics throughout his life, as a coach and administrator. He played a pivotal role in organizing the funding and the construction of Centennial Stadium at UVic.

Hutchison was also instrumental in designing (along with former Board of Governors Chair Ian Stewart) the influential Vikes athletics and recreation policy of the mid-1970s. The policy emphasized a focus on the pursuit of excellence in a select number of varsity sports. UVic has now produced 65 national championships, fourth-highest among Canadian universities.

Computer Science senior instructor Mary Sanseverino, MSc '91, will receive the Harry Hickman Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching. Nominators cited her enthusiastic, scholarly and innovative approach to teaching along with her consistently outstanding post-term reviews from students.

Sanseverino is known for her groundbreaking use of instructional technology, in particular remote control clickers that provide real-time quiz results during lectures and help to support her goal of involving and engaging students regardless of the class size. As one student said, "She sparked an interest in computer science I never knew I had."

Beyond the classroom, her influence can be found in her work on a variety of campus-wide initiatives such as the Learning and Teaching Centre and the Educational Technology Advisory Council. She is also a generous mentor for colleagues in the areas of curriculum development and the art and science of teaching.

Sanseverino receives a cash prize from the UVic Alumni Association, and her photo will join the McPherson Library gallery of more than 40 past recipients of the award.

Biochemistry and Microbiology Prof. Terry Pearson will be recognized with the Legacy Award for Research for his work in antibody technology and his study of the parasites that cause African sleeping sickness–one of the world's most devastating tropical diseases. His recent work addresses the early diagnosis of cancer and infectious diseases.

After a post-doctoral fellowship at Cambridge, his career path took him into the southern hemisphere to battle African sleeping sickness. He introduced monoclonal antibody technology to Africa, and for three decades—in Kenya and at UVic—he has used this technology to identify and characterize a variety of molecules important in the biology of the parasites that cause the disease.

His investigations have also included Kudoa parasites that kill salmon and other fish in BC and around the world. In recent years, Pearson has applied his expertise to a new area of study–biomarker validation–to aid the early diagnosis of cancer and infectious diseases.

 

See videos of the 2010 Legacy Award recipients on The Ring video page