Craigdarroch Research Awards 2010

The 2010 Craigdarroch Research Awards, which recognize research excellence at UVic in six categories of achievement, were presented at a celebration event on April 27. This year featured presentation of the inaugural award for excellence in artistic expression, acknowledging a significant body of work that furthers our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Craigdarroch Gold Medal for Career Achievement in Research

Dr. Terry Pearson

Dept. of Biochemistry and Microbiology

African sleeping sickness, a parasitic disease spread by tsetse flies, has shaped the history of the African continent and continues to kill in periodic epidemics. Biochemist Terry Pearson has devoted much of his career to thwarting the deadly parasite-borne disease, which afflicts hundreds of thousands of Africans every year. He is an international leader in the use of immunological approaches to disease, with more than 130 publications, three patents and two inventions to his credit.

Craigdarroch Award for Excellence in Artistic Expression

Lafayette String Quartet

School of Music

For almost 20 years, violinists Ann Elliott-Goldschmid and Sharon Stanis, violist Joanna Hood and cellist Pamela Highbaugh Aloni—collectively known as the Lafayette String Quartet—have been making beautiful music together as artists-in-residence in UVic’s School of Music. The quartet is renowned for its musical vitality, technical mastery and insightful interpretation of classical to contemporary works. At UVic, the quartet’s widely respected coaching and teaching skills have helped build one of the strongest string programs in Canada.

Craigdarroch Silver Medal for Excellence in Research

Dr. Margaret-Anne (Peggy) Storey

Dept. of Computer Science

The rapid growth of computing and web-based technologies is resulting in an overwhelming wealth of data. As a world expert in collaborative and visual software tools, Margaret-Anne Storey focuses on the interplay between technology, human behaviour and social structures to design software that helps people organize, analyze and better comprehend information. Her research has been applied in many areas, including software engineering, biomedicine and education.

Craigdarroch Award for Societal Contribution

Dr. Cecilia Benoit

Centre for Addictions Research of BC /Dept. of Sociology

Over the past 20 years, Cecilia Benoit’s community-based research with vulnerable populations has helped improve the lives of those who live outside the mainstream. Working closely with those on the front line of service delivery, she considers what material and emotional resources are needed to address social inequities and develops client-centred models of care for street-involved youth, sex workers, substance-using pregnant women and other stigmatized groups in BC and other regions of Canada.

Craigdarroch Award for Excellence in Communicating Research

Dr. Neena Chappell

Centre on Aging/Dept. of Sociology

Sociologist Neena Chappell gazes into our future to see how the health care decisions we make today can meet the needs of Canada’s aging population tomorrow. Chappell studies quality of life for seniors, caregiving, and the health care system and related policies. Through her exceptional ability to communicate her research—via community linkages, media interviews, publications and speaking engagements—Chappell is influencing the public, the media and decision-makers in Canada and around the world.

Craigdarroch Award for Excellence in Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Dr. Michael Best

Professor emeritus, Dept. of English

The genius of Shakespeare has reached across centuries and cultures and now, thanks to the vision of Michael Best, the widely popular Internet Shakespeare Editions (ISE) website gives fans, scholars and actors around the world unprecedented access to the works of Shakespeare. With the help of UVic’s Innovation and Development Corporation, the ISE was established in 1999 as a non-profit organization affiliated with the university and has grown to become an international organization of over 60 scholars, student assistants, and volunteers.