President McTiernan presents 2012 UOIT Awards of Excellence

As UOIT’s 10^th anniversary celebrations moving into full swing, the university has renewed the annual fall tradition of recognizing outstanding achievements by faculty and staff over the past 12 months. The 2012 Awards of Excellence were presented September 18 at the annual President’s Welcome Back Reception hosted by Dr. Tim McTiernan.

“As we prepare graduates to lead and excel in the evolving 21^st-century workplace, our faculty and staff provide our students with the best university experience they can have,” said President McTiernan. “This award ceremony celebrates both individual and team achievement, and recognizes our overall commitment to teaching excellence; innovative, relevant and boundary-pushing research; and to maintain the highest possible standards in student service.”

• The Staff Awards of Excellence recognize staff who have made outstanding contributions in their roles and achieved excellence in demonstrating UOIT’s core competencies;
• The Research Excellence Awards recognize faculty who have achieved national and/or international success and recognition through their research activities and enhanced UOIT’s reputation as a research-focused institution; and
• UOIT’s Faculty Awards provide recognition for teaching excellence, to encourage its pursuit, to publicize such excellence across the university and the wider community, and to promote informed discussion of teaching and its improvement.

From a long list of distinguished nominees, the 2012 awards were presented to the following members of the UOIT team:

Staff Awards of Excellence

• Administrative/Technical: Lori Keilty, practicum assistant, Faculty of Education; and
• Professional Managerial: L’naya Hindman, planning and budget officer, Faculty of Science.

Research Excellence Awards

• Early Stage Researcher: Dr. Janette Hughes, associate professor, Faculty of Education; and
• Senior Researcher: Dr. Doug Holdway, professor, associate dean and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair (Aquatic Toxicology), Faculty of Science.

Faculty Awards

• Tenured and Tenure-track Faculty Award: Dr. Sharon Lauricella, assistant professor, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities;
• Teaching Award: Kari Kumar, lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences; and
• Teaching Assistant: Sonja Stadler, teaching assistant, Faculty of Science.

New for 2012, UOIT presented an award in a brand new category to recognize outstanding work by a group of employees. The inaugural Team Achievement Award went to the Start-up/Commissioning/Production team at the Automotive Centre of Excellence (John Komar, Gary Elfstrom, Randy Burnet, Kevin Carlucci, Tyson Carvalho, Pierre Hinse, Warren Karlson, Dan Miles, Shelby Nicholson and Mary Thompson).

Congratulations to all of the nominees and award recipients on their outstanding achievements and hard work over the past year.