Each year, UBC’s Faculty of Medicine recognizes faculty members who exemplify exceptional contributions in the areas of education, research and/or service, and who are dedicated to advancing both the Faculty’s values and vision of transforming health for everyone. Congratulations to the DMCBH members who received Distinguished Achievement Awards for 2023.
Service to the University and Community: Dr. Evelyn Stewart
Recognizes significant contributions to local, national, or international communities aimed at improved health outcomes of the population.
Dr. Evelyn Stewart is a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist, and a clinical and neuroscience researcher. She is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and is the founding director of the BC Children’s Hospital (BCCH) Provincial Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Clinic and Research Program. She is also the Research Director for BCCH Child, Youth and Reproductive Mental Health program and a member of BC Mental Health & Substance Use Service Research Institute. She leads the Brain, Behaviour & Development theme at the BCCH Research Institute.
In 2010, Dr. Stewart moved to Vancouver to establish the first Canadian Pediatric OCD integrated clinic and research program at BCCH and UBC. Dr. Stewart is an active contributor to the international psychiatry research community. She is part of the Scientific Advisory Boards for the International OCD Foundation and Anxiety Canada, and the editorial boards for the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Overall Excellence – Early Career: Dr. Fidel Vila-Rodriguez
Recognizes outstanding contributions in the areas of research, education, and service.
Dr. Fidel Vila-Rodriguez is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia and director of the Non-Invasive Neurostimulation Therapies (NINET) Laboratory and Schizophrenia Program.
As a clinician-scientist, Dr. Vila-Rodriguez has a strong interest in conducting translational research that bridges the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders with the clinical applications of this knowledge. His clinical practice is actively focused on those most severely afflicted by such conditions, and his research interests are directed at finding novel therapeutic interventions within NINET that can help mitigate the suffering of those with severe and refractory forms of psychosis and depression. His laboratory actively investigates on all forms of NINET and uses a varied number of neurophysiological tools to research on biomarkers. The NINET Laboratory is the only centre in Canada to host both simultaneous TMS-fMRI and tDCS-fMRI capability.
Overall Excellence — Mid-Career: Dr. Thalia Field
Recognizes outstanding contributions in the areas of research, education and service.
Dr. Thalia Field is an associate professor in the Division of Neurology at the University of British Columbia and holds the Sauder Family/Heart and Stroke Foundation Professorship of Stroke Research.
As a stroke neurologist and clinician-researcher, Dr. Field has a particular interest in process improvement in clinical trials, which includes optimizing strategies for participant recruitment and retention, investigating strategies for efficient use of resources, and selecting outcomes that are of relevance to patients. She is also investigating the role of technology in meeting these challenges, including the use of telemedicine for remote recruitment and assessment of study participants, and the use of artificial intelligence to enhance efficiency in trials by enriching trial populations, automating components of participant assessments, and helping to identify important patient-centred outcomes.
Overall Excellence — Senior Faculty: Dr. Sriram Subramaniam
Recognizes outstanding contributions in the areas of research, education and service.
Dr. Sriram Subramaniam is Gobind Khorana Chair in Cancer Drug Design at the University of British Columbia and also the founder and CEO of Gandeeva Therapeutics. Prior to his arrival in Vancouver, he was senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health where he also founded and directed the US National Cryo-EM Facility.
Dr. Subramaniam is recognized internationally for his leadership in driving the cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) resolution revolution. His work showed for the first time that the structures of proteins, bound drugs as well as a variety of dynamic protein complexes could be visualized using cryo-EM methods at near-atomic resolution. Dr. Subramaniam and his group have continued to remain at the forefront of the cryo-EM field with innovations in technology for imaging and applications to important biomedical problems.
