2019-2020 Support and Research Staff Awards of Excellence
Chadwick Dawes
Rookie Award of Excellence
Research and Administrative Services
Chadwick Dawes played a critical role in creating a strong sense of community in the Department of Chemistry. A highly valued member of this team, Chadwick is known for being resourceful, efficient, and someone who took initiative and ownership of his role as Administrative Assistant to the Department Head.
Since joining the Department in 2018, Chadwick has supported three different Department Heads. Regardless of being new to the department and new to his role, he provided consistent support to faculty and colleagues making these transitions appear seamless. Through all this change, many commented on Chadwick’s cool and level-headed approach to the situation.
Chadwick was involved with department outreach activities such as: Chemistry Week, student events and department social gatherings. Furthermore, he fostered ‘community spirit’ by involving the department in collecting donations for the food bank, organizing a Christmas Toy Drive, and creating a donation bin for the Women’s shelter and delivering the donations himself. Blending careful due diligence in all his responsibilities, Chadwick approaches his work with an infectious sense of humour and constant smile on his face.
At the time of Chadwick's nomination, he worked in the Department of Chemistry and his recognized for his contributions in the Department..
Yanmei Fei
Client Service Award
Graduate Science Centre
When Yanmei Fei was promoted to the Graduate Program Administrator (GPA) role in Mathematics and Statistics, she took the initiative to make operations run smoothy. Setting up an improved “review system for admissions” brought transparency and consistency to the graduate admissions process, and enabled faculty members to comment on graduate applications through a secured online discussion board. This collaboration led to a significant increase in the overall quality of graduate students recruited and encouraged strategic cooperation and collegiality among faculty.
Her impact and efforts to foster a culture of professionalism, mutual respect, and support cannot be overstated. When international students come to Canada and our institution, they suddenly find themselves thrust into an unfamiliar environment where initiative is expected. Drawing from her own experience as a Chinese immigrant, Yanmei has helped countless students through this transition and gently coaches them to adjust culturally to life and studies in Canada and at the University.
Yanmei impresses all those around her with her expertise, professionalism, energy, enthusiasm, and – perhaps most of all – her care for the graduate students and for the Department and its members as a whole.
At the time of Yanmei's nomination, she worked in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and is recognized for her contributions in the Department.
Amin Ghanizadeh
Research and Scholarship Award
Geoscience
Hired as a prestigious “Eyes High Postdoctoral Fellow”, Dr. Ghanizadeh immediately took charge of the Tight Oil Consortium (TOC) lab. Performing innovative research with laboratory equipment, he discovered a new way to deliberately fracture core plugs under stress to allow the measurement of unpropped and propped fracture permeability, which is important in understanding the impact of hydraulic fracturing on reservoir performance in tight rock. This resulted in a 2-part paper in the prestigious journal Fuel in 2015.
In 2015, Dr. Ghanizadeh earned the position of Laboratory Manager. In addition to his command of the laboratory instrumentation, and his ability to consistently innovate, he demonstrated strong leadership skills with the existing laboratory staff, and was a thoughtful mentor to our HQP.
Dr. Ghanizadeh is quickly gaining an international profile. In addition to authoring or coauthoring numerous peer-reviewed articles, he has been invited by journals to be an Associate Editor, to edit special volumes on his research topic, to contribute summary/review articles, and has several invited speaker invitations. He is on an upward trajectory to be one of the world’s experts and recognized figures in the area in advanced petrophysical analysis of unconventional (low-permeability) reservoirs.
Kevin Hall
Research and Scholarship Award
Geoscience
Kevin Hall is the Technical Manager supporting the research group CREWES (Consortium for Research in Elastic Wave Exploration Seismology) and is the only staff member who is part of the core leadership team. This is critical because Kevin has immediate knowledge of numbers of HQP, their equipment and computer needs, as well as the locations and status of datasets, hardware, and field equipment.
In 2018, we carried out the world’s first high density accelerometer, geophone, and fiberoptic (DAS) multi-offset, multi-azimuth vertical seismic profile experiment. Not only did Kevin manage the many moving parts of this field campaign, he also became the primary processor of the data, and now is supporting the graduate students working with these data.
Every year CREWES holds a Sponsors’ Meeting and Technical Review, the outcome is the continued support of the industrial partners. Kevin not only presents his scientific results at this meeting, he also organizes the submission and editing and publishing of 50-100 extended technical reports, abstracts, and presentation files and supports the industrial representatives’ access to them. He also assists in planning and administrating this annual meeting.
Kevin Hall is indispensable to the success and continuation of CREWES and a major contributor to technical support in the University in general.
Nancy Jing Lu
Innovation and Change Award
Research and Administrative Services
Nancy Lu stepped into the IQIS Administrator role in 2007. Working closely with the director, she helped to convert IQIS from a collection of research groups to a proper institute with a professional public profile and comprehensive stakeholder-focused reports. Since that time, Nancy has continued to be the linchpin that makes the Institute run.
When IQST expanded to a provincial scale, called Quantum Alberta, Nancy helped bring the consortium together by establishing reporting procedures, and a web presence. In 2019, the AB Government awarded three major innovation projects, and Quantum Alberta was one of three successful bids. This bid was complex and had to be clear on an array of matched funding over various time periods with nuanced conditions. Nancy ensured the bid was clear and professionally done and ensured effective collaboration with personnel at three universities. Without her help, this prestigious award and vote of confidence from the province would not have happened.
Quantum science and technology is recognized by the University of Calgary, including by the Faculty of Science, as strategically important. Nancy has played a vital role behind establishing and maintaining this strength.
At the time of Nancy's nomination, she worked in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and is recognized for her contributions to the Institute for Quantum Science and Technology.
Julia Pickering
Rookie Award of Excellence
Technical Operations Group
Julia Pickering joined the Department of Geoscience as the SPL technician in 2019. Since she arrived, Julia has substantially improved the department’s ability to make thin sections and grain mounts from rock samples. After mastering the techniques required, despite little previous experience and formal training, she dramatically improved the quality and process so much so the department no longer sends rocks outside of the university for processing.
Julia has also made significant improvements to the shared workspaces for which she is responsible. The “Grad Preparation Lab” is used for cutting, crushing and pulverizing rocks, and facilitates the research of dozens of graduate and undergraduate students. Julia created and stewards new processes to ensure the efficient usage of lab time and rigorously enforces cleanliness standards that improve the quality of the products generated. She has also undertaken a re-design of the lab to improve the safety and workflow and to address long-standing infrastructure issues around drainage. Many of her recommendations are being implemented.
In the short time Julia has worked for Geoscience, she has far exceeded expectations for a technician in this role and has improved the research capability of the department.
At the time of Julia's nomination, she worked in the Department of Geoscience and is recognized for her contributions in the Department.