45th Convocation: Medals, Awards, Degrees & Successes
(May 28, 2009 --Thunder Bay, ON)
Lakehead University is gearing up for its 45th Convocation, at which nearly 1,900 graduands will receive their degrees. Two ceremonies will take place at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium on Saturday, May 30, the first from 9:00 - 11:30 a.m., and the second from 2:30 - 5:00 p.m. The Charter Class of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) will be graduating in the morning session.
Vice President (Academic) Dr. Laurie Hayes says, "Convocation is a proud time for everyone at Lakehead University, from the students and their families, to the staff and faculty. We congratulate the graduands on their academic accomplishments and extend to each of them our best wishes for a successful future."
University President Dr. Fred Gilbert says, "Every Convocation is a special occasion and Lakehead's 45th will be no different except that the graduands, for the first time, will include members from our Faculty of Medicine."
Student medals and awards are as follows:
The Dean Braun's Medals are awarded to the highest-ranking graduating students in the following programs: Bachelor of Administration, Greg Charles Kalil, BAdmin; Honours Bachelor of Commerce, Sean Thomas Heringer, BComm (Hons); Bachelor of Engineering, Patrick Edward Belina, BEng; Engineering Technology, Christopher Kyler Kukkee, Dipl Civi Eng; Bachelor of Environmental Studies (Forest Conservation), Shannon Page, BES; Honours Bachelor of Environmental Studies (Forest Conservation), Breanne Dumouchelle HBES; Honours Bachelor of Science in Forestry, Alex Bilyk, HBScF; Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Horatiu Muller, BScN; Honours Bachelor of Kinesiology, Caitlin McCallum, HBK; and Honours Bachelor of Social Work, James McMahon, HBSW; Psychology (Three-Year Program), Marlena Tassone BSc; Psychology (Four-Year Program), Karen Storeshaw BA (Hons).
The William A. West Education Medals are awarded to the highest-ranking students in Education. Recipients are Bachelor of Education (Primary-Junior), Martha Moon, BEd; Bachelor of Education (Junior-Intermediate), Jenny MacLeod, BEd; Bachelor of Education (Intermediate-Senior), Joseph Del Paggio, BEd; Bachelor of Education (Native Teacher Education), Carol Mamakeesic, BEd; Native Language Instructors' Diploma, Anna Kakegamic, NLIP; Master of Education, Anita Graham, MEd; and PhD in Educational Studies, Leisa Desmoulins.
The Dean of Science and Environmental Studies Medals are awarded to the highest-ranking graduating students in Science and Environmental Studies. Recipients are Three-Year Program, Duncan A. MacDonald, BSc; ex aequo Melissa Frattolin BSc; Four-Year Program, Andrew Holm BSc (Hons).
The Dean of Social Science and Humanities Medals are awarded to the highest-ranking graduating students in Social Sciences and Humanities. Recipients are Three-Year Program, Marie-Eve Couture, BA; Four-Year Program, Brianne K. Kirkpatrick BA (Hons).
The Orillia Campus Dean's Medal is awarded to the highest-ranking student in the Honours Bachelor of Arts & Science and Bachelor of Arts and Science degree program. Recipient is Nathalie Michelle Corriveau, HBASc.
The Chancellor's Medal is awarded to the highest-ranking part-time student in an undergraduate degree or equivalent. Recipient is Karen L. Morrow, BScN.
The Vice-Chancellor's Medal is awarded to the highest-ranking graduating student in the three-year Bachelor's degree. Recipient is Marie-Eve Couture, BA.
The Governor-General's College Bronze Medal is awarded to the highest-ranking student in the graduating class of the Diploma Program. Recipient is Christopher Kyler Kukkee, Dipl Eng.
The Governor-General's Silver Medal is awarded to the highest-ranking student in the Honours Bachelor's degree or equivalent. Recipient is Andrew Holm, BSc (Hons).
The Governor-General's Gold Medal is awarded to the graduate student who achieves the highest academic standing in a Master's degree program. Recipient is Rebecca Barnes, MSc.
The President's Award is given annually to the graduating students who have occupied positions of responsibility in student organizations and who, by their activities and achievements, have earned the gratitude of the University. Recipients are Undergraduate, Brianne K. Kirkpatrick; Andrew
Holm; and Graduate, Peter Holt Hindle.
The Robert Poulin Award is awarded for outstanding citizenship and presented to the full-time student selected by his/her fellows, the faculty, and administration as contributing most to the welfare of the University through student activities. Recipient is Peter Holt-Hindle.
Non-student honourees are the following (bios attached):
2009 Young Alumni Award - Terry Robinson
2009 Alumni Honour Award - Dr. Thomas Ryan
2009 Alumni Honour Award - Poh Lam Tan
2009 Honorary Doctoral Recipients:
Dr. John Evans
Mr. Richard Stallman
Dr. Evans will speak in the morning convocation session, and Richard Stallman will speak at the afternoon session.
The Honourable David Caplan, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care will also be in attendance, and will speak at the morning session.
ABOUT THE HONORARY RECIPIENTS
John Evans
Medical, academic, research and business leader
Dr. John Evans is one of Canada's foremost innovators and a long-time leader in the medical, academic, research, and business communities.
After graduating from the University of Toronto as an MD, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, where he earned his DPhil. On his return to North America, he completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Cardiology and qualified as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London) and a Master of the American College of Physicians in the United States.
Dr. Evans was an associate in medicine at the University of Toronto from 1961 until 1965, when at age 35 he was recruited as founding dean of a new medical school in Hamilton. Under his leadership, the School of Medicine at McMaster University opened in 1970, introducing students to a revolutionary system of problem-based learning, where they immediately became involved in patient care. Since that time, problem-based learning has become the preferred method of instruction in many medical schools around the world, including the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.
In 1972 Dr. Evans returned to the University of Toronto and served as its President until 1978. He was appointed to the Pepin-Robarts Commission on National Unity, whose 1979 report made radical proposals for national unity.
The Rockefeller Foundation hired Dr. Evans in 1979 to undertake a study of public health and population-based medicine around the world. His report led to a job with the World Bank as founding director of its Population, Health and Nutrition Department, where he focused on reducing infant mortality in less developed countries.
John was appointed to the board of The Rockefeller Foundation in 1982 and served as its chair from 1987 to 1995. In 1983, he became the founding Chair of Allelix Biopharmaceuticals Inc., one of Canada's first biotechnical companies. He joined the board of the media company Torstar in 1984 and served as Chair from 1993 until 2005. He also served as Director and Chair of Alcan Aluminum Ltd from 1986 until 2002. John was the founding Chair of the Canada Foundation for Innovation in 1997 until 2006. In 2005, John also became founding chair of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and remains a member of its board of directors.
Currently, Dr. Evans is the founding chair of the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, an innovation centre where scientific research connects with business. The goal of MaRS is to stimulate innovation and accelerate the creation and growth of enterprises that will strengthen Canada's position in the new knowledge-based economy. The centre opened in 2005 and will complete a major expansion in 2010.
Dr. John Evans is a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a laureate of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, and the Business Hall of Fame. He was awarded the 2002 F.N.G. Starr Award, the highest honor of the Canadian Medical Association, and the 2007 Henry G. Freisen International Prize in Health Research for his longstanding contributions to medical sciences.
Richard Stallman
Free software advocate
Richard Stallman is internationally recognised as a leader in the free software movement, which argues that everyone should be free to share, study, and modify software. To understand the concept of free software, Richard says, "You should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer."
Born in New York City in 1953, Richard Stallman graduated from Harvard with a BA in Physics in 1974 (one year before Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to create Microsoft). While studying at Harvard, Richard also worked as a staff hacker at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Artificial Intelligence Lab, where he learned how to develop operating systems. After graduating, he continued working at MIT until 1984, when he left to start the GNU (pronounced guh-NEW) project. He has been GNU's leader ever since.
The GNU operating system is a complete, free software system, upward-compatible with Unix. GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix." Richard developed a number of widely used components of the GNU system, including GNU Emacs (an extensible, customizable text editor), the GNU Compiler Collection, and the GNU symbolic debugger (gdb). The GNU/Linux system, a variant of GNU that includes the Linux kernel developed by Linus Torvalds, is used in millions of computers worldwide.
To keep GNU software free, Richard pioneered the concept of a copyleft agreement, which flips copyright on its head by saying that anyone who redistributes the software, with or without changes, must pass along to all subsequent users the freedom to further copy and change it. Richard is the main author of the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license in the world.
In 1985 he started the Free Software Foundation (FSF), a charity that defends the rights of free software users around the world and provides a legal infrastructure for the free software movement.
Since the mid-1990s, Richard has spent most of his time zealously advocating for free software around the world. He campaigns against software patents and what he sees as excessive extensions of copyright laws. In 1989 he co-founded the League for Programming Freedom, whose aim is to prevent monopolies in software development.
Among other honors, Richard has been granted honorary doctorates by Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology, the University of Glasgow, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Brussels Free University), the Universidad Nacional de Salta (Argentina), the Università Degli Studi di Pavia (University of Pavia, Italy), and the Universidad Los Angeles de Chimbote (Peru).
He believes that using free software is a political and ethical decision that affirms the right to learn and to share one's knowledge with others. By making free, high-quality software available as an alternative to proprietary software, he has benefited everyone who uses a computer.
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Media: President, Dr. Fred Gilbert, and Vice President (Academic) & Provost, Dr. Laurie Hayes, are available for media interviews. For more information contact Lisa Pelot, Communications Officer, at 343-8177, or commun@lakeheadu.ca
About Lakehead
Lakehead is a comprehensive university with a reputation for innovative programs and cutting-edge research. With a main campus located in Thunder Bay, Ontario and a campus in Orillia, Ontario, Lakehead has over 7,900 students and 2,250 faculty and staff, and is home to the west campus of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. In 2006, Research Infosource Inc. named Lakehead University Canada's Research University of the Year in the undergraduate category. For more information on Lakehead University, visit www.lakeheadu.ca