The University of Lethbridge will be well-represented at the 2013 ASTech Awards Gala later this fall.
Today, the ASTech Foundation announced the 23 honourees of the 2013 ASTech Awards and three are associated with the U of L. Drs. Igor Kovalchuk and David Naylor were both recognized, as was the Canada-Wide Science Fair team.
These highly-respected individuals, companies and teams make up an elite group of leaders who are paving the way for future innovation and technology in 13 ASTech Award categories. The honourees will be recognized for their contributions at the 2013 ASTech Awards Gala on Oct. 25, 2013.
Naylor (physics and astronomy, Board of Governors Research Chair) and a team of researchers led Canada's contribution to the Herschel Space project on behalf of the Canadian Space Agency, developing the Herschel Space Telescope's Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) instrument. They were recently awarded the prestigious 2013 Sir Arthur Clarke Award for academic study and research.
Naylor was nominated in the Outstanding Leadership in Alberta Science award classification.
Kovalchuk (biological sciences, Board of Governors Research Chair) heads the Plant Biotechnology Laboratory on campus, investigating epigenetic and genetic regulation of plant genome stability under normal and stressful conditions. Operating under an Alberta Agriculture Research Institute Grant (2009-2013), the lab's research is aimed at analyzing the mechanisms of plant adaptation to stress, including plant DNA repair mechanisms. His activity in the area of plant transgenesis has afforded him a strategic alliance with API Labs Inc., a Canadian biotech company that seeks to develop a market for a high thebaine poppy industry in Canada.
Kovalchuk was nominated in the Innovation in Agricultural Science award category.
The 52nd Annual Canada-Wide Science Fair was hosted by the University of Lethbridge, May 11-18, 2013, and welcomed more than 1,100 students, chaperones, judges, sponsors and dignitaries to campus. An unmitigated success, the CWSF energized both southern Alberta and Alberta as a whole as the country's top young scientific minds presented to a distinguished group of adjudicators.
The Canada-Wide Science Fair Host committee was nominated in the Excellence in Science and Technology Public Awareness award category.
The theme of this year's ASTech Awards Gala is "Shaping the Future" and will showcase the significant impact each of the honourees has in the development of innovation in Alberta. Representing a broad range of industries including energy, environment, agriculture and information technology, and covering the entire innovation spectrum from research to development to commercialization, the honourees offer an inspiring breadth of fascinating stories of how they are taking innovation to new levels in their respective fields.
For 24 years, the ASTech Foundation has invited members of industry, educational institutions and government agencies to be nominated for the ASTech Awards and only the top candidates are selected as honourees in each category.
For a look at all the honourees, follow this link, or view an ASTech video about the awards here.