Alumni Awards

The IMS is proud to have so many remarkable alumni who enrich our community and inspire students and recent graduates to reach their full potential.

Our annual alumni awards, launched by the Student, Staff, Alumni and Faculty Engagement (SAFE) Committee in 2024, recognize graduates who have had a significant impact on the IMS and who are advancing health throughout Toronto, across Canada, and around the world.

You can find details about the awards, including eligibility and the nomination process below. The awards are presented at IMS Scientific Day. For any questions, please email Sarah Topa.

Emerging Leader Award

Award Criteria: This award recognizes alumni in the early stages of their career who demonstrate outstanding community service and/or scientific achievements that have a direct and significant impact on improving health.

Award Categories

Eligibility

MSc or PhD alum who graduated from IMS within the last 10 years (between 2014-2024).
Both external alumni (those who no longer have a formal affiliation with IMS) and alumni who are IMS faculty members are eligible.
The nomination can be for a specific achievement or for a body of work that has occurred locally, nationally and/or internationally.
Achievements and/or community service must have occurred post-graduation.
Leadership roles and activities can be interpreted broadly to include involvement with community partners, non-governmental organizations, designing and/or managing research studies, acting as an advisor for others/committee, advocacy work, patient engagement, etc.
Self-nominations will be accepted.
Group nominations will not be accepted.

Nomination

Each nomination package must include the following:

A letter of nomination highlighting the nominee’s achievements and/or community service activities and explaining why they should receive the award. Please ensure the letter states the award category, provides a thorough justification for the nomination that aligns with the award criteria, and lists the nominee’s contact information. Maximum 500 words.
Two letters of support from individuals familiar with the nominee's work. They do not need to be affiliated with the IMS. Maximum one-page each.
Resume or abridged CV (maximum 10 pages).
Optional: Supplementary material that demonstrates the significance of the nominee’s work, such as media coverage, abstracts, etc. Maximum two items, no more than two-pages each.
The nomination package should be compiled as a single PDF document and emailed to Sarah Topa, SAFE Committee Co-Chair, at int.medscience@utoronto.ca.
Nomination deadline: February 4, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Please note, nominations will be kept on file for two years for future consideration.

Community Engagement Award

Award Criteria: This award recognizes alumni who demonstrate exceptional engagement with IMS and who have had a significant, positive impact on students and/or the wider IMS community. Recipients of this award contribute to IMS’ vision to inspire and prepare future leaders in translational medical science.

Award Categories

Eligibility

MSc or PhD alum who graduated prior to 2023.
Minimum two years of engagement with IMS as an alum.
Examples of eligible activities include (but are not limited to): IMS committee member, Career Mentorship Program mentor, advisor to IMS Students’ Association and/or other IMS student groups, volunteer for IMS Scientific Day, panelist or speaker at IMS events.
Self-nominations are not accepted.
Group nominations are not accepted.

Nomination

The nomination package must include the following:

A letter of nomination highlighting the nominee's contributions to and positive impact on the IMS. Please ensure the letter states the award category, provides a thorough justification for the nomination that aligns with the award criteria, and lists the nominee’s contact information. Maximum 500 words.
Two letters of support from IMS community members. This includes students, faculty, alumni and staff. Maximum one-page each.
The nomination package should be compiled as a single PDF document and emailed to Sarah Topa, SAFE Committee Co-Chair, at int.medscience@utoronto.ca.
Nomination deadline: February 4, 2025 at 11:59 PM

2024 Award Recipients

Emerging Leader Award

Dr. Aadil Ali completed his PhD at IMS in 2021 working with the world-leading Toronto lung transplant program. Together with the Toronto team, Aadil defined a new method for lung preservation which allows for the extension of the out-of-body time the donor organ can be kept prior to transplantation. This work was well received by the lung transplant community, with publications in Science Translational Medicine and NEJM. This work led to the creation of a novel organ preservation device by Traferox Technologies Inc, a Canadian biomedical device company. This device is currently being used in top transplant centers across Canada, the United States, and Europe and has been extended to other solid organ system (heart, liver, kidney, pancreas). Recently, Aadil was named to the Forbes Magazine's Top 30 under 30 list.

Alumni Engagement Award

Dr. Pascal Tyrrell, an accomplished data scientist, is the Director of Data Science and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto's Department of Medical Imaging. He founded the MiDATA data science program and holds appointments in the Institute of Medical Science and the Department of Statistical Sciences. His research applies innovative Artificial Intelligence to medical image analysis for improved health outcomes. Pascal received his PhD from IMS in 2011. As a faculty member he has been heavily involved in many IMS initiatives, including leading the EDI Highschool Outreach Subcommittee, serving as a member of the EDI and Curriculum Committees, being the faculty lead of the Healthcare Innovation Challenge and being a mentor in IMS' Career Mentorship Program. He is also the course Director for MSC1007H: Biostatistics in a Nut Shell and MSC1114H: Artificial Intelligence in Medicine.