Student Academic Awards

Siminovitch-Salter Award 

This award was established in 1995 to honour the contributions of Dr. Lou Siminovitch and Dr. Robert Salter, eminent researchers, founders, and mentors to the Institute of Medical Science. It is presented annually at IMS Scientific Day to a recently graduated PhD student who has made outstanding scholarly contributions during their program. 

The endowment represents contributions by Mount Sinai Hospital, the University of Toronto Department of Surgery and the Institute of Medical Science. The recipient is nominated by their supervisor and selected by the IMS Graduate Coordinators.

2023 Siminovitch-Salter Award Recipient

Dr. Sun-Ho Lee completed his GI Fellowship at Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. He further trained as an Advanced Inflammatory Bowel Disease Fellow (2018-2022) at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. He completed his PhD degree at the Institute of Medical Science in May 2022. Dr. Lee's research focuses on IBD translational research. He has been leading research projects as part of the Crohn’s Colitis Canada GEM Project Research Team, where he contributed in understanding the pre-clinical phase of Crohn's disease. Using his biostatistics and bioinformatics skill set, he has explored the interaction of host genetics, gut microbiome, anti-microbial immune response, and the gut barrier function and how it relates to future development of IBD. Recently, he was appointed as a Staff Gastroenterologist and Clinician Scientist at the IBD Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital and Assistant Professor at DOM of University of Toronto in February 2023.

Whiteside Award

This award was established in 2003 to honour the contributions of Dr. Catharine Whiteside, a former IMS Graduate Coordinator and former Dean of Medicine at the University of Toronto. It is presented annually at IMS Scientific Day to a recently graduated Master of Science student who has made outstanding scholarly contributions. 

The recipient is nominated by their supervisor and defense committee and is selected by the IMS Graduate Coordinators.

2023 Whiteside Award Recipient

Kayvan Aflaki's Master's thesis, entitled “A Retrospective Review of Maternal Mortality in Ontario” was completed in partnership with the Ontario Coroner, BORN Ontario, and Health Canada. Under the mentorship of Dr. Joel Ray, a clinician-scientist at St. Michael's Hospital, Kayvan’s graduate research has been published in various peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology and CMAJ and had his research taken to the Ontario science table during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond his robust academic portfolio, he served as the 2021-22 IMS Students’ Association Co-President and a Show Host on RawTalk Podcast. He is also the co-founder of the Healthcare Innovation Challenge after receiving the IMS Jay Keystone Memorial Award for Innovation in Scientific Communication (2022). Kayvan is currently a Lieutenant with the Canadian Armed Forces and is actively serving on Canada’s Pacific coast.

Sara Al-Bader Memorial Award 

This award was established by IMS in 2012 to honour the memory of Dr. Sara Al-Bader, a vibrant scholar and IMS PhD candidate who posthumously received her degree after colleagues completed her thesis on health innovation in sub-Saharan Africa. It is presented annually at IMS Scientific Day to an international doctoral stream student who shows exceptional academic promise. The recipient is chosen by the IMS Associate Director.

2023 Sara Al-Bader Award Recipient

Annia Schreiber received her MD with honours from the University of Torino, Italy, where she also completed her post-graduate training in Respirology. After working as a staff respirologist in Pavia, Italy, she undertook a 2 year-research fellowship at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France.

In 2019 she joined Dr. Laurent Brochard’s vibrant Research Lab in the Keenan Research Centre at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital. Currently, she is a PhD candidate, under Dr. Brochard’s supervision, in the Institute of Medical Science. Her PhD is focused on exploring the role of the accessory respiratory muscles in patients with prolonged weaning from mechanical ventilation, including patients with spinal cord injury, and on developing novel rehabilitative techniques to promote liberation from the ventilator. During her PhD, she developed an innovative method to quantify abdominal muscle function using ultrasound, and a prediction score for weaning success after spinal cord injury. Annia received the 2022-2023 St. Michael’s Hospital Medical Services Association Innovation Fund for her studies on respiratory muscles in patients with spinal cord injury. Her research has produced over 45 publications, 8 book chapters and over 60 conference presentations.