The John F. and Evangeline M. Davis Award聽and the聽Leslie A. Geddes Prize for Excellence in Biomedical Engineering聽are two prestigious awards for graduate students in Biological & Biomedical Engineering. In 2020, two highly deserving聽recipients were awarded these honors, accompanied by a cash prize.
The 2020聽Davis Award recipient is聽Mr. Omid Zobeiri (image-left), and the Geddes Prize recipient is Dr. Saad Ibrahim O Aldelaijan (image-right).聽
We asked each award winner for their thoughts on their accomplishments, and what it means to receive these outstanding recognitions.聽
Leslie A. Geddes Prize for Excellence in Biomedical Engineering
The Geddes Prize is given annually to the outstanding PhD thesis聽each year. Dr. Aldelaijan was honored with this award for his Ph.D. thesis entitled 鈥淎dvanced quality assurance methodologies in image-guided high-dose-rate brachytherapy鈥� under the supervision of Prof and Prof Louis Collins. Prior to pursuing聽his Ph.D. at McGill, Saad received the Scholarship Award from King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSH&RC), Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For his Ph.D. research project, he collaborated with brachytherapy experts at McGill and the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School.
"I am very pleased to receive the Geddes prize as I genuinely believe that focused and well-mentored hard work will eventually lead to success. I feel incredibly grateful to the Biomedical Engineering Department and the Medical Physics Unit. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the BME Chair, BBME Fellowships Committee, my supervisors, committee members, admins, mentors, sponsors, friends and colleagues at McGill, Harvard, KFSH&RC and the Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau in Canada for their support, inspiration, and dedication. Special thanks to all my family who always supported me in a heartbeat despite being 10 million meters away!"
Dr.聽Aldelaijan's聽thesis emphasized the importance of developing precise and practical quality assurance (QA) tools for image-guided brachytherapy (IGBT), especially with the rapid rate of technical inventions and their incorporation into IGBT. It outlines an innovative, low-cost QA framework by digitizing the dosimetric trace of radioactive brachytherapy sources registered by radiochromic media using inexpensive flatbed document scanners. This information is then used to precisely reconstruct the source positional and dosimetric information simultaneously, both necessary for safe and high-quality treatments to cancer patients.
"The thesis and recognition by the Geddes prize empower the use of IGBT, which is an unsurpassed cancer treatment modality when it comes to clinical benefits for many body sites, yet it is underutilized because of unfavorable logistics and reimbursement policies. The thesis recognition comes timely since the scientific community is advocating broader use of IGBT based on emerging clinical evidence and more efforts are being invested to improve it. Streamlining IGBT QA process based on tools available in the clinic constitutes a significant step in the adoption of IGBT which would positively impact benefiting cancer patients, the society, and the discipline on a global scale."
The John F. and Evangeline M. Davis Award
The John F. and Evangeline M. Davis Award is given to a graduate student enrolled in the BBME or BME Program in recognition of a significant contribution (Master鈥檚 or Doctoral thesis, major conference paper or journal paper) to a subject applicable to diagnostic or treatment procedures for neurological or psychiatric disorders. Mr. Omid Zobeiri was deserving of this award for his paper entitled, 鈥淓ffects of vestibular neurectomy and neural compensation on head movements in patients undergoing vestibular schwannoma resection".聽
I am truly honored to receive the John F. and Evangeline M. Davis award. This award is certainly a great acknowledgment of the importance of advancing diagnosis in patients with balance disorders. I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Kathleen Cullen and our collaborators Dr. Richard Lewis and Susan King for the opportunity of working with them on this great project.
Mr.聽Zobeiri conducted his research under the supervision of Prof.聽Kathleen Cullen.