Bringing people together in a virtual world

The Research Institute of St. Joe’s is proud to offer a range of events to our researchers, staff, and the St. Joe’s community that focus on celebrating achievements, awareness, continuing education, appreciation, and relationship building. The pandemic has led us to move many of these events to virtual platforms, which have helped increase participation. It also makes events like Celebrate Research more broadly accessible to those who couldn’t attend during the live premiere, with highly visual presentations showcasing key milestones, our award winners, and other initiatives aimed to improve research at St. Joe’s.

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Celebrate Research: The show must go on

Celebrate Research has historically been our biggest event of the year – bringing together investigators, research staff, students, clinical staff, local partners, and community members. Celebrate Research gives us the opportunity to recognize the achievements of our colleagues and research programs, to network and connect with healthcare organizations in Hamilton, and to congratulate the winners of The Research Institute Awards Program.

During the pandemic, we shifted from an in-person event to an online presentation and found success via a live video premiere. In 2020, the messaging from Celebrate Research reached a larger audience than previous years – leading us to expand upon this format for 2021. Celebrate Research 2021 premiered live via YouTube on October 7. You can watch the full ceremony anytime!

Check out our 2021 Celebrate Research Virtual Ceremony
Anne & Neil McArthur Award

Another large virtual event is closely related to Celebrate Research. The Anne & Neil McArthur Research Award is given annually to an internationally recognized researcher. This award is presented at Celebrate Research. In previous years, the award winner would give an academic presentation after receiving their award.

Since 2020, we have opted to host a separate event for the McArthur Academic Presentation allowing for a live discussion with more engagement opportunities from the audience.

The winner of the 2021 Anne & Neil McArthur Research Award is Dr. Martin Kolb, who gave an engaging academic presentation in January, 2022. He shared his work over the last 25 years and the progress being made to treat fibrotic lung diseases, such as IPF and ILD. Like Celebrate Research, Dr. Kolb’s presentation is available to watch anytime.

Watch Dr. Kolb’s Full McArthur Award Academic Presentation
Our 2021 Award Recipients

Check out the elevator pitches for each award recipient to learn more about their research projects.

Stefanie Piatek

PAC Interprofessional Research Award

Taylor Hatchard

PAC Interprofessional Research Award

Sarah Culgin

RSJH Staff Recognition Award

Norm Konyer

RSJH Staff Recognition Award

Kim Lewis

Constantine Douketis New Researcher Award

Dan Perri

SJHF Research Collaboration Grant

Manali Mukherjee

SJHF Research Collaboration Grant

Lawrence Mbuagbaw

SJHF Research Collaboration Grant

David Bulir

SJHF Research Collaboration Grant

Waleed Alhazzani

SJHF Research Collaboration Grant

Jackie Trink

Studentship Award

Lucas Gallo

Studentship Award

Jennifer Yan Gu

Post-doctoral Fellowship Award

Michele Korostil

Dr. Ian & Shirley Rowe Research Award

Heather Moulden

Joe K. Award in Forensic Psychiatry

Casey Upfold

Forensic Psychiatry Award

Emma Marsden

Forensic Psychiatry Award for Trainees

New Additions and One-time Events

Research in Progress Rounds

In late 2021, The Research Institute began planning for a new event series called Research in Progress Rounds. These sessions offer researchers of any experience level (students, novice & experienced researchers) the opportunity to present their in-progress research plans and receive feedback from the diverse, knowledgeable research community at St. Joe’s.

The Call for Abstracts for the first session went out in December 2021, and the event was held virtually on February 15, 2022. We look forward to our next session, scheduled for August 2022.

‘OMICS and Epidemiology

How do laboratory tools and advances in technology contribute to our understanding of health and disease, including the COVID-19 pandemic? That question informed the central theme of this year’s conference: Evidence-Based ‘OMICS in Clinical Practice.

The Research Institute organized the 2021 ‘OMICS and Epidemiology Conference, which was held virtually on May 27 and 28, 2021. Attendees explored the evidence for ‘omics and utility in the health care setting – including COVID-19 and the lungs, depression and gut inflammation, novel platforms in cancer treatment, nutrition, and more.

September Sizzler

For the second year since the pandemic began, we were forced to cancel our annual Midsummer Mixer event. While COVID-19 hospitalizations were lower during the summer months, we still had to be mindful of infection prevention protocols.

Around the same time, leadership at the Hospital and the Foundation were looking to host a staff appreciation BBQ event at each of our three campuses. The Research Institute joined an ad hoc committee and together we planned a new, one-time event called September Sizzler

The planning covered the essentials – how many lunches would have to be prepared, how to show appreciation for evening and overnight staff, etc. – but also details about flow control, outdoor seating, and other considerations for infection prevention purposes.

Overall, the September Sizzler event was a great success. The Foundation donated branded lunch bags that were used to serve the pre-packaged meals. Senior leadership from SJHH, SHHF, and RSJH were present to help distribute the meals and thank staff for their dedication. The AV team documented the event while also providing music, and The Research Institute gave out jumbo freezies to staff members looking for a tasty snack during the last few days of summer!