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Noteworthy events

• Congratulations to Nikitha Kendyala Pallegar and her husband, Purvi on the arrival of their beautiful baby boy on July 23^rd weighing in at 8 lbs.  Nikitha is a PhD student in Dr. Christian’s lab.  We wish your family lots of fun, love and cuddles.
• Congratulations as well to Abrehem Abad and Fathia Taher on their recent marriage.  Abrehem is a MSc. student in Dr. Shahidi’s lab and Fathia has joined Biochemistry as a new grad student in Dr. Banoub’s lab this fall.  We wish you both a long and happy life together.
• The department hosted a retirement coffee break on August 24^th for Dr. Gene Herzberg who retired at the end of August. Best wishes to Dr. Herzberg.

Biochemistry was very saddened to hear of the passing of a former student of our department, Colin Antle.  Colin was a recent undergraduate honours student and graduate student in Biochemistry who passed away on September 14, 2017.  We offer our sincere condolences to Colin’s family.

Biochemistry once again captured one of the top prizes for our participation in the Campus Food Drive.  We had the highest points per capita and the second highest total points overall.  Thank you to all those who supported this worthwhile event.

Biochemistry’s 50^th Anniversary was a resounding success with a lot of positive feedback.   Thank you to our sponsors and contributors; all those who helped organize the symposium, dinner, and open house; our speakers, and those who assisted in any way.  At the symposium we were joined by the president of MUN, Dr. Kachanoski, for part of the day. Dr. Brosnan gave a wonderful history of the department, followed by presentations from alumni Rene Jacobs, Jesus Perez-Gil, Janitha Wanasundara and Ann Colbourne. This year’s Jacobs award winners Shreyasi Sarkar and Anthony Akerele, also gave presentations. We had in excess of 100 people attend the dinner on the Friday evening, with excellent representation from alumni across all 50 years of the department’s history, current and former faculty and staff. At the open house many of our current faculty and staff took time out of their busy schedules, to open their labs to visitors, and to stop by and chat with guests. Thank you to everyone who participated and made the entire weekend such a great success.

At the open house on Saturday an announcement was made on the new “Dr. Patrick J.A. O’Doherty Graduate Award in Biochemistry Endowment Fund”.  This endowment fund was established through a generous gift from Joyce (Noel) O’Doherty in memory of her late husband.  An announcement was also made in relation to two new scholarships created with the generous donation of Dr. Kevin and Mrs. Joan Keough. The “Dr. Kevin Keough Scholarship in Biochemistry” will be awarded to a 3^rd year Biochemistry major and the “Dr. Kevin Keough Graduate Scholarship in Biochemistry” to be awarded to a full-time graduate student in their first year.

Welcome to our new and returning undergraduate students who have joined us this semester, welcome and good luck with your studies.

We have some new graduate students who have joined Biochemistry, as follows:

Spring 2017

• Peter Isesele, MSc. student in Dr. Cheema’s lab

Fall 2017

• Han Peng, PhD student in Dr. Shahidi’s lab
• Raniru Randunu, PhD student in Dr. Bertolo’s lab
• Fathia Taher, MSc. student in Dr. Banoub’s lab
• Adrian Young, MSc. student in Dr. Mailloux’s lab

Welcome to you all and good luck with your endeavours.