Students Shine in National and International Competitions

Entomology students Jason Diehl and Carla Wytrykush each won their section of the President’s Prize competition for student papers at the Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of Canada. They captured two of four awards offered to a field of 32 competitors from across the country.

David Gratzer, fourth year medicine, won the Donner Prize for the best book on Canadian Public Policy. His book, entitled Code Blue: Reviving Canada’s Health Care System, closely examines issues surrounding Canada’s health care system, demographic trends, and political debate. Gratzer also was awarded top prize in the Felix Morley Journalism competition. He was presented with a cash prize of $2,500 (US) for his entry of five articles he wrote on a range of subjects. This prize is awarded annually to outstanding young writers whose work demonstrates an appreciation of classical liberal principles.

Angela Busch, co-president of the Aboriginal Student Association, was honoured with an Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award for Cultural Awareness for her work coordinating the Pan Am Games’ Aboriginal cultural village.

Master of nursing student Brenda Janz was presented with the Maurice Legault Clinical Cancer Nursing Fellowship by the Canadian Cancer Society. The fellowship, valued at $18,000, will allow her to undertake advanced training in oncology.

Ziad Jaradat, a PhD student in food and nutritional science, received a first place award for developing scientists at the 1999 annual meeting of the International Milk, Food and Environmental Sanitarians Society for his presentation titled “Therapeutic antiidiotypic antibodies to Escherichia coli K88 and an alternative to antiboitic use in meat industry.”

Travis Williams, animal science, and Trevor Lawson, MSc. student, attended the 2000 International Livestock Congress after being awarded travel fellowships from the International Stockman’s Education Foundation for their outstanding grades, extracurricular activity involvement and lead-ership skills. Twenty fellowship winners were selected from across Canada and the United States to attend the Congress which focused on international issues of beef and horse production.

Math undergraduates Matthew Greenberg, Mark Wiebe and Kurt Thomsen placed second in the fourth annual Mathematical Association of America North Central Section Team Competition. This is a first-time showing for the U of M in this event.

Management information systems (MIS) students Ken Armstrong and Kevin Giles placed third in their competition at the 22nd annual Intercollegiate Business Competition hosted by Queen’s University. The two students were up against MIS teams from the University of Alberta, St. Mary’s University, University of Calgary, Queen’s University and Wilfrid Laurier University. At the competition, each team had five and a half hours to analyze a case and then give a presentation on their analysis and recommendations to a panel of judges drawn from industry.