MScBMC Year I student Lisa Qiu, Nancy Grahame Joy’s niece Dorothy Lothian, Director Nicholas Woolridge (Photo cred: Marc Dryer)
Nancy Grahame Joy’s niece presented the inaugural Professor Nancy Grahame Joy Biomedical Communications Entrance Award to first-year Biomedical Communications student Lisa Qiu. Dorothy Lothian made the presentation Tuesday, November 8, 2016 at the Class of 2016 Final Presentations. The Nancy Grahame Joy Award recognizes an exceptional applicant to the program upon their registration in the first year of studies.
Qiu graduated from the University of Toronto in 2016 with an Honours Bachelor of Science, specialising in pathobiology. She received numerous awards of merit during her undergraduate tenure and was twice named a Dean’s List Scholar. She also pursued formal art training, part-time, at The Academy of Realist Art.
Professor Joy, one of the illustrators of Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy, was chair of the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine (now Biomedical Communications) for 23 years. The Nancy Grahame Joy Award was made possible through a bequest from Professor Joy, who passed away in 2013.
“We are really glad to see how this has developed,” said Lothian, who attended with other members of the Joy family.
Each year near convocation, the BMC program invites the students in the graduating class to present their capstone biomedical visualization projects to their peers, families and friends.
“It is really interesting to see what the students are producing 30 years after Nancy was head of the department,” said Lothian.
At the final presentations, awardees from the graduating Class of 2016 were recognized with the presentation of certificates by program director Nicholas Woolridge.
Melissa Phachanhla received the Eila I. Ross Memorial Scholarship for demonstrating excellence and professionalism throughout her tenure in the program.
Wendy Gu, who also holds the first-ever Stephen Gilbert Award for Artistic Excellence, received the inaugural Sherwood P. and Judith Gebhard Smith Award.
Samantha Holmes, Sarah Kim and Susan Le received the Wendy M. Kates Memorial Award in recognition of the academic achievement they demonstrated through their Master’s Research Projects.
The Class of 2016 formally joined the family of BMC alumni the following day, November 9, at Fall Convocation.
by Maeve Doyle
Gifts of support to the Biomedical Communications program can be made through “Giving to BMC.”
