October 28, 2021
Genome BC congratulates all the winners of the winners at the 23rd Annual Life Sciences BC Awards. The Life Sciences BC Annual Awards event acknowledges and honours the efforts of all those who have invested their life’s work in advancing successful scientific innovations. This annual event provides an opportunity to celebrate the life science sector’s many achievements amongst peers, family and friends.
As Canada’s fastest-growing life sciences sector, the British Columbia ecosystem has never been stronger seeing unprecedented momentum in scientific discovery, innovation, and attraction of capital and talent.
The Genome BC Award for Scientific Excellence recognizes the outstanding achievements of local leaders in the field of scientific research in the life sciences. With so many great researchers in British Columbia, choosing just one recipient for this is award is never an easy task. So, a special shout out goes to this year’s recipient, Dr. Michael Russello, who has devoted his research to the conservation and preservation of biodiversity.
Human modification of the environment, including large-scale habitat conversion and soaring greenhouse gas emissions, pose major threats to global biological diversity. Work in Russello’s lab is at the interface of ecology and evolution, employing genetic and genomic approaches to reconstruct population-level patterns and study questions associated with local adaptation, life history evolution, taxonomic status, wildlife conservation and fisheries management. His projects feature organisms spanning a wide taxonomic breadth, including freshwater fish and wildlife species of varying conservation status, and are geared towards addressing issues of immediate local, regional, and global concern.
Watch the ceremony and see a complete list of winners here.