Health sciences professor Joy MacDermid and arts and humanities professor Juan Luis Suárez have been awarded the 2022 Hellmuth Prizes for Achievement in Research.
The honour recognizes faculty members with outstanding international reputations for their contributions in research ─ one of the defining hallmarks of a university.
Two prizes are offered annually, one in the area broadly defined as the natural sciences and engineering, one in the social sciences and humanities.
Joy MacDermid, Health Sciences
MacDermid has made major contributions to musculoskeletal health by putting people first in health care, advancing evidence-based practice and applying innovations in research design.
She has been a tireless advocate for empowering patients, ensuring their perspectives are considered in health-care decisions and bringing issues of equity and diversity to the forefront in patient-centered care.
In the early 1990s, when healthcare decisions were based almost exclusively on image/testing and clinician experience, MacDermid promoted the use of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROM) in clinical practice and research. She also created the patient-rated wrist evaluation, the first-published (1996) wrist/hand PROM.
MacDermid’s work has led to more than 600 publications, with her impressive record, leadership and research impacting lives in Canada and abroad.
Juan Luis Suárez, Arts and Humanities
Suárez has made multiple field-defining achievements in his discipline of digital humanities, and Hispanic literature and culture, while also dedicating himself to becoming a prominent international public intellectual.
His efforts focus on issues relating to digital transformation and innovation of social and cultural systems and organizations. He has also made several important contributions to policy debates surrounding issues of technology, public trust, and the digital condition.
Recognized as a word-renowned digital humanist, Suárez has secured more than $4.3 million in research funding, which is almost unparalleled in the field of humanities in Canada. His CulturePlex lab became the first-ever Canadian digital humanities lab to be funded through a Canada Foundation for Innovation grant.
Over the last 10 years, the CulturePlex Lab has engaged in seven national and five international industrial and not-for-profit-based research partnerships, focusing on answering complex questions about how the digital condition is shaping these organizations and their relationships with their stakeholders.
