Virginia (Ginny) Pichler, a doctoral student in Microbiology and Immunology, is one of 16 graduate students and medical residents doing research in the field of health to receive this year’s Friedman Award for Scholars in Health. Winners range from a variety of programs, including Electrical and Computer Engineering, Experimental Medicine and Kinesiology.
The Friedman Award for Scholars in Health supports learning and research opportunities for graduate students or medical residents working in the broad area of health, to bring new perspectives to their education and further their career. The award is named after two of the earliest faculty members in the UBC Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Sydney Friedman and his wife Dr. Constance Livingstone-Friedman believed that well-rounded and transformative education includes learning from different perspectives and cultures, and they wished to support such learning among UBC graduate students and medical residents.
Ginny, who has been working on projects related to turberculosis in the Av-Gay lab at the LSI, as well as the BC Centre for Disease Control, will build on this experience at the Institut de Recherche en Infectiologie de Montpellier (IRIM) in France with a project, entitled “Unpacking the molecular determinants of non-tuberculous mycobacteria infections.”
Friedman Scholars receive funding for six or more months of study outside western Canada. Destinations for this year’s award winners include Harvard University, Stanford University, Institut de Recherche en Infectiologie de Montpellier (IRIM), and Maxima Medical Center, Eindhoven, among others.