Chan, Gonzalez and Whitlock become University Scholars

Three Faculty of Health Sciences professors have been named 2021 University Scholars by McMaster University.

Teresa Chan, Andrea Gonzalez and Richard Whitlock are three of seven who have been given the university’s top award for mid-career researchers who are considered global leaders.

Recipients have distinguished themselves as international scholars and demonstrated a commitment to the discovery, communication and preservation of knowledge, excellence in education and pedagogy, and to serving local and global communities.

University Scholars receive $15,000 for each of the four years of the award from the provost and vice-president academic and the recipient’s dean.

Teresa Chan, an associate professor of the Department of Medicine, recently received the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians Ian Stiell Researcher of the Year Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to emergency medicine research.

She has examined how health professionals can best use social media to increase health literacy — among colleagues as well as the public. Chan developed McMAP, the McMaster Modular Assessment Program, and published educational resource textbooks about its McMAP tools, which have been adopted nationally and internationally.

Andrea Gonzalez is an associate professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences. She is known nationally for her research and leadership studying childhood maltreatment and family violence. Her work has the potential to improve the lives of children, youth and families worldwide.

Richard Whitlock is a professor of the Department of Surgery who is a lead researcher and driving force behind the Perioperative & Surgery Program at the Population Health Research Institute of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences.

His contributions to the development of a national and international team of collaborators for the conduct of large-scale clinical trials have the potential to influence patient care on a worldwide scale. Whitlock’s work has received funding and support from highly coveted and competitive national sources including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Stroke Prevention Intervention Network.

The other McMaster faculty members named 2021 University Scholars are Netina Tan, associate professor of the Department of Political Sciences; Amber Dean, associate professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies; Leyla Soleymani, associate professor of the Department of Engineering Physics, and Graham Scott, associate professor in the Department of Biology.