In his 15 years as an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Charles Després has supervised many graduate and PhD students over the years, and he takes pride in watching each of them progress in their own careers.

“It’s very similar to being a parent,” he said. “It’s the same feeling.”

Després was one of three Brock University faculty members honoured Tuesday during the annual Mapping the New Knowledges Faculty of Graduate Studies awards ceremony.

Biological Sciences Associate Professor Charles Deprés addresses the crowd after winning a 2017 Graduate Mentorship Award.

Després and Computer Science Professor Michael Winter won the 2017 Mike Plyley Graduate Mentorship Awards after being nominated by the students they’ve supervised.

“The nomination was fantastic. You see where the students go and what they do in life, but they never tell you how you played a role in their lives. So just the fact they wrote something is well appreciated and is a testament that I had a positive influence on their life. That makes me very happy,” Després said.

Applied Health Sciences Professor Nota Klentrou, meanwhile, won the Marilyn Rose Graduate Leadership Award, which is given out to someone who contributes “vision and leadership in a variety of areas such as administration, academic programming, research and scholarship, student services and student experience initiatives.”

Klentrou, the Applied Health Sciences Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies since 2011, said she believes “the future of Brock University is bright, and grad students are our future.”

Also handed out Tuesday were the 2016-17 Jack M. Miller Excellence in Research Awards. Named in honour of the Dean of Graduate Studies from 1999-2004, the awards are given to grad students who “stand out for projects that are highly original and are addressing significant questions.”

This years recipients were:

Angel Phanthanourak, MSc, Applied Health — Phanthanourak examines how individuals prepare for upcoming physical movement. This preparation is known as anticipatory postural adjustment – APA for short. She’s bringing new insight about APAs in relation to fall risk and advanced age.

Aly Bailey, PhD, Applied Health — Bailey dissertation puts her at the forefront of body image research. She is among the first to investigate body image from a positive perspective. Her project provides a unique approach to the promotion of well-being in diverse populations.

Sheri Mallabar, Master of Education — Mallabar’s thesis is a rich analysis of a peer-mediated model designed to develop social skills in children with autism spectrum disorders. She is the first to embed this teaching intensive model in the wider context of whole-class instruction.

Jennifer Brant, PhD in Educational Studies — Brant’s dissertation is a rich, deep account of indigenous women’s responses to Indigenous Maternal Pedagogy, which connects maternal pedagogies with women-centred indigenous epistemologies to provide holistic supports for students.

Helen Hsu, MA, Classics — Hsu’s research focuses on the characterization of sex labourers in the comedies of the Roman playwright Plautus, writing at a time of socio-economic change. Her research aims to break the traditional binary view of the women that dominates the secondary scholarship on these plays.

Jill Planche, PhD, Interdisciplinary Humanities — Planche’s research project investigates the present and potential role of contemporary theatre in postapartheid South Africa where the social architecture of apartheid persists in its socio-economic, political and cultural conditions.

Eric de Hoog, Master of Science, Biological Sciences — de Hoog’s studies are based on the examination of the neural effects of the Vitamin A metabolite, retinoic acid, on adult neurons. Retinoic acid has long been known to play an important role in the development of the nervous system, enhancing the outgrowth of nerve processes.

Van Hung Mai, PhD, Chemistry — Mai carries out comprehensive studies on the reactivity of a chemical catalysis that serves as a key chemical phenomenon that contributes to 25 per cent of GDP of industrialized countries. He is contributing to advances in green chemistry to develop more economical and cleaner methods.

Taylor Heffer, MA, Psychology — Heffer’s thesis examines coping and adjustment among university students over time. Her research encompasses a much broader investigation of coping and adjustment, with a specific interest in understanding how to promote positive adjustment.

Mark Hoffarth, PhD, Psychology — Hoffarth’s thesis is truly original. He is investigating how religious attendance shapes attitudes toward gay rights, for example marriage and adoption. This project has the potential to be a game changer.

Luciano Lapa, MSc, Management — Lapa is studying the potential benefits of offering a suitable mobile commerce experience to customers. His research has far-reaching contributions to the rapidly growing mobile commerce industry across the world.