Academic of the Year Nancy Turner (left), University of Victoria President David Turpin (centre), and Career Achievement Award recipient Nancy Sherwood (right)
All photos by Steele Eye Photography
Family, friends and colleagues gathered at Dunsmuir Lodge, outside of Victora, on April 10, 2002 to celebrate the acheivements of 2002 Distinguished Academics Awards recipients Dr. Nancy Turner (Academic of the Year) and Dr. Nancy Sherwood (Career Achievement Award), both faculty members at the University of Victoria.
“Professor Turner, as our Academic of the Year and Professor Sherwood, as our Career Achievement Award recipient, are excellent examples of how the community directly benefits from the academic work in our universities,” said Darwyn Coxson, CUFA/BC President. “Professor Turner’s efforts to document traditional knowledge about plants and Professor Sherwood’s scholarship and selfless contributions to the research community demonstrate that B.C. universities are integral to the social, cultural and economic life of our province and country.”
The awards ceremony was hosted by David Grierson, host of CBC Radio One’s Victoria’s On The Island, who delighted the audience with his observations on the lives of academics and politicans.
Nancy Turner, an ethnobotanist, is a leader in the field of traditional plant use by First Nations in Western North America. She has worked with communities in the documentation, and even rediscovery, of their cultural heritage and in doing so has played an important role in decisions on land use and economic development. Furthermore, Dr. Turner has worked at bringing her academic work to a wider audience as a media commentator, public lecturer, and trainer of budding botanists.
Nancy Sherwood, a biologist, received the Career Achievement Award for her long service to the university and scientific community as a researcher, reviewer, advisor and mentor. An outstanding researcher in the field of hormone functions, Dr. Sherwood generously shares her expertise with her colleagues and her students reviewing articles for publication, adjudicating research awards, mentoring students, and guiding Canadian research policy through her work with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Medical Research Council.
This is the eighth year the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of British Columbia (CUFA/BC) has given awards to recognize excellence in the contributions of academic work to the wider community. The Academic of the Year Award was established in 1995 as a means to highlight the accomplishments of the academic staff of B.C. public universities. In 1999, the Career Achievement Award was added and the awards became collectively known as the Distinguished Academics Awards. Dr. Turner and Dr. Sherwood each received a cheque for $2,000 and a specially commissioned trophy.
David Grierson’s interview of Nancy Turner and Nancy Sherwood
on the April 11, 2002 edition of On the Island (MP3 Format – 2.3 MB)
2002 Distinguished Academics Awards Sponsored by
