Celebrating biosystems engineering alumni
Three alumni from the Department of Biosystems Engineering at the University of Manitoba were recently recognized for their accomplishments.
The Biosystems Engineering Alumni of Influence Awards were established in 2021, the 50th anniversary of the first Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering being awarded by the University of Manitoba. The Alumni of Influence Awards are intended to help celebrate the achievements made by alumni of the Department of Biosystems (formerly Agricultural) Engineering who graduated from either the undergraduate or graduate programs. Separate awards are selected for those alumni who graduated prior to 1995 from the Department of Agricultural Engineering and those who graduated after 1995 from the Department of Biosystems Engineering. Recipients of these awards are selected by the Department of Biosystems Engineering Alumni Awards Committee.
2024 Recipients
Undergraduate (pre-1995): Don Petkau
Don Petkau obtained his B.Sc. degree in Agricultural Engineering in 1985, enabling a career in industry the included 10 years with Roger’s Sugar, 3 years with the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute and 2 years with MESH Technologies. Highlights of his industry career include collaborating with researchers at the Universities of Manitoba and Saskatchewan on the development of mechanical harvesting equipment for sea buckthorn berries, and the design and construction of a multi-million dollar flax straw production plant. Don first began teaching at the University of Manitoba in 2001 as a sessional instructor and discovered a passion for teaching. He was hired into a full-time instructor position in the Department of Biosystems Engineering in 2009 and he subsequently completed a PhD in the area of engineering education in 2014 which facilitated his promotion to the rank of Senior Instructor. From 2006 until his retirement in 2022, Don’s primary teaching responsibility was ENG 1430 Design in Engineering. He was the course coordinator for this core first-year course that is taught to approximately 400 undergraduate students each year. The course is instrumental in introducing the profession of engineering and the engineering design process to all the engineering students who graduate from the University of Manitoba.
For many years, Don served as the faculty advisor to the University of Manitoba’s ¼ Scale Tractor Team (UMATT). Under Don’s mentorship, UMATT has become a well-established, inter-disciplinary team that annually represents the University of Manitoba with integrity and professionalism. The UMATT team has had a number of good showings at the international competition, culminating in 1st place overall in the 2021 competition. In 2016, Don was the recipient of the Excellence in Engineering Education Award that is sponsored by the Price Faculty of Engineering. In 2017, he was the recipient of the CSBE/SCGAB Glenn Downing Award in recognition of his outstanding work in industry and teaching in the area of power and machinery. In 2022, he was the recipient of the Champion of Engineering Education Award. Although Don retired from the University of Manitoba in 2022, he continues to mentor current Biosystems Engineering students through his on-going role as a part-time engineer-in-residence.
Undergraduate (1995-present): Trevor Gascoyne
Trevor Gascoyne completed a B.Sc. degree in Biosystems Engineering in 2010. Following completion of his M.Sc. degree from the Department of Biosystems Engineering in 2012, Trevor spent the next five years as Manager of Clinical Research and Biomedical Engineering at OIC. In this role, he managed contract services, clinical trials and experimental projects pertaining to radiostereometric analysis, implant retrieval analysis, and medical device wear testing. In 2018, Trevor became Director of Operations and was responsible for oversight and management of all staff and capabilities within OIC. During the COVID-19 pandemic Trevor worked to gain Health Canada Testing Capacity for PPE. His work resulted in OIC being the first such facility in Manitoba and facilitated local product development and delivery.
In 2022, Trevor advanced to his current role of President and CEO at OIC and leads national and international research and development initiatives to improve orthopaedic medicine and enhance safety and efficacy of medical devices. Over the years, the OIC has been a strategic pipeline for development of local talent from the Price Faculty of Engineering. Trevor has served as the Canadian Chair of the Bone and Joint replacements subcommittee of ISO Implants for Surgery since 2016. He is also General Manager and Coordinator/Treasurer for the Canadian RSA (radiostereometric) Network since 2014. Trevor’s contributions are exemplified through his continual publication record in peer-reviewed science (26 to date listed in Scopus). These are well cited and have earned him an H-factor of 8. Further, he and his team have contributed several white papers and have full patents issued in 10 countries, most recently for antibiotic-releasing 3D printed polymer technology.
Graduate (1995-present): Chithra Karunakaran
Chithra Karunakaran completed her M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Biosystems Engineering in 1999 and 2002, respectively. Her PhD work, using X-rays to image seeds, was awarded the 2003 University of Manitoba Best Ph.D. Dissertation Award and the Best Ph.D. Dissertation Award from the Canadian Society for Bioengineering. In 2005, Chithra started as a staff scientist at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron (Canada’s only national synchrotron). She is the only agricultural engineer working in a synchrotron anywhere in the world (about 70 synchrotrons, where synchrotron scientists are predominantly physicists). Due to her leadership and management skills, her career progressed rapidly and she became the lead scientist at the CLS in 2007.
Chithra was seconded (in 2014) to lead a feasibility study focused on applications of synchrotron technologies for agriculture and food research – the first of its kind in the world. She quickly and successfully completed several proof-of-concept experiments in less than a year to show the agriculture and food research communities in Canada the immense potential of synchrotron technology. This was highlighted in the Government of Saskatchewan Agriculture Development Fund highlights in 2015. Due to the success of the feasibility studies, Agriculture became one of the four strategic areas at the CLS for the first time and Chithra was able to grow the research community using CLS from 2% to 19% in 5 years. The success of her leadership skills is highlighted through several media releases . Chithra’s accomplishment was also recognized through her nomination for the 2014 YWCA’s Women of Distinction Award in the Science, Technology & Research category.