Calgary Awards honour remarkable community members

Each year, people connected to the University of Calgary leave indelible marks on their community. The City of Calgary recently honoured some of them at the 2023 Calgary Awards for improving the lives and social fabric of the city and beyond.  

 “The University of Calgary is proud to recognize the altruistic contributions of our community members,” says Amanda Affonso, BA’00, associate vice-president of alumni, community and partnerships. 

“We’re thrilled to see so many UCalgary faculty, staff, and alumni honoured by the Calgary Awards,” says Affonso. “The commitment and dedication of this year’s honourees demonstrates that the University of Calgary is the place to Start Something: conversations that deepen our shared bonds; initiatives to uplift members of the community; cutting-edge technologies that will revolutionize the health-care industry; works of literature that remind us of our long-forgotten past; and improving accessibility standards for our fellow neighbours.”  

The recipients were announced during a ceremony on June 14, with honours being handed out in 13 categories.

Meet Dr. Kristina Rinker and the UCalgary community’s 2023 Calgary Award recipients:

International Achievement Award 

Dr. Kristina Rinker, PhD, professor, Schulich School of Engineering and member of the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, Cumming School of Medicine 

Dr. Kristina Rinker is a professor of biomedical engineering, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Syantra Inc. Her groundbreaking work has received international recognition, spotlighting the excellence of Calgary’s innovation and technology sector.   

Syantra is a precision biotechnology company developing new ways of blood testing, enabling the detection of complex diseases like cancer at the early stages. Its one-of-a-kind flagship product, which was developed by Rinker’s research group, is a blood test for breast cancer, the Syantra DXTM Breast Cancer Test. Using propriety technology, the test measures a panel of biomarkers in whole blood and uses custom software developed with machine learning to interpret data to provide results.  

Rinker’s work in biotechnology and the development of the test promises to revolutionize the standard of breast cancer care, with the potential to save millions of lives around the world.

Meet the other outstanding recipients.

The Snyder Institute is a research facility at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine focused on advancing modern medicine’s capacity to ease the burden of chronic and infectious disease. Our 480 highly qualified researchers, clinicians and trainees use our  world-class research facilities and technologies to make ground-breaking discoveries leading to disease prevention, tailored medical applications and unltimately cures for these conditions. Visit snyder.ucalgary.ca and follow @SnyderInstitute to learn more.