Thank you & Winners: 2026 Gallie Day & Gordon Murray Banquet

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the University of Toronto Department of Surgery, I would like to thank everyone who participated in, and supported our 2026 Gallie Day and Gordon Murray Banquet held on May 1st.

Once again, Gallie Day brought members of the U of T Surgery community together to celebrate the incredible impact of our surgical community's research and education initiatives.

This year, the Gordon Murray Lecture was delivered by Dr. Ram Nataraja from Monash Children’s Hospital, Australia. His talk, titled "Driving Change: The Impact of Low-Cost Simulation-Based Educational Innovations in Resource-Limited Settings" brought together the themes of innovation, global surgery, health care equity and educational excellence through simulation.

Gallie Day events included an impressive array of podium presentations, panel discussions and e-poster presentations. 

During the evening, our community members got together for the 52nd Gordon Murray Banquet and awards ceremony to celebrate the recipients of the Department of Surgery excellence awards. You can see this year’s recipients listed below, and on our Gallie Day page, along with past awards winners.

The Department of Surgery inaugurated a new award this year: the Nancy Condo Leadership Award, named after former Business Manager, Nancy Condo, who worked in the Department of Surgery for 40 years. Over her time with us, Nancy was known across all of Temerty Medicine for her amazing work ethic, integrity and kindness, in addition to her exemplary team building and leadership.

The award recognizes faculty members, trainees or administrators who have made insightful and impactful contributions to the Department of Surgery through their exemplary leadership in support of the Department and its mission.

Also, the Innovation in Surgery award will from henceforth be called the Paul and Debra Walker Innovation in Surgery Award thanks to a generous donation by Paul and Debra Walker. This award recognizes a trainee or faculty within their first 5 years on staff whose innovative pursuits have advanced the science, techniques, processes, or delivery of surgery with an effort towards developing intellectual property and/or commercialization.

The Gallie Day recording is now available for viewing.

The 2026 Awardees list:

• Tovee Postgraduate Teaching Prize: John Phillips (PS)
• Tovee Undergraduate Teaching Prize: Natalya Zhang (GS)
• Surgical Skills Centre DH Gales Outstanding Educator Award: Sophocles Voineskos (PS)      
• Surgical Foundations Teaching Award: Sunit Das (NS) and Alberto Goffi (Internal Medicine) 
• Bernard Langer Surgeon-Scientist Award: Dale Podolsky (PS)
• George-Armstrong Peters Prize for Early Career Research Achievement: Farshad Nassiri (NS)
• Lavina Lickley Lifetime Achievement Award: Avery Nathens (GS)         
• Charles Tator Surgeon-Scientist Mentoring Award: Barbara Haas (GS) 
• Lister Prize: Mojgan Hodaie (NS)    
• Bryce Taylor Mentorship Award: Heather Baltzer (PS)          
• D.R. Wilson Award for Teaching of Undergraduate Students by a Resident: Kian Draper (VS)
• Zane Cohen Clinical Fellowship Achievement Award: Leamarie Meloche-Dumas (GS)
• Shafie Fazel Outstanding Resident and Investigator: Laureen Hachem (NS)         
• Paul and Debra Walker Innovation in Surgery Award: Amin Madani (GS)
• Nancy Condo Leadership Award (Inaugural):
  • Danielle Bischof (GS)
  • James Rutka (NS)
  • Mark Wheatcroft (VS)
• Oral Presentations: Gallie-Bateman
  • Matthew Raleigh (SSTP), OS – Supervisor(s): Aaron Nauth
  • Ben Li (SSTP), VS – Supervisor(s): Mohammed Al-Omran
  • Christopher S Lozano (SSTP), NS – Supervisor(s): Jefferson R Wilson
• Oral Presentations: McMurrich
  • Matteo Ponzoni, CS – Supervisor(s): John Coles
  • Akihiro Nagoya, TS – Supervisor(s): Shaf Keshavjee
  • Natasha Barone, PS – Supervisor(s): Kevin J Zuo
• Oral Presentations: Translational Research
  • Daniyal Mahmood (SSTP), VS – Supervisor(s): Sean Crawford, Cristina Amon, Thomas Lindsay
  • William McIntyre, NS – Supervisor(s): Michael Fehlings
• e-Posters: Gallie-Bateman
  • Nicholas J. Yee (SSTP), OS – Supervisor(s): Mansur Halai & Cari Whyne
  • Kameela Alibhai (SSTP), GS – Supervisor(s): Marisa Louridas
  • Jessica Jung (SSTP), NS – Supervisor(s): Jennifer Quon
• e-Posters: McMurrich
  • John Milkovich, PS – Supervisor(s): Heather Baltzer
  • Xinyang Zhang, Anatomy – Supervisor(s): Hong-Shuo Sun
  • Shiyuan Bian, TS – Supervisor(s): Thomas K. Waddell, Golnaz Karoubi 
• e-Posters: Translational Research
  • Asha Behdinan (SSTP), VS – Supervisor(s): Anna Dare & Ahmed Kayssi
  • Tanroop Aujla, TS – Supervisor(s): Mingyao Liu

We would love to get your feedback so we can enhance your experience at upcoming Gallie Day events, so if you haven't provided your feedback yet, feel free to fill out this survey. 

Congratulations to our awardees on their well-deserved recognition, and thank you to everyone who joined us for this special yearly event.

Sincerely,

Carol Swallow
R.S. McLaughlin Professor and Chair
Department of Surgery, Temerty Faculty of Medicine
University of Toronto