Vladimir Vuksan, PhD

Graduate Teaching Award – Graduate Student Mentorship

Affiliation(s):
Nutritional Sciences

Context(s) for Award:
In recognition of sustained excellence in mentorship in the graduate department program

Vladimir Vuksan is the Associated Director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre. He is a translational research scientist and a teacher whose focus is on clinical nutrition and epidemiological investigations of diet and lifestyle in diabetes management and heart disease. Professor Vuksan is internationally recognized for his original work for exploring the area of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in developing novel multifaceted therapies for people with diabetes. These include ginseng, dietary fibre, ω-3 rich Salba/Chia seeds taken individually or in combination. Epidemiological interventions focused primarily on risk factor-clustering in ethnic populations in Canada. He has over 120 publications in high impact journals and is extensively citied (H factor of 38). His major awards include the 1984 Yugoslav National Award in diabetes, Canadian Diabetes Association’s 2010 Charles H. Best Award and 2012 World Ginseng Science Award, Republic of Korea.

Reflection
Knowledge is important and a lifetime experience; Education is fascinating and useful; Words are sweet and can be empowering; Only food is sweeter; Put all together, there is a perfect harmony and joy in teaching nutrition.

I am honored to be the recipient of this year’s University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine Graduate Teaching Award for Graduate Student Mentorship. I have remained committed to building the next generation of high impact researchers because I truly believe that quality training of students nurture great future scientists. Thus, I will continue to fulfill my teaching    responsibilities as a supervisor/ mentor and believe that my current commitments will transmit my knowledge to new generations of health scientists and beyond.