UNews - Fern Leavens

Dentist Fern Leavens named ULAA 2021 Young Alumna of the Year

trevor.kenney — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 16:22:35 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Alumni Association (ULAA) is thrilled to announce Fern Leavens (BSc ‘13) as the 2021 Young Alumna of the Year.

“In a short time, Fern has demonstrated a high level of excellence in her chosen field of dentistry,” says Jason Elliott, president of the ULAA. “She wears many hats, but above all else, she is passionate about providing all patients with care that goes above and beyond. There is no doubt that she delivers on this.”

Young Alumna of the Year — Fern Leavens

Fern Leavens (BSc ‘13) is an exemplary health-care provider, teacher and mentor who has committed her career to quality patient care. Her impressive track record in the dentistry field is further elevated by her reputation as a thorough, humble and hardworking professional. During her time at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, she completed an undergraduate degree in mathematics, with an honours thesis in biochemistry. As part of her academic endeavours, Leavens conducted research in computational chemistry and biochemistry, resulting in multiple publications. She then went on to become a dentist, obtaining her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in 2016. However, Leavens’ education journey was far from finished, and she completed additional hospital and advanced dentistry training through a general practice residency.

Leavens works as a dentist at Edmonton’s Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital Dental Clinic, providing care to patients with a variety of unique treatment needs. The emphasis of her work is on special needs dentistry, including geriatric dentistry and work with patients who may have mental or physical disabilities. Specializing in this area of dentistry is unique, and a deeply valuable resource for those who might not be able to access care elsewhere. Her commitment to working with underserved populations began during her time as a student, and she has volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters, the SHINE dentistry clinic and Kindness in Action, where she went to Nicaragua to provide dental care to people who otherwise did not have access. At present, she regularly commits time to advancing the dentistry field, and she has served with organizations including the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta Dental Alumni Association and the National Dental Examining Board.

As her early career unfolded, Leavens found herself continually drawn to teaching, leading her to a role as the director of special needs dentistry and assistant clinical professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta. This position allows her to combine her talent in the field with her passion for educating the next generation of dentists. She equips her students with the skills and knowledge they need to provide comprehensive care for patients with a wide variety of needs. Leavens also leverages her position as an opportunity to ensure that more of our communities’ future dentists are prepared for the breadth of physical and cognitive differences that are present in dentistry. Her commitment to education prevails in her ongoing journey towards completing her Master of Health Sciences Education. An extraordinary and generous person, Leavens elevates the standard within — and beyond — the dentistry community.

Programming Team Earns Second Place Finish At Rocky Mountain Regional

trevor.kenney — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:55:22 +0000

A 12-person group is split into four groups of three, and has to solve nine complex computer programming problems in a very short time. All the while, they are competing against more than 50 other teams from across North America as part of the Rocky Mountain region of the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest.

How did the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge group fare? Very well. Of the four teams in the competition from the U of L, one group took second place and three other teams landed in the middle third of the results – 23rd, 25th, and 29th place overall.

"Students have to apply what they learn in different courses, and some problems require knowledge of techniques or algorithms that are not taught in any course," says team advisor
Dr. Howard Cheng (mathematics and computer science). "These are taught during our regular practice sessions, where the teams spend several hours per week training for this contest."

The competition draws students from large and small colleges and universities throughout Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Eastern Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Mexico. The group received funding from the Faculty of Arts and Science as well as Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures to support the costs for participation.

Cheng says the contest requires logical thinking skills and precise implementation of their ideas.

"If their solution is incorrect for even one test case, it is considered wrong," he says.

The groups had limited time to complete a series of nine problems, which ranged from supposedly simple, to very complex.

"We had to figure out how to write code based on where the letter 't' appeared in a series of words," says Keilan Scholten, a third year mathematics and computer science student. "It seems simple, but we wound up using more than an hour and a half of our time allotment. The first six of our problems were done in just over two hours."

Among the problems, the group successfully created a ranking of teams for a soccer league, figured out the maximum number of climbers a piece of climbing rope can support and worked out a way to determine if packages of certain dimensions were the right size to be mailed.

Team group members included: (Team A) Darcy Best, Keilan Scholten, Hugh Ramp; (Team B) Jeremy Andrijancic, Johnny Boldt, Kim Wikkerink; (Team C) Mark Fischer, Mark Hunter, Fern Leavens; (Team D) Falcon Momot, Jason Racine and Fei Wang. Best (fourth year), Ramp (second year) and Scholten (third year) also finished third in the Alberta Collegiate Programming Contest, held in mid-October as a warm-up to the regional contest.

For a look at the full issue of the November Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Symposium winners announced

trevor.kenney — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 21:16:22 +0000

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry held its annual Symposium for Chemistry & Biochemistry recently. The mandate of the symposium, and associated poster prize, is to recognize undergraduate and graduate students performing original research.

Prizewinners were selected for both graduate and undergraduate submissions in each of the fields of chemistry and biochemistry. The Loren Hepler Gold Medal for PhD Research Excellence was also awarded, with Evan Mercier finishing first and Kevin Johnson second.

Other prizes are as follows:

Chemistry – Undergraduates
First – Breanne Kamenz; Second – Fern Leavens

Chemistry – Graduates
First – Cassandra Churchill; Second – Praveen Chaudhary

Biochemistry – Undergraduates
First – Dominic Mudiayi; Second – Lisza Bruder

Biochemistry – Graduates
First – Kirsten Rosler; Second – Laura Keffer-Wilkes

Student undergraduate research award winners

trevor.kenney — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:55:09 +0000

Following are the 2010 Student Research Awards for undergraduate students. Please note that some awards might not be listed because the granting agency has not yet given the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ permission to publicly release the information.

AHFMR Summer Studentship Awards
(Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research)

Katie Areshenko, Biological Sciences (O. Kovalchuk)
Elfriede Dyck, Biological Sciences (R. Golsteyn)
Kristyn Kurio, Neuroscience (G. Metz)
Rajat Thapa, Neuroscience (R. Sutherland)
Saif Zahir, Neuroscience (B. Kolb)

Chinook Research Summer Awards

Lowell Ayers, Philosophy (T. Govier)
Lisa Boody, History (L. Kennedy)
Janelle Brodner, Modern Languages (N. Rosen)
Brett Clifton, History (A. Shaw)
Michael De Coste, Physics (B. Seyed-Mahmoud)
Laura Faber, Mathematics & Computer Science (H. Kadiri)
James Falconer, Sociology (A.Kazemipur)
Yang Li, Mathematics & Computer Science (N. Ng & A. Akbary)
Sheena MacInnis, Neuroscience (M. Tata)
Dominic Mudiayi, Chemistry & Biochemistry (H. J. Wieden)
Hugh Ramp, Mathematics & Computer Science (H. Kharaghani)
Dasha Reizvikh, Health Sciences (B. Lee)
Laura Richardson, Anthropology (J. Newberry)
Bethany Schmidt, Sociology (R. Wood)
Rachel Shields, Sociology (C. Malacrida)
Tyler Stewart, Fine Arts (A. Dymond)
Jennifer VanderFluit, Fine Arts (A. Dymond)
Sophia Vathracoulis, Chemistry & Biochemistry (P. Hayes)
Vanessa Wall, Health Sciences (B. Hagen)
Elizabeth Young, History (H. MacDonald)
Amber Zary, Sociology (T. Harrison)

NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards
(Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)

Trystyn Berg, Physics & Astronomy (D. Naylor)
Darcy Best, Mathematics & Computer Science (K. Kharaghani)
Alix Blackshaw, Neuroscience (A. Iwaniuk)
Lisza Bruder, Chemistry & Biochemistry (S. Mosimann)
Mackenzie Coatham, Chemistry & Biochemistry (H. J. Wieden)
Adriena De Visser, Biological Sciences (B. Selinger)
Jarrod Dowdall, Neuroscience (M. Tata)
Shey Eagle Bear, Chemistry & Biochemistry (H. J. Wieden)
Melissa Ferrari, Neuroscience & Physics (A. Cross)
Jason Flindall, Psychology (D. Weeks)
Thomas Fox, Geography (C. Hugenholtz)
Andrea Glover, Chemistry & Biochemistry (P. Hayes)
Dillon Hambrook, Neuroscience (A. Luczak)
Tanner Heggie, Physics & Astronomy (D. Naylor)
Breanne Kamenz, Chemistry & Biochemistry (S. Wetmore)
Fern Leavens, Chemistry & Biochemistry (S. Wetmore)
Elizabeth Millions, Chemistry & Biochemistry (S. Wetmore)
Samuel Neale, Physics & Astronomy (D. Naylor)
Kirsten Rosler, Chemistry & Biochemistry (H. J. Wieden)
Keilan Scholten, Mathematics & Computer Science (A. Akbary)
Jordan Van Dyk, Biological Sciences (E. Schultz)

Alberta Cancer Foundation Studentship

Philip Kubara, Biological Sciences (R. Golsteyn)

2010 student research awards (undergraduate)

trevor.kenney — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:30:39 +0000

AHFMR Summer Studentship Awards
(Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research)

Chinook Research Summer Awards

NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards
(Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)

Alberta Cancer Foundation Studentship

Philip Kubara, Biological Sciences (R. Golsteyn)

UNews - Fern Leavens

Dentist Fern Leavens named ULAA 2021 Young Alumna of the Year

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Programming Team Earns Second Place Finish At Rocky Mountain Regional

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Symposium winners announced

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Student undergraduate research award winners

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2010 student research awards (undergraduate)

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