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Facts and Figures for the Dept. of Biochemistry

Building Our Successful Research and Teaching Enterprise

Our humble beginnings at Western…

• First Biochemist hired in 1921
• Biochemistry Dept. founded in 1924
• First Biochemistry Honors BSc awarded 1968
• First Biochemistry MSc awarded in 1948
• First Biochemistry PhD awarded in 1949
  
  

Our growth…

• Faculty Members

          1 in 1921
             2 in 1947           
                36 in 1977
                   55 in 2007

• Total Research Funding

           $86,000 in 1977
              $340,000 in 1987
                 $1.5 million in 1997
                    $5.6 million in 2007

• Undergraduate Students

~613 enrolled in 12 Biochemistry courses in 1977
   ~607 enrolled in 11 Biochemistry courses in 1987
      ~1370 enrolled in 11 Biochemistry courses in 1997
         ~2340 enrolled in 22 Biochemistry courses in 2007

• Graduate Students

          40 in 1977, of which 6 graduated in 1977
             43 in 1987, of which 9 graduated in 1987
               49 in 1997, of which 12 graduated in 1997
                  82 in 2007, of which 16 graduated in 2007

• Departmental Facilities

           1 in 1997 (NMR Lab)
              6 in 2007:

• Biomolecular NMR Facility
• Functional Proteomics Facility
• Macromolecular Crystallization Facility
• MALDI Mass Spectrometry Facility
• Biological Mass Spectrometry Laboratory
• Biomolecular Interactions & Conformations Facility
  

And where we are today…

• 51 Faculty Members

178 publications in 2010
2981 career publications
106,692 career citations

• Funding

$4.6 million of total research funding (2010-11)
$1.9 million of CIHR funding (2010-11)
$3.9 million of faculty salary awards since 2005
$1.9 million of CFI funding since 2005
95% hold one or more operating grants
60% hold a CIHR grant
50% hold a NSERC grant
20% hold both CIHR and NSERC grants
57% of new faculty since 2003 have held an Early Researcher Award (ERA)

• External Awards

14 Premier’s Research Excellence Awards (PREA)/Early Researcher Awards (ERA)
7 Canada Research Chairs
4 NCIC/CCS Research Scientist Awards
2 NCIC/CCS Harold E. Johns Awards
1 Royal Society of Canada Fellow
1 NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement
1 Peter Lougheed/CIHR New Investigator Award
1 CIHR-CMAJ Top Canadian Achievements in Health Research Award
1 Government of Ontario Distinguished Researcher Award
1 American Heart Association Jeffrey M. Hoeg Award
1 American Heart Association Robert I. Levy Award
1 American Heart Association Special Recognition Award
1 Canadian Diabetes Association Young Scientist Award
1 Boehringer-Ingelheim Young Investigator Award
1 International Association for Dental Research Distinguished Scientist Award for Basic Research in Biological Mineralization
1 Genetics Society of Canada William F. Grant and Peter B. Moens Award of Excellence
1 Merck-Frosst Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry
1 Canadian National Committee-IUPAC Award
1 Chemical Institute of Canada Fellowship
1 Fred Beamish Award of the Canadian Society for Chemistry
1 CLC Senior Scientist Award for Excellence in Lipid and Lipoprotein Research in Canada

• Internal University Awards

14 Dean’s Awards of Excellence
4 Faculty Scholar Awards
2 Florence Bucke Prizes in the Faculty of Science
1 Distinguished University Professorship
1 Distinguished Research Professorship (Faculty of Science)
1 Dept. of Medicine Research Award of Excellence
1 Hellmuth Prize
1 Alumni Award for Professional Achievement
1 Stiller Centre Prize
1 Scientist of the Year Award (CHRI)

• Undergraduate Students

7 Honors Degrees offered
~2100 students in 23 undergraduate Biochemistry courses:

• Year-2 students: ~1150
• Year-3 students: ~500
• Year-4 students: ~450

~35-40 Biochemistry Honors BSc students graduate each year

• Graduate Students

81 MSc and PhD students currently enrolled (47% PhD)
~15-20 students graduate each year
90% of our students have undergraduate averages of A or A+
40% of our students hold major provincial or national awards
Our graduate students have received 7 of the past 11 awards given to the most outstanding PhD thesis in Medical Research at Western

• Departmental Facilities

6 open-access facilities comprise the London Regional Proteomics Centre (LRPC)
$28 million total investment from infrastructure funding
$1.8 million total investment from institutional funding
$1.5 million total maintenance funding
90 users during 2007-08
$60 million in external funding by Western users during 2007-08

• Outreach Science Ontario Program

• Biotechnology in the Classroom: PCR and cloning lab module (Funded by NSERC PromoScience Program)
• ~44 high school teachers trained to use the lab module
• ~3580 high school students used the lab module
• 50% of participating students wanted to do more science after completing the lab module
• Most significant student comment: “We are the biotechnologists of the future.”

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Last updated by Lynn Weir, Dec 2011.