2025 Awardees

                 October 31, 2025

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 APF recognition awards. We once again received many outstanding applications, which reinforced that postdocs make innumerable contributions to the McGill community, both academically and otherwise!

Congratulations to all recipients!

Please see below for a description of each award winner.

Dr Mathieu Mancini – Mentorship Award

Dr. Mancini mentors several graduate-level trainees at the Victor Philip Dahdaleh Institute of Genomic Medicine (VPDI) and supports the integration of genomic sequencing methods into their own research projects. He is also involved in coordinating the HaploTalks Trainee Seminar Series and Resonance Training Program at the VPDI, each serving as a platform for trainees to hone their communication skills, share their research and feedback with other experts, and build community across all members of the Institute.

Bio: Dr. Mathieu Mancini is a postdoctoral fellow at the Inflammation Genomics Lab at McGill University. Dr. Mancini is interested in how genetics can influence the strength and types of inflammatory responses that our body can generate during an infection or autoimmune disease. Currently, he uses bulk and single-cell genomic sequencing approaches to understand the onset and progression of diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and interstitial lung disease. His goal is to identify gene-level markers that can help guide diagnosis and treatment strategies tailored to each individual patient.

Dr. Ylenia Olibet – Research Excellence Award – Humanities and Social Sciences

The Research Excellence Award recognizes an individual who has made tremendous contributions to their research field as measured by their research outputs and impact in Humanities and Social Sciences.

Bio: Ylenia Olibet is a film and media researcher, educator, and emerging curator. She is currently a FRQ-SC postdoctoral fellow at the Moving Image Research Lab directed by Dr. Alanna Thain. Her work explores how audiovisual archives can inspire social movements, with a focus on transnational and decolonial perspectives, as well as feminist and queer approaches to film culture in Francophone contexts. She holds a PhD in Film and Moving Image Studies from Concordia University, where, in August 2023, she defended her dissertation titled “Feminist Film Culture in 21st-Century Québec: A Transnational Perspective.” Her writings have been published in Feminist Media Studies, Feminist Media Histories, Mai: Journal of Feminist Visual Culture, European Journal of Women’s Studies, and several edited volumes.

Dr Zekai Wu – Research Excellence Award –  Natural and Physical Sciences

The Research Excellence Award recognizes an individual who has made tremendous contributions to their research field as measured by their research outputs and impact in Natural or Physical Sciences.

Bio: Dr. Zekai Wu is a diabetes researcher whose work focuses on automated insulin delivery (AID) systems, the most advanced diabetes technology. His clinical research examines how AID affects both glucose management and quality of life in people with type 1 diabetes. After earning his MD and PhD from Sun Yat-sen University in China, he joined Dr. Rémi Rabasa-Lhoret’s lab (co-supervised by Prof. Anne-Sophie Brazeau) at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM) and McGill University during the pandemic. Supported by postdoctoral fellowships from CIHR, FRQS, and Eli Lilly, and grants from CIHR, Breakthrough T1D, CMDO, and Steinberg Foundation, Dr. Wu is dedicated to advancing health equity and technology access in diabetes care. He was invited to contribute to an international consensus on open-source AID technology that guides clinical practice. Beyond his academic work, he also writes about diabetes research for the general public and contributes to the field through teaching, committee service, and journal peer-reviewing.

Dr. Benoît Brilland – Research Excellence Award –  Natural and Physical Sciences

The Research Excellence Award recognizes an individual who has made tremendous contributions to their research field as measured by their research outputs and impact in Natural or Physical Sciences.

Bio: Dr. Benoît Brilland is a clinician-scientist, nephrologist, and immunologist specializing in autoimmune kidney diseases, particularly ANCA-associated vasculitis. After earning his MD and PhD from the University of Angers (France), he joined Dr. David Langlais’s team within McGill University’s Inflammation Genomics Lab as a postdoctoral researcher, where he developed multi-omic approaches to uncover molecular signatures associated with kidney prognosis and disease phenotype. His work bridges clinical observation and experimental immunology, integrating patient cohorts, tissue transcriptomics, and mechanistic models to advance precision medicine in vasculitis. Dr. Brilland currently serves as Assistant Professor of Nephrology (MCU-PH) at Angers University Hospital (France) and conducts his research within the CRCI²NA Inserm-CNRS unit.

Dr Shashika Bandara – Teaching Excellence Award

Shashika is currently a co-instructor of Fundamentals of Global Health with Prof. Madhu Pai and was the instructor for Population and Global Health Ethics in Winter 2025. He also co-directed the 2025 Reimagining Global Health course with Prof. Pai at the McGill Summer Institutes in Global Health.

Bio: Shashika Bandara is a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Global Public Health in the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University. His research and advocacy focus on global health policy and governance. He co-leads McGill University’s research on policy exemplars addressing structural discrimination to improve health in collaboration with the Lancet Commission on Racism, Structural Discrimination and Global Health. Shashika completed his Ph.D. at McGill University focused on global health policy and governance and holds a masters in global health from Duke University. Shashika is formerly a policy associate at the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health at the Duke Global Health Institute. Shashika also has professional experience in human rights and humanitarian sectors.

Dr Janine Richter – Sustainability Engagement Award

Even before starting her PhD at Dresden University of Technology, she has been deeply passionate about science shaping a more sustainable world. Beyond her research, this motivation drives her involvement in various organizations and in science communication.

Bio: Janine Richter is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Chemistry Department at McGill, where she is focusing on developing better materials for lithium-ion batteries to promote the transition to renewable energies.

Dr Sakiko Yamaguchi – Public Engagement

Sakiko strongly believes that research is not only production of new knowledge by researchers but also a social process where public engagement can transform knowledge into impactful actions and innovations to make positive changes in practices, policies, and communities. 

Bio: Sakiko Yamaguchi is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Douglas Research Centre/Department of Psychiatry. She was formerly a postdoctoral researcher in the Knowledge Mobilization Program of CHILD-BRIGHT Network till August 2024. After completing her PhD study in the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University in 2021, her passion to bridge the knowledge-practice gap led her to collaborate with diverse research partners, including youth living with disabilities/mental health conditions, and co-created various Knowledge Translation products (Examples include: youth engagement guide, tip sheet, videos, and artwork collections).

Dr. Syamala Buragadda – Diversity and Inclusion Engagement Award

As an immigrant researcher with vast international experience, Dr. Buragadda is dedicated to shaping a more just and inclusive clinical research landscape that ensures all voices and communities are reflected in scientific discovery.

Bio: Syamala Buragadda, PT, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University with the Accelerating Clinical Trials (ACT) Consortium, where she leads research on inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) in Canadian clinical trials. Her work focuses on developing evidence-based tools and frameworks that promote equitable participant representation and inclusive research design across diverse populations. With over 15 years of international experience spanning academia, hospitals, and industry-sponsored research, Dr. Buragadda combines her clinical background in neurology and rehabilitation with her expertise in clinical epidemiology to bridge the gap between science and equity. Her commitment to inclusive research extends beyond methodology—she actively mentors early-career researchers and advocates for systemic changes that make clinical trials more accessible and representative.