UNB News
News and stories from one of Canada’s top universities

UNB to grant professor emerita designation, teaching and research awards at spring graduation

Author: Hilary Creamer Robinson

Posted on May 8, 2024

Category: UNB Fredericton , UNB Saint John

At the University of New Brunswick’s (UNB) graduation ceremonies in Fredericton and Saint John, the University will honour one outstanding professor with the designation of professor emerita and three prestigious teaching and research awards.

Professor Emerita

Dr. Virginia Hill will receive the designation of professor emerita in humanities and languages for having served UNB with distinction through her scholarly accomplishments and commitment to teaching, research and administration.

A valuable member of the UNB Saint John faculty since 1991, Dr. Hill established herself as UNB’s only linguistic professor, becoming an international leader in her field. She is an exceptional and distinguished scholar of theoretical linguistics, in particular, the syntactic computations specific to the human brain. Her ground-breaking theories have been praised and adopted by specialists in linguistics worldwide.

Dr. Hill will receive the professor emerita ranking at UNB Saint John’s convocation ceremony on May 17 at the G. Forbes Elliot Athletics Centre.

Dr. Allan P. Stuart Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching

Dr. Murshed Chowdhury is an associate professor of economics on UNB’s Fredericton campus. Since joining UNB, Dr. Chowdhury has been involved in various collaborative research projects, supervising graduate and undergraduate students. He is known for fostering engaging classroom discussions and inspiring his students to learn more, regardless of whether the subject matter is quantitative or qualitative.

Dr. Chowdhury will receive a Dr. Allan P. Stuart Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching on Thursday, May 16 in Fredericton.

Beverly Gaudet is a senior teaching professor and student navigator in the faculty of nursing on UNB’s Fredericton campus. Professor Gaudet leads her students through clinical, lab and classroom settings guided by her background in pediatric and emergency nursing. She ensures her students bring empathy to their profession and plays a large role in mentoring nursing educators to appreciate the context of our student learners in a complex health care environment.

Teaching professor Gaudet will receive a Dr. Allan P. Stuart Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching on Wednesday, May 15 in Fredericton.

UNB Award for Excellence in Research

Dr. Kenneth Kent is a full professor and the Barrett Chair in Entrepreneurship for Digital Transformation in the faculty of computer science. Dr. Kent’s extensive research in computer runtime technology and computer-aided hardware design has generated considerable positive practical results. He is also co-founder and director of the Centre for Advanced Studies–Atlantic at UNB, which conducts research on software for multicore computer systems.

Dr. Kent will receive the UNB Award for Excellence in Research on Thursday, May 16 in Fredericton.

UNB Fredericton will celebrate its 195th Encaenia on May 15 and 16 with four ceremonies at The Richard J. CURRIE CENTER.

UNB Saint John will celebrate its 49th Spring Convocation on May 17 at the G. Forbes Elliot Athletics Centre.