Backgrounder – CAFA Distinguished Academic Award, 2014

Dr. Norm Campbell, Department of Medicine, University of Calgary

Dr. Norm Campbell, Professor of Medicine, Adjunct Professor of Community Health Sciences, and Adjunct Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Calgary, has been chosen receive the 2014 CAFA Distinguished Academic Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to better awareness, prevention and control of hypertension.

Dr. Campbell has devoted his career to achieving meaningful outcomes in the fight against hypertension (high blood pressure), a leading risk factor for stroke and heart disease.  (About one in four adult Canadians suffers from high blood pressure.)  For over 20 years, Dr. Campbell has played a key role in national initiatives such as the Canadian Hypertension Society, the Canadian Hypertension Education Program, Blood Pressure Canada, and Hypertension Canada.  He is the author of more than 350 peer-reviewed publications in the field, with a special focus on the transfer of knowledge to primary care practitioners, policy-makers, and the general public, and has delivered over 500 presentations to local, national, and international audiences on improving hypertension prevention and control.

Dr. Campbell’s leadership in the redesign of the evidence-based recommendation process for hypertension management in Canada helped to create what has been described as ‘arguably the world’s most successful national knowledge translation program for chronic disease prevention.'  It was Dr. Campbell’s groundbreaking research and advocacy that led to the integration of primary care practitioners throughout the program, and later he was instrumental in the development of a parallel hypertension knowledge translation program directed at the public.  These national programs had an immediate and dramatic effect on prescription rates for antihypertensive drugs, and the rates of diagnosis, treatment and control of hypertension in Canada rose to become the highest in the world, while rates of death and hospitalization for heart disease and stroke declined substantially.

Dr. Campbell, who currently holds the CIHR/HSFC Chair in Hypertension Prevention and Control at the U of C, has worked tirelessly to alert healthcare professionals, policy-makers, and the public to the need to reduce intake of dietary salt, a leading contributor to hypertension.  His continuing advocacy has resulted in the adoption of policy statements on the subject by major healthcare and scientific organizations in Canada, and to the introduction of a private member's bill in Parliament last year for implementation of a national sodium reduction strategy.

Hypertension is a global problem, and as President of the World Hypertension League, Dr. Campbell is working with national hypertension organizations in other countries to develop strategic approaches to prevention and control.  He co-chairs the Technical Advisory Group of the Pan American Health Organization – World Health Organization  (PAHO-WHO) for dietary salt reduction, and is member of the WHO Nutrition Advisory Group.

Dr. Campbell has received numerous awards in the course of his career, including the Guenter Award for International Health from the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine (2013) and the Hypertension Canada George Fodor Award (2012).  In June of 2014, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada, 'for his contributions as a researcher and public health advocate and for his commitment to improving the well-being of Canadians.'  As a colleague has commented, “Dr. Campbell is that rare academic researcher, who through generosity of time, effort, and leadership has brought positive change to not only those around him, but to the hundred of thousands of individuals in Canada and beyond who stand to benefit from the population health programs that he has championed.'

Backgrounder – 2014 CAFA Distinguished Academic Early Career Award

Dr. Chris Hugenholtz, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Calgary

Dr. Chris Hugenholtz, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Calgary, is the recipient of the 2014 CAFA Distinguished Academic Early Career Award, in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field of geomorphology.

Since he began his academic career at the University of Lethbridge in 2007, Dr. Hugenholtz has quickly established himself as a leading geomorphologist in Canada through his original work on aeolian (wind) processes and landscape dynamics.  His fast-growing record of publications in quality scientific journals is already an impressive one, with almost 600 citations in peer-reviewed works, and he has presented at numerous academic conferences, and been featured numerous times in the media.  Dr. Hugenholtz has been awarded two competitive Research Chairs – a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Earth Surface Dynamics at the University of Lethbridge, and the Cenovus Research Chair at the University of Calgary – and was also the recipient of an Alberta Innovates New Faculty Award.  To date, he has obtained more than $3.2 million in research funding from NSERC, CFI, Cenovus Energy, and other sources.

Geomorphology is a branch of physical geography that focuses on Earth-surface processes and landscape dynamics.  Dr. Hugenholtz is probably best known for his work on sand dunes and aeolian processes, which has significantly increased our understanding of sand dune dynamics, particle transport, grassland reclamation, and even Martian geomorphology.  His recent research with students and collaborators has led to what a colleague describes as 'unprecedented advances in predicting wind erosion and landscape dynamics on a global scale, and documents how sand dunes can serve as sentinels of climate change and anthropogenic pressure'.

Dr. Hugenholtz's work has had wide application, ranging from the reclamation and preservation of the prairie grasslands, to innovative techniques for measuring Earth surface processes. In the aftermath of the 2013 Calgary flood, Dr. Hugenholtz appeared on TV to provide the public with information about floodplains and flood risk.  He later served as a member of the Expert Panel on Flood Forecasting and contributed to the City of Calgary’s River Flood Mitigation Report.  His research (with NASA) on Martian sand dunes has also received international recognition.

Among his other research interests, Dr. Hugenholtz has been a pioneer in the use of small, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) for safe environmental mapping and atmospheric measurement.  He is Science Advisor to a UAV mapping company started by two of his graduate students, and is heading a team at the U of C to develop 'a collaborative research and training program on UAV technology, applications, and analytics'.

In 2013, Dr. Hugenholtz accepted a tenured position as Associate Professor in the U of C Department of Geography.   This year, he is serving as President of the Canadian Geomorphology Research Group (CGRG) and Vice-President of the Canadian Geophysical Union Section on Earth Surface Processes, and one of his duties in these posts will be to promote geomorphology in Canadian universities.