The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) is proud to announce that Graduate Researcher Hanwei Sudderuddin has been honoured with the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. Established by the Killam Trusts and administered by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, this fellowship recognizes the most outstanding doctoral researchers in a range of fields of study at the University of British Columbia (UBC) each year.
This prestigious award follows last month’s receipt of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Doctoral Research Award for his project Aging and Dying in British Columbia, Canada: Examining the End-of-Life Trajectories of People Living With and Without HIV which provides three years of funding to support his work improving end-of-life care for people living with HIV (PWH) in BC.
On Monday, October 5th, Sudderuddin joined 20 other doctoral candidates at the Annual Killam Laureates Celebratory Ceremony at Graham House at UBC to receive their honour from Dr. Leonard Foster, Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and Ms. Brenda Eaton, a Killam Trustee.
I'm deeply honoured to be recognized as a Killam Laureate. This achievement was made possible by the support and mentorship of numerous individuals including, my PhD supervisor Dr. Viviane Dias Lima, my PhD supervisory committee members, and other scientific mentors at the BC-CfE including Dr. Chanson Brumme and Dr. Zabrina Brumme.
The BC-CfE is a wonderful place to pursue research and address important public health questions, and the EMBARC-HIV research team is extremely supportive, proviingproviding a truly conducive intellectual environment for pursuing research, as I strive to live up to the Killam ethos of moving beyond brilliant scholarship to help build Canada's future.
Observing the demographic transition in BC, where over two thirds of PWH are now over the age of 50, and appreciating the shifting needs of HIV care, Sudderuddin chose to pursue a PhD in Experimental Medicine to better understand end-of-life (EoL) care for those now aging with HIV. With evidence only beginning to emerge on about the complexity of EoL pathways, many studies focus on the acute circumstances preceding death for other chronic conditions, rather than on the health outcomesquality of care, healthcare utilization patterns, and longer-term decline that precede EoL for aging PWH. Identifying methodological and clinical care gaps, his Sudderuddin’s work research sets out to apply robust trajectory modeling approaches to the BC-CfE’s comprehensive longitudinal datasets to delineate EoL pathways and produce evidence-basedbetter guidance fore palliative care for all PWH.
As BC’s population of PWH continue to experience extended lifespans, this work will be crucial in understanding and better supporting their long-termaging and EoL care, and we look forward to seeing the results of this work!