The Unsung Hero and New Visions Research Awards honour scientists and staff whose work is integral to the Institute's success.
UHN’s KITE Research Institute has announced the recipients of its 2025 awards, honouring staff and scientists whose excellence and dedication are crucial to the Institute’s success. This year, KITE presented the Unsung Hero Award and the New Visions Research Award.
Dr. Babak Taati and Dr. Tilak Dutta win New Visions Research Awards
The New Visions Research Awards recognize scientists whose work has elevated KITE’s global leadership in injury prevention, restoring function, independent living, and community integration.
Dr. Taati was honoured for creating a new technology that screens for Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes and generalized hypermobility spectrum disorders. His research was quickly translated into practice through his work with Dr. Nimish Mittal, Co-Medical Director of the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Program at UHN, to launch the Hypermobility Assessment Tool (HAT) app. The app uses Dr. Taati’s technology to enable healthcare providers and patients to accurately and easily screen for hypermobility on a smartphone.
Dr. Dutta was selected for his work leading research initiatives to improve accessibility in air travel and in parks. These projects include extensive community engagement and collaboration with federal agencies, disability advocates, and industry partners.
Through this, Dr. Dutta has helped KITE has helped shape national conversations on accessibility, driving meaningful change for Canadians with disabilities.
Unsung Hero Award Presented to Colin Stoddart
This year’s Unsung Hero Award was Colin Stoddart, a technical analyst at KITE. The award is presented to a KITE staff member who has shown exceptional dedication to their job. Recipients of this award are nominated by their colleagues and selected by a group of previous award winners.
“Colin’s work is always of the highest quality: he is very fast, reliable, and very accurate,” one of his colleagues wrote in their nomination for him. “Importantly, he seems to genuinely enjoy working with the researchers on their various projects, and he offers creative solutions to their problems and questions. We are extremely lucky to have him as part of the CEAL family at KITE.”
“Colin has saved the day countless times!” another colleague said in their nomination.
The other nominees for the Unsung Hero award were:
- Dr. Ali Abedi
- Andy Whitmell
- David Jagroop
- Erwin Monzon
- Leia Shum
- Melanie Peladeau-Pigeon
- Sharmini Atputharaj
- Tim Fraser