U of T Dept. of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery

Congratulations to the winners of the Best Paper Categories! 🏆 Your hard work, dedication, and innovative ideas have truly shone through. 🌟

We’re proud to celebrate your achievements and can’t wait to see how your research continues to inspire and impact the world! 🌍📚🎉

Proud to recognize the following recipients:
Category 1 - Anna Ischuck
Category 2 - Ben Levy
Category 3 - Karlos Khalil
Category 4 - Gianluca Sampieri
Category 5 - Noemie
Villemure-Poliquin

Congratulations to the Dr. Ian Witterick Award recipients this year! 🎉🎉

Recognizing:
🏆Mandolin Bartling - Dr. Ian Witterick Excellence in Mentorship & innovation Award
🏆🏆Ben Levy & Tara Lazetic - Dr. Ian Witterick research award in otolaryngology-head & neck surgery

Your dedication to research and mentorship continues to shape and inspire the world of otolaryngology. Well done!

Huge congratulations to Dr. Antoine Eskander for receiving the Resident Advocacy Award 🎉 and Dr. Jeffrey Mendelsohn for receiving the Distinguished Alumnus Award 🏆! The department is proud and excited for your continued success! 👏✨

Congratulations to our outstanding teaching award recipients! 🎉🎉🎉

Your dedication, mentorship, and commitment to excellence continue to inspire the next generation of learners and shape the future of otolaryngology. Thank you for the passion and expertise you bring to education every day.

Please join us in celebrating this year's recipients 🥳🥳

Sharon Tzelnick
Deepak Chandrasekharan
Gianluca Sampieri
Vincent Wu

A special night celebrating our graduating residents! 🎓🥳

Congratulations to our PGY5s on this huge milestone, you have all left such a meaningful mark on our program. We will miss you all so much, but you will always be part of the UofT OHNS family!

We are so excited to see all that you do next 💙

Celebrating our incredible graduating PGY5’s! 🎓✨

A wonderful dinner honouring this amazing group of residents as they wrap up their residency training with us. After years of hard work, call shifts, teaching, operating, learning, and leading, this group is getting ready for their next chapter!!

💙🎉🥳

Congratulations to Dr. Jake Wihlidal for matching to Thomas Jefferson University in the 2026 Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship Match! 💙👏

We are so beyond proud and can’t wait to see all that you accomplish in this next chapter! 🎉🎉🎉

Dr. Emilia Luca, research associate in Dr. Alain Dabdoub's lab, is a finalist in the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Science Exposed 2026 competition.

The image, titled "A Nascent Hearing Galaxy" captures the beauty and fragility of the inner ear that is key to much of the ongoing research on hearing disorders.

For more information on NSERC 2026 Science Exposed or to vote for any images, see https://nserc-crsng.canada.ca/en/science-exposed/2026

Congratulations, Dr. Emilia Luca! 🎊🎊🎊

🌟 CSO 2026 Poliquin Resident Competition! 🌟

A huge congratulations to our FIVE stellar residents who were selected to present in the Poliquin Resident Competition at the 80th Annual CSOHNS Meeting in Calgary! We are so proud to see our residents representing UofT and giving such fantastic talks. 💙

Presentations included:

Hugh Kim, PGY4: Molecular Differences between Tumours of Patients with Caucasian and South Asian Ethnicity in HPV-negative Oral Cavity SCC

Melissa Lee, PGY3: The Submental Artery Pedicled Flap for Peri-Auricular and Parotid Reconstruction: A Comparative Cohort

Jake Wihlidal, PGY4: Preclinical Efficacy of Intranasal Cannabidiol in a Murine Model of Chronic Rhinosinusitis

Gar-Way Ma, PGY2: Efficacy of Tinnitus Resolution Following Stapes Surgery in Patients with Otosclerosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Carlos Khalil, PGY3: Orbital Occupancy Ratio: A New Tool for Predicting Surgery in Pediatric Subperiosteal Abscesses

🏆🏆🏆🎉🎉🎉
And a HUGE congratulations to Jake Wihlidal (PGY4) and Gar-Way Ma (PGY2), who received Resident Research Awards, and to Hugh Kim (PGY4), who received the Outstanding Resident Research Award!!!

We’re so proud of all five presenters for this incredible accomplishment — and to our award recipients on this well-deserved recognition! 👏✨

Our residents are having a great time at CSO 2026 in Calgary 💙☀️🐎 yeehaw!