​弗莉达·米勒博士于2020年1月7日获得本学年的首个遗产奖。

如果这个名字听起来有些熟悉，那是因为董事会将在Evergreen社区建设的新K-4小学以她的名字命名。学校命名委员会在收集和评估利益相关者的意见后将这个名字推荐给了董事会。

米勒博士是多伦多儿童医院的细胞和分子发育神经生物学家。

她还是多伦多大学的教授，加拿大皇家学会和美国科学促进会的会士。

米勒博士在她的职业生涯中做出了一些非凡的发现。

她发现皮肤第二层的干细胞为使用皮肤作为人类干细胞产生的主要来源提供了概念基础。她发现的干细胞对于修复受伤的皮肤至关重要。

同时，米勒博士还发现了决定神经细胞生死的新机制。这些发现开启了新的研究领域，对我们理解神经退行性疾病有重大意义。

米勒博士在理解干细胞如何在正常发育中构建大脑方面做出了重要贡献。这项研究有助于解释干细胞构建在像自闭症这样的疾病中出现问题的原因。这导致她最近发现了一种常用的糖尿病药物metformin可以促进受伤大脑的修复。

这些卓越的发现在科学界得到了广泛的认可。它们还导致了针对“唤醒”我们自身干细胞以修复受伤大脑和皮肤的疗法的临床试验。

米勒博士获得了许多国际奖项。

她被选为霍华德休斯医学研究所资深国际研究学者（全球仅有13人之一）。

今年，她被授予加拿大卡尔加里大学医学院的校友年度奖，并荣获美国海洋生物实验室的再生医学先锋奖。

她在皮肤干细胞发现方面被魁北克的Radio Canada和La Presse选为“年度科学技术人物”。

除了研究工作，弗莉达·米勒博士还对未来的研究人员做出了重大贡献。她自豪地培养了许多年轻科学家。在米勒博士的实验室接受过培训的25名研究生和博士后现在在世界各地的大学担任教职。

米勒博士是卡尔加里公立学校系统的自豪校友。她在蒙哥马利和鲍内斯的学校接受了她的小学和高中教育。她还在她初中的年级受益于伊丽莎白女王中学的天才计划。此后，她在卡尔加里大学获得了医学科学博士学位。

米勒博士的生活还有许多其他方面的成就。她会弹钢琴，参加社区合唱团，并目前在她的实验室为女性教授跆拳道课程-她有资格教授，因为她获得了三级黑带。

米勒博士与卡尔加里保持着紧密的联系，因为她的家人大多居住在那里。她在Canmore定居的时间也是部分时间。

祝贺弗莉达·米勒博士。

 董事理查德·希尔、董事朱莉·赫德里卡、董事丽莎·戴维斯、主席玛丽莲·丹尼斯、弗莉达·米勒博士、副主席阿尔西亚·亚当斯、董事崔娜·赫德曼和董事迈克·布拉德肖

​Dr. Freda Miller received the first Legacy Award of this school year on Jan. 7, 2020.

If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the Board of Trustees named the new K-4 elementary school being built in the community of Evergreen after her. The school naming committee recommended this name to the Board of Trustees after gathering and evaluating stakeholder input on several possible names.

Dr. Miller is a cell and molecular developmental neurobiologist at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.

She is also a professor at the University of Toronto, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Miller has made some extraordinary discoveries over the course of her career.

Her discovery of stem cells in the second layer of the skin provided the conceptual basis for using skin as a major source for genesis of human stem cells. The stem cells she discovered are critical for the repair of injured skin.

At the same time, Dr. Miller discovered new mechanisms determining whether nerve cells live or die. These findings initiated new fields of research that have major implications for our understanding of neurodegenerative disorders.

Dr. Miller has made significant contributions to understanding how stem cells build the brain during normal development. This research helps to explain how stem cell building can go awry in disorders such as autism. This led to her recent discovery that the commonly used diabetes drug, called metformin, can be used to promote repair of the injured brain.

These outstanding discoveries have been widely recognized within the scientific community. They have also led to clinical trials for therapies that “wake up” our own stem cells to repair the injured brain and skin.

Dr. Miller has received numerous international awards.

She was selected as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Senior International Research Scholar (one of only 13 worldwide).

This year she was awarded the University of Calgary Medical School Alumna of the Year, and she won a Pioneer Award for Regenerative Medicine by the Marine Biological Laboratories in the U.S.

She was chosen by Radio Canada and La Presse in Quebec as “Personality of the Year in Science and Technology” for her skin stem cell discovery.

Beyond her research, Dr. Freda Miller contributes significantly to future generations of researchers. She is proud to have trained many young scientists. Twenty-five of the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who trained in Dr. Miller’s laboratory now hold faculty positions at universities around the world.

Dr. Miller is a proud alumna of the Calgary public school system. She attended schools in Montgomery and Bowness for her primary and high school education. She also benefitted from the gifted program at Queen Elizabeth High School in her junior high years. From there, she obtained her PhD in Medical Sciences from the University of Calgary.

Dr. Miller is also accomplished in many other areas of her life. She plays the piano, sings in a community choir and is currently teaching Tae-Kwon-Do classes to the women in her laboratory -- she is qualified to teach as she has a third degree black belt.

Dr. Miller maintains strong ties to Calgary, which is still home to most of her family. She lives part time in Canmore.

Congratulations Dr. Freda Miller.

 Trustee Richard Hehr, Trustee Julie Hrdlicka, Trustee Lisa Davis, Chair Marilyn Dennis, Dr. Freda Miller, Vice-Chair Althea Adams, Trustee Trina Hurdman, and Trustee Mike Bradshaw