Daniel Almedia
PhD Candidate, HBSc,
CIHR Vanier Scholar
Daniel graduated UTM in 2014 with an Honours Bachelor of Science with a Specialist in Physiology and a Major in Psychology, and is currently a doctoral candidate in neuroscience and psychiatry at McGill University. His research focuses on the neuroepigenetic consequences of severe childhood abuse in the brains of individuals who died by suicide. During his doctoral training Daniel was nominated as a Vanier Scholar by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the most prestigious doctoral fellowship in Canada, for his leadership skills and high standard of scholarly achievement.
Why did you decide to join ECSpeRT?
My fondest memories from ECSpeRT came from first aid competitions held at various universities as well as overnight event shifts. Despite the fact that I found the telephone ring extremely startling, it was always so exciting to respond to the emergency,
What is the most rewarding skill you acquired during your time at ECSpeRT?
‘m going to have to say that the most rewarding skill was learning how to work with others. When you’re responding to a call, your partner becomes an extension of yourself. Trusting that if there was something you had forgotten your partner was right there to take care of it was a hard thing to master. But with experience you learn to trust the people you work with and this is a skill that you’ll need for the rest of your life.
What advice do you have for current ECSpeRT members and those who aspire to join the team?
My best advice is to participate in all of the special events that ECSpeRT has to offer. For me it wasn’t enough to just be on-call a couple of times per week. It was during competitions, overnight shifts, trainings and educational events that I truly refined my AMFR skills. It’s also good practice to ask questions when you’re unsure. This is a policy that I’ve brought from ECSpeRT to my current supervision of undergraduate thesis students. By asking questions my students are able to prevent potential issues from arising in their experiments. When in doubt you should always ask!