Dr. Tom Richardson Memorial Endowment Fund
The Dr. Tom Richardson Memorial Endowment Fund was established at Simon Fraser University in 1997 in memory of Tom Richardson. The Endowment supports the Dr. Tom Richardson Memorial Graduate Entrance Bursary.
Dr. Tom Richardson Memorial Graduate Entrance Bursary
Terms of Reference
- The purpose of this award is to provide financial support for a graduate student entering Kinesiology or in the first semester of Kinesiology or for a student pursuing graduate studies in other Departments with a focus on biomedical engineering.
- The Dr. Tom Richardson Memorial Graduate Entrance Bursary is valued at a portion of the Endowment income and will be awarded for the Fall semester. If a suitable candidate is not found in the Fall semester, the Bursary may be awarded in the Spring semester.
- The criteria for this award are: a) financial need b) demonstrated academic excellence at the undergraduate level and, if applicable, at the graduate level c) intention to enroll in the graduate program in Kinesiology or completion of the first semester in a graduate program in Kinesiology or intention to pursue research in biomedical engineering as a graduate student in another department.
- Awards will be disbursed when full-time registration is confirmed.
- This award may be held in conjunction with other awards made by Simon Fraser University or other agencies where permitted by those agencies.
- The Bursaries will be granted by the Senate Undergraduate Awards Adjudication Committee that awards all university bursaries.
How to apply
About Dr. Tom Richardson
An SFU professor of Kinesiology and a physician, Tom Richardson died March 20, 1997 while skiing Crystal Mountain with his family. Married to Joanne just 2 months shy of 25 years at the time of his death, Tom Richardson was a sincere and loving family man who is missed every single day by his family. In addressing those attending the memorial, Dr. Andy Hoffer, Director of the School of Kinesiology, said that Richardson's untimely death caught him on the ascending limb of a remarkable career and a remarkable life. Hoffer described Richardson as a very gifted and accomplished scholar...a superb, highly involved and greatly appreciated teacher, an excellent communicator, always interested and generally available to others... Richardson's research focused on cellular mechanisms of epilepsy and on the neuronal basis of learning and memory. He earned four degrees from UBC: a B.Sc. (1975), M.Sc. and MD (1979), and PhD (1983). Richardson was a tireless contributor to his academic department and his profession. He was a member of Kinesiology committees dealing with departmental tenure, undergraduate programs and the environmental physiology unit. He was both the school's Medical officer and medical ethics advisor and had been sitting on two faculty search committees and several graduate thesis committees. Outside of SFU, he was a practicing physician, chair of the health technology evaluation committee of the B.C. Science and sat on the board of directors of the tri-universities joint medical devices centre. With all this going on, Richardson still found success as an entrepreneur. With his brother, Bob, he had earned international recognition for designing and producing sophisticated, electronic instruments for research including temperature regulation devices and the Hum Bug, a totally innovative 50/60 HZ noise eliminator.