'The best of what USask has to offer'
Dr. Barbara von Tigerstrom (PhD) will receive the title of Distinguished Professor in honour of her outstanding achievement as a legal scholar and teacher at USask.
When the leadership team at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law (USask Law) discussed potential nominees for USask’s Distinguished Professorship title, the conversation was remarkably short.
Dr. Barbara von Tigerstrom’s nomination was supported as “the obvious choice,” Dean Martin Phillipson wrote in his letter offcially nominating her for the award, bestowed annually to a handful of USask faculty members.
“As a Distinguished Professor, Dr. von Tigerstrom would represent the best of what we as a university have to offer. She is humble and hard-working, and she brings to USask both profound academic depth and true heft,” Phillipson wrote.
The nomination was successful and von Tigerstrom, who joined USask Law in 2005, will join the select group of faculty who this year are receiving the lifetime honorary title of Distinguished Professor.
Here are five things to know about von Tigerstrom and her career.
1. She is an influential scholar in the field of health law.
“Much of her research has had a significant impact on health and science policy, both nationally and internationally. She has an outstanding reputation in the health law community, and is viewed as a meticu-lous, thorough and fearless researcher that policymakers turn to for a reliable, unbiased assessment of the relevant law,” wrote Timothy Caulfield in support of von Tigerstrom’s nomination. Caulfield is research director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta and former Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy.
2. Her research has impacted several areas of social concern.
“She was the first in Canada – and among the first internationally – to confront the profound regulatory challenges associated with regenerative medicine and, more broadly, stem cell research. Her work exploring how emerging stem cell technologies should be handled by regulatory entities like Health Canada and the (Federal Drug Administration) has been tremendously influential,” stated Caulfield.
In 2016, von Tigerstrom was one of two legal researchers on the Canadian government’s Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation, which informed the federal legislation introduced in 2017.
3. von Tigerstrom is also regarded as a leading expert on privacy law in Canada.
She has authored the field-standard text-book in this area, Information and Privacy Law in Canada, with the second edition due this year.
“While there are a few practitioner-fo-cused texts on Canadian privacy law, this book stands out as the only comprehensive academic treatment of the subject area. It is widely relied upon as a key source,” stated Teresa Scassa in her letter of support. Scassa is a Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy at the University of Ottawa.
4. von Tigerstrom has a stellar teaching record in the College of Law.
“Not just a leading researcher, Barbara is also distinguished by her outstanding track record as a teacher. She has received five institutional awards for her teaching as well as national recognition in 2012 from the Canadian Association of Law Teachers. She is one of the most highly regarded professors in the college by the students,” Phillipson wrote.
von Tigerstrom says her goal is to help students build a solid set of skills that they can use as lifelong learners. “You want to provide them with useful, productive challenges that help them develop good ways of teaching themselves, so they have a strong foundation to build on when they go out and begin their careers.”
5. She was a reluctant nominee.
“This particular designation is intended to recognize effort and achievement across the whole spectrum of the job, including both teaching and research. To me, both have always been really important, so I like the idea of the university honouring faculty for this,” von Tigerstrom said. “But I feel uncomfort-able being singled out when so many people are doing great work.”
She is grateful for her colleagues on faculty, as well as the staff and students at USask Law. “The level of collegiality here is really pretty exceptional and just makes every part of the job so much better.”