Local parents proud to have a doctor in the family

Times Reporter

 

Strathmore Home Hardware owners Perry and Cindy Banadyga are well known in the community, but many people may not have met their son Logan.

“When we moved here 10 years ago, he went straight up to Edmonton to school,” said Perry.  

Logan just recently finished his PhD in virology at the University of Alberta, U of A. 

“I think for me that was the way to do it, because it kept the momentum going,” said Logan.

“I think it might have been a little bit tough taking a break from, say undergrad, and then going back to school for another five, five and half years.” 

“It’s a long time, but this was kind of something he wanted to do right from the get go. He didn’t waver too much from what he wanted to do from the minute he started University,” said Perry. 

Logan studied poxviruses for five and a half years and did his undergraduate degree in a program called immunology and infection. 

“I’ve been most interested in viruses since, almost day one,” said Logan. 

He left high school knowing he was going to the U of A, and that he wanted an undergraduate degree in microbiology. While sitting in his biology class at the end of his first year in undergrad studies Logan’s professor said his wife, also a professor, was starting a new program called immunology and infection. 

“I knew right then that that was exactly what I was looking for. Because that was the kind of stuff I wanted to get out of my microbiology degree,” said Logan. 

“I think I ended up where I am right now, because I took a bunch of little steps that were always in sort of the general direction I wanted to go. I don’t think I could have predicted this was where I was going to be 10 years ago.”

Logan lived at home until he was done high school before heading out to Edmonton. He said it was daunting to move away from home to a big city. He said living in residence helped make the transition easier, because many of the people staying there were also just moving out of home. He said walking into residence was like making 15 new friends instantly. By moving to Edmonton and going to school there, it also allowed him an opportunity to break out of his comfort zone and meet new people. 

“I knew that I wanted to meet new people and do new things. I knew that, that would be easier to do if I was in a place where there was a bunch of new people and new things,” said Logan. 

He said it was a tough decision because he had a scholarship for the University of Regina, which would have essentially covered four years of tuition and his books and living expenses. He said by the time he knew he was getting the scholarship; he had already chosen his program at the U of A. 

“Even though he’s gone to school for 10 years, it hasn’t cost us hardly anything. I can honestly say we haven’t spent $2,000 to help him out in school,” said Perry. 

“I was pretty fortunate in that a large portion of my undergraduate degree was paid for by scholarships,” said Logan. 

He said graduate school is a bit different, because regardless of whether there are scholarships, each student gets paid a stipend that covers tuition and provides money to live off of. 

He said he was fortunate because he received a couple of big scholarships that helped pay for his entire way. One was through the Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions, Alberta Heritage Foundation, and another one was through National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. 

Logan has recently moved to Hamilton, Montana to work in the Rocky Mountain Labs. 

“What drew me down here was this new lab that they built,” said Logan. 

Since 9/11, and after the anthrax scare, the United States government became concerned about bio-terrorism or the use of certain bacterial viruses as weapons, said Logan.  

Funding was increased into studying some of these agents, and labs were built around the United States that are super high containment, or bio-safety level 4 labs.

These labs are under negative pressure. If there was a breach, only air would flow. The scientists wear a sort of a space suit pumped full of air so they don’t come into contact with the air in the lab. Logan said the governmant built a lab like that in Montana a couple of years ago, and it’s what took him to Montana.