HÂþ»­'s rock garden on the Agricultural Campus in Truro serves as a scenic setting for pictures, an educational resource for students and visitors, and, now, as another badge of honour for the university after it took home a top international award last month.

A governance expert, a labour leader, a refugee lawyer, a provincial court judge, a distinguished health professor, a medical researcher, and an ocean engineer are the latest Dal alumni to receive Canada's highest civilian honour.

Hollo Medical co-founder David Hodgson's victory brings added recognition to the startup's key innovation — a unique pocket-size asthma inhaler chamber — and provides a huge boost to the company's goal of making it accessible as quickly as possible.

One of Nova Scotia’s most prominent community and business leaders, Rustum Southwell — best known as founding CEO of the renowned Black Business Initiative — is set to take on the mantle of HÂþ»­ University's top ceremonial role. For Southwell, it represents another chapter in a legacy of lifting people up to grow, thrive and succeed.

Now ranked at 298 globally, HÂþ»­ maintained twelfth place among Canadian universities and remains the top-ranked university in Atlantic Canada.