Ismael is awarded Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postgraduate
Scholarship–Doctoral (PGS–D) to help fund the remainder of his PhD research. He also received the President’s Doctoral Prize of Distinction (PDPD), which “is a Top-Up award that may be given to students registered full-time in a doctoral degree program at the University of Alberta who have won one of the eligible major doctoral-level scholarships” including NSERC PGS-D.