Groundbreaking
\ˈgraundˌbrākiŋ\
Dares to push the limits.
McGill researchers get results – and the accolades are piling up to prove it. Three of the five Killam Prizes awarded by the Canada Council in 2009 went to our professors. In recent years, other McGill professors have won the Kyoto Prize, the Gairdner Award, the Templeton Prize, the Balzan Prize and a host of other prestigious honours for their life-changing work. Our researchers share that award-winning knowledge with students, too, thus nurturing the next generation of innovators.
For biochemistry professor Philippe Gros, all top-drawer research starts with the same thing: burning curiosity. "You have to have the bug and be enthusiastic about the discovery process," says Gros, who received his 2009 Killam Prize in Health Sciences for identifying genes implicated in a host of serious diseases. Gros and his teams have made discoveries that could revolutionize treatments for such diseases as spina bifida, malaria and cancer. Through it all, he's coupled his enthusiasm and optimism with persistence and logic. "Both sides have to come into play."
François Ricard knows all about balancing acts. The professor of French language and literature received the 2009 Killam Prize in the Humanities for his studies of two modern novelists with very different artistic views: Gabrielle Roy and her deeply emotional sense of life, and Milan Kundera and his ironic, disillusioned approach to reality. "One gives me distance to consider the other. If you completely identify with an author, it's impossible to see what's important." Recently retired from teaching, Ricard continues to work with students and pursue his research. "I'm really at home at McGill. I'm not sure a career like mine would have been as appreciated at many other universities – and there's a kind of intellectual stimulation I probably wouldn't have found elsewhere."
Wagdi Habashi, director of the Computational Fluid Dynamics Lab, received the 2009 Killam Prize in Engineering for his use of theoretical modelling to prevent deadly in-flight icing of airplanes. The recognition of his work is satisfying, to be sure, and he's honoured to have helped launch many students on successful careers using "math and physics to create an engineering tool that's good for society." But he gets special satisfaction from his increasingly quiet telephone: Habashi's knowledge has made him a go-to expert during crash investigations, but, as his work helps prevent accidents, his witness services are in less demand. "The fewer of those calls from lawyers I get," he says, "the happier I am."
