McGill

McGill University’s celebrated academic story continues to be enriched by the ambition and optimism of its graduates. Congratulations to all the Master’s and PhD students who will receive their hard-earned degrees this week during Convocation ceremonies from May 27 to June 3.  We are proud to welcome you to the illustrious network of scholars, alumni and supporters that make up the McGill community.

Published in the May 2013 Issue (Vol.15 No.5 p.18) of Today's Dietitian
Written by McKenzie Hall, RD

Research opens door to new drug therapies for Parkinson’s disease

McGill University researchers have unlocked a new door to developing drugs to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease. Collaborating teams led by Dr. Edward A. Fon at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital -The Neuro, and  Dr. Kalle Gehring  in the Department of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine, have discovered the three-dimensional structure of the protein Parkin.

McGill alumni Barbara and Patrick Keenan, gave a transformative gift of $5 million to the Faculty of Religious Studies, as part of the University’s fundraising effort, Campaign McGill: History in the Making. This donation – the largest to the Faculty since its founding – will fortify teaching, research, scholarly collaboration and outreach related to the study of comparative religion and interfaith dialogue. 

A team of five MBA students from McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management won the Boston Regional Finals of the 2013 Hult Prize in March for their plan to develop a manufacturing plant to grow edible crickets and decrease urban hunger. The MBA students competed against 42 other schools, including Harvard, MIT, and Yale. The Hult prize is a great start -up accelerator program dedicated to supporting social entrepreneurs. Each year, students work together to develop innovative social enterprises that aim to eliminate a social isssue selected by the committee.

As previously communicated, the Tri-Agency (NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR) conducted a financial monitoring review at McGill in 2010 that now requires us to address significant concerns pertaining to the management of grant funds – more specifically, elements of McGill’s control framework for the administration of grant funds. A Steering Committee and Advisory Committee at McGill were created to direct and validate solutions proposed by the Tri-Agency Response Implementation Group (TRIG) to address the Tri-Agency recommendations.

Congratulations to Mr. Ryan Bailey (right), a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Religious Studies on his recent success in winning the Emeline Hill Richardson Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize. The American Academy in Rome is a leading American overseas center for independent studies and advanced research in the fine arts and humanities.

Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies is pleased to congratulate Dr. Jean-Philippe Lessard, an ecologist and postdoctoral fellow at the Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science at McGill University, who has been selected as the April 2013 winner of an Étudiants-chercheurs étoiles award, from the Fonds Nature et Technologies of the Government of Quebec. Dr. Lessard has also been featured in the "Academic Minute" podcast for his work building a new map of the world’s zoogeographic regions.