Killam Prize Hat Trick and Fellowship

The Canada Council awards the annual Killam Prizes to distinguished Canadian scholars in the fields of health sciences, natural sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities. Five $100,000 prizes are awarded each year—one in each field—and on May 11, McGill researchers took home three of them. Philippe Gros (health sciences) is James McGill Professor in Biochemistry in the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Centre; his groundbreaking genetics research has led to the identification of the gene that causes spina bifida, the isolation of the cancer resistant “mdr” family of genes, and the identification of new genes that give rise to susceptibility to malaria. Wagdi G. Habashi (engineering) is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and an international leader in the field of computational fluid dynamics, which is crucial to dealing with the potentially dangerous problem of in-flight icing of aircraft. François Ricard (humanities) is a professor in the Department of French Language and Literature and James McGill Chair in Quebec Literature and Modern Fiction; he is one of the top historians of contemporary Quebec society, and has won acclaim for his work on Canadian writer Gabrielle Roy. “We are immensely proud of these distinguished scholars, all of whom have received numerous honours throughout their remarkable careers,” says McGill University Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum. “The University joins me in offering them our most sincere congratulations on this prestigious recognition of their accomplishments.” Nineteen McGill researchers have now received a Killam Prize since its inception in 1981.