Kudos

By Meaghan Thurston

The Honourable Greg Rickford, Minister of State (Science and Technology), announced the latest recipients of Canada’s most prestigious graduate and postdoctoral awards at Université Laval earlier this week. Sixteen McGill graduate students are the recipients of Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships. The University also welcomes four Banting fellowship recipients, who are among the top postdoctoral researchers nationally and internationally.

Biochemistry professor acknowledged for his groundbreaking insights into protein synthesis in cancer and other conditions. Seven McGillians also recently joined the prestigious ranks of Royal Society fellows.

(La version française suit.)

By McGill Reporter Staff

Professor Nahum Sonenberg, a James McGill Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Centre, is the 2013 recipient of the Royal Society of Canada’s McLaughlin Medal.

By McGill Reporter Staff

Don Smith, James McGill Professor in the Department of Plant Science and Scientific Director of BioFuelNet, has been named a recipient of a Canada’s Clean50 Award (http://www.clean50.com). The award honours 50 exceptional Canadian leaders from all sectors who have made the greatest contributions to sustainable development and clean capitalism. The Clean50 is handed out in 16 different categories ranging from Advocates, Educators and Cities, to Building, Clean Technology and Renewable Energy Generation.

The McGill Baja Racing team took top honours in its category at the Rochester World Challenge, the third and final event of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) annual competition series. The event took place June 6-9 at the Rochester Institute of Technology. It marked the first time the team had come away from an SAE competition with a victory. Prior to this year, the team had never even broken into the Top 10. That happened in May when they finished ninth at the SAE event in Bellingham, Washington.

Dr. Michel Tremblay has been awarded the 2012 Robert L. Noble Prize by the Canadian Cancer Society for outstanding achievements in cancer research.

Tremblay is internationally recognized for his extensive research focusing on protein tyrosine phosphates (PTPases), a family of genes that can act as cancer initiators or tumour suppressors.

Dr. Michael Pollak has been awarded the 2012 O. Harold Warwick Prize by the Canadian Cancer Society. Pollak was recognized for having had a major impact on cancer control in Canada through his research in understanding the risk of cancer as a function of metabolism.

Tewodros Eguale, who recently earned his PhD from the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill, was named one of two winners of the 2012-2013 CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research CIHR-IHSPR Article of the Year Award. Eguale’s article, “Drug, Patient, and Physician Characteristics Associated with Off-label Prescribing in Primary Care,” was written while he was at McGill.

Pioneering study of nanocrystalline cellulose cited

By McGill Reporter staff

Derek Gray, Professor Emeritus in McGill’s Department of Chemistry, has been named the winner of the 2013 Marcus Wallenberg Prize, awarded by Sweden’s Marcus Wallenberg Foundation for scientific achievements that contribute to knowledge in fields of importance to the forest industry.

Dr. Pierre-Paul Tellier, Director of Student Health at McGill, will be honoured by Head & Hands for his 30 year association with the non-profit organization that has been offering medical, social, and legal services to Montreal youth since 1970.

Tellier, fondly referred to as Dr. T, began volunteering at the Head & Hands’ weekly youth clinic three decades ago and is now the organization’s sole physician. Along the way, Tellier also spent over a decade on Head & Hands’ Board of Directors.

Mark Wainberg, Director of the McGill University AIDS Centre, has been honoured by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) as one of the five recipients of the CIHR-CMAJ Top Canadian Achievements in Health Research Awards.