‘Star’ researcher at McGill nabs Polanyi prize
Astrophysicist Victoria Kaspi adds to lengthy list of stellar accomplishments
McGill astrophysicist Victoria Kaspi, whose meteoric rise has attracted scientific attention around the world, has added the prestigious John C. Polanyi Award to an already lengthy list of accolades for work she and her team have done to increase our understanding of the laws that govern the universe and in support of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.
Created in 2006, the prize, awarded by Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council is named in honour of Canada’s 1986 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The award is given to an individual or team whose research, conducted in Canada, has led to a recent outstanding advance in any NSERC-supported field of the natural sciences or engineering. The research leading to the advance must have been funded at least partially by an NSERC grant.
The prize carries a $250,000 research grant.
Kaspi, McGill's Lorne Trottier Chair in Astrophysics and Cosmology and Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics, is widely known for her cutting-edge work on neutron stars, pulsars and supernovae remnants. In 2005, Kaspi and her team discovered the fastest-rotating pulsar known to science and more than 20 pulsars in a single star cluster in the Milky Way. Most recently, her team was the first to witness a cosmic act of recycling involving a dying pulsar.
In addition to the Polanyi award, Kaspi has won the Prix Marie-Victorin, Quebec’s highest accolade for science and engineering, as well the Steacie Prize in the Natural Sciences, the Rutherford Memorial Medal of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Association of Physicists Herzberg Medal, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Young Explorer Prize.
“McGill is delighted to again congratulate Vicky on her outstanding work in helping us understand the fundamental physics of how the universe works,” said Rosie Goldstein, McGill’s Vice-Principal (Research and International Relations). “She is truly reaching for the stars and is producing ground-breaking research. We are all very proud of her and her team’s accomplishments.”
Video report on Prof. Kaspi’s work available here:
https://mcgillmediarelations.sharefile.com/d/s093b1fa9d0742b4a
About McGill University
Founded in Montreal, Que., in 1821, is Canada’s leading post-secondary institution. It has two campuses, 11 faculties, 10 professional schools, 300 programs of study and more than 35,000 students. McGill attracts students from more than 150 countries around the world. Almost half of McGill students claim a first language other than English – including 6,000 francophones – with more than 6,800 international students making up almost 20 per cent of the student body.
PHOTO: NSERC
