Faculty & Staff Honours
Orders and Academies
This year, nine distinguished McGill scholars from the faculties of Arts, Law and Medicine were named Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC). The following individuals joined about 130 other McGill-affiliated members of Canada’s senior national body of distinguished scholars:
Frederick Andermann, Neurology and Neurosurgery/The Neuro
Eduardo L. Franco, Oncology
Allan Greer, History
Gershon Hundert, Jewish Studies
Michael S. Kramer, Pediatrics and Epidemiology
Celine Le Bourdais, Sociology
Desmond Manderson, Law
William J. Muller, Biochemistry
Michael Petrides, Psychology/Neurology and Neurosurgery/The Neuro
The RSC’s Willet G. Miller Medal was awarded to Anthony E. Williams-Jones (Earth and Planetary Science) for his advancement of our understanding of how metals are transported and concentrated from economically exploitable mineral deposits.
Michael Meaney, Associate Director of the Research Centre at the Douglas Institute and McGill Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology and Neurosurgery, was inducted as a Member into the Order of Canada for his contributions to the fields of neuroscience and epigenetics.
The Ordre du Québec bestowed its highest civilian honours to three McGillians this year: Bartha Maria Knoppers, Director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy, Faculty of Medicine, was named an Officer of the Order in recognition of her contributions in the field of health law and biomedical ethics; Gilles Julien, Faculty of Medicine, was named an Officer of the Order for his transformative contribution to social pediatrics; and Wagdi G. Habashi, Faculty of Engineering, was named a Knight of the Order for his internationally renowned research in the area of in-flight aircraft icing.
F. Clarke Fraser, one of Canada’s first medical geneticists, and Peter T. Macklem (1931-2011), one of Canada’s greatest pulmonary clinician-scientists, were inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. These medical pioneers, both McGill graduates, carried out their illustrious careers primarily at McGill and three MUHC hospitals: the Montreal Children’s Hospital, the Royal Victoria Hospital and the Montreal Chest Institute.
Provost Anthony C. Masi was appointed as Knight in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in a ceremony June 5 at the residence of the Italian Ambassador to Canada. Prof. Masi was recognized for his contribution to the support of research activities and to the strengthening of cooperation between Canadian and Italian academic institutions.
Vice-Principal (Administration and Finance) Michael di Grappa was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal in recognition of his ongoing and tireless contributions to the Montreal community.
Michael Petrides, Director of the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital’s Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, was elected to the Royal Society of London, an independent academy dedicated to promoting excellence in science.
A Selection of other honours for 2011-12
Roderick A. Macdonald, F.R. Scott Professor of Constitutional and Public Law, was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for Leadership in Learning, McGill’s highest teaching honour, at fall Convocation.
The Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching was awarded to: James Hanley, Professor, Faculty of Medicine; Marilyn Scott, Associate Professor, Institute of Parasitology, and Director, McGill School of Environment (MSE); Krista R. Muis, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education; and Sujata Madan, Faculty Lecturer, Desautels Faculty of Management.
At spring Convocation, renowned medical anthropologist Professor Emerita Margaret Lock, became the fourth, and first female, recipient of the McGill University Medal for Exceptional Academic Achievement.
Peter J. McLeod, Core Faculty Member at the McGill Centre for Medical Education, was awarded the 2012 Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s Duncan Graham Award in recognition of his career-long service in shaping training at McGill and various Montreal-area hospitals.
Xue Liu, School of Computer Science, Andrew Hendry, Redpath Museum, and Karim Nader, Dept. of Psychology, were named winners of the 2012-2013 Tomlinson Science Awards in recognition of excellence and scientific leadership.
Henry Mintzberg, the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management, is one of four Canadians listed among the world’s Top 50 business thinkers, according to biennial rankings sponsored by the Harvard Business Review.
Robert J. Zatorre, Montreal Neurological Institute, was one of three recipients of the annual Neuronal Plasticity Prize from the Fondation Ipsen for his pioneering research in the domain of music and brain plasticity.
ACFAS awarded its 2011 Jacques-Rousseau Award to Bartha Maria Knoppers, Director of the Centre for Genomics and Policy at the McGill and Génome Québec Innovation Centre. The award recognizes exceptional scientific achievements by a researcher in Quebec whose work establishes innovative bridges between disciplines.
Balfour Mount, Emeritus Professor of Palliative Care, received the 2011 Canadian Medical Association’s (CMA) Medal of Service in recognition of his outstanding and exceptional contribution to the advancement of health care in Canada and his pioneering and tireless advocacy for quality end-of-life care.
Richard L. Cruess, Core Faculty Member at the McGill Centre for Medical Education, received the 2012 Canadian Medical Association’s Medal of Service in recognition of his outstanding and exceptional contribution to the advancement of health care in Canada.
Daniel Levitin, Dept. of Psychology, and Mark Wainberg, Director of the McGill AIDS Centre, were named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an honour bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. Levitin was cited for his role as a leader in the psychology and neuroscience of music. Wainberg was honoured for his contributions to HIV drug development. In April, Mark Wainberg was also awarded the 2012 Killam Prize in Health Science by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Laurette Dubé, Marketing Professor at the Desautels Faculty of Management, received a 2011 Woman of Outstanding Achievement Award given by the Women’s Y Foundation in the category of Social and Environmental Sciences.
Roussos Dimitrakopoulos, Dept. of Mining and Materials Engineering, won NSERC’s 2011 Leo Derikx Synergy Award for his work in developing stochastic mathematical and computing models to help mining companies make effective strategic and sustainable decisions.
The Canadian Cancer Research Alliance (CCRA) bestowed its inaugural award for Exceptional Leadership in Cancer Research to Philip E. Branton, Faculty of Medicine, for his outstanding contributions to the development of the cancer research community and inter-agency research collaboration in Canada.
François Crépeau, the Hans and Tamar Oppenheimer Professor in Public International Law, was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants for a three-year term.
Wendy Thomson, Director of the McGill School of Social Work, was appointed Chair of the expert panel on Activity-based Funding in Health and Social Services by the Quebec Government. The panel will report to the government on the challenges facing Quebec’s health and social services in the future.
Roderick A. Macdonald, F.R. Scott Professor of Constitutional and Public Law, was named co-commissioner of the Charbonneau Commission–Quebec’s public inquiry on corruption.
Mark Fewer, violinist and Schulich School of Music professor, won a Juno for Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year for his album Changing Seasons.
Faculty of Education Professor Shaheen Shariff, has been named one of four worldwide recipients of Facebook’s first Digital Citizenship research grants–an award that will support her Define the Line project, designed to help reduce cyber-bullying and promote responsible digital citizenship.
Nahum Sonenberg, Professor of Biochemistry at the Goodman Cancer Research Centre, was awarded the 41st Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Science. The award recognizes Prof. Sonenberg’s research on the mechanism and control of protein synthesis, which has revolutionized our understanding of fundamental biological processes underlying diabetes, cancer, viral infection, immunology and memory.
Saleem Razack, Assistant Dean of Admissions, Equity and Diversity in the Faculty of Medicine, received the 2012 Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada May Cohen Gender Equity Award. The award serves to recognize outstanding effort in improving the gender equity environment in academic medicine in Canada.
Annette Majnemer, Associate Dean and Director of the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, was elected to the American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF) Academy of Research–the highest scholarly honour that the AOTF confers.
Fellowships
Colin Chapman, Dept. of Anthropology and MSE, was named one of the winners of the 2012 Killam Research Fellowships to continue his work that explores risk factors to the primate population in Uganda.
Jean-Marie Dufour, Dept. of Economics, won the 2012 Bank of Canada Fellowship Award for his role as one of Canada’s leading econometricians.
Andrew Piper, an Associate Professor, Dept. of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, who looks at the intersection of literary and bibliographic communication from the 18th century to the present, received a New Directions Fellowship from the Andrew F. Mellon Foundation.
The work of Robert Seiringer, Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics, which involves the use of modern mathematical techniques to learn about physics, earned him an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Writing
Carman Miller, Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of History and Classical Studies, has been awarded the C.P. Stacey Award for the Best Book on Canadian Military History for A Knight in Politics: A Biography of Sir Frederick Borden.
The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) awarded its 2011 Social Sciences Book Award to the Faculty of Law’s Ram Jakhu for National Regulation of Space Activities.
The Bibliographical Society of Canada awarded the Tremaine Medal and Watters-Morley Prize for 2011 to Peter F. McNally, Director of the History of McGill Project. The Tremaine Medal is awarded for outstanding service to Canadian bibliography and for distinguished publication in either English or French.
The Faculty of Law’s Evan Fox-Decent published Sovereignty’s Promise: The State as Fiduciary. It is one of three books shortlisted for the 2012 C.B. Macpherson Prize, awarded to the best book published, in English or in French, in a field relating to the study of political theory.
