McGill's Principal Heather Munroe-Blum Named to Prestigious Committee on the Future of Research Universities

Experience will provide valuable guide to solutions we need, Chancellor says

McGill University Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum has been named to a blue-ribbon committee of academic and research leaders in the United States charged with determining key actions governments, universities and others could take in order to maintain research excellence at American universities.

The ad hoc committee, established by The National Academies, a group that advises the United States on Science, Engineering and Medical research issues, is to report by late spring or early summer 2011 on “the top 10 actions that Congress, the federal government, state governments, research universities, and others could take to assure the ability of the American research university to maintain the excellence in research and doctoral education needed to help the United States compete, prosper, and achieve national goals for health, energy, the environment, and security in the global community of the 21st century.”

Prof. Munroe-Blum joins, among others, such distinguished academic leaders as James Duderstadt, President Emeritus and University Professor of Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan; Nobel Prizewinner Peter Agre (Chemistry, 2003); William (Bill) Frist, Jr., a renowned heart and lung transplant surgeon and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, who is currently University Distinguished Professor of Health Care at Vanderbilt University; John L. Hennessy, President of Stanford University; Walter E. Massey, former president of Morehouse College and recently retired chairman of the board of Bank of America; Paul Chu, former president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; and Cherry Murray, Dean of Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

“We are honoured that the Principal has been asked to serve on this important body that will focus on finding solutions to serious challenges that confront us at research-intensive universities on both sides of the border,” McGill Chancellor H. Arnold Steinberg said. “She will make a strong contribution from her own perspective and experiences, of course, but I know she will bring back from this remarkable opportunity a considerable body of information and strategy that can help us tackle these issues in a Canadian context, so that we can take the steps needed to maintain and enhance our own competitiveness in a complex, globalized framework of research and higher education.”

In addition to serving as McGill’s 16th Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Munroe-Blum has a background rich in research experience, both as an administrator and an epidemiologist. Prior to assuming McGill’s principalship in 2003, she served as Vice-President (Research and International Relations) at the University of Toronto. She has dedicated her career to the advancement of higher education, science and innovation, in Canada and internationally, advising governments and other organizations in several countries on the role that universities, research and highly qualified talent play in advancing international competitiveness and enriching societies. Prof. Munroe-Blum is a member of Canada’s Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC) and was a lead contributor in the development of its State of the Nation Report on science and research progress in Canada.

The National Academies study committee, chaired by Bank of America board chairman and former CEO of Dupont, Charles Holliday Jr., also engages representatives of industry, philanthropic organizations and the investment community. In addressing its broad mandate, it will examine a wide variety of programs, processes, funding, goals and organizations within the academic and medical research milieu.

For more information:

http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/committeeview.aspx?key=49219

http://www.nationalacademies.org/

About McGill University

Founded in Montreal, Que., in 1821, McGill 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.