November 5, 2026 | Slater Family Professor of Practice Vincent Rigby recently sat down with the CDA Institute to discuss the implications and significance of the Security Strategy that was published by the Canadian government on October 29, 2026. 

On Thursday, Nov. 5, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government presented a budget in which it outlined a plan to spend more than $50 billion in the coming decades to expand Canada's electricity system. 

The following McGill expert is available to comment: 

François Bouffard, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, can discuss electric power systems operations and planning.  

Ciane Alexandre Fernandes successfully defended her PhD Oral Defence in Currie Room 341 on November 5th, 2026.

The title of her thesis:
“Understanding the neural mechanisms of fatigability in highly trained endurance runners: From neuromuscular quantification to cortical Neuromodulation”

Oral Defence Comittee:
Dr. Christopher Pack (supervisor), Dr. Dennis Jensen, Dr. David Ostry, Dr. Jenna Gibbs, Dr. Numa Dancause, Dr. Jorge Armony

“I think AI is going to teach us what it means to be human,” said McGill alumnus Peter Howitt in a wide-ranging Beatty Lecture that emphasized the link between economic growth and disruption.

The McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) has welcomed two new co-directors to its leadership team, Nicole Basta and Judith Mandl, further strengthening its ability to connect researchers, advance collaboration, and support innovation across the infection and immunity landscape.

Ranked 34th globally by Corporate Knights, the McGill Desautels MBA continues to distinguish itself through its commitment to sustainability and responsible management education.

The 2026 Corporate Knights BetterWorld MBA top 40 ranking measures the integration of sustainable development themes across required MBA courses and evaluated 179 business schools worldwide in its latest edition. 

A team of McGill University researchers has developed a putty-like electrode that moulds to the skin. It could improve treatment and monitoring of voice disorders and upper airway diseases. In a proof-of-concept study, the sensor matched a standard clinical electrode for noise and stability while recording activity from small neck muscles.

The sensor could help track breathing, swallowing and speaking during rehabilitation after a stroke or in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, the researchers said.

November 5, 2026 | J.W. McConnell Visiting Scholar Matthew Chiasson recently published a paper on non-competes in the Canadian Labour & Employment Law Journal.

Chiasson takes stock of existing knowledge around the use and impact of non-competes in Canada, and sets an agenda for further empirical research. With Ontario's 2021 ban and federal restrictions proposed in Bill C-31, Chiasson argues that we have a valuable opportunity to learn more about what happens when these agreements are restricted.

McGill researchers have developed a new way to study why the same heart-failure treatment can help some patients recover while others continue to worsen. The research was co-led by Diego Loggia, a D2R Scholar and PhD student in McGill's Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

The Government of Canada has awarded McGill $19 million in funding to support 19 researchers through the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Program – 11 new and eight renewed appointments.  

The newly appointed CRCs will drive forward research in fields that include critical care pain management, genomic epidemiology, sustainable mining, linguistic justice and musical expression. Renewed Chairs will continue vital work in such areas as pediatric oncology, tuberculosis, antimicrobials and green enzymes, and the anthropology of living archives.   

Funding backs innovative research in an array of disciplines, including health sciences, music and social work.

The Government of Canada has awarded McGill $19 million in funding to support 19 researchers through the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Program – 11 new and eight renewed appointments.  

Award recognizes a career dedicated to advancing childhood cancer research and care.  

Nada Jabado, a world-leading physician-scientist whose discoveries have transformed the understanding of pediatric brain cancers, has been named the 2026 recipient of the Prix Wilder-Penfield.

McGill environmental engineer who focuses on ‘problems that matter outside the lab’ recognized for research on plastic pollution 

By Neale McDevitt

On Thursday Nov. 5, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government will table its second budget.

These McGill experts are available to comment on several related issues:

Allison Christians, Professor and H. Heward Stikeman Chair in the Law of Taxation, Faculty of Law, specializes in national and international tax law and policy issues. She can comment on the Productivity Mega Deduction announced earlier this fall as well as other tax policy issues.

On Oct. 30, faculty, students and alumni gathered at HEC Montréal to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Joint PhD in Management. McGill, Concordia, UQAM and HEC Montréal launched the program together in 1976. Co-founder Henry Mintzberg, the John Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at Desautels, presented the keynote at the event. 

K. Lamer, P. Kollias, J. Kim, Z. Zhu, F, Yang, A. Battaglia, and E. Luke
Katia Lamer is an AOS M.Sc. alumnus
Pavlos Kollias is an Adjunct Professor in the AOS department
Jiseob Kim is a postdoctoral researcher in the AOS department

Using several years of radar observations from four oceanic regions, the authors found that the amount of liquid water alone cannot explain how warm rain forms and grows. The experimental results highlight the important role of air motions within clouds in shaping precipitation.

While Canadians are expected to reduce holiday spending this year amid economic uncertainty, McGill's Charles de Brabant says Quebecers are proving more resilient than their counterparts elsewhere in the country.

Speaking to La Presse, the Executive Director of McGill's Bensadoun School of Retail Management attributed Quebec's projected 7 per cent increase in holiday spending to the province's strong culture of celebration and joie de vivre.

The growing concentration of US equity markets is creating a dilemma for pension investors, according to McGill Desautels Associate Professor Sebastien Betermier.

Speaking to Benefits and Pensions Monitor, Betermier noted that seven companies now account for roughly 35 per cent of the S&P 500's market capitalization and have generated more than half of the index's returns over the past three years.

A McGill-led research team has developed a bacteria-based biocomputer that can solve large, complex problems using a small fraction of the memory and resources required by standard (“solid-state”) computers. Possible applications include encryption, molecular biology and artificial intelligence (AI), the researchers said. 

In advance of Remembrance Day, Nov. 11, McGill University proposes the following experts to discuss certain issues affecting veterans and military service members.