News

McGill nets four new Canada Research Chairs

Published: 7 December 2006

$2.9 million in CRC funds contributes to continued innovation

Four researchers have added their names to McGill University's growing list of Canada Research Chairs, securing $2.9 million in new funding to advance research and innovation in areas ranging from nutrition and education to geochemistry and land use.

"The diverse interests and expertise of McGill's Canada Research Chairs permit the University to play a leading role in life-changing research across a wide spectrum of disciplines," said Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum. "We are always gratified when that role receives the acknowledgement and support of government, especially at a time when university research across the country so urgently requires firm funding commitments such as what we've seen from the Canada Research Chairs Program."

The Government of Canada created the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Program in 2000 to establish 2,000 research professorships across the country by 2008, with the aim of making Canada one of the world's top five countries for research and development.

"The Government of Canada recognizes the importance of investing in university research," said Maxime Bernier, minister of industry and minister responsible for the Canada Research Chairs Program. "This investment will enable our universities to develop the expertise and innovative ideas that fuel economic competitiveness and create new jobs for Canadians."

Three of the four new CRCs at McGill are five-year, Tier 2 appointments, worth $500,000 each. The Chair in Critical Pedagogy, awarded to Prof. Joe Kincheloe of the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, is a seven-year, Tier 1 appointment, worth $1.4 million.

McGill's newest Canada Research Chairs:

Grace Hovda Egeland
Associate Professor, Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment
Canada Research Chair in Environment, Nutrition and Health (renewal of existing chair)
Research interests: Chronic-disease impact of dietary change in the health of aboriginal populations; gestational diabetes and maternal child health; public-health impact of environmental policy related to food contamination; Interplay of environmental and nutritional exposures in human health

Joe Kincheloe
Professor, Department of Integrated Studies in Education
Canada Research Chair in Critical Pedagogy
Research interests: Critical pedagogy/cultural studies; multilogical research methods; race, class, gender, sexual, age and colonial oppression; politics of epistemology and ontology in education; socio-political study of cognition

Navin Ramankutty
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography
Canada Research Chair in Land Use and Land Cover Change
Research interests: Land use and land cover change; earth system science; global environmental change; world agricultural geography; ecosystem goods and services; food and freshwater security; human-biosphere-climate interactions; global biogeographical cycles; global climate change

Boswell Wing
Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Canada Research Chair in Earth System Science (Geochemistry)
Research interests: Study of atmospheric evolution, global redox cycles and crustal fluid flow using techniques from stable isotope geochemistry, metamorphic petrology and inverse theory

More information on Canada Research Chairs at McGill

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