Eight Faculty of Science professors honoured by Provost for exceptional research achievements
Clockwise from top left: Robert Brandenberger (Physics), Christian Genest (Mathematics and Statistics), Joel Kamnitzer (Mathematics and Statistics), Bärbel Knäuper (Psychology), Milica Miočević (Psychology), Adrian Liu (Physics), Nagissa Mahmoudi (Earth and Planetary Sciences), and Galen Halverson (Earth and Planetary Sciences)
Eight Faculty of Science professors are among this year’s cohort of Distinguished James McGill Professors, James McGill Professors, and William Dawson Scholars.
Thirty-one professors from across the McGill community were selected this year to receive these internal honours, which are awarded annually by the Provost.
“I am delighted to congratulate our colleagues on these prestigious honours," said Bruce Lennox, Dean of Science. “The leadership of these eight outstanding professors, whose work spans diverse disciplines, advances McGill’s influence both locally and globally and positions our faculty as a leader in scientific progress.”
Distinguished James McGill Professors
Robert Brandenberger (Physics) and Christian Genest (Mathematics and Statistics) were named Distinguished James McGill Professors, the University’s highest internal honour. These awards recognize the achievements of late-career researchers as international leaders in their fields.
A pioneering figure in theoretical cosmology for more than 35 years and a recipient of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Physics, Brandenberger has been a professor at McGill since 2004. Holding a Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Cosmology, he develops models of the early universe that bridge fundamental physics and cosmological observations, seeking to answer questions about its origins and structure.
Genest joined McGill’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics in 2010. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Stochastic Dependence Modeling and develops statistical models and inference techniques to study dependencies between variables, with applications in fields like finance, insurance, and hydrology. In 2023, he won the prestigious CRM-Fields-PIMS Prize, becoming the first statistician to receive this distinction.
James McGill Professors
The James McGill Professor award recognizes a tenured full professor’s status as an outstanding researcher and an international leader in their field. This year’s winners from the Faculty of Science are Joel Kamnitzer (Mathematics and Statistics), Bärbel Knäuper (Psychology, renewal), and Galen Halverson (Earth and Planetary Sciences, renewal).
Kamnitzer’s research focuses on the representation theory of complex reductive groups, using geometric and algebraic methods to explore their structures and applications. Knäuper works in the field of applied social cognition, studying the cognitive and behavioural mechanisms underlying health-related decision-making to develop evidence-based interventions.
Halverson, who is also Chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, integrates sedimentology, stratigraphy, and isotope geochemistry to reconstruct ancient environments and understand the interplay between tectonics, climate, and early life on Earth.
William Dawson Scholars
The William Dawson Scholar award recognizes tenure-track associate or assistant professors’ demonstrated potential to become global leaders in their fields. Professors Nagissa Mahmoudi (Earth and Planetary Sciences), Adrian Liu (Physics, renewal), and Milica Miočević (Psychology, renewal) are among this year’s winners of the award.
Mahmoudi and Liu both joined McGill in 2018 and are members of the Trottier Space Institute. Mahmoudi studies geomicrobiology and microbial biogeochemistry, using field- and laboratory-based techniques to investigate how microorganisms influence carbon cycling in marine environments. Liu, an astrophysicist, conducts large surveys of the universe using datasets from 21cm cosmology to map it and expand our understanding of how the first stars and galaxies formed and evolved.
A quantitative psychologist, Miočević works with advanced Bayesian methods to improve how researchers draw inferences about causal mechanisms in health, social, and behavioral science studies, especially when working with small sample sizes.