McGill launches Collaborative for AI and Society

New efforts to mobilize around the challenges and opportunities of AI are taking shape at McGill. On December 4, a new McGill Collaborative for AI & Society (McCAIS) held an internal launch event at the McGill Faculty Club, where more than 70 participants from across the McGill campus gathered for an afternoon of collaboration and discussion.

McGill launches Canada Award to offset tuition increase for Canadian undergraduate students

McGill University is launching a $3,000 Canada Award to offset tuition increases for Canadian undergraduate students from outside Quebec in certain disciplines. Approximately 80% of new Canadian students from outside Quebec coming to McGill will be eligible for the new award.

Details of the award, including the programs eligible for the award, will be available on McGill's Undergraduate Admissions website by December 22, 2023.

Interview with Physics Professor Victoria Kaspi in Nature

In a new interview with Nature, Physics Professor and Shaw laureate Victoria Kaspi reflects on the inaugural Hong Kong Laureate Forum and how researchers can foster communication across different generations of scientists. 

What was the most common question students asked at panel discussions?

Fighting disinformation in Quebec

Until now, most disinformation research, datasets, and tools to protect users like bot detectors, have only included English-language social media. This lack of linguistic diversity leaves Francophone internet users in Quebec and beyond more vulnerable to disinformation as the phenomenon becomes increasingly pervasive in online spaces. 

Global Undergraduate Awards- Glen Loo

Recently, Glen Loo from the Lumb Group received an award from the Global Undergraduate Awards (GUA) for the work he did during a 5-month research internship. Glen had come to McGill from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and worked with graduate mentor Carlos Azpilcueta-Nicolas on the photoinduced dearomatization of biaryl compounds.

Stuck in traffic: Researchers identify cellular traffic jams in a rare disease

Researchers zero in on spinocerebellar ataxia type 6, a disease that disrupts brain function

December at the Redpath Museum

Want to know what's happening at the Museum this month? Make sure to check our December Newsletter!

Pallavi Sirjoosingh: Winner, Principal’s Prize for Teaching Excellence (Faculty Lecturer)

A packed Leacock 132 can be an intimidating place when you’re down in front and looking back up at more than 600 undergrads about to study university-level chemistry for the first time.

It’s exactly where Pallavi Sirjoosingh wants to be.

What skin piercings can teach us about environmental change

In a new study from McGill University, researchers bring science into an unexpected setting: a tattoo parlor. In this first characterization of the human piercing microbiome, the uniquely human cultural practice of piercing serves as a model system to help us better understand how biological communities (re)assemble after catastrophic environmental disturbances.

A first look inside Li-ion batteries

What if you could charge your electric vehicle in the same amount of time it takes to fill a tank of gas?  

Rustum Choksi: Winner, Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching (Full Professor)

Students coming from high school often arrive with specific – and mistaken – expectations of the mathematics classroom. In Rustum Choksi’s courses he emphasizes a pedagogical paradigm shift, whereby mathematics is not about memorization nor symbolic manipulations and calculations but rather a beautiful and diverse discipline which is often a means to understanding our complex world.

Martin Grant earns Morty Yalovsky Lifetime Achievement Award

Early in his career in physics, Martin Grant thought he had it all figured out.

“When I started, I said to myself ‘well, this is good. Nobody’s going to tell me what to do,” said Grant, Emeritus James McGill Professor and former Dean of the Faculty of Science. “I’ve got the world’s greatest postdoc – me – and I’ll be able to do all the projects that I want to do pretty much by myself.”

The Hackathon returns to McGill campus

On November 3-5th, the McGill Physics Hackathon held its eighth annual event in person at the Rutherford Physics Building. The event attracted around 150 hackers, from CEGEP and undergraduate backgrounds, who joined forces to produce spectacular projects.

Congratulations to all those who participated!