By Meaghan Thurston
Twenty-five outstanding McGill researchers are being awarded Canada Research Chairs (CRC), as announced today by the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, at the University of British Columbia.
CRCs are granted to outstanding researchers acknowledged by their peers as world leaders in their fields. The CRC program was created to enable Canadian universities to attract and retain established and emerging world-class researchers. McGill research projects that will benefit from the new funds include those investigating the genetics of pain and childhood disability, as well as the ecology of the arctic and engineered quantum systems (complete list of projects below).
There are two types of Canada Research Chairs. Tier 1 Chairs are tenable for seven years and renewable. Each Tier 1 Chair is valued at $200,000 annually. Tier 2 Chairs, valued at $100,000 annually for five years with one opportunity for renewal, are for exceptional emerging researchers, acknowledged by their peers as having the potential to lead in their field. Seventeen Tier 2 Chairs and five Tier 1 Chairs were granted to McGill researchers in this round. Two McGill researchers were granted renewals on their Tier 1 and Tier 2 awards, and one researcher was granted an “advancement” from a Tier 2 to a Tier 1 Chair.
Today’s announcement represents a total investment of over $18 million for McGill researchers and their research.
“McGill is grateful to the Canada Research Chairs program for this significant investment in university discovery and innovation,” said Rosie Goldstein, Vice-Principal (Research and International Relations). “The CRC program attracts scholars and scientists from around the world to the University and enables McGill’s top research talent to realize their ground-breaking ideas, thereby enhancing McGill’s contribution to Quebec and Canada as well as its competitiveness internationally.”
Complete listing of McGill’s new and renewed Canada Research Chairs:
Mark Brandon, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Neural Circuits of Memory.
Khanh Huy Bui, Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biolgy – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Cryo-Electron Tomography.
Bastien Castagner, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Therapeutic Chemistry.
Aziz Choudry, Associate Professor, Integrated Studies in Education –Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Social Movement Learning and Knowledge Production.
Aashish Clerk, Professor, Department of Physics – Tier 1 – Canada Research Chair in Theory of Engineered Quantum Systems.
Jessica Coon, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Syntax and Indigenous Languages.
Kyle Elliott, Assistant Professor, Department of Nature Resource Science – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Arctic Ecology.
Benjamin Fung, Associate Professor, School of Information Studies – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Data Mining for Cybersecurity.
Natalya Gomez, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences – Tier 2 –Canada Research Chair in the Geodynamics of Ice Sheet – Sea Level Interactions.
Irene Gregory Eaves, Associate Professor – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Freshwater Ecology and Global Change.
Judith Mandl, Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Immune Cell Dynamics.
Corinne Maurice, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Gut Microbial Physiology.
Timothy Merlis, Assistant Professor in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Atmospheric and Climate Dynamics.
Jeffrey Mogil, Professor, Department of Psychology – Tier 1 renewal – Canada Research Chair in Genetics of Pain.
Christopher Moraes, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Chemical Engineering – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Advanced Cellular Microenvironments.
Arijit Nandi, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health & Institute for Health and Social Policy – Tier 2 renewal – Canada Research Chair in Political Economy of Global Health.
Madhukar Pai, Professor, Dept. of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health – Tier 1 – Canada Research Chair in Translational Epidemiology and Global Health.
Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Policies and Health Inequalities.
Dilson Rassier, Dean, Faculty of Education – Tier 1 – Canada Research Chair in Muscle Biophysics.
Nancy Ross, Professor, Department of Geography – Tier 1 – Canada Research Chair in Geo-Social Determinants of Health.
Keiko Shikako-Thomas, Assistant Professor, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Childhood Disability: Participation and Knowledge Translation.
Faleh Tamimi Mariño, Faculty of Dentistry – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Translational Craniofacial Rersearch.
Sylvia Villeneuve, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry – Tier 2 – Canada Research Chair in Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Hope Weiler, Associate Professor, School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition – Tier 1 Advancement – Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Health Across the Lifespan.
Yu Xia, Associate Professor, Department of Bioengineering – Tier 1 – Canada Research Chair in Computational and Systems Biology.
Read today’s announcement, including the complete list of recipients.