Two new Rising Stars
In its latest round of support to Canada’s most creative innovators, Grand Challenges Canada announced 15 new grants of $100,000 each through its Rising Stars in Global Health program. Two McGillians, Xinyu Liu and Cedric Yansouni, were among the innovators awarded. Liu, from the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, received support for his work in developing a low-cost, paper-based diagnostic device for point-of-care tests in developing nations. Dr. Yansouni’s project involves a low-cost, non-invasive test aimed for use in developing countries in the fight against the parasitic disease visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Dr. Yansouni is a researcher at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC).
Desautels honoured
Marcel Desautels, one of McGill’s most generous benefactors, was recently inducted into the Order of Ontario. Desautels has enjoyed a distinguished career that has included a private legal practice and a 25-year tenure as President and General Manager of Creditel of Canada Limited. In 1996, he created the Canadian Credit Management Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides tremendous support to business education across Canada.
Desautels was awarded membership in the Order of Canada in 2009, as well as the Friend of Education Award from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education.
Chapman receives Killam Fellowship
Colin Chapman, Canada Research Chair in Primate Ecology and Conservation, has been named one of seven recipients of a Killam Research Fellowship. The Fellowships, among Canada’s most distinguished research awards, provide $70,000 a year for two years to each of the researchers. They enable researchers to be released from teaching and administrative duties so they can pursue independent research.
Chapman plans to explore risk factors to the primate population as a result of ecological transformations, putting emphasis on disease transmission from primates to humans and vice-versa. He will be working at Kibale National Park in Uganda, where he is coordinator and co-founder of a health and conservation project. He is an internationally recognized leader in studies of primate behaviour and ecology.