Nineteen McGill researchers honoured by the Royal Society of Canada

Today, The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) announced 101 new Fellows and 58 new Members of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. The class of 2023 includes fifteen Fellows and four Members from McGill, who will be inducted at the RSC Celebration of Excellence and Engagement (COEE) on November 16 and 17, in Waterloo, Ontario.

“Congratulations to McGill’s 2023 cohort of new Royal Society of Canada Fellows and Members,” said Martha Crago, Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation. “These tremendous recognitions bestowed by the RSC are testaments to the exceptional talents of our University’s researchers, and to their dedication to pushing the boundaries of knowledge.”

Leading scholars, artists, and researchers

The RSC Fellowship is comprised of over 2,400 Canadian scholars, artists, and scientists, who are peer-elected as leaders in their field and have made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities, the sciences, and Canadian public life. The RSC recognizes excellence across disciplines by electing Fellows to one of three Academies: The Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Social Sciences, and the Academy of Arts and Humanities.

Established in 2014, the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists recognizes individuals who have begun demonstrating leading scholarly, research or artistic excellence within 15 years of having completed their post-doctoral program or its equivalent. Members of the College are elected for a period of seven years.

McGill researchers recognized 

Nine McGill researchers from five faculties were elected to the Academy of Science, including Elena Bennett, Professor in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Sustainability Science. Bennett is a world leader in ecosystem service sciences. Her pioneering body of work has led to a deeper understanding of the role of ecosystem service interactions, and the ways that human interaction with nature influences landscape resilience. In 2017, she was inducted into the RSC College.

Among the three new Fellows elected to the Academy of Social Sciences is Professor of Social Work and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Children, Families and Armed Conflict, Myriam Denov. Her award-winning scholarship and advocacy for children and families affected by war and migration has been previously recognized with the SSHRC Insight Award and the Killam Research Fellowship. In 2015, Denov was elected a Member of the RSC’s College.

Joining Denov as new Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences are Samer Faraj, Professor in the Desautels Faculty of Management and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Technology Innovation & Organizing; and Victoria Talwar, the Faculty of Education’s Interim Dean and Former Chair of the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology. Talwar was elected to the RSC College in 2017.

The three new Fellows elected to the Academy of Arts and Humanities are Jocelyn Maclure, Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair in Human Nature and Technology; Gerbern Oegema, Professor, School of Religious Studies; and Alberto Cambrosio, Professor, Department of Social Studies of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Cambrosio’s work focuses on the socio-material culture of biomedical practices, and on the study of the application of modern bio-clinical techniques to the diagnosis and the therapy of cancer, the development of innovative cancer clinical trials, and the emergence of heterogeneous translational research networks of clinicians, researchers, patients, and pharmaceutical companies.

Four new Members of the New College of Artists and Scientists were announced, among them Marie-Claude Geoffroy, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Youth Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, and Researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Geoffroy’s research focuses on youth mental health, suicide risk and protective factors, developmental origins, and most importantly, suicide prevention.

McGill’s 2023 RSC Fellows, Academy of Science:

• Elena Bennett, Professor, Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Sustainability Science.
• Louis Collins, Professor, Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Neurology and Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
• Luda Diatchenko, Pfizer Canada Professor in Pain Research, Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences; Professor, Departments of Anesthesia and Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
• Matt Dobbs, Professor, Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics, Faculty of Science; Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Radio Cosmology and Instrumentation.
• Galen Pippa Halverson, James McGill Professor and T.H. Clark Chair, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Faculty of Science.
• Madhukar Pai, Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine; Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Translational Epidemiology & Global Health; Associate Director, McGill International TB Centre.
• Joelle Pineau, Professor and William Dawson Scholar, School of Computer of Science, Faculty of Science.
• Janusz Rak, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
• Nathalie Tufenkji, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering; Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Biocolloids and Surfaces.

McGill’s 2023 RSC Fellows, Academy of Arts and Humanities:

• Alberto Cambrosio, Professor, Department of Social Studies of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
• Jocelyn Maclure, Professor and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair in Human Nature and Technology, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts.
• Gerbern Oegema, Professor, School of Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts.

McGill’s 2023 RSC Fellows, Academy of Social Sciences:

• Myriam Denov, Professor, School of Social Work, Faculty of Arts; Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Children, Families and Armed Conflict.
• Samer Faraj, Professor, Desautels Faculty of Management; Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Technology Innovation & Organizing.
• Victoria Talwar, Interim Dean, Faculty of Education; Former Chair, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education.

McGill’s 2023 Members to the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists

• Yann Allard-Tremblay, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science; Faculty of Arts.
• Simon Caron-Huot, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science; Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in High-Energy Physics.
• Mallar Chakravarty, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences; Director, Brain Imaging Centre, Douglas Research Centre.
• Marie-Claude Geoffroy, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences; Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Youth Mental Health and Suicide Prevention; Researcher, Douglas Mental Health University Institute.

Click here to read the official RSC press release. 

Click here to view the full list of the RSC Class of 2023.