During its meeting of April 21, 2016, the McGill Board of Governors approved the recommendation of the Statutory Selection Committee to promote five associate professors in the Faculty of Medicine, and five associate professors in the Faculty of Science, to the rank of full professor. These appointments are effective May 2, 2016:
Karine Auclair (Chemistry): Professor Auclair received the 2013-2014 Leo Yaffe Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her research brings together synthetic organic chemistry, enzymology and medical chemistry in order to study antibiotic drug resistance. She also studies cytochrome P450 enzymes, a class of heme proteins that are involved in a wide variety of bio-synthetic processes controlling drug metabolism and inhibition. Professor Auclair completed her PhD studies at the University of Alberta, and her BSc at the University of Quebec.
Peter Bartello (Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences and Mathematics & Statistics): A double graduate of McGill (PhD and MSc), Professor Bartello’s research integrates sophisticated numerical methods and analysis tools with atmospheric dynamics. His area of interest is rotating stratified turbulence and cloud droplet growth in turbulent environments, which has implications for pollution and the ozone layer. In addition to his teaching and research, Professor Bartello has served as President of the Canadian Meteorological and Ocean graphic Society and as Associate Editor for the Journal of Turbulence.
Alain Bitton (Medicine): Dr. Bitton is a clinical scientist who focuses on the genetics of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and the development of personalized and targeted therapies. He is a project leader on a major IBD genomic medicine consortium aimed at developing markers to predict response to biologic agents. Professor Bitton primarily teaches at the undergraduate medicine teaching level and in the clinical setting for medical and surgical residents. He has contributed substantially to the teaching in the “Back to Basics” component of the medical school curriculum, which reinforces fundamental science concepts as they apply to clinical medicine. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Medicine.
Gonzalo Cosa (Chemistry): A graduate of the University of Ottawa (PhD) and Argentina’s U Nac. De Rio Cuarto (BSc), Professor Cosa specializes in photochemistry, in particular the applications of single molecule spectroscopy to biological problems. His use of imaging and chemical tools has expanded the domains of single molecule enzymology, new single molecule methodology and materials chemistry. Professor Cosa has taught undergraduate and graduate courses, and has won three international Young Investigator Awards and an award for contributions to chemistry from the Canadian Society for Chemistry.
Gregor Fussmann (Biology): A graduate of the University of Kiel in Germany, Professor Fussmann is a pioneer in the research field of eco-evolutionary dynamics, an emerging field that suggests that ecology and evolutionary biology, long thought to be independent, overlap significantly. Professor Fussmann has presented his work at the leading institutions in Canada, USA and Europe. He has taught extensively at the undergraduate level, and supervised several graduate and postdoctoral students in his lab.
Frederic Guichard (Biology): Professor Guichard is a theoretical ecologist interested in how physical processes and active dispersal contribute to large-scale patterns of distribution of organisms. His research has deepened our understanding of why a species of limited dispersal can still experience synchronized fluctuations in abundance. In addition to his teaching, research and supervising, Professor Guichard contributed to the organization of a field study course at the Bellairs Field Station in Barbados. He obtained his PhD from the University of Laval, and his BSc from the University of Montreal.
Jeannie Haggerty (Family Medicine): Professor Haggerty teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She holds the first McGill Chair in Family and Community Medicine Research, based at St. Mary’s Hospital Centre and McGill University, and has held a number of administrative positions, including serving as Scientific Director of the Réseau de connassances en soins intégrés de premier ligne du Québec. Her research focuses on the organization and delivery of primary health care services, in particular on the measurement of the patient experience, and on developing measures of accessibility and the continuity of care. Professor Hagerty is a graduate of McGill (PhD, MSc) and Simon Fraser University (BSc).
John Kimoff (Medicine): A triple graduate of McGill (MD, MSc., BSc.), Dr. Kimoff’s research focuses on the neuromuscular control and inflammatory responses in the upper airway of patients with obstructive sleep apnea. His work has led to the development of novel treatment options for patients with mild sleep apnea, and has been used internationally in the design of evidence-based care pathways for patients with OSA, and has been incorporated into treatment guidelines. Professor Kimoff teaches first- year medical and graduate level students, and also teaches in the clinical setting. His Sleep Fellowship program, which trains practitioners from respiratory and neurology backgrounds, has attracted students from around the world.
Karsten Steinhauer (Communication Sciences & Disorders): Professor Steinhauer studies the development of neurocognitive models that explain how the brain processes different types of information in real-time. His interdisciplinary research brings together linguistics, psychology and neuroscience. He is currently conducting research on second language learning and language attrition. Professor Steinhauer came to McGill in 2003 from the University of Berlin, where he completed his undergraduate, graduate and PhD degrees.
Alexander Thiel (Neurology & Neurosurgery): A graduate of the University of Bonn, Dr. Thiel’s research into stroke recovery is comprised of two programs: a translational program for in vivo molecular imaging of post-stroke recovery, and a clinical program which investigates non-invasive brain stimulation as adjuvant therapy in early post-stroke rehabilitation. Dr. Thiel teaches at both the medical school and in the clinical setting, and is the director of the Comprehensive Stroke Centre at the Jewish General Hospital and the Neuroplasticity Research Program at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research.
The committee also approved the recruitment of Alexandra Schmidt to the Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Schmidt has been appointed an Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health. She comes to McGill from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she has been a professor since 2012. Her appointment is effective July 1, 2016.
Congratulations to all these professors on this important recognition of excellence in their pedagogy and scholarship.