OTTAWA, November 7, 2005 -- The Honourable David L. Emerson, Minister of Industry, today announced the appointment of Dr. Suezone Chow, Gerry Protti, Dr. Indira V. Samarasekera, Carol Stephenson, and Dr. Emõke J.E. Szathmáry to three-year terms on the Prime Minister's Advisory Council on Science and Technology.
"I welcome each one of the appointees to the Council and look forward to their input," said Minister Emerson. "Each appointee has unique experience and will be able to provide valuable insights about issues related to the sustained development and commercialization of science and technology for the benefit of Canada. These respected members of the scientific, academic and business worlds are eminently qualified to advise on this vital part of Canada's future economic growth."
Dr. Suezone Chow is currently Scientific Advisor with Forestry Innovation Investment Ltd., a British Columbia Crown corporation. He is a former President of the International Academy of Wood Science, and was Vice President, Research and Development, with Canadian Forest Products Ltd. He also served on the Premier's Advisory Council on Science and Technology in British Columbia. Dr. Chow has published 90 papers and obtained 18 international patents. He was named to the Order of British Columbia in 1992.
Gerry Protti is Executive Vice-President, Corporate Relations, for EnCana Corporation. He has public sector experience as Assistant Deputy Minister with the Government of Alberta's Energy Department. Mr. Protti is a governor of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), and serves on the board of the Public Policy Forum and the Advisory Council to the Faculty of Business at the University of Alberta. He received a Master of Arts (Economics) from the University of Western Ontario, and has completed the Wharton Business School's Advanced Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Indira V. Samarasekera is President of the University of Alberta and is a leading expert in heat transfer and stress analysis. She is a member of the Science and Engineering Advisory Committee of the Alberta Ingenuity Fund and has served as a member of Council of the National Research Council of Canada. She has sat on presidential advisory committees at MIT and Carnegie Mellon University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Dr. Samarasekera was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2002.
Carol Stephenson is the Dean of the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. Prior to accepting this position, she was President and CEO of Lucent Technologies Canada. She also serves on the Government of Canada's External Advisory Group on Modernizing Human Resources Management in the Public Service and the Board of the Communications Research Centre. Ms. Stephenson is a graduate of the University of Toronto, and has completed the Executive Program at the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Business Administration, as well as the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Dr. Emõke J.E. Szathmáry is President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manitoba. Dr. Szathmáry is a Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America (1989) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1995). She is the author of over 80 scientific articles and reviews, and has co-edited three books. In 1998 the American Anthropological Association named her Distinguished Lecturer, which is the highest recognition given by the anthropological discipline for a lifetime of exemplary scholarship. Dr. Szathmáry was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2003.
The Prime Minister's Advisory Council on Science and Technology was created on July 5, 1996. The Council's role is to provide expert advice on national research and innovation goals and policies, and their application to increasing Canadian economic, social and cultural well-being. Within this context, it is mandated to identify emerging issues and develop recommendations for forward-looking agendas with a view to positioning Canada in a global context.
For more information, please contact:
Christiane Fox
Office of the Honourable David L. Emerson
Minister of Industry
(613) 995-9001
Media Relations
Industry Canada
(613) 943-2502
