Ottawa, Feb. 28, 2006 - Twenty-one outstanding Canadian researchers have been awarded a total of more than $1.5 million in the 39th annual competition for Killam Research Fellowships, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Among Canada's most distinguished research awards, the Canada Council for the Arts Killam Research Fellowships are made possible by a bequest of Mrs. Dorothy J. Killam and a gift she made before her death in 1965. The awards support scholars engaged in research projects of outstanding merit in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences, engineering and interdisciplinary studies within these fields.
Killam Research Fellowships enable Canada's best scientists and scholars to devote two years to full-time research and writing. The recipients are chosen by the Killam Selection Committee, which comprises 15 eminent scientists and scholars representing a broad range of disciplines.
After considering 82 applications, the Killam Selection Committee chose the following 10 researchers as new Killam Research Fellows for 2006:
Anthropology
Regna Darnell, University of Western Ontario: Nomadic Legacies: Rethinking Contemporary First Nations Residence and Resource Exploitation
Chemistry
R. Stan Brown, Queen's University: Metal-Ion Catalyzed Alcoholysis Reactions for the Decomposition of Neutral Organophosphorus Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors. The Development of Practical Methods for the Controlled Decomposition of Organophosphorus Pesticides and CW Agents.
Michael D. Fryzuk, University of British Columbia: New Strategies for the Activation of Molecular Nitrogen
Richard T. Oakley, University of Waterloo: Molecular Radicals as Functional Conducting Materials
Earth & Ocean Sciences
Claude Hillaire-Marcel, Université du Québec à Montréal: The Arctic-North Atlantic Climate-Ocean System under a Warmer Planet - Insights from the Past
Geological Sciences & Engineering
Kurt Kyser, Queen's University: Tracing element migration in the near-surface environment
Law
C. Kent McNeil, York University: Indigenous sovereignty and European colonization of western North America: Implications for self-government
Mathematics
Niky Kamran, McGill University: Wave equations in curved space-time
Roland Speicher, Queen's University: Second Order Freeness and Fluctuations of Random Matrices
Women's Studies
Joan I. Sangster, Trent University: Transforming Labour: Women and Paid Work in Post-World War II Canada
The following 11 Killam Research Fellowships were renewed for a second year:
Biological Sciences
Bernard Crespi, Simon Fraser University: Comparative Social Evolution: Convergent and Divergent Patterns in the Phylogenesis of Cooperation
Chemistry
Axel D. Becke, Queen's University: Density Functional Quantum Chemistry: A New Approach
East Asian Studies
Kenneth Dean, McGill University: Irrigation and Individuation: Regional Ritual Networks in Southeast China
English Literature
Ian Lancashire, University of Toronto: The Making of the Early Modern English Lexicon 1480-1700
History
Sarah Carter, University of Calgary: Clarifying and Crossing Boundaries: Great Plains Women of Canada and the U.S., 1874-1930: Comparisons, Connections and Discontinuties
Brian Young, McGill University: Patrician Families in Lower Canada/Quebec, 1760-1840
Linguistics
Denis Bouchard, Université du Québec à Montréal: Au-delà du descriptivisme : l'exaptation dans le language
Literary Studies
Bernard Andrès, Université du Québec à Montréal: Histoire littéraire des canadiens au XVIIIè siècle
Medieval Studies
Virginia Brown, University of Toronto: Writing Centres in the Lands of St. Benedict (Medieval Southern Italy) ca. 750-1550
Physics
Hong Guo, McGill University: Multi-Scale Modeling for Nanoelectronic Devices
Clifford Burgess, McGill University, McMaster University and the Perimeter Institute: String Cosmology
General information
The Canada Council for the Arts, in addition to its principal role of promoting and fostering the arts in Canada, administers and awards a number of distinguished prizes in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences and engineering. Among these are the Killam Prizes, the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes, the John G. Diefenbaker Awards, the Governor General's Literary Awards, the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts and the Walter Carsen Prizes for Excellence in the Performing Arts.
For more information about these awards and prizes, including nomination procedures, contact Carol Bream, Acting Director, Public Affairs, Research and Communications and Director, Killam Program, at (613) 566-4414 or 1-800-263-5588, ext. 5210;or Janet Riedel Pigott, Acting Director of Endowments and Prizes, at (613) 566-4414 or 1 800 263 5588, ext. 5041.
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