Ottawa, March 27, 2006 - Five prominent researchers from the National Research Council of Canada, Université de Montréal, University of British Columbia, McGill University and Dalhousie University will be honoured with the 2006 Killam Prizes, Canada's most distinguished annual awards for outstanding career achievements in engineering, natural sciences, humanities, social sciences and health sciences.
The $100,000 awards to Paul Corkum, Jean-Marie Dufour, B. Brett Finlay, Roderick Guthrie and Susan Sherwin were announced today by the Canada Council for the Arts, which administers the Killam program.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Killam Prizes, which were inaugurated in 1981 and financed through funds donated to the Canada Council by Mrs. Dorothy J. Killam in memory of her husband, Izaak Walton Killam. The Prizes were created to honour eminent Canadian scholars and scientists actively engaged in research, whether in industry, government agencies or universities. When the Canada Council was created in 1957, its mandate was to support both the arts and scholarly research; although this changed with the creation of separate research councils, the Canada Council retained responsibility for the Killam program. The Killam Fund at the Canada Council was valued at approximately $58 million as of March 31, 2005. The Killam Trusts, which fund scholarship and research at four Canadian universities, a research institute and the Canada Council, are valued at approximately $400 million.
"Izaak Walton Killam, a pre-eminent 20th century Canadian financier, and his wife, Dorothy J. Killam, devoted their fortune to building Canada's future by encouraging advanced study. Their goal was to increase the scientific and scholastic attainments of Canadians, expand the work of Canadian universities, and promote sympathetic understanding between Canadians and the people of other countries," said George Cooper, Managing Trustee of the Killam Trusts. "Killam Prize winners are Canada's finest scholars in their fields. They give life to the Killams' noble vision. Congratulations!"
The Canada Council will present the Killam Prizes at a dinner and ceremony on Thursday, April 27 at the University Club at Dalhousie University in Halifax. The media are invited to cover the ceremony, which will begin at approximately 8:30 p.m.
Biographical notes:
Paul Corkum - Natural Sciences (National Research Council of Canada)
Paul Corkum is one of the world's leading experts on lasers and how they are used in science and technology. Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, he holds a BSc from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and a PhD in theoretical physics from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. In 1973, he joined the staff of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), where he concentrated first on laser technology and then on using intense laser pulses to study and control matter. Dr. Corkum is best known for introducing many of the concepts needed to understand how intense laser light pulses interact with atoms and molecules and then confirming these concepts experimentally. His work has led to a method for producing the world's shortest light pulses. All motion of atoms moving during chemical reactions is frozen during this short time. He has even shown how to look inside an atom or molecule and to image a molecule's electrons. Dr. Corkum is the program leader of the Atomic, Molecular and Optical Science Group at the NRC. He is a member of the Royal Societies of London and of Canada. His awards include the Canadian Association of Physicists' gold medal for lifetime achievement in Physics (1996), the Royal Society of Canada's Tory award (2003), the Optical Society's Charles Townes award (2005) and the Quantum Electronics Award (2005) from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. This year, he received the American Physical Society's Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science.
Jean-Marie Dufour - Social Sciences(Université de Montréal)
Jean-Marie Dufour is an economist who specializes in econometrics, which is the examination of economic trends and relationships using mathematical and statistical techniques. He holds a BSc in mathematics (McGill University), an MSc in statistics (Université de Montréal) and a PhD in economics (University of Chicago). Dr. Dufour is now Full Professor of Economics at the Université de Montréal and, since 2001, he has held the Canada Research Chair in econometrics. His research involves important contributions to econometric methodology - especially the development of more reliable statistical tests in structural and dynamic models - and empirical work on a wide range of economic issues, such as taxation and investment, export financing, policy analysis in developing countries, dynamic macroeconomic models for forecasting and policy evaluation, and the pricing of financial assets. Dr. Dufour's work has been recognized by several fellowships and prizes, including the Canadian Economics Association's John Rae Prize for Outstanding Research, the Marcel-Dagenais prize (Société canadienne de science économique), Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Killam Research Fellowship, the Marcel-Vincent prize (Acfas), the Konrad-Adenauer Research award (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is the only scholar in Canada to have been elected a Fellow of both the Econometric Society - the main international scientific society in quantitative economics - and the American Statistical Association - the most important statistical society in the world. He was also President of the Canadian Economics Association and the Société canadienne de science économique.
B. Brett Finlay - Health Sciences (University of British Columbia)
Brett Finlay has made important contributions to the understanding of such bacteria as Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli, which are major causes of food and water poisoning, as well as the deadly SARS virus. In 1997, Dr. Finlay discovered how a particular strain of E. coli binds to its host cell. He later developed a vaccine for cattle that is successfully destroying this strain of the bacterium, reducing the human toll of E. coli outbreaks such as the one that took place in Walkerton, Ontario, in the summer of 2000. When SARS spread to British Columbia in the spring of 2003, Dr. Finlay was appointed as the scientific director of an international consortium of organizations and individuals working to fast-track the development of a SARS vaccine. Dr. Finlay's efforts have enabled Canada to emerge as an international leader in SARS vaccine research. He is currently a Professor in the University of British Columbia's Michael Smith Laboratories, as well as in the departments of Biochemistry and Microbiology, and the UBC Peter Wall Distinguished Professor. He is recognized internationally for his work and has won several prestigious national and international awards. He also serves on several editorial and advisory boards, and is a strong supporter of communicating science to the public.
Roderick I.L. Guthrie - Engineering (McGill University)
Roderick Guthrie is a world-renowned expert in the field of process metallurgy, which deals with the extraction of metals from their ores, and their subsequent refining, casting and forming operations. A graduate of Imperial College in London (UK), he is the Director of the McGill Metals Processing Centre and the Macdonald Professor of Metallurgy. One of his main areas of research has been the mathematical and physical modelling of fluid flows. These flows are an integral part of many processing operations, including iron-making, steelmaking and casting. Dr. Guthrie is an inventor and holder of some 200 patents based on 11 different inventions. His 30-year career at McGill has been interspersed with 20 summers as a full-time research consultant to the steel and aluminum industries. He has authored some 400 publications, including two textbooks: Engineering in Process Metallurgy and The Physical Properties of Liquid Metals. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, as well as a Distinguished Member of the Association for Iron and Steel Technologies.
Susan Sherwin - Humanities (Dalhousie University)
Susan Sherwin is an internationally acclaimed scholar in the field of feminist bioethics - that is, the relationship between gender and ethics in medicine and health care. She is currently a Professor of Philosophy and Gender and Women's Studies at Dalhousie University and also teaches in the university's Department of Bioethics. Although Dr. Sherwin's graduate training began in the logic and philosophy of mathematics, it quickly evolved into health care ethics and feminist philosophy. In the mid-1980s, she combined these two areas of research to consider the implications of a distinctively feminist approach to bioethics. In 1992, she published No Longer Patient: Feminist Ethics and Health Care, the first book to deal specifically with feminism and health care ethics. She was coordinator of the Feminist Health Care Ethics Research Network and has served on various advisory boards at both the national and international levels, including Heath Canada's Advisory Committee on Reproductive and Genetic Technologies. In 2000, Dr. Sherwin was awarded the Sarah Shorten Award for her contributions to the status of women in Canadian universities and in 2004 was named Distinguished Women Philosopher of the Year by the Society for Women in Philosophy in the United States. Dr. Sherwin holds a BA from York University and a PhD from Stanford University.
Corporate sponsor
Promotion of the Killam Prizes is sponsored by Scotiabank Group through support for the awards dinner and celebratory announcements in newspapers across Canada. Scotiabank is committed to supporting the communities in which we live and work, both in Canada and abroad. Recognized as a leader internationally and among Canadian corporations for its charitable donations and philanthropic activities, in 2005 the Bank provided more than $40 million in sponsorships and donations to a variety of projects and initiatives, primarily in the areas of healthcare, education and social services. Scotiabank is on the World Wide Web at www.scotiabank.com.
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 Research Fellowships, the 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. 5201 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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Media contact:Donna BalkanSenior Communications Manager1-800-263-5588 or (613) 566-4414, ext. 4134 Email this contactCarole BretonPublic Relations Officer1-800-263-5588 or (613) 566-4414, ext. 4523 Email this contact
