June 1, 2010 – Ottawa, Ontario
Today, the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology), joined Suzanne Fortier, President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), to announce the winners of Canada's top science and engineering awards.
A team comprised of Christian Marois of the National Research Council Canada; David Lafrenière of the University of Toronto; and René Doyon of the Université de Montréal, were awarded the John C. Polanyi Award for capturing the first-ever image of a planetary system outside of our own solar system and have opened the door to imaging other distant regions of space in the search for additional planets.
"Our government is committed to supporting Canada's researchers in order to improve the quality of life of Canadians and strengthen our economy," said Minister Goodyear. "We are very proud of the role that we play in helping and encouraging scientists across the country to excel in their work."
The discovery of Dr. Marois and his team has not only made a major contribution to scientists' understanding of the cosmos, it has also captured the imaginations of millions, helping to inspire a new generation of Canadian scientists.
Dr. John C. Polanyi is a former NRC researcher who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1986 for the development of a new field of research in chemistry called reaction dynamics. He was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the NRC Laboratories in Ottawa from 1952 to1954. The prize was shared between Polanyi, Dudley R. Herschbach, and Yuan T. Lee. For more information about all of today's award winners, please visit the NSERC web site.
