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2014
2015
Committed to
Achievement
Innovation. Discovery. Community. Excellence.
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cGill has always offered students the kind of world-class
academic experience and globally recognized credentials to
ensure that they can achieve their goals, wherever their lives and
careers might take them.
Now, it is committed to doing even more.
The University is committed to ensuring that every McGill student
has an opportunity to participate in an out-of-the-classroom
learning activity like an internship, academic exchange program,
industry co-op or research project. Experiences like these give
students the chance to use their academic training in real-world
contexts, and ensure that they have the tools they need to
realize their passions and become tomorrow’s global leaders.
Entrepreneurial creativity is part of McGill’s very DNA. In every
one of its faculties and schools, professors, researchers and
students are generating inspired ideas that have the potential
to change lives, nourish communities and fuel economic growth
in Canada and around the world.
McGill is committed to nurturing this innovation and entrepreneurship, and to cultivating an environment that drives discovery,
by enhancing opportunities for students to participate in cuttingedge research and by giving them the skills to bring their creative
ideas to fruition through new businesses, social enterprises
or novel collaborations.
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A McGill education isn’t limited to the classroom. McGill students
benefit from a wide range of exciting real-world learning experiences in the community – from helping genocide survivors
in Rwanda transform their lives, to exploring the complexity of
environmental issues up-close in Panama, or providing free
dental care to Montrealers in need.
In the following pages you will read how McGill’s commitment – to
innovation, to discovery, to community, and to excellence – has
been embraced by McGill’s students, professors and alumni,
who are changing their world for the better.
We want McGill to be open, connected and
purposeful … a university open to new ideas, connected
to its local and global communities, and with a clear
sense of purpose … because what we do has never
mattered more to our community and to our world.
Suzanne Fortier
Principal and Vice-Chancellor
McGILL GRAD WINS NOBEL PRIZE
the Nobel Prize in the ‘Physiology or Medicine’ category with
Norwegian scientists May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser.
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cGill alumnus John O’Keefe, MA’64, PhD’68, has been
named a co-winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Medicine,
the fourth McGill graduate to win this prestigious award in the
past five years.
Dr. O’Keefe, who is currently director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in Neural Circuits and Behaviour at University
College London, won for his contribution to the discovery of
cells that act as the brain’s ‘inner GPS,’ making it possible for
us to orient ourselves in our spatial environment. He shares
COMMITTED TO SUCCESS
McGill has once again placed among the top 25
universities globally for the 11th consecutive year
in the prestigious QS World University Rankings.
McGill maintained its ranking of 21 in the
2014 QS Rankings, which rated 800 universities
and colleges from around the world. It is one of
only two Canadian universities in the top 25,
and is once again one of the world’s top five
public institutions.
The three scientists’ discoveries have solved a longstanding
mystery: how does our brain create a map of the space
surrounding us and how can we navigate our way through
a complex environment. This will open up new avenues for
understanding other cognitive processes, such as memory,
thinking and planning, and help us understand the mechanism
underpinning the devastating spatial memory loss that affects
people with Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
“The enduring strength of McGill is the quality of our students,”
said Dean of Science Martin Grant. “On behalf of our students,
our academic and support staff, this is what makes us proud to
work at McGill.”
O’Keefe becomes the 10th McGill graduate or professor to win
a Nobel Prize, and the fifth to be recognized in the ‘Physiology
or Medicine’ category.
QS World University Rankings 2014
Overall Rankings
20
University of Toronto
21
McGill University
1
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology
2*
University of Cambridge
22* University of Michigan
2*
Imperial College London
24
4
Harvard University
25* Australian National University
5*
University of Oxford
5*
University College London
* Indicates a tie
Within Canada, McGill has been lauded by Maclean’s
magazine as Canada’s top medical-doctoral
university for the tenth straight year.
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Stanford University
8
California Institute of Technology
Maclean’s 2015 Canadian
University Rankings
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Princeton University
“It is to the McGill community’s great credit
that we are not only holding our own, but doing
so in a difficult financial climate,” said Principal
Suzanne Fortier. “Rankings are not an exact
science, and different methodologies measure
different things. The value, I think, is in the
cumulative view of an institution over time.
Eleven years in the QS Top 25 is a big part of that
long view, and I am proud of McGill’s consistency
in maintaining its standards of excellence.”
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Yale University
11
University of Chicago
1
McGill University
12
ETH Zurich
2
University of Toronto
13
University of Pennsylvania
3
University of British Columbia
14* Columbia University
4
Queen’s University
14* Johns Hopkins University
5
University of Alberta
16
King’s College London
22* National University of Singapore
École normale supérieure, Paris
25* Duke University
Medical Doctoral Category
6
McMaster University
17* University of Edinburgh
7
Dalhousie University
17* École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne
8University of Ottawa / University of Western Ontario (tie)
19
10Université Laval / Université de Montréal (tie)
Cornell University
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Committed to
Innovation
Committed to
Success
Committed to
Discovery
Committed to
Community
Committed to
Excellence
More than
22
national and
international patents
awarded to McGill
since 2012.
CONCRETE ACTION
AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
A
ttending a United Nations climate change conference during his time at McGill
helped Robert Niven, MSc Eng ’06 realize that his carbon capture theory
could help lessen the impact of climate change. Eight years later, this experience
culminated in the launch of CarbonCure Technologies, a clean-tech company that
adds waste carbon dioxide to concrete production, thereby reducing CO2 emissions.
CarbonCure’s competitively priced, ready-mix concrete looks and performs like
regular concrete and is increasingly sought after, and for good reason. Concrete,
the world’s most-used construction material, is responsible for 5% of total
greenhouse gas emissions, because traditional processes cure concrete blocks
by heating them. Bill Gates recently stated that in the last three years, China has
used as much concrete as the U.S. used in the last century.
Demand for ‘green’ building materials has skyrocketed and it is predicted that the
worldwide market will grow from $116 billion in 2013 to more than $254 billion in
2020. “We’re a wonderful fit for those countries that need to develop economically
and can’t afford environmental degradation,” said Niven, whose right-hand man is
Sean Monkman, PhD Civ Eng ‘09, a McGill classmate and CarbonCure’s
vice-president of Technology Development.
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HOT NEW ICY TREAT
The Dobson Cup startup
competition attracted more
I
ce cream aficionados no longer have to
worry about running out of freezer space
for their favourite icy treat.
150 entries and
nearly 400 participants
than
A shelf-stable frozen dessert, developed
by students in the Food Science and
Agricultural Chemistry Department at
McGill’s Macdonald Campus, is winning
kudos from some very discerning “foodies”,
including judges at the prestigious Food
Product Development Competition run by the U.S.-based Institute of Food Technologist
Students’ Association, who awarded the product third prize at this year’s competition.
The scientific secret behind this sweet treat is a gas – specifically nitrous oxide – which,
when exposed to air, generates tiny bubbles that help create the dessert’s light, creamy
texture. So, when the urge for some ice cream hits, one simply has to open the container
to let air in, place it in the freezer and enjoy the contents two hours later. It’s that simple.
from faculties and schools
across McGill.
$93,000
in start-up funding was
made available through the
2014 McGill Dobson Cup.
The next step: finding an investor to bring the product to market.
Science put to good use
The Next 36
A cultured start-up
“One-sentence summaries to make
science relevant to everyday life,” is how
Jaan Altosaar, BSc’13, sums up the idea
behind Useful Science (usefulscience.org),
an advice-filled website designed to help
us live life better, smarter and longer.
Reza Satchu, BA’91 knows firsthand
what it takes to achieve success as an
entrepreneur, and he’s eager to help
others launch their own enterprises.
In 2010 he co-founded The Next 36, an
ambitious initiative that annually selects
aspiring young entrepreneurs from across
the country to participate in an intense and
demanding training program that has been
likened to a “boot camp for entrepreneurs”.
Adam Coape-Arnold has put the skills
and knowledge he gained from the
entrepreneurship and marketing programs
at McGill’s School for Continuing Studies
to good use.
Convinced that plenty of people could benefit
from the life-improving tips that scientific
research produces on a daily basis, Altosaar
recruited a team of like-minded peers –
many of them recent McGill graduates – and
started the site. Together, they read and distill
peer-reviewed studies that are accessible
and potentially helpful to a broad audience.
Since its launch earlier this year, Useful
Science has been enthusiastically received,
and has more than 9,000 subscribers to date
for its email service. The site has won over
at least one high-profile fan. In a tweet to his
thousands of followers, best-selling author
Malcolm Gladwell summed up Useful
Science in his own succinct way: “It’s genius.”
Of the more than 1,000 university students
and recent graduates who apply to take
part each year, only 36 make the final cut.
They receive mentoring from business
leaders and instruction from some of North
America’s top management professors, all
while working in groups of three to build a
real business venture, for which they are
eligible for valuable seed funding.
This year, BCom’14 students Stéphanie
Brisson and Jaclyn Ling, and BA’13
graduates Madeleine Channen and Elyse
Lefebvre were selected to be among
The Next 36.
He and partner Eloïse Grondin-Bouchard,
who studied human nutrition at McGill’s
Macdonald campus, have launched Cult
Yogurt – a gourmet artisanal Greek yogurt
that uses heirloom cultures imported
from Greece, Bulgaria, Sweden and the
Caspian Sea. Packaged in retro-looking
glass jars, Cult Yogurt features exotic
flavours like sea salt caramel, vanilla chai,
apricot lavender and café cardamom.
The partners have high hopes for their
business venture, which captured second
place at this year’s Dobson Cup startup
competition.
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Success
Committed to
Discovery
Committed to
Community
Committed to
NEW CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF
MENTAL ILLNESS
A
landmark donation from the Irving
Ludmer Family Foundation – one of
the largest ever made in Canada to the
field of mental health – has helped to
create a new world-class centre for
the study of mental illness.
The Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics
and Mental Health will harness basic and
clinical research at the Douglas Mental
Health University Institute, McGill University,
the Montreal Neurological Institute and
Hospital, and the Jewish General Hospital
and serve as an international hub for the
study of human development and mental
health. The Centre’s ultimate goal is to
significantly reduce rates of a wide range
of devastating mental illnesses through
early detection.
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The Centre brings together three of
the world’s leading contributors to the
field: Dr. Michael Meaney, a James
McGill Professor in the Departments
of Psychiatry and Neurology, has
conducted pioneering investigations
that have uncovered the biological
mechanisms through which life experiences change gene expression. He has
earned a host of prestigious awards, most
recently the 2014 Prix du Québec and the
2014 Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize.
important biomarkers for the early
diagnosis of neurological and psychiatric
diseases. His groundbreaking work
recently earned him the Margolese
National Brain Disorders Prize from
the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Celia Greenwood, a Senior
Investigator at the Lady Davis Institute
of the Jewish General Hospital, is
using her expertise in statistical methods
to analyze genetic and genomic data
to develop and implement methods
Dr. Alan Evans, a James McGill Professor for integrating behavioural phenotypes,
epigenetic, genetic and brain imaging data.
of Neurology and Neurosurgery,
Psychiatry and Biomedical Engineering
has pioneered new neuroimaging
techniques and analytic tools that are
now universally used, and has developed
Image courtesy of Dr Najmeh Khalili-Mahani
Excellence
CRACKING THE MYSTERY
OF SUPERGLASS
I
nspired by biological structures, including teeth and shells, which
derive their strength from webs of micro-cracks throughout their form,
Dr. François Barthelat, an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering,
has produced glass that is 200 times tougher than the ordinary substance.
Using a laser engraving technique, Barthelat and his research team
etched a complex pattern of micro-cracks on glass slides. The resulting
substance was far tougher than ordinary, untreated glass. This microengraving technique has wide-reaching implications for strengthening not
only glass, but ceramics and other brittle substances.
Over the past eight years, participation
by undergraduate Science students in
research courses has risen steadily:
36%
2005-06
10
McGill graduates
or professors
have won a
Nobel Prize.
Probing the depths
of depression
A landmark study headed up by
Dr. Gustavo Turecki, a Professor in
the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of
Psychiatry and the Director of the McGill
Group for Suicide Studies, has identified
a tiny molecule that may hold a key
to improving treatment options for the
millions of individuals who suffer from
depression.
Detailed studies of brain tissue from
depressed individuals and from those who
are psychiatrically healthy revealed that
levels of a small molecule, miR-1202, found
only in humans and in other primates,
are lower in the brains of depressed individuals. Further experiments showed that
antidepressants change the levels of this
microRNA.
52%
2013-14
Looking for life on Mars
Dr. Lyle Whyte, a Professor in the
Department of Natural Resource
Sciences at McGill’s Macdonald campus,
has been invited by the European Space
Agency to join a team of elite scientists
working on the ExoMars 2018 project.
For more than 14 years Whyte has been
working in Canada’s High Arctic, conducting
research on polar microbial ecology, low
temperature biodegradation and bioremediation, and cold-adapted microorganisms.
The knowledge he has gained studying the
temperature limitations of earth’s microbial
life, and their adaptations in regions where
liquid water is scarce or seasonal, will allow
Whyte to identify areas of Mars that could
possibly contain detectable levels of life.
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Discovery
Committed to
Community
Committed to
Excellence
REBUILDING
HOPE
IN LAC-MÉGANTIC
O
ne year after a runaway freight train carrying crude oil crashed and
exploded, killing 47 people in Lac-Mégantic and destroying
half of the town’s core, the long and painful process to heal and rebuild
is underway.
Joining in these efforts are three McGill students, Bernard D’Arche,
Cécile Branco-Côté and Ségolène Rolin, whose plan to create an
incubator facility for entrepreneurs and help revitalize the town centre
has been embraced by the local community.
The trio’s idea of a “Centre Magnétique,” which originated as a project in
a Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation course taught in the Desautels
Faculty of Management, was the co-winner in the Social Entrepreneurship
category at this year’s McGill Dobson Cup startup competition.
Since then, the students received seed funding through Desautels’ Social
Economy initiative, and used it to travel to Lac-Mégantic, so that they
could consult with people, build networks and formalize plans for the
Centre Magnétique, which will be a collaborative space for organizations
involved in supporting local entrepreneurs.
Since construction requires a hefty investment, the team is now applying
for support from government organizations and NGOs. Their overriding
goal is to help retain young people in the area.
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Dentistry’s teaching clinic
moves downtown
Earlier this year, the Faculty of Dentistry
brought its undergraduate teaching clinic
and clinical and community research
activities together in a new state-of-the-art
facility. Equipped with the latest high-tech
simulation technologies, teaching equipment
and learning spaces, the new space places
the Faculty at the cutting edge of dental
education. What’s more, its central location
makes the clinic readily accessible to the
more than 4,000 Montrealers who annually
rely on its services.
McGill Dentistry’s commitment to the
Montreal community doesn’t stop there.
In addition to its main undergraduate
teaching clinic, it operates four outreach
clinics, including its award-winning mobile
clinic, which goes directly into community
centres and provides free dental care to
the city’s disadvantaged.
2013 DENTAL OUTREACH
PROGRAM STATS
$871,172
worth of free dental care
4,000
patients seen at clinic
24+
partnerships with local
community organizations
Taxing new positions
for McGill alumni
The finances of Quebec and Canada
are under the watchful eyes of two
McGill alumni.
In March of this year, Joe Oliver BA’61,
BCL’64 was appointed Canada’s new
finance minister, having been minister
of natural resources since May, 2011.
Before entering politics, Oliver was the
executive director of the Ontario Securities
Commission and the CEO of the Investment
Dealers Association of Canada.
One month later, following the Liberal
party’s majority win in Quebec’s election,
Carlos Leitao, BA’79, was named the
province’s finance minister. He is well
prepared for his challenging role. Since
earning his degree in economics at McGill,
Leitao has spent more than 30 years in
the financial and banking sectors, and in
2008 he was ranked as the world’s second
best economist by Bloomberg News.
MUSIC MAKES A DIFFERENCE
T
wo McGill Music graduates are spreading the magic
of music in their communities.
Jessica Garand, BMus’10, has created the non-profit
Opportunity Music Project, which provides free lessons,
instruments and mentoring to underprivileged kids living
in New York City. A pillar of the project is the element of
service that participants in turn provide to their community.
By giving back in the form of recitals to social groups such
as the elderly and homeless, students and their families
become active owners of the project.
Virtuoso bassoonist Dantes Rameau, BMus’05, is the
co-founder and executive director of the Atlanta Music
Project, which provides the city’s underprivileged youth with musical instruments, professional instruction and performance
experience, thereby sparking positive change in individuals and the community it serves.
“Our kids work very hard. We pick them up off the streets. They are so talented, and the teachers who work with them are such
dedicated professionals,” said 31-year-old Rameau, who was selected for Ebony Magazine’s 2013 Power 100, a list of the most
influential African-Americans in the U.S. that also included the likes of Barack Obama, Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey.
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Committed to
Photo: Andrew Dobrowolskyi
Excellence
DUVERNAY-TARDIF
TACKLES TWO CAREERS
M
cGill Medical student Laurent Duvernay-Tardif is putting his
text books aside temporarily so that he can pursue his other
dream: to play professional football.
The 23-year-old offensive tackle and two-time captain of the Redmen football team is now playing with the Kansas City Chiefs, making him only the 10th CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) football
player ever recruited by a National Football League team. Even more
exceptional is the fact that Duvernay-Tardif managed to excel at
McGill with just one football practice a week, while balancing medical school duties ranging from surgery rotations, to treating injured
athletes and caring for premature babies.
During his time playing for McGill, the 6-foot-5 inch, 321-pound
Duvernay-Tardif showed exceptional talent. He received the Forbes
Trophy as McGill’s male athlete of the year, along with the 1938
Champions Award for combining leadership with athletic prowess
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and academic excellence,
and won the prestigious
J.P. Metras Trophy as the
most outstanding lineman
in Canada. Last year he was
one of the inaugural recipients of the Governor General’s Academic
All-Canadian Commendation. All the while, he maintained a perfect
4.0 GPA in his medical studies.
“Many people told me I would have to make a choice – pick football
or medicine – that I couldn’t do both, but I wanted both careers. I
think you always have to push yourself in life,” said Duvernay-Tardif,
who plans to devote two off-season months per year to finishing his
medical degree, so he can graduate four years from now.
NAHUM SONENBERG RECEIVES
WOLF PRIZE
T
his past June, Nahum Sonenberg, a James McGill
Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, was
awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize in Medicine, which is
widely considered to be the harbinger of the Nobel Prize.
More than two dozen recipients of the Wolf Prize have
gone on to be awarded a Nobel.
A world renowned expert in the fields of protein translation
control and cancer, Prof. Sonenberg has conducted pioneering
research on the control of protein synthesis in such diverse
areas as cancer, autism, learning and memory and
microRNA function.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada , the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society of London,
Prof. Sonenberg has earned numerous world-class distinctions, including: the Robert L. Noble Prize, the Killam Prize
for Health Science, the Gairdner Award, the Lewis S. Rosenstiel
Award for Distinguished Work in Medical Science, and the
CIHR Researcher of the Year award. He is a Howard Hughes
Medical Investigator (HHMI) and senior international scholar,
an Officer of the Order of Canada, and was awarded the Queen
Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee and McLaughlin Medals.
NSERC celebrates
McGill research
Joint Executive MBA
wins accolade
Cancer scientists
honoured
Two McGill researchers have been awarded
2014 E.W.R Steacie Memorial Fellowships
by the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
In its first-ever global ranking of Executive
MBA programs, the Economist magazine
has placed the McGill-HEC Montréal EMBA
program 29th in the world.
Breakthrough discoveries by Prof. Ehab
Abouheif in the Department of Biology
have revealed that dormant ancestral
genes exist in all animals, and that it
is possible to revive these genes with
the right triggers. Also recognized was
Prof. Aashish Clerk in the Department of
Physics, who has developed new theories
demonstrating how to harness the quantum
interaction between photons and mechanical motion in engineered systems.
Launched in 2008 as one of the world’s
first truly bilingual executive MBA programs,
the McGill-HEC Montréal EMBA is designed
to meet the development needs of experienced individuals from a wide variety of
industries and backgrounds. It is highly
participatory and encourages collaboration
among participants, allowing individuals
to begin improving their practice of
management and actually impact their
organizations while in the program.
Two of McGill’s renowned cancer scientists
have been honoured with the 2013 Prix
du Québec, the provincial government’s
highest accolade in recognition of
remarkable careers.
In addition, McGill doctoral candidate
Michael Lifshitz, working in the cognitive
neuroscience lab of Prof. Amir Raz, has won
NSERC’s André Hamer Postgraduate Prize.
Dr. Phil Gold was awarded the WilderPenfield Prize for his role in discovering
the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), which
has become the most frequently-used
blood test in modern oncology.
Prof. Michel L. Tremblay, the former
director of the McGill Cancer Centre, who
oversaw its major expansion to renaming as
the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer
Research Centre, was presented with the
Armand-Frappier Prize.
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University Advancement
McGill University
Martlet House
1430 Peel Street
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3A 3T3
Telephone: 514-398-5000
Email: info.alumni@mcgill.ca
www.mcgill.ca