Emeritus professors

Emeritus Professors

Maier Blostein

Professor Emeritus
Faculty of Engineering

Maier Blostein completed his BA and MA at McGill, then did a PhD at the University of Illinois (1963). That same year he returned to McGill as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, becoming full professor less than a decade later.

In the '70s he was pivotal in the creation of INRS-Telecommunications, an organization that linked the communications industry with academe. In 1988, he led some of Canada's leading telecommunications researchers in creating the Canadian Institute for Telecommunications Research (CITR) as part of the innovative Network of Centres of Excellence program launched by the Government of Canada. CITR's novel research programs in new technologies had a major impact on university research. Recently Blostein was awarded the Fessenden Medal of IEEE Canada for "visionary and inspirational leadership in telecommunications research."

Mervyn Gornitsky

Professor Emeritus
Faculty of Dentistry

A McGill graduate from, and member of, the Faculty of Dentistry, Mervyn Gornitsky trained in oral and maxillofacial surgery at New York University. From 1971 to 1998, he was chief of the Department of Dentistry at the Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital, where he established a major clinic for the treatment of immuno-compromised patients.

His work on the oral health complications of AIDS patients is particularly notable, having conducted trials of therapies for candidiasis and oral Kaposi's sarcoma, two common oral lesions that afflict AIDS patients.

Gornitsky has developed an innovative approach using electrical stimulation to bone healing around dental implants, and is looking at how to preserve salivary gland function during radiation therapy of patients with head and neck carcinoma.

Hermann Albert Landolt

Professor Emeritus
Faculty of Arts

An expert in Persian and Islamic studies, Hermann Albert Landolt joined McGill in 1964, becoming a full professor 12 years later. As a teacher and researcher, he has achieved an international reputation for the depth and breadth of his scholarship on Sufism, Islamic philosophy, and Persian language and culture.

The quality and quantity of his research is impressive, and Landolt's teaching abilities are evident in the large number of his MA and PhD students that now hold academic positions at universities around the world. He has also taught in France, Indonesia, England and Iran.

Professor Landolt is now a senior research fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, and continues to publish scholarly works in several languages.

Richard Loulou

Professor Emeritus
Faculty of Management

Richard Loulou joined the Faculty of Management as assistant professor in 1970 and, except for academic leaves, has stayed with McGill ever since. He received a Doctorat d'État in 1978, and in 1984 was promoted to full professor. He served as director of the PhD program for six years and as academic associate dean for seven years. Loulou has done many studies for government, and was director of GERAD, a Montreal-based inter-university research centre, for four years. Loulou's reputation was made by his early work on the theory of waiting lines and its applications. Later he turned his scholarly eye to studies of manufacturing and energy systems and, more recently, the environment.

C. Kirk Osterland

Professor Emeritus
Faculty of Medicine

Kirk Osterland received his undergraduate medical training at the University of Manitoba, then went on to Cornell University, the Rockefeller Institute, and the Institut Pasteur. In 1973, Osterland was recruited to be Professor of Medicine and Experimental Medicine at McGill, and Director of the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine. Osterland's clinical research investigated mechanisms of inflammation and autoimmune function in diseases such as arthritis, as well as the immunology and biology of aging. He is widely published in these fields, and has served on several national and international research and medical bodies, as well as on the editorial boards of a number of journals.

Charles R. Scriver

Professor Emeritus
Faculty of Medicine

As a researcher, Charles Scriver has published some 300 papers on human biochemical genetics. As a doctor he focused on children's health. It was through his efforts that vitamin D was added to milk in Quebec, which had a direct impact on children's health. Scriver trained at McGill, Harvard and the University of London. He joined McGill's Department of Pediatrics in 1961, becoming full professor in 1969. In 1978 he was appointed to the Department he helped create, that of Human Genetics.

Scriver served as president of a number of pediatric and genetic research societies, both nationally and internationally, and as a member of the World Health Organization and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scientific Review Board. He was one of the first Bethune Exchange Lecturers in China.

Gordon W. Smith

Professor Emeritus
Faculty of Engineering

Gordon W. Smith enrolled at McGill as an undergraduate engineering student in 1954, and he hasn't left since. After completing a BA, MA and PhD in engineering at McGill, he was appointed as assistant professor of Mining, Metals and Materials Engineering in 1967, becoming a full professor nine years later.

Smith conducted research in mineral flotation and separation and authored important texts -- notably the industry standard, Milling Practice in Canada. His devotion to his field of extractive metallurgy and mineral processing was only equalled by his focus on training young engineers. He became associate dean of student affairs in 1980, a post he held until 1992, then returned to his department bolstered with a deepened understanding of undergraduate affairs.

Sherwin Maslowe

Professor Emeritus
Faculty of Science

Sherwin Maslowe taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for two years before joining McGill's Department of Mathematics and Statistics as an assistant professor in 1972, being promoted to full professor in 1981.

Maslowe has published in many critical journals, like the Journal of Fluid Mechanics and Studies in Applied Mathematics. He was asked to write a defining review paper for the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics on critical layers in shear flows. Fifteen years after publication, this work is still often cited.

In 1978 Maslowe received the J.S. Guggenheim fellowship, and in 199? he was invited to be a Russell Severance Springer visiting professor at University of California, Berkeley, a centre of mathematical research in fluid mechanics.

Douglas G. Stairs

Professor Emeritus
Faculty of Science

When Douglas Stairs came to McGill in 1964, his field of study -- high energy physics --- was nearly non-existent in Canada. So much so that in his early years the physics professor had to split his research time between McGill and Brookhaven National Laboratory in New England. His work there involved some of the earliest testing of the quark hypothesis. He and his colleagues led a Canadian team in an international collaborative study on the detailed structure of the proton. From 1981 to 1991 he served as chairman of the council of the Canadian Institute of Particle Physics, which coordinates all Canadian experimental high-energy research activities. His tireless efforts made it possible for Canada and McGill to participate in some of the major international high-energy experiments.