TOP PROFS HONOURED

SPRING CONVOCATION PROFESSORS EMERITI

Claude de Montigny, FRCP (C)
MD,CM, PhD (Université de Montréal)
Health Sciences – Wednesday, May 28, 2 p.m.

Claude de Montigny joined the McGill Department of Psychiatry in 1977. A renowned psychopharmacology investigator, Dr. de Montigny's research in antidepressants and other psychoactive drugs has contributed to the development of strategies for optimizing the their use. Dr. de Montigny's work has had a major impact on how depression is treated.

Dr. de Montigny was the first psychiatrist in Canada to be awarded an MRC Centennial Fellowship and an MRC Scientific Award and the first Canadian to earn the NARSAD Award (National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression). A prolific author, Claude de Montigny has published over 200 scientific articles and ranks among the top 0.5% of the world's most cited scientists.

Nicholas de Takacsy
BSc (Loyola College), MSc (Université de Montréal), PhD (McGill University)
Science 'B', Thursday, May 29, 2 p.m.

Professor Nicholas de Takacsy joined McGill University in 1968, and quickly made a name for himself as one of the few nuclear theorists who conducted research in both forefront areas of nuclear science: nuclear structure and nuclear reactions. As a professor, he rapidly rose through the ranks and embarked on a parallel career as an academic administrator that began with his appointment as chair of the Department of Physics.

Professor de Takacsy twice served as Associate Dean for the Faculty of Science, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Science, Associate Provost, and as Registrar and Executive Director of the Admissions, Recruitment and Registrar's Office.

Godfried T. Toussaint
BSc (University of Tulsa), MASc (University of British Columbia), PhD (University of British Columbia)
Science 'B', Thursday, May 29, 2 p.m.

When he first came to McGill 35 years ago, Professor Godfried Toussaint established himself as a leader in the emerging computational geometry field and an important investigator in pattern recognition. Along the way, Professor Toussaint garnered numerous awards for his innovative research, including a Killam Senior Research Fellowship.

In 2001, Professor Toussaint won McGill University's David Thomson Award for his graduate teaching. The course, computational geometry and its associated web pages, has garnered international acclaim.

Today, Professor Toussaint is investigating the evolution of rhythmic patterns in music, dance, and drumming – creating an important research link between the School of Computer Science and the Schulich School of Music.

Urs Kühnlein
BSc (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), PhD (University of Geneva)
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences – Monday, June 2, 2 p.m.

Urs Kühnlein played a key role in the discovery of restriction endonucleases, a key tool in gene cloning. This discovery was a major component in the work that earned his supervisor, Dr. Werner Arber, the 1978 Nobel Prize in Medicine. In 1985, Professor Kühnlein was named to the Shaver-NSERC Industry Chair in Poultry Biotechnology in McGill’s Department of Animal Science where he identified the quantitative-trait loci that affect economically important traits in poultry. In addition to his work with poultry, Professor Kühnlein has also employed his expertise in DNA fingerprinting to broaden the understanding of population genetics and the mating behaviours of many species of wildlife.