Three from McGill named to Order of Canada

by Daniel McCabe

Three McGill professors were named to the Order of Canada earlier this month by Governor General Romeo LeBlanc. Emeritus professor of surgery Anthony Dobell, oncology professor Richard Margolese and atmospheric and oceanic sciences professor Lawrence Mysak are all recipients of one of the federal government's highest honours.

Dr. Anthony Dobell, a pioneering cardiovascular surgeon, introduced open heart surgery to McGill's network of teaching hospitals in 1956. Dobell performed the Royal Victoria Hospital's first heart transplant in 1968 and became the director of the Montreal Children's Hospital's pediatric cardiovascular surgery division that same year. He went on to become surgeon-in-chief at the Children's and director of McGill's Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Division.

Dobell trained several generations of heart surgeons at McGill and was the first Canadian to be named president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons in the United States. As chair of the Committee in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Dobell played an important role in establishing national standards for training in his field.

Dr. Richard Margolese is one of Canada's foremost experts on breast cancer and one of the country's most respected oncologists. Margolese has served as president of the National Cancer Institute of Canada and as national director of the Canadian Cancer Society. The director of surgical oncology at the Jewish General Hospital, he also occupies McGill's Herbert Black Chair in surgical oncology.

Margolese's research has shown the effectiveness of limited breast surgery for many breast cancer patients and he has become an influential advocate for replacing radical surgery with a combination of less invasive procedures. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast Cancer Project that conducts collaborative studies on anti-cancer treatments throughout North America.

Professor Lawrence Mysak was the founding director of the University's Centre for Climate and Global Change Research in 1990, an interdisciplinary grouping of researchers from seven departments with expertise ranging from climate variability to the economic implications of environmental change.

The past president of the Royal Society of Canada's Academy of Science, Mysak's research has led to new strategies for improved fisheries management, offshore development and navigation. The author of over 140 scientific papers, Mysak holds the Canada Steamship Lines Chair of Meteorology at McGill. He is well regarded for his innovative applications of mathematics to physical oceanography and his fundamental research on natural climate variability and paleoclimates.

Other new members of the Order of Canada include David Lank, the former chair of the McCord Museum of Canadian History and an prominent member of the McGill Associates, and Sarah Paltiel, a member of McGill's Board of Governors and the former director-general of Dawson College.