Kudos

The McGill Middle East Program in Civil Society and Peace Building is proud to announce that Professor Jim Torczyner, founder and director of the program, has won the Canadian Bureau for International Education's prestigious Award for Innovation in International Education. The annual award, which will be presented to Torczyner in Ottawa on November 14, recognizes extraordinary contributions of national or international magnitude in the field of international education.

Geography master's candidates Hugues Lantuit and Tim Haltigin won the prize for best overall student poster at the 55th International Astronautical Conference held in Vancouver last month. Their work was executed under the supervision of Professor Wayne Pollard.

McGill students received the most SSHRC research grants of any Canadian university. There were 107 awards, which totalled $5.71 million. The complete list can be seen at www.sshrc.ca/web/winning/comp_results/2004_srg.pdf.

At the 2004 International Association for Computer Information Systems (IACIS) Conference, McGill management PhD student in information systems Elisa Gagnon received the Best Research Paper award for the paper she co-authored with associate professor of computer information systems Richard McCarthy, from Quinnipiac University. Gagnon's paper, titled "User Acceptance of Tactical Technology: An Evaluation of Administrative Support Systems within Higher Education," was also published in Issues in Information Systems, the official publication of the IACIS Conference. Professor Alain Pinsonneault is her supervisor.

Ronald Melzack, professor emeritus in the Department of Psychology, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Dalhousie University in May 2004.

McGill researchers Graham Bell and Rémi Quirion have been awarded the Prix du Québec, the province's highest research honour. They were honoured at a ceremony at the National Assembly, Tuesday evening, November 9.

Dr. Graham Bell, FRSC, is Director of the Redpath Museum and James McGill Professor of Biology. He was awarded the Prix Marie-Victorin for pure and applied sciences in recognition of his achievements in the field of evolutionary biology.

Dr. Rémi Quirion, CQ, FRSC, Professor of Psychiatry, is Scientific Director of the Research Centre at the McGill-affiliated Douglas Hospital, and Scientific Director of the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (Canadian Institutes of Health Research). He was awarded the Prix Wilder-Penfield in biomedical sciences for his research in neuroscience.