NSERC announces award winners for natural science and engineering excellence

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) announced its annual awards at a gala event at the Governor General's residence on February 17th in Ottawa. The evening's top prize, the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, went to Dr Axel Becke, a chemistry professor at Dalhousie University. Becke took the medal and its $1-million purse for his pioneering work on density functional theory. The evening's other award winners were:

John C Polanyi Award: Chris Eliasmith, Univ of Waterloo

Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering: Paul Schaffer, TRIUMF; François Bénard, Univ of British Columbia, Anna Celler, Univ of British Columbia; Michael Kovacs, Western Univ; Thomas J. Ruth, TRIUMF; and, John Valliant, McMaster Univ.

Gilles Brassard Doctoral Prize for Interdisciplinary Research: Kaylee Byers and Rowan Cockett, Univ of British Columbia

André Hamer Postgraduate Prize: Michael McTavish, Univ of Waterloo

Howard Alper Postdoctoral Prize: Jérémy Leconte, Univ of Toronto

EWR Steacie Memorial Fellowships

  Daniel Ansari, Western Univ

  Steven J. Cooke, Carleton Univ

  Leah Cowen, Univ of Toronto

  Jiangchuan Liu, Simon Fraser Univ

  Aaron Wheeler, Univ of Toronto

  Wei Yu, Univ of Toronto

Synergy Awards for Innovation

  Category 1: Small- and Medium-sized Companies

  Carey Simonson and Robert W Besant, Univ of Saskatchewan

  Manfred Gerber, Venmar CES Inc.

  Category 2: Large Companies

  David Blowes, Univ of Waterloo

  Richard Amos, Carleton Univ

  David Sego, Univ of Alberta

  Leslie Smith, Univ of British Columbia

  Gord Macdonald, Diavik Diamond Mines Inc

  Category 3: Two or More Companies

  Claire Deschênes, Laval Univ

  Luc Deslandes, Voith Hydro Inc

  Normand Désy, Andritz Hydro Canada

  Anne-Marie Giroux, Hydro-Québec

  Michael Sabourin, Alstom Énergies Renouvelables Canada Inc

  Robin Sinha, CanmetENERGY,

  Natural Resources Canada

  Category 4: Colleges

  David Humphrey, Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology

  Mark Surman, Mozilla Foundation.

For more information on the winners, go to www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Prizes-Prix/Index_eng.asp

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