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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