NSERC Steacie Fellowships announced

Ottawa, ON – Suzanne Fortier, president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), has named the six winners of the NSERC EWR Steacie Memorial Fellowships.

The winners for 2007 are:

– Jillian Buriak, department of chemistry, University of Alberta;

– Eckhard Meinrenken, department of mathematics, University of Toronto;

– Andrew J Roger, department of biochemistry and molecular biology, Dalhousie University;

– Gregory D Scholes, department of chemistry, University of Toronto;

– Aephraim M Steinberg, department of physics, University of Toronto; and

– Nikolaus Troje, department of psychology, Queens University.

The winners receive funding of up to $400,000 over two years to support their research, and their universities receive a salary contribution to fund a replacement for the Fellows teaching and administrative duties, thus allowing the winners to focus completely on their research.

“These NSERC awards ensure that Canada’s best and brightest university professors and their students can conduct research that will contribute to our national stock of knowledge, and ultimately to our prosperity,” said Colin Carrie, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry. “I am very proud of their success and wish them the best of luck in their future endeavours.”

The NSERC Steacie Fellowships will be presented at a ceremony today in Ottawa.

The award was named after Edgar William Richard Steacie, a physical chemist and President of the National Research Council from 1952 to 1962.