Killam prizes announced, $1M awarded to Canadian scholars

Ottawa, ON – The Canada Council for the Arts has announced the recipients of the 2016 Killam Program awards. The Canada Council Killam Program was inaugurated in 1967 with a donation by Mrs. Dorothy J. Killam in memory of her husband Izaak Walton Killam.

Five Canadian professors will each receive a $100,000 prize in recognition of their exceptional career achievements in the diverse fields of humanities, engineering, natural sciences, social sciences and health sciences. Another $840,000 will be awarded over two years in Killam Research Fellowships, granting six scholars full teaching and administrative release so they may pursue independent research.  Winners were selected by peer assessment through an independent evaluation committee.

Killam Prizes: The 2016 Killam Prize winners are a dynamic group of scholars, whose lifetime of work has impacted the lives of Canadians and citizens around the world. Awarded to:

• Natural Sciences – Axel Becke, Dalhousie University, is a 2015 Herzberg Medal winner whose work in quantum chemistry, specifically Density Functional Theory, has transformed computational science. 

• Humanities – Isabelle Daunais, McGill University, is an internationally acclaimed author and leading scholar of French literature, particularly Flaubert and romanticism.

• Engineering – Elizabeth Edwards, University of Toronto, a renowned chemical engineer whose research has led to the development of bioremediation strategies and tools for cleaning up groundwater pollutants.

• Health Sciences – Steven Narod, University of Toronto, Women’s College Hospital, is a world-leader in the field of breast and ovarian cancer genetics, shaping current knowledge of cancer assessments and risks amongst carriers of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations.

• Social Sciences – Daniel Trefler, University of Toronto, is a celebrated economist researching the impact of international trade on innovation, employment, earnings and domestic institutions, focusing on Canadian competitiveness and prosperity.

Killam Research Fellowships: The Killam Research Fellowships support scholars engaged in ongoing projects of outstanding merit and widespread interest in their fields. Awarded to:

• Susanna Braund, University of British Columbia – Virgil Translated

• Christophe Caloz, École Polytechnique de Montréal– Time-Varying Metamaterials: A Novel Paradigm in Modern Science and Technology

• Charles Gale, McGill University – Nuclear Matter under Extreme conditions: Elucidating the Properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma

• Andrew Gonzalez, McGill University– From science to solutions: biodiversity science for global environmental change

• Stephen McAdams, McGill University– Timbre on my mind: Toward a perceptual foundation for a theory of orchestration

• Arthur Ripstein, University of Toronto – Kant and the Law of War

“The men and women honoured by the Killam Program are renowned specialists in their fields. But their impact goes far beyond academia,” said Simon Brault, Canada Council director and CEO. “Their creative insights and innovation help us to better understand the world around us – and lead us on a path to resolving the pressing environmental, economic, health and social problems of the day.”

The Killam Prize presentation ceremony will be held at Rideau Hall on May 3rd.