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A McGill University astrophysicist known for her exacting studies of some of the strangest and most powerful stars in the universe has won the Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal, Canada’s top science prize.
Victoria Kaspi, director of the McGill Space Institute, is the first woman to claim the prestigious award in its 25-year history, a startling reminder of the overwhelming gender imbalance that persists at the highest levels of Canadian academia.
With major discoveries throughout her career in the study of rapidly spinning compact neutron stars called pulsars, Kaspi has a long list of recognitions and awards to her name, including: the 2015 Canada Council Killam Prize, election as Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the US Annie Jump Cannon Award, the Rutherford Medal from the Royal Society of Canada, and the Prix Marie-Victorin, Quebec’s highest honour for scientists. She holds a Canada Research Chair and the Lorne Trottier Chair in Astrophysics and Cosmology at McGill, where she is also the Director of the McGill Space Institute.
The Herzberg award includes a grant of up to $1 million, distributed over five years, to use for personal university-based research or to direct in some related way, such as the establishment of research Chairs in the winner’s name at Canadian universities.
“Being awarded the Herzberg medal is a tremendous honour and thrill,” said Kaspi. “The funds provided as part of this award will be used in training the next generation of scientists in state-of-the art astrophysics research and, for example, in high performance computing and management of big data as part of the upcoming new Canadian CHIME radio telescope and its quest to understand the origin of the mysterious phenomenon of Fast Radio Bursts.”
NSERC also announced today that Elena Bennett, Department of Natural Resource Sciences and School of Environment, is the recipient of an E.W.R Steacie Memorial Fellowship. NSERC awards up to six of these two-year, $250,000 fellowships annually to enhance the career development of outstanding and highly promising scientists and engineers.
“This fellowship will allow me and my team to pursue scientific discoveries about some of the world’s most pressing problems, such as how to feed a world of 10 billion people without destroying the life support systems of the planet,” said Bennett. “These questions are especially critical for Canada, a country whose well-being depends directly on the sustainability of its natural resource use.”
In addition, doctoral candidate Yasser Gidi, working in the chemical imaging lab of Prof. Gonzalo Cosa of the Department of Chemistry, has won NSERC’s Gilles Brassard Doctoral Prize for Interdisciplinary Research.
“Receiving this award for our interdisciplinary research work really encourages me to continue on this path,” said Gidi. “As a chemist, working in biophysics has truly enriched my education and scientific career, allowing me to interact with scientists trained in completely different fields yet seeking the same goals.”
“McGill is grateful to NSERC for recognizing three of our exceptional researchers with these prestigious awards,” said Prof. Suzanne Fortier, Principal and Vice-Chancellor. “We congratulate Prof. Kaspi and Prof. Bennett, for their leadership in the exciting areas of astrophysics and earth systems science. I also extend my congratulations to Mr. Yasser Gidi, the winner of the Gilles Brassard Doctoral Prize, for his outstanding research in the science of disease.”
All three prizes will be presented to the researchers at a special ceremony today at the Governor General of Canada’s residence, Rideau Hall, in Ottawa.
Agencies/Canadajournal
