Dr. Jean Pierre Julien, from the Centre for Research in Neuroscience, has received a Senior Scientist Award from the Medical Research Council. Julien is the director of the Montreal General Hospital's transgenic facility where he has earned international attention for his studies involving mice who have had specific genes either inserted or removed. His research focuses on the role certain proteins play in neurodegenerative disease.
Dr. Brenda Milner, from the Montreal Neurological Institute, was renewed as an MRC Career Investigator, an award she has held for 32 consecutive years. The awards are bestowed on the country's most distinguished scientists and only two of the prizes were granted this year. Milner also recently received the William G. Lennox Award from the American Epilepsy Society and was a co-recipient of the Neuronal Plasticity Prize from the Fondation Ipsen pour la recherche thérapeutique.
Professor John Dealy, dean of the Faculty of Engineering, has been elected a Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the plastics industry. Dealy is well known for his numerous publications dealing with polymer rheology and rheological measurement. According to the SPE, Dealy is an "outstanding experimentalist in a field dominated by theorists."
Dr. Yogesh Patel, from the Department of Medicine, has earned an MRC Distinguished Scientist Award for his work in neuroendocrinology. The MRC presents five such awards nationally.
Dr. Ronald Guttmann, director of the McGill University Centre for Clinical Immunobiology and Transplantation, has been awarded the Distinguished Achievement Prize of the American Society of Transplantation Physicians. Guttmann is internationally known for his research on the development of genetically controlled models of graft rejection and prolongation and his work revealed the cellular nature of the immunodeficiency in patients chronically receiving anti-rejection drugs.
Professor Suzelle Barrington, from the Department of Agricultural Engineering, has been elected president of the Canadian Society of Agricultural Engineers for the year 1996-97.
Dr. Trevor Owens, Dr. Jack Antel, Dr. Alan Evans and Dr. Gordon Francis, from the Montreal Neurological Institute, along with Dartmouth University scientist Dr. Jeff Dunn, won the London Life Award from the London Life Insurance Company for their work on the causes of multiple sclerosis.
Dr. Massimo Avoli, from the Montreal Neurological Institute, has won the Michael Prize for epilepsy research from Stifung Michael, a German foundation. The award cites his innovative use of human brain tissue from surgical specimens for neuro physiological and neuropharma cological investigations into epilepsy.
Ms. Elvire Vaucher, a graduate student in the Montreal Neurological Institute's Neurobiology Unit, has been awarded one of three student prizes at the "Concours de vulgarisation scienti fique" of the Association canadienne-française pour l'avance ment des sciences (Acfas). Her article, "Le cerveau, performant mais bon vivant," will be published in the September issue of Québec Science and in Interface.
Mr. Howard Bokser, the assistant editor of the McGill News, won the 1996 Gold Award in the best feature writing (English) category from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education. Bokser earned the prize for his article "Witness to War" which appeared in the autumn 1995 issue of the magazine. The article described the work of Living Testimonies, McGill's video archive for Holocaust documentation. Living Testimonies is headed by English professor Yehudi Lindeman.