Science and Continuing Education

Steven Pinker Honorary D.Sc.

World-renowned for his work on the cognitive processes underlying children's acquisition of language, Steven Pinker is the author of such books as The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works which have made current ideas in cognitive psychology accessible reading for the intelligent layman. He is also a frequent public speaker on the subject of language and the brain. Pinker's view is that infants enter the world equipped with programs for development Ð including language Ð that are encoded in their genes as a result of evolution. He also studies visual cognition, including shape recognition, mental imagery and visual attention. Having obtained his B.A. at McGill and his Ph.D. at Harvard, Pinker has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1982. In 1995, Newsweek listed him among the "One Hundred Americans for the Next Century."

Albert Bregman Professor Emeritus

For his work in understanding how the human ear segregates sounds, Albert Bregman has been called the "father of auditory scene analysis," a field which he defined. With no training in auditory perception, Bregman, a cognitive psychologist, inspired many subsequently famous students, such as Steven Pinker, to do graduate work, and was instrumental in recruiting some outstanding faculty in the field. So ground-breaking was his theoretical work in understanding human hearing that it suggested ways for developing acoustic technology in computer speech recognition and improving tests for hearing, hearing aids and audio systems. Neuroscientists, music theorists, audiologists, engineers and computer scientists have been able to see applications for Bregman's theories and his interdisciplinary work saw him awarded the Jacques-Rousseau medal for interdisciplinary contributions in 1995.

Sarah Gibbs Professor Emeritus

Sarah Gibbs is one of the few members of McGill's Department of Biology to be honoured with being named a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. That was in 1991 after Gibbs proved that Euglena, a type of algae, was not related to green algae; it simply ingested and co-habited with the photosynthesizing species. The discovery shed light on the evolution of the smallest cells and thus on evolution itself. Credited for her tenacity Ð it took her 13 years to have her theory accepted Ð Gibbs is considered a pioneer in her field, a prolific researcher and dedicated teacher. She established the undergraduate course on cell structure and function and a graduate course on electron microscopy. She has also been an important mentor to female students and summarized her own experiences as a female scientist in a chapter in the 1995 edition of Our Own Agendas.

Ronald Melzack Professor Emeritus

Internationally recognized for his contributions to research and theory related to pain, Ronald Melzack, professor of psychology since 1963, argued that physiological processes, mental states and social beliefs interacted to produce the experience of pain. His "McGill Pain Questionnaire," which has been translated into many languages, is the most widely used instrument in research on pain. In the past decade, Melzack has turned his attention to the phenomenon of pain in phantom limbs (those lost to accident or disease). Aside from his work as a researcher, Melzack is a much-heralded teacher and in 1996 was awarded McGill's David Thomson Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision and Teaching. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an officer of the Order of Canada.