Team Science spring 2012 volu me 6

INSIDE: Chocolate at th e speed of light r edpath to th e bone O tto Maa ss gets a fa celift McGill’s historical leadership in education and research has been based upon our ex- cellent students. Our undergraduates are second to spring 2012 volu me 6 McGill: none, and they have been second to none for almost 200 years. What has changed over the last 10 years has been the quality of our academic staff. This is because our re- A Grande cent renewal took advantage of a climate where all fac- tors played to McGill’s favor: innovative programs at the federal and provincial level; the contrasting political cli- mate of Canada and the United States; the multi-cultural 3 Meet Our New École and welcoming environment of ; and the excite- Over the past 60 years, the study of geological ment engendered by our renewal, with the multiplicative sciences at McGill has evolved, but has effect of strong hires building on strong hires. always tried to keep pace to suit the needs of For the last 10 years, we have been hiring about 100 pro- the mining industry. In 2011, two new faces fessors a year. In the Faculty of Science, most of our 250 or joined the Department of Earth and Planetary so professors were not here five or 10 years ago. We have Sciences. 4 re-booted the university with 35-year-old kids starting 4 The Grease Monkey their careers. Renewal has been like a raging fire. of Quantum Physics I have been at McGill since 1986. I have never seen a great- In 2011, McGill physicist Guillaume Gervais er potential for our school. When I examine the historical engineered one of the world’s smallest record, we have not been at this point for, literally, a centu- electronic circuits, and that single discovery ry. Through careful planning, through hard work, through 3 could significantly affect the speed and power happenstance, all indications are that McGill will move of ever-smaller integrated circuits. from being a strong national University, and become one of the world’s Grande Écoles. My view is that, as we do this, 8 Redpath to the Bone our students must be integrated into our academic mis- Famed biologist and sion in a seamless way. This is our unique advantage to go 8 director David Green talks about the forward, to retain our great new professors, to have them museum’s vast unseen collections and the build their careers here, to achieve excellence. There is no challenges facing the Redpath as it celebrates question but that our primary influence is through our its 130th birthday this year. students, through the added value of their research and education. 10 Otto Maass Gets a Facelift Now is the time for McGill (and in consequence for Mon-

Since it opened in 1966, the Otto Maass Nicolas Mori n treal and ) to step forward. Montreal was the his- Chemistry Building has hosted thousands of torical leader in education and research in Canada before researchers at McGill. Over the past two years, our country even existed. It is time for us to take up that more than 80% of the building’s research and role again, for the good of our families, our city, our prov- 10 teaching laboratories have been completely ince, and our country. We have an opportunity we have redesigned and renovated. Fast Fact: not had for a long time. Now is the time to act, and face On the cover: Raising a glass outwards and not inwards, to consolidate and build upon to the renovated labs in the Otto Maass Chemistry Building. Janet Under an ambitious our gains, and—before the United States wakes from its Belliveau, BSc’11, a graduate student long slumber of the last decade—retake our place of lead- in Chris Barrett’s research group recruitment program in the Department of Chemistry, Departments ership in innovation, teaching, and research. flanked by proud parents, Tom 6 W5 and Toni. Read more on page 11. that kicked off in 2000, (Photo by Yves Renaud) 12 Alumettes Much has changed and much has not changed at McGill, 14 Science Scrapbook McGill has hired more a Quebec institution founded by a Scotsman almost two 16 The Dean’s Quiz centuries ago. It remains an institution in which Mon- than 1,000 tenure-track trealers and all Quebecers can take pride, and which can professors. Of these, be as important for us in this century as it has been for Editor Photography Illustrations To read Team Science online, go to: Please direct comments or inquiries the last two. Michael Woloschuk Nicolas Morin Genevieve Young http://publications.mcgill.ca/science to [email protected] Yves Renaud 586 were recruited from Editorial Advisors Design Team Science is published once a year by Printed in Canada Dean Martin Grant Turcotte Design McGill University Jennifer Kambhampati Faculty of Science outside Canada. Development and Alumni Relations  3450 University Montreal, Quebec H3A 2A7 Canada

team science [ 1 Testing the Waters More What’s eight kilometres long, bright blue, and about as thick Hot Rocks as a crayon?

It’s the world’s largest the long thermometer thermometer, capable of cable is laid along a stretch measuring temperatures at of riverbed. By measuring metre-long intervals along its the minute changes in length to accuracies of a tenth temperature of the water, of a degree Celsius. the source of groundwater contamination can be Essentially a long fibre-optic pinpointed. cable, the thermometer uses pulses of light that are shot The thermometer has opened down its 8,000-metre length. many new doors, putting The temperature is measured McKenzie in contact with through the amount of time researchers from a host of it takes the light to reach disciplines. Yves R e n aud various intervals. “I use it a lot, and one of The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences welcomes its two newest research stars: McGill is only one of two the best things about the geologists Vincent Van Hinsberg (left) and Christie Rowe. Rowe, formerly a researcher Canadian universities using thermometer is that it’s a and lecturer in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of this new technology, called collaborative tool,” he says. California, Santa Cruz, joined McGill in 2011 as an assistant professor and Robert Wares distributed temperature “It’s led to a lot of interesting Faculty Scholar in Economic . Van Hinsberg, who hailed from the University of sensing. collaborative opportunities.” Oxford, where he was a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Earth Sciences, joined McGill as an assistant professor and Osisko Faculty Scholar in January 2012. McGill’s ultra-long Over the past couple of years, thermometer is regularly McKenzie and his team used by Jeff McKenzie, an have used the thermometer Lorne Trottier Endows Office assistant professor in the in a number of successful Department of Earth and studies, including one of Yves R e n aud for Science and Society Planetary Sciences. McKenzie, contaminated groundwater a hydrogeologist, says the entering a river in New York thermometer is ideal for State, and another, with Fast Fact: Chemistry professors (left to right) David Harpp, Ariel Fenster, studying the interaction Geography professor Michel and Joe Schwarcz celebrate Lorne Trottier’s $5.5-million gift to the between groundwater, which Lapointe, of fish habitats at Undergraduate research Faculty of Science last fall. Trottier’s endowment ensure a secure is water that collects or flows Parc National de la Jacques- in the Faculty of Science future for three successful outreach programs committed to bringing beneath the Earth’s surface Cartier, north of Quebec City. science out of the ivory tower and into the public domain. Of the (as in spring water), and “Another thing we’re thinking is going gangbusters, total contribution, $3 million will endow the McGill Office for Science surface water, which is water of looking at is using the and Society, which has been renamed the Trottier McGill Office for that collects above the Earth’s technology to study energy with 46 per cent of Science and Society. The remaining $2.5 million will endow the surface, as in rivers, lakes and conservation by observing students in 2010 having popular Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium and Mini-Science oceans. heat loss through hot spots series. “With this gift, Lorne Trottier becomes the single largest on the roofs of buildings,” he at least one research benefactor to the Faculty of Science in McGill history,” said Dean of To determine where says. Science Martin Grant. “The study of Science at McGill owes a lot to the groundwater may be course on their record. generosity of Lorne Trottier. In fact, I cannot imagine the Faculty of entering a river, for instance, Science without him.”

2 ] team science team science [ 3 Mathematician Wins Steacie Fellowship Robert Seiringer, associate professor in the Department of Mathemat- ics and Statistics, won a 2012 E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for his work in understanding how molecules and atoms, in their various Weird, unexpected (and forms, behave collectively. presently unexplainable) things Seiringer, described by NSERC happen when you run current as “one of the leading mathemati- through wires that are that close. cal physicists in the world under the The bottom line: there are age of 40,” is exploring mathemati- theories that might need cal models that describe various phe- some re-thinking because nomena occurring in quantum gases, of his research. whose existence was originally theo- Gervais, associate professor y N SERC courtes rized mathematically by such illustri- in the Department of Physics, ous 20th century scientists as Albert Einstein. does more than just build small Seiringer hopes to shed light on how the laws of physics operate things: in addition to tinkering at the universe’s smallest scale and how interactions there relate to the with motorcycles in his free time, larger scale properties of matter and energy that we are more familiar everything in his Rutherford Building with. basement lab—the scanning NSERC’s E.W.R Steacie Memorial Fellowships honour the memory microscope, the floor-to-ceiling of the renowned McGill University chemist, Edgar William Richard Ste- Faraday cage, the plumbing system acie, BSc’23, PhD’26, who made major contributions to the development that carries liquid helium around the of science in Canada during, and immediately following, World War II. room—was either built or custom designed by him and his team. Even the pet fish, Jimmy 2, is the work of a grad student, fashioned out Ralph Steinman, BSc’63, of an orange piece of plastic after the Nobel Prize in original Jimmy, a live goldfish, went Medicine, 2011 belly-up from all the dust kicked up in (1943-2011) Yves R e n aud Mr Vader, assorted lab construction projects. Ralph Steinman, who studied Guillaume Gervais, self-described A sign tacked to the Faraday biochemistry as a McGill under- quantum engineer and head of cage reminds lab members to ask graduate before receiving his the low-temperature physics lab forgiveness, not permission. medical degree from Harvard Your Black at McGill, has a drawerful of failed “We love to invent. We University in 1968, was one of attempts at his latest project. Four brainstorm all kinds of crazy things,” three recipients of the 2011 No- hundred failed attempts, each the says Gervais. bel Prize in Medicine. product of 29 processing steps— Next up is a “black hole on a Sadly, Steinman, 68, died of pancreatic cancer on the very weekend Hole on a Chip doping, glueing, cooling, etching—29 chip” (an analog to a black hole—not that his Nobel Prize was announced. “He devoted his life to his work and different places for something to go a literal one, Gervais explains, careful his family, and he would be truly honoured,” his daughter, Alexis, said. wrong. to hedge lest he incite public fears Steinman coined the term “dendritic” in 1973, to describe the func- But after three and a half years of global destruction) that will look tion of cells whose primary work is to process antigen material and pres- is Ready of trying, his PhD student, Dominique at the way sound behaves near the ent it on the surface to other cells of the immune system. Laroche, “pulled a miracle,” and the acoustic horizon, something that so “The work of [Steinman] has been pivotal to the development of im- Shannon Palus explores team published last fall, to excited far has been part of the realm of proved types of vaccines against infectious diseases and novel approach- the wacky world of the very small chatter in the quantum electronics pen-and-paper physics only. es to fighting cancer,” said the Nobel citation. community, the fact that they had Gervais isn’t sure if it will work. Steinman was one of three Faculty of Science alumni to receive No- successfully made a pair of circuits “It’s totally nutty,” he says. bel prizes in the past three years, the others being Jack Szostak, BSc’72 with two wires that are separated But then again, so was the the (Medicine) and Willard Boyle, BSc’47, MSc’48, PhD’50 (Physics). by just 150 atoms. last project.

4 ] team science team science [ 5 Where: The Billiard Room at McGill’s Faculty Club

When: 30 March, 2012

What: Celebrate past and present winners of the Reginald Fessenden Professorships and Prizes in Science Innovation, and toW thank John Blachford, DSc’09, and his son Erik, for donating the funds to 7 5 2 endow the awards, which were established in 2008. 1 Who: 1. Masad Damha, professor in the 3 Department of Chemistry; 2010 Fessenden 4 6 Professorship for the development of novel RNA chemistry for therapeutic and microarray 5 applications. 2. Paul Wiseman, associate professor 8 in the departments of Physics and Chemistry; 2009 Fessenden Professorship for his invention of a new clinical device to detect malaria infection and to rapidly count parasites in blood samples. 3. Greg Dudek, professor and director of the School of Computer Science; 2010 Fessenden Professorship for the creation of a robotic platform called AQUA. 4. David Burns, professor in the Department of Chemistry; 2011 Fessenden Professorship for his development of a smart ultrasound platform. 5. Youla Tsantrizos, professor in the Department of Chemistry; 2011 Fessenden Professorship for her discovery of novel inhibitors of the human FPPS and GGPPS enzymes. 6. Erica Besso, research innovation officer, Faculty of Science. 7. Nicolas Moitessier, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry; 2008 Fessenden Professorship for his development of software that can be used for drug 9 10 discovery, design and process chemistry. 8. Martin Grant, dean of the Faculty of Science. 9. John Blachford, BEng’59, PhD’63, DSc’09, president of H.L. Blachford, who has also distinguished himself in the laboratory, creating noise-reducing materials and lubricants. 10. Janet Blachford, BA’61, BA’63, also a lifelong friend of McGill, whose generosity established the Archie Malloch Internship Awards in Public Learning and the Archie Malloch Graduate Fellowships in Public Learning in 2009.

Why: To recognize the powerful lift the commercialization of scientific research at McGill has been given by the Reginald Fessenden Professorships and Prizes in Science Innovation, established in honour of John Blachford’s great- uncle, Reginald Fessenden, the unsung inventor of radio. Nicolas Mori n

6 ] team science team science today [ 7 The Redpath Gorgosaurus n Most recognizeable exhibit at the Redpath is the Gorgosaurus, the museum’s centrepiece attraction n Size: 8 metres long (26 ft) n Weight: 1000 kg (1 tonne) n Age at death: Teenager, only about 70% full-grown adult size. n Lived during: Late Cretaceous (74 million years ago) n Diet: Meat n Discovery: Found in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, by Levi Sternberg in 1920. The original fossil bones are at the Royal Ontario Museum. n Did you know? The right leg was broken. The lower bone of the right leg is lumpier than the left, showing where the bone tissue healed or ossified. Our gorgosaurus probably walked with a limp. Fractures to this bone are relatively common among tyrannosaurs and the break may have been caused by the tail club of an ankylosaur. Yves R e n aud Harder Than Rocket Science: Celebrating 130 Years of

There’s more than what’s on display in glass cases full of recently acquired antelope heads, and owls, and the now-extinct passenger growth, extinction, and climate change, Discovery at the Redpath Museum—and it’s not the fact wrapped in cellophane, the styrofoam pigeons. and—Green stresses in explanation that less than a mere 15 per cent of its collections that protected their horns on their There are jars of frogs, dyed so that for keeping and caring for so many is on show. Since opening its doors in 1882, the journey still in place. their skin is clear and their veins are animals—questions that haven’t even museum, 130 years old this year, has served There is a roomful of jars with bright blue—a researcher at another been thought of yet. Each specimen at the as a keystone to McGill research, and, seated snakes and frogs preserved in ethanol, university just requested to look at some, contains a wide number of parameters. overlooking lower-field, a literal centrepiece to each bearing three copies of a unique tag so they’ll be in the mail soon. “This is not rocket science—this is campus. so that it can be referenced, like pieces Commissioned by sugar magnate harder than that,” Green says. “This is its heyday,” says director David of evidence rich with data. Drawers Peter Redpath, the museum was The historical record that is Redpath Green, citing exhibits, public lectures, and full of dinosaur fossils that were dug intended to preserve and display the contained in these boxes, that has been By Shannon Palus outreach programs, and a sundry of course up decades ago, waiting to be cleaned collections of Sir William Dawson, a established over the past 130 years, offerings for students. up, waiting for questions to be asked paleontologist, but, curiously, not a ensures the museum’s future in being a And of course, research. Below the surface, of them; ammonites casually leaning believer in evolution. key part of research. in the basement—despite the unchanging looks against a filing cabinet; filing cabinets Now the museum delights in “You can only approach it on the faces of the animals and skeletons—the full of birds are carefully laid on their deeper problems. The specimens help historically—you can understand what collections are very much alive: there is a room backs, parakeets, and parrots, answer questions about population is, if you knew what was.“

8 ] team science team science [ 9 Around the Three Bares

Otto Maass A New Era of Chemistry Nicolas Mori n Yves R e n aud Rudy Marcus, BSc’43, PhD’46, Built between 1964 and 1966, winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in were completely demolished the Otto Maass Chemistry Chemistry, shares a laugh with and rebuilt, with new layout, Building and adjoining Pulp students at a dedication ceremony lab benches and energy For Toni, in May 2012 of the Rudy Marcus Major renovations to and Paper Research Centre Chemical Laboratories. efficient exhaust hoods that the Otto Maass Chemistry were long overdue for an meet modern industry and overhaul. Old laboratory space safety standards. Meanwhile, It’s All About Building included: and outdated facilities begged the Pulp and Paper building’s n Replacing the roofs, ventilation systems, for refurbishing to better suit “It is a great time to second floor and basement secondary electrical wiring and Genes the Department of Chemistry’s be at McGill,” Ron Proulx, labs were refitted with new demineralised water production system; needs. executive director, Facilities electrical conduits and wiring. Toni Di Paola-Belliveau (right), n Upgrading mechanical control devices; Thanks to funding from Operations and Development, The renovated areas provide assistant to Dean Martin Grant, n Repairing foundations and masonry; the Government of Canada’s told the McGill Reporter. “If you more reliable power, and a new has strong connections to the Faculty n Rebuilding certain research laboratories. Knowledge Infrastructure get $1 million, you have a limit distribution system upgrades of Science and even deeper ties with Program, over almost to how much you can dream, distilled water services. the Department of Chemistry, where Work in the Pulp and Paper 50,000 square feet in the but this is an opportunity to do In keeping with McGill’s she worked as a research technician Research Centre included: two buildings have been things right and really hit a lot focus on sustainable design, for Bernard Belleau (1976-1986) and n Installing a new alarm system; completely renovated. With of targets. the renovations decreased the Robert Marchessault (1986-2003). n Painting public spaces; additional funding from “We’re going to reap energy consumption of this Not only did her husband, Tom (left), n Upgrading mechanical control devices; the Canada Foundation for these benefits for a long time. intensively used building. In receive his PhD in Chemistry at McGill, n Completely demolishing and rebuilding the Innovation and Quebec’s Not just the next few years. It the past, Otto Maass consumed but so did sister Giuseppa and her research laboratories; Ministère du développement will be a joy for people to do about 12 per cent of the energy husband Tony. And now, Toni’s daughter n Repairs to the masonry in the north and économique, innovation et their jobs.” used at McGill’s downtown Janet (centre), fresh with a BSc in west wings, renovations of all radiation exportation, the total cost By completion date this campus. After renovation, Chemistry, is a graduate student in the lab systems and replacement of windows were of the two-year renovation past Spring, large parts of the building’s energy use has of Chris Barrett. also completed. project was pegged at $27.6 Otto Maass’ second, third and decreased to about four per million. fourth floor research areas cent of the energy used.

10 ] team science team science [ 11 A Window on a Veiled World

Denise B. Dailey, BSc’58, has provided an important new window from a female perspective on the mysterious culture of Pakistan with the publication of LISTENING TO PAKISTAN: A Woman’s Voice in a Veiled Land (Inkslingers Press, 2012).

Khyber Pass: Denise Dailey and husband Tom at Michni Checkpoint between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Shortly after publication, LISTENING TO PAKISTAN captured Number One Bestseller ranking for Pakistan travel books on Amazon. Readers are guaranteed to come away from this book with a much deeper understanding of the conflicted voices in this exotic nation. Scenes From A Reunion Dailey grew up in Brazil, the daughter of a French father and a Chilean-French mother. She moved to Working with the care and attention In fact, Silver’s rendition of explains Sam. “We met just before In 2011, the group gathered, is a long way for him to come, Montreal when she was 13 and following of a highly skilled surgeon, he uses the traditional Montreal bagel is, in American Thanksgiving in 2006, and for the sixth straight time, for but he fits it in among other her studies at McGill, receieved an MFA in the blade of his Swiss Army knife mathematical terms, a pair of linked we’ve been doing it ever since.” bagels and coffee at a Frank Dawson projects he is working on. writing from Columbia University. to make an intricate incision in the annuli, each with a full twist. It didn’t take long to bring Adams Building conference room. “I’m on way to CERN in Fluent in five languages, Dailey sesame bagel. For most, the slicing of Silver’s scientific skills were not together the 10 or so Mathematics They call themselves by the their Geneva, where I’m conducting spent much of her adult life teaching in this Fairmount Bagel Bakery standard lost on his audience. For the past six and Physics former classmates for last names and seem to enjoy research spectroscopy on public and private schools in the New would take several seconds. But years, the Mathematics and Physics what has become an annual reunion. kidding each other. It doesn’t take anti-matter,” he says. York City area. But perhaps her most Len Silver, BSc’65, is carving Class of ’65 has been gathering on Len Silver recalled how one fellow long to realize that, besides the But like the others, he intriguing professional and personal something special, cutting the bagel campus to relax, reminisce, and classmate he contacted recalled his obvious connection they share with wouldn’t miss the annual achievement has been her ability to into two linked halves. When he is re-kindle the spirit they shared as voice instantly, despite the fact that it science, good-natured curiosity is reunion—and the chance to translate her broad travel background done, Silver proudly displays the two undergraduates at McGill. had been decades since they last met. one of the qualities that bind the reconnect with the spirit and into teaching moments for readers. sides, interlocked like links in a chain. It all started in 2006, when Sam “I hadn’t spoken to him in 40 group together. vitality that they shared at Dailey set up a Field Study Semester “That’s really something, Len,” Steppel’s wife, Barbara, died and he years, but he still remembered my Art Olin, who is currently an McGill—for the world. endowment to support students who someone says. “What is that, a bagel reached out to fellow Class of ’65 voice,” says Silver. “I didn’t even have adjunct professor at the University wish to study overseas during their or a physics experiment?” alumnus Rubin Gruber for support. to introduce myself—he just said, of Victoria, admits that the reunion time at McGill, and she chose to do “Gruber suggested we call Ben ‘Silver—is that you?’” this because of her own passion for Rouben to get some people together,” experiences abroad.

12 ] team science team science [ 13 Flexing Our

Muscles The Faculty of In Pain Research Science recognized According to a recent two of its most paper published in distinguished the journal, Pain, alumni last year four of the top 10 with honorary pain articles of the doctorates at the 2011 spring Study Reveals Ocean last 40 years were convocation. authored by famed Oxygen Debt Marc Tessier-Lavigne, McGill psychologist BSc’80, DSc’11, currently A study by Earth and Planetary Sciences and pain pioneer Ron President of Rockefeller marine biogeochemist Eric Galbraith re- Melzack, or by his University, (above right, veals startling implications for the future of our oceans under global warming. students Moreover, with neuroscientist McGill ranks third in Brenda Milner and the world in terms Martin Grant) was of number of papers honoured for his

placed in the top groundbreaking 100 articles about research on brain pain. development. Also honoured was Jack Szostak, BSc’72, DSc’11, a brilliant undergraduate who entered McGill in 1968 Currently, in about 15 per cent of the at age 15 and went on to oceans—in areas referred to as dead win the Nobel Prize for zones—dissolved oxygen concentrations Medicine in 2009. are so low that fish have a hard time breath- ing at all. The findings from the study show that these dead zones increased signifi- cantly at the end of the last Ice Age. “As a result of this research, we can now say unequivocally that the oxygen content of the ocean is sensitive to climate change, confirming the general cause for concern,” said Galbraith.

14 ] team science team science [ 15 Dean’s Quiz: Secret Going For Gold Science Spots Who is your favourite hero of science? Galileo The study of science at 1. McGill University goes What are the five greatest back some 150 years, but discoveries of all time? there are hidden pockets 2. A) Agriculture of history that will surprise B) Newtonian physics even the most avid Robert Wares C) Electromagnetism McGill chronicler. From D) Penicillin the underground stream E) Relativity near Burnside Hall and For decades, a massive gold deposit the role it played in the life sat completely unnoticed near the Where were you when If you could of William Dawson’s son, established Quebec mining centres Neil Armstrong first be a rock, what George Mercer of Val d’Or and Rouyn-Noranda. 3. stepped on the Moon? 4. would you be? Dawson, to the Duke of Too young to remember, Anorthosite Edinburgh’s unpublicized Over the years, thousands of geologists walked but probably in front visit to the toilets at the old or drove over the south end of the town of Malartic, ob- of the TV Biology Building (now James livious to the treasure below. One after another, mining Building) in 1952, there are powerhouses, such as Barrick Gold, fled town. What is your favourite many enlightening and Things got so bad that even the local Tim Hortons geological era? entertaining facts in the shut down. 5. The question should refer history of science at McGill. What the mining firms did not see was a 10-mil- to a geological period, and that lion-ounce shallow gold deposit sitting directly under would be the Cambrian In September of 2011, the their feet. Faculty of Science published One geologist who understood what riches lay be- a 12-page booklet featuring neath Malartic was Robert Wares, BSc’79, who realized What is your favourite film? some of our most celebrated that while there were no flashy high-grade gold grades, historical locations. At there was potential for huge tonnage. 6. Blade Runner by Ridley Scott Homecoming, three tours, In 2004, Wares’ company, Osisko Mining Corp., followed by a special display Name one book that bought the Malartic gold mine, and the rest is history. The of McGill science artifacts everyone must read. Malartic operation currently represents one of the big- and memorabilia (such as 7. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand gest gold reserves in Canada for a single deposit, and is physicist Harriet Brooks’ Anne still growing through ongoing drilling on new mineral- Molson Medal and Sir John ized zones. Most overrated discovery William Dawson’s teaching “This discovery is really important, not in just the sheets) were displayed. size of the deposit but because it represents a new con- 8. of the past 100 years? cept, a paradigm shift—and that is due entirely to Bob Wares,” said Wares’ former professor in the Department Cold fusion of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Anthony Williams-Jones. If you could choose one What did In 2008, Wares and Osisko each donated an equal musical piece as the you learn at amount of Osisko shares to McGill, for the creation of a 9. soundtrack of your life, 10. McGill that $4.1-million endowment in support of the next genera- what would it be? you couldn’t tion of Canadian geologists. Magic Carpet Ride have learned Wares, who will receieve an honorary Doctor of Sci- by Steppenwolf anywhere else? ence degree from McGill at convocation this year, volun- Critical thinking teered to take the inaugural Dean’s Quiz.

16 ] team science Name the most important donation in McGill history

A B C D

The generosity of Richard Lorne Trottier’s visionary The exemplary gift of Peter Redpath’s gift in Tomlinson, PhD’48, gift in 2006 to fund the Frederico Bellini in 1880 to fund construction whose many gifts to the Lorne Trottier Chair 2002 that sparked the of the Redpath Museum, Faculty of Science include in Astrophysics and construction of the completed in 1882, which the Tomlinson Science Cosmology, which has McGill Life Sciences originally housed the natural Awards, which recognize supported the work of Complex and launched history collections of Sir and support such scholars chairholder, astrophysicist a new collaborative, William Dawson, McGill’s as neuroscientist Karim Vicky Kaspi, whose multidisciplinary way principal at the time, and Nader, whose work has research has shaped our of doing research, as remains an important revolutionized memory understanding of the exemplified by the work of research and outreach research. Universe. biologist Paul Lasko. institution. E

My gift of $ to the Faculty of Science, which will go towards maintaining and driving forward the world-class research conducted by our scientists, as well as supporting the studies of undergraduates.

For more information on making a donation, or to discover other ways of support, please contact:

Jennifer Kambhampati Director of Development and Alumni Relations Faculty of Science Frank Dawson Adams Building 3450 University St., Room 23 Montreal, QC H3A 0E8

Tel: 514-398-4607

Email: [email protected] Canada Post Corporation Publications Mail Agreement #40613662