University of Toronto researcher wins “Nobel of Neuroscience
Graham Collingridge (Department of Physiology) won the Brain Prize, the “Nobel of neuroscience,” together with Tim Bliss and Richard Morris of the University of Edinburgh. The award is €1 million, the world’s richest prize for brain research. Professor Collingridge’s research focuses on the brain mechanism known as long-term potentiation (LTP) that underpins the lifelong plasticity of the brain.
Collingridge’s discoveries are particularly important in the efforts to treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s. His work has contributed to a medication that temporarily slows down the progression of the disease.
Sullivan is first Canadian author to win Plutarch Award
Rosemary Sullivan (Department of English) won the Plutarch Award from the Biographers International Organization for her acclaimed biography, Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva. Sullivan was selected by a committee of distinguished biographers from a list of 10 nominees. The Plutarch Award is the only international literary award presented to a biographer, by biographers.
Sullivan is the first Canadian author to win the award since its inception in 2013. Stalin’s Daughter has also won the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize, the RBC Taylor Prize, and British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.
Professor’s Research Makes (Gravitational) Waves
Harald Pfeiffer (Department of Physics/Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics) won the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The award honours Professor Pfeiffer’s outstanding research record, and invites him to a long-term research stay in Germany. Pfeiffer was also part of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) scientific collaboration, a group of more than 1,000 scientists from universities in the United States and 14 other countries. The collaboration was recognized by a Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and the Gruber Prize in Cosmology for their detection of gravitational waves.
Chemistry professor receives World Technology Award
Geoffrey Ozin (Department of Chemistry) received the World Technology Award in energy for his pioneering contributions to the field of nanochemistry. These contributions have defined, enabled and popularized a chemical approach to nanomaterials, a cornerstone of modern chemistry and a foundation for nanotechnology in advanced materials and biomedical science.
Royal Society of Canada honours career contributions in critical literature
Linda Hutcheon (Department of English) received the 2016 Lorne Pierce Medal from the Royal Society of Canada for achievements in critical literature that have transformed the understanding of Canadian writing and culture.
Statistical science researcher recognized with US, UK honours
For her outstanding work in statistical sciences, Nancy Reid (Department of Statistical Sciences) was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in the United States as a Foreign Associate. She also won the Royal Statistical Society’s Guy Medal in Silver for her ground-breaking paper “Parameter Orthogonality and Approximate Conditional Inference,” written jointly with Sir David Cox of Oxford University. The award also recognises her many other important contributions to statistical theory and methodology, as well as her outstanding leadership of, and service to, the statistical research community.