Agricultural & Environmental Sciences
Jim Dyer, BSc(Agr)’72, an agro-environmental consultant who worked at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for more than 20 years, received the King Charles III Coronation Medal, an award that recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to Canada or to a part of the country, or have had an outstanding achievement abroad that brings credit to Canada. His research has examined the environmental impact of raising livestock and he has also been involved in protecting insect pollinators.
Ann Louise Carson, BSc(Agr)’81, was inducted into Quebec’s Agricultural Hall of Fame last October. She was the CEO of Holstein Canada for almost 12 years, a national non-profit organization that exists to help improve the breed of Holstein cattle across Canada.
Odette Menard, BSc(AgrEng)’83, MSc’91, was also inducted into Quebec’s Agricultural Hall of Fame. A longtime soil and water conservation specialist at Quebec’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, she was named to the Canadian Soil Conservation Hall of Fame in 2005.
Marie-Pierre St-Onge, BSc(NutrSc)’98, MSc’99, PhD’03, is the founding director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep & Circadian Research at Columbia University. She recently published Eat Better, Sleep Better (S&S/Simon Element), a collaboration with cookbook author Kat Craddock. The book explores the connection between nutrition and sleep, and includes 75 recipes that incorporate sleep-supporting ingredients that work with the body’s rhythms and hormones to unlock quality rest.
Arts
Lillian Vineberg-Goodman, BA’62, was named the Jewish Community Foundation’s Person of the Year for 2024. She has made major contributions to organizations across Montreal, including the Jewish General Hospital, the Hope & Cope Cancer Wellness Centre, and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. She was the first woman to chair Concordia University’s board of governors.
Ron Burnett, BA’68, MA’71, PhD’81, was promoted from a member to an officer of the Order of Canada. A former McGill professor who played a key role in the development of its Graduate Program in Communications, he is the president emeritus of Emily Carr University of Art and Design and the research director for its Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies.
Wendy Steiner, BA’70, is the Richard L. Fisher Professor of English Emerita at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an opera librettist and multimedia artist. She recently published The Beauty of Choice: On Women, Art, and Freedom (Columbia University Press). In the book, an account of aesthetics grounded in female agency, she reframes long-standing questions surrounding desire, art, sexual assault, and beauty in light of #MeToo.
Daryl Fridhandler, BA’80, was appointed to the Senate of Canada as a representative for Alberta. He is a corporate lawyer, arbitrator, and mediator with over 40 years of legal experience. A King’s Counsel, he has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including the Alberta Ballet Company (as chair), the Calgary Public Library (as chair), the Calgary Police Commission (as vice-chair), and Mount Royal University (as governor).
Shereen Miller, BA’80, was appointed commissioner of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) for a five-year term, beginning on November 7, 2024. A human rights lawyer by training, she has more than 20 years of experience in various executive roles with the Government of Canada, most recently as senior assistant deputy minister of service innovation at Shared Services Canada. The FCAC commissioner plays a leading role advocating for the rights and interests of Canadians when accessing financial products and services, and works to improve the financial well-being of Canadians.
Ric Esther Bienstock, BA’81, received the Silver Circle Award at the 45th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards last September. The prize recognized her contributions as a documentary filmmaker over the course of a 25-year career. Her filmography includes Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, The Accountant of Auschwitz, Tales from the Organ Trade, and Sex Slaves. Her work has earned numerous prizes, including an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, and five Canadian Screen Awards.
Richard Dagenais, BA’81, has written several rhyming, read-aloud picture books for younger readers, including Gail the Snail, Neil the Eel, Zach the Yak, Link the Skink, and The Christmas Cab. The books are available through librairieclio.ca. A former broadcast journalist and TV and radio host, he has worked at MAtv, CJAD and Global Montreal.
Tim Falconer, BA’81, recently published his latest book of non-fiction, Windfall: Viola MacMillan and Her Notorious Mining Scandal (ECW Press). The book explores how Viola MacMillan, a major figure in the Canadian mining industry, became the central character in one of the country’s most famous stock scandals. Although MacMillan spent a few weeks in prison, she later received a pardon – and the Order of Canada.
Marc Raboy, BSc’68, MA’81, PhD’86, received the prize for Best Quebec Book on a Jewish Theme at the 2024 Jacob Isaac Segal Awards. An emeritus professor in McGill’s Department of Art History and Communication Studies, he won the award for Looking for Alicia: The Unfinished Life of an Argentinian Rebel, a book that examined the terror caused by Argentina’s 1970s military dictatorship and the lives of those who risked everything to oppose it.
Julia Berger Reitman, MA’81, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new member. The chair of the Jewish Federations of Canada – UIA and the former president of the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, she serves on the boards of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, and Camp Cayuga, a camp for young adults with cancer.
Chris Brandon Whitaker, BA’86, recently released Out of Oblivion, a new album of indie pop/acoustic rock music under the name Lighthouse Pilot. In keeping with his work as a college counselor and advisor, the album’s 12 songs explore each of the 12 steps of recovery. Free videos of the first four songs are available on YouTube.
Inez Jabalpurwala, BA’89, MA’91, MBA’01, became the new president and CEO of the Public Policy Forum in January. She is also the global director of VINEx, an organization she built during the pandemic to explore how SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses impact brain health. She was the founding president and CEO of Brain Canada, a national organization that supports and advances research on the brain and brain disorders. The Public Policy Forum examines the major challenges facing Canada and fosters discussions around potential policy solutions.
Adam Dodek, BA’92, was recently appointed the new chair of the board of directors of the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII). As chair, he will help guide CanLII’s mission of ensuring that Canadian legal information remains open and accessible to all, reinforcing the principle that access to the law is a fundamental right. He is a law professor at the University of Ottawa and the author of Heenan Blaikie: The Making and Unmaking of a Great Canadian Law Firm, recently published by UBC Press.
Jennifer Lokash, BA’93, PhD’03, has been appointed provost and vice-president (academic) of Memorial University. She was the head of the Memorial’s Department of English from 2014 until 2022. She has also served as interim associate vice-president (academic), chairing the conflict-of-interest committee, overseeing the promotion and tenure process for faculty, and managing the academic unit planning process. In April 2023, she took on the role of provost and vice president (academic) pro tempore, and chaired searches for multiple dean roles.
Myriam Denov, BSW’94, McGill’s Canada Research Chair in Children, Families and Armed Conflict, was the 2024 recipient of the Prix Marie-Andrée-Bertrand, Quebec’s top prize for accomplished researchers whose work has led to the development and implementation of significant social innovations. Working with collaborators in countries like Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Rwanda, she has explored the use of child soldiers and the role of girls in armed conflict, while influencing policymakers at the UN, the Canadian Department of National Defence, and other bodies.
Devlin Barrett, BA’95, recently joined The New York Times as a reporter covering the U.S. Department of Justice and law enforcement. He had previously been a reporter at The Washington Post where he had been part of reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2018 and 2022.
Mouneer Odeh, BA’95, recently became the chief data and artificial intelligence officer for Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles, California. He will be leading Cedars-Sinai’s data analytics and artificial intelligence initiatives, aligning them with the organization’s broader digital and information technology strategy. He recently served as vice president of analytics at Inova Health System in Fairfax, Virginia.
James Allan, MA’97, became the new assistant vice president for alumni relations and executive director of the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association last fall. Before joining Johns Hopkins, he was the vice president of advancement at the University of Calgary. He served as the director of alumni, donor and stakeholder relations at the University of Melbourne in Australia from 2015 to 2021.
J.A. Schneider, BA’98, was named partner in charge of the law firm Thompson Hine’s Atlanta office. He is a partner in the firm’s business litigation group and a member of the firm’s office of general counsel. He handles counselling and litigation in matters relating to post-employment competition and confidentiality obligations.
Geoffrey Cher, BA’99, has joined Mintz as a partner in the law firm’s corporate practice. His work focuses on matters involving financial services, technology, alternative assets, and the digital economy. Prior to joining Mintz, he was a partner at Wildeboer Dellelce LLP, where he led the firm’s digital economy initiatives.
Parul Sehgal, BA’03, recently returned to The New York Times as a critic-at-large. She will be a regular contributor to Ideas, a new initiative that showcases ideas journalism at the publication. She previously worked at The New York Times from 2017 until 2021 as a book critic. More recently, she had been a staff writer at The New Yorker, where her essays addressed the state of American marriage, the role of narrative in memories of India’s partition, and other topics.
Arielle Frost, BA’05, joined the New York office of international law firm Withers as a commercial real estate partner. She had been a partner at Rosenberg & Estis, where she led that firm’s real estate joint ventures team. She has substantial experience across a broad range of commercial real estate transactions. In addition to property joint ventures, she advises on the purchase and sale of individual properties and property portfolios, financing, development and commercial leasing.
Leigh E. Furtado, BA’06, was made a partner at the American law firm Day Pitney LLP. Based in Providence, Rhode Island, she advises clients on all stages of estate planning, estate administration, and trust administration. She is also a member of the firm’s tax-exempt organizations and charitable giving practice group.
Jonathon Booth, BA’13, MA’14, joined the University of Colorado Boulder as an associate professor of law. He is an historian of democracy, race, law, and policing in the United States, and the courses he teaches deal with criminal law, American legal history, and the history of policing.
Jozina Vander Klok, PhD’13, has joined Simon Fraser University’s Department of Linguistics as an assistant professor. Her research examines the cross-linguistic articulation of syntax and semantics, especially on the extended verb phrase, which include phenomena like TAM (tense-aspect-modal) markers and applicative constructions. Her work draws on empirical insights from Javanese, a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian family spoken by about 70 million people in Indonesia.
Natalie Coffen, BA’18, was named to the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Hollywood & Entertainment. She is the creative executive at Push It Productions, a comedy-focused production company cofounded by Wanda Sykes and Page Hurwitz. She oversees TV and film projects from inception, and her credits include serving as an associate producer on the Netflix comedy special Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall. She is a former McGill News editorial assistant (yay, Natalie!).
Meera Raman, BA’21, recently joined The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business as its retirement and financial planning reporter. Before working at The Globe, she wrote a personal finance newsletter for The Peak, which had an audience of over 40,000 subscribers. She has also worked at the Boston Business Journal covering financial services, and at NPR, producing podcasts.
Education
Sally Armstrong, BEd’66, DLitt’02, is the co-author with Sima Sama of Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan. The book was shortlisted for the 2024 Moore Prize, an international award for outstanding writing about human rights. The book, a memoir of life under Taliban rule, focuses on Samar’s efforts to battle for justice and equality in her country.
H. Nigel Thomas, DipEd’76, recently published A Different Hurricane (Dundurn Press), a novel about two young men who secretly become lovers on the island nation of St Vincent, leave for university studies abroad, and then return home, hiding who they truly are from the unforgiving eyes of the island’s authorities. In 2022, he received the Canada Council’s Arts Molson Prize.
E. David Brown, MA’92, will be publishing his new novel The Last Dance of Mary Kelly (Tumbleweed Press) in March. The lives of Jack the Ripper’s final victim and an American journalist intersect in Victorian London in this exploration of 19th century injustices.
John Macdonald, BA’01, BEd’03, was inducted into the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame. An All-Canadian as a player with the McGill football team, he played for three seasons as a defensive lineman with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the CFL. After retiring from pro football in 2004, he began teaching English, Native studies, and physical education, and he’s been the head football coach of the Pauline Johnson Thunderbirds in Brantford, Ontario since 2019, winning a league championship in 2022.
Engineering
Irving Ludmer, BEng’57, LLD’19, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new member. He has led some of Quebec’s most successful consultancy, real estate and retail businesses. His charitable support has been pivotal for the creation of McGill’s Ludmer Centre, the Ludmer Centre’s Single-Cell Genomics Brain Initiative, and other initiatives that have played a key role in establishing Montreal as a centre of excellence for neuroscience.
Law
Haig Oghigian, BA’76, LLB’79, joined Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) last fall as senior counsel. He has extensive experience as an international arbitrator and arbitration counsel. He has appeared before and sat as an arbitrator on panels and arbitral courts across Europe, Asia and North and South America, and has taught at the University of Tokyo, the University of Rikkyo and the University of British Columbia.
Panagiotis Pamel, BCL’87, LLB’87, was appointed as a judge of the Federal Court of Appeal. He had been a judge with the Federal Court since 2019. Before becoming a judge, he practiced in the area of maritime law for more than 30 years.
Christian Immer, BCL’91, LLB’91, was appointed a puisne judge of the Court of Appeal of Quebec in Montreal. He had been a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montreal. Before he became a judge, he played a role in the foundation of Sheahan LLP in 2011, where he represented institutional, corporate and individual clients in civil and criminal liability lawsuits, especially in cases involving environmental and employment law.
Lysane Cree, BA’96, BCL’00, LLB’00, was appointed a judge to the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montreal. She had been an administrative judge at the Tribunal administratif de déontologie policière in Montréal and is from the Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) Nation. She has a background in Indigenous law and worked with First Nations governments in several provinces and occasionally in the State of New York for 16 years.
Damion K. L. Stodola, BA’97, BCL’01, LLB’01, was appointed as general counsel for the Adirondack Park Agency, the New York State government agency created to protect the Park’s public and private resources and develop long-range land use plans for both public and private lands within its boundary. The Adirondack Park is the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States.
Robert Leckey, BCL/LLB’02, was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec in Montreal. He had been the dean of McGill’s Faculty of Law since 2016. He joined the Faculty in 2006 and was McGill’s Samuel Gale Professor. He served as the director of the Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law from 2014 to 2016. His teaching and research focused principally on family law and constitutional law.
Ryan P. Rabinovitch, BCL/LLB’02, who had been a partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin in Montreal, was appointed a judge of the Tax Court of Canada. After completing his university studies, he was a clerk for Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louise Arbour. He worked as a tax lawyer with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt and McCarthy Tétrault before joining Fasken Martineau DuMoulin in 2017, where he served as co-leader of the Montreal Tax Group.
Peter H. Edelmann, BCL/LLB’04, was appointed a justice of appeal of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia in Vancouver. He had been a judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Prior to that appointment, he was a partner at Edelmann and Company, an immigration and refugee law firm in Vancouver. He was an active member of the Immigration Section of the Canadian Bar Association and sat on the litigation committee for the Canadian Council for Refugees.
Simon Chamberland, BCL/LLB’05, was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montreal. He had been a partner at McCarthy Tétrault and spent his entire career as a litigator at the firm after working as a law clerk for the Supreme Court of Canada. His practice covered various areas of civil and administrative litigation, including professional liability and disciplinary law.
Rachel Bendayan, BA’02, BCL/LLB’06, became Canada’s new minister of official languages and the associate minister of public safety last December. She previously served as parliamentary secretary to the deputy prime minister and minister of finance, as parliamentary secretary to the minister of tourism and associate minister of finance, and as parliamentary secretary to the minister of small business, export promotion and international trade.
Kirkland G. Shannon, BCL/LLB’08, was appointed an associate judge of the Federal Court. He had been serving as director general and deputy chief executive officer of the Law Commission of Canada. Earlier in his career, he was a federal crown prosecutor with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, and a senior counsel at the Department of Justice Canada. He has taught multiple courses as an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law.
Arielle Roth, BCL/LLB’13, was nominated by U.S. president Donald Trump to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the NTIA oversees the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, which provides $42.45 billion to expand high-speed internet access across the U.S. and its territories. She had been serving as policy director for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation.
Karine Bédard, BCL/LLB’19, joined the law firm Sotos as an associate. She has served as counsel on a wide range of class actions and multi-plaintiff actions involving the Charter, Crown liability, institutional abuse, and fiduciary duties before all levels of court in Ontario and before the Superior Court in Quebec.
Management
William Shatner, BCom’52, DLitt’11, received the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the 2025 Saturn Awards. The actor played the role of Captain James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek series and in several Star Trek films. He has also appeared in many other TV shows and films related to the sci-fi genre, including The Twilight Zone, TekWar, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and Futurama. The Saturn Awards are presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.
Susan Grundy, BCom’79, is the author of Mad Sisters (Ronsdale Press), a memoir that explores a family impacted by the mental illness of one of its members, focusing on the less common theme of the sibling caregiver. The book examines the devastating consequences of Grundy’s older sister’s diagnosis of schizophrenia at age 13, while sounding the alarm about the ongoing lack of resources in the mental health care system.
Hamidah Meghani, MMgmt’15, is the new medical officer of health for Peel Region in Ontario. She joins Peel Region from Public Health Ontario, where she served as deputy chief, medical and systems support, providing advice on communicable disease control to local public health units and health care providers across Ontario. Previously, she served for nearly a decade as commissioner and medical officer of health for Halton Region.
Daniel Kang, BCom’16, is the author of The Super Upside Factor (Wiley), a new book that draws on his experiences as a venture capitalist at Softbank Vision Fund and a Y Combinator-backed founder to examine asymmetric principles for personal and professional life. Venture capitalists manage to raise and invest large sums of money despite being wrong most of time through asymmetric bets – where a few big wins outsize losses by factors of 1,000x. The book offers a framework for maximizing luck and generating outsized returns in other areas of life.
Laurent Samuel, BCom’07, was promoted to the position of principal at Cornerstone Research, a consulting firm that provides economic and financial analysis and expert testimony to attorneys, corporations and government agencies involved in complex litigation and regulatory proceedings. He has been working there since 2017, and his areas of expertise include alleged market manipulation and trading conduct claims, and valuation matters.
Sam Greene, BCom’20, MMgmt’21, is an assistant pitching coach with the Toronto Blue Jays. He spent the 2024 campaign as a senior pitching research specialist for the team and joined the organization in 2021. During his playing days with the McGill Redbirds, he played on three national championship teams over four seasons.
Frantz Saintellemy, EMBA’20, was the 2024 recipient of the Prix Lise-Watier, Quebec’s top honour for contributions to the development and implementation of innovation that enriches Quebec society. He is the president and CEO of LeddarTech, a leader in environmental sensing solutions for autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems. He is also the co-founder and chair of the board of Groupe 3737, one of Quebec’s largest private business incubators.
Fabienne Colas, EMBA’21, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new member. An actress, filmmaker, and business owner, she created and manages several festivals in Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, New York City and Port-au-Prince, including the Montreal International Black Film Festival. Through the Fabienne Colas Foundation, she has been a driving force behind the creation of incubators, training programs, events and festivals that have showcased artists of African descent across North America.
Medicine & Health Sciences
Stanley Nattel, BSc’72, MDCM’74, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new officer. He is the Paul David Chair in Cardiovascular Electrophysiology at the Université de Montréal and the director of the Electrophysiology Research Program at the Montreal Heart Institute. An internationally recognized authority on the mechanisms and management of atrial fibrillation, he is the editor-in-chief of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.
Anne-Marie Mes-Masson, PhD’84, was the 2024 recipient of the Prix Wilder-Penfield, Quebec’s top honour for career achievements in biomedical research. A professor in the Department of Medicine at the Université de Montréal, she is known for her pioneering contributions to biobanking. In 2009, she launched the HEART program, a pan-Canadian project dedicated to ovarian cancer research. She is the author of more than 300 research publications and led the Cancer Research Network of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS) for 20 years.
Sam Shemie, BSc’81, MDCM’85, a professor of pediatrics at McGill and the co-director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new member. He has spearheaded advancements in organ donation and transplantation in Canada and abroad, and his work has led to widely adopted guidelines that have influenced international protocols.
Brenda Hemmelgarn, PhD’97, was reappointed dean of the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry for a second five-year term effective January 1, 2025. In 2023, she also took on the role of college dean and vice-provost for the College of Health Sciences.
Marc Pelletier, Medical Resident’00, joined the Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS) as its division chief of cardiac surgery for the Department of Surgery, section chief of cardiac surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital, and physician-in-chief of cardiac surgery for the Heart and Vascular Center of YNHHS. He arrives from University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University, where he served as chief of cardiac surgery and director of the Heart Surgery Center at UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute. The YNHHS is affiliated with Yale University and the Yale School of Medicine.
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, MDCM’18, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new member. A former NFL player and Super Bowl champion, he is the co-founder of the LDT Foundation, which uses art and sports to promote educational success among school-aged children throughout Quebec.
Music
Maria Diamantis, BMus’95, a singer and music director, received the King Charles III Coronation Medal. She and her husband Dimitris Ilias are involved with both Chroma Musika and Panarmonia Atelier Musical, which have organized many concerts, seminars and recordings featuring music that ranges from ancient Greek music to contemporary composers. They have also collaborated on a book and other materials aimed at enriching children’s lives through music.
John A. Sorensen, MMus’96, was appointed a judge of the Tax Court of Canada. He had been a partner at Gowling WLG in Toronto, where he led the national tax and tax litigation practices and the Toronto business law department. He was a co-editor and contributing author to Taxation of Private Corporations and Their Shareholders, 5th edition, and Tax Disputes in Canada: The Path Forward. He was also a faculty member in the Osgoode Hall LL.M. (tax) program.
Michael Esch, BMus’98, is a piano instructor with the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. He presented lecture recitals on the Taubman Technique for the international 2024 IPPA/Conero World Piano Pedagogy Conference held last summer at Kansas University. During his residency there, he also presented master classes and adjudicated the final round of the Conero international piano competition. He served on the faculty for the 2024 Vancouver Piano Sessions, a top international summer study festival for university level performance talent.
Sarah Pagé, LMus’06, a Montreal-based harpist, recently released her latest album, Littoral States, a collaboration with fellow Montreal musician Patrick Graham that employs a unique array of instruments (including harp, bass koto, sarangi, waterphone, hamon, Nano Garden and electronics) to explore “affinities beyond time, place, tradition and medium.” A former member of the roots rock band The Barr Brothers, she is involved in several musical projects.
Science
David Kerr, BSc’65, and his wife Sheryl Kerr, BCom’67, were 2024 recipients of the Mitchell Family Alumni of the Year Award. The annual prize is presented to former male and female varsity athletes who have shown outstanding post-graduation leadership in their communities, and made contributions to their universities. The Kerrs, who both played hockey for McGill and met at the University, have donated over $5 million to their alma mater since graduating, including gifts to their respective faculties as well as to McGill Athletics & Recreation.
Joe Schwarcz, BSc’69, PhD’74, the director of McGill’s Office for Science and Society, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new member. He has spent decades contributing to the public’s understanding of science through his work at McGill, as well as through his long-running radio show, newspaper columns and best-selling books.
Kenneth Frumkin, MA’70, PhD’72, is the author of Aging Or Alzheimer’s? (Skyhorse), a book that explains what is currently known about the challenges to memory and cognition that come with longevity. He recently retired from a 36-year medical career. Aging Or Alzheimer’s? describes the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, shares tips for coping with decline, and offers advice on how to preserve cognitive health.
Derek Muir, BSc’70, MSc’73, PhD’77, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new officer. A research scientist emeritus at Environment and Climate Change Canada, his work in the Arctic, which focuses on pollutants in fish and marine life, has influenced international policies on chemical management.
Steve Arshinoff, BSc’72, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new officer. An ophthalmologist, he introduced and championed now-common practices, including immediately sequential bilateral cataract surgery, intracameral antibacterial prophylaxis and ophthalmic viscosurgery. A co-founder of the Eye Foundation of Canada, he is also a long-standing medical director of the Eye Van, which serves people in remote northern Ontario communities.
Sylvie Belleville, PhD’88, a professor of psychology at the Université de Montréal, received the 2024 Prix Armand-Frappier, a prize that recognizes Quebec researchers who have distinguished themselves in their careers while making major contributions to the administration or promotion of research. An expert on issues related to aging and neurodegenerative diseases, she was the director of the Research Centre of the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal from 2009 to 2021 and played a key role in the creation of Quebec’s Consortium for the Early Identification of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Andrew Datars, BSc’88, has joined D2L Inc., a global learning technology company, as its new chief technology officer. He now leads the company’s technology, engineering and development teams. He has more than 25 years of leadership experience in commercial software, most recently as the executive vice president of engineering at PointClickCare, a healthcare technology platform.
Michael Khan, BSc’88, has been appointed as the next president of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He will take on the new role on July 1. Since 2020, he has been the provost and vice-president academic at Trent University. Over the course of his career, he has also been the dean of human kinetics at the University of Windsor, and the head of the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences at Bangor University in Wales, U.K.
Christina Grozinger, BSc’97, will become the new director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State on March 15. She is the Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology at Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and the director of the Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State’s Insect Biodiversity Center. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received the 2021 National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences.
Ben Kennedy, MSc’00, PhD’06, a professor at the University of Canterbury’s School of Earth and Environment, was one of the featured experts at last September’s Raising the Bar Christchurch 2024, an event organized by the University of Canterbury that took place across 10 bars and pubs throughout the city. He hosted a public discussion about his passion for magma and pressure, and the interactions between earthquakes and volcanoes.
Lili Zeng, BSc’16, MSc’19, PhD’24, recently earned a PhD in biophysics from McGill and has several peer-reviewed papers under her name. She is also a classically trained pianist and has won numerous music competitions. Her new novel Dear Haider (Baraka Books) focuses on a young woman travelling to Montreal for a physics internship, her unrealized dream of becoming a pianist, and the culture clashes and family disapproval sparked by a new romance.
Nivatha Balendra, BSc’22, was named to the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 List for Science. She is the CEO and founder of Dispera, which offers a range of naturally derived biosurfactants that can replace the synthetic/petroleum-based surfactants that are widely used for cleaning products. Dispera’s biosurfactants can also be used for cosmetics product lines.
Sally Y. Xie, PhD’22, recently joined Simon Fraser University’s Department of Psychology as an assistant professor. She was a postdoctoral scholar at Princeton University and earned her PhD at McGill in experimental psychology as a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Doctoral Fellow. She uses behavioral experiments, longitudinal experience-sampling, “big data” archival analysis, narrative analysis, and computational modeling to study how people form mental models of others and themselves.
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