July 16, 2007
Six McMaster professors elected to prestigious Royal Society of Canada
Hamilton, ON - Six McMaster University professors have been elected to the prestigious Royal Society of Canada (RSC), the organization has announced. It is the largest contingent of McMaster faculty to be honoured by the Society in a single year. They are among a total of 78 fellows named to the RSC.
Those receiving citations from the Academy of Social Sciences are:
- Daphne Maurer, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour
- Geoffrey Norman, Educational Research & Development
Those receiving citations from the Academy of Science are:
- Walter Craig, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
- Brian Haynes, Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics
- John MacGregor, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Max Wong, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Founded in 1882, RSC is Canada’s oldest and most prestigious scholarly organization, and election to its membership is considered the highest honour among scholars, artists and scientists in Canada. The announcement brings to 70 the total number of professors at McMaster who have been elected to the RSC. This year’s fellows will be inducted at a ceremony in Edmonton on November 17.
Walter Craig, professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, has made lasting contributions to the area of nonlinear partial differential equations, particularly as they apply to the mathematical study of water waves. As director of the Applied and Industrial Mathematics Laboratory at McMaster, he has served as a mentor and academic leader for hundreds of young mathematicians.
Improving clinical and health care through better ways to retrieve and disseminate health care information is the focus of Brian Haynes’ work. A professor and chair, Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Haynes was the first to probe an international array of medical journal articles, discovering that less than 1% of the diagnosis, prognosis and treatments espoused by the articles were scientifically valid and clinically applicable. He set up a health knowledge repository of both evidence-based journals and internet information services.
Daphne Maurer, professor of Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, is internationally recognized for her work concerning the developmental and perceptual world of infants. Her research found that infants perceive an organized world of colour and form, and one that is continually fine-tuned throughout development, challenging previous theories that infants experience a “blooming, buzzing confusion”.
John MacGregor, professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, has made contributions to the areas of data analytic methods, advanced process control and polymer reaction engineering. His pioneering research on latent variable modeling was adopted by businesses around the world for its method of analysis, monitoring and quality control. His research in batch processes has been similarly influential, and has helped to define the field.
A professor and assistant dean of the Program for Educational Research & Development, Geoffrey Norman has earned international recognition in the area of medical education by probing clinical reasoning, in particular, the thought process used by doctors when arriving at a diagnosis. He has won a number of prestigious awards for his accomplishments in improving the teaching and assessment of medical students.
Max Wong, professor and chair, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, is a leader in signal processors in communication, radar and sonar systems. He has solved design problems in line and wireless communications previously thought impossible. Wong’s inventions include the transmultiplexer and the wavelet echo canceller, used in our telephone systems; his algorithms in target detection and estimation are used in our defence systems.
McMaster University, a world-renowned, research-intensive university, fosters a culture of innovation, and a commitment to discovery and learning in teaching, research and scholarship. Based in Hamilton, the University, one of only four Canadian universities to be listed on the Top 100 universities in the world, has a student population of more than 23,000, and an alumni population of more than 125,000 in 125 countries.