Dear community members,
I am pleased to announce that Professor Alanna Watt, of the Department of Biology, has graciously agreed to take on the role of Interim Dean of Science, effective July 1, 2025. She will oversee the Faculty while we continue the search for a new Dean of Science. In accordance with the University Statutes, an Advisory Committee will be established to support this process.
Experience and expertise
A study has found that the impact of climate change on an animal’s traits can begin much earlier than scientists previously thought – a discovery that could reshape how researchers and policymakers approach biodiversity conservation.
Authors: James Wang and Zeynep Alsancak
"If you're not targeting someone, you’re missing the target." - Hilary Sweatman
Danielle Vlaho (Academic Associate), Joe Iantomasi (Clerical), Luisa Sabaz (Management), and Badawy Sha’ath (Technical) have been named recipients of the Faculty of Science Excellence Awards.
These awards, announced at the Faculty of Science Council meeting on May 20th, recognize the outstanding contributions made by members of the Faculty’s administrative and support staff during the 2024-2025 academic year.
Read below the citations prepared by the Faculty of Science Excellence Awards Committee.
Forests on Indigenous lands in Panama have remained remarkably stable over the past two decades – more so than in protected areas – thanks in no small part to deeply rooted cultural values, a McGill-led study suggests.
Millions of kilometres of rivers around the world are carrying antibiotic pollution at levels high enough to promote drug resistance and harm aquatic life, a McGill University-led study warns.
Published in PNAS Nexus, the study is the first to estimate the scale of global river contamination from human antibiotics use. Researchers calculated that about 8,500 tonnes of antibiotics – nearly one-third of what people consume annually – end up in river systems around the world each year even after in many cases passing through wastewater systems.
Authors: Ava Craig, Camille Taggart, Raphaelle Reyes
"Art is like a common language that draws people in, regardless of their background." - Dr. Victoria Glynn
An international study co-authored by McGill psychologist Caroline Palmer suggests our brains and bodies don’t just understand music, they physically resonate with it. These discoveries, based on findings in neuroscience, music, and psychology, support Neural Resonance Theory (NRT).
NRT maintains that rather than relying on learned expectations or prediction, musical experiences arise from the brain’s natural oscillations that sync with rhythm, melody and harmony. This resonance shapes our sense of timing, musical pleasure and the instinct to move with the beat.
Clockwise from top left: Robert Brandenberger (Physics), Christian Genest (Mathematics and Statistics), Joel Kamnitzer (Mathematics and Statistics), Bärbel Knäuper (Psychology), Milica Miočević (Psychology), Adrian Liu (Physics), Nagissa Mahmoudi (Earth and Planetary Sciences), and Galen Halverson (Earth and Planetary Sciences)
Eight Faculty of Science professors are among this year’s cohort of Distinguished James McGill Professors, James McGill Professors, and William Dawson Scholars.
McGill University researchers, in collaboration with Mexican scientists, have discovered two previously unknown species of crocodiles, one living on the island of Cozumel and the other on the atoll of Banco Chinchorro, both off the Yucatán Peninsula. The findings challenge long-held assumptions about the American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) and highlight the urgent need for conservation efforts, the researchers say.
Written by Ezrah Roy, edited by Adele Lopes
Meghomita Das, a recent PhD graduate of McGill’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, first discovered a passion for science communication in the wake of a natural disaster. When Das was a high school student in India, an earthquake in nearby Nepal impacted both countries.
Twenty-eight McGill researchers are among the winners of the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their contributions to the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Sometimes referred to as the Oscars of Science, Breakthrough prizes are awarded annually by the foundation of the same name for achievements in life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics.
The winners of the 2025 Fessenden Professorship Awards and Tomlinson Science Awards have been announced.
The Fessenden Professorship in Science and Innovation Award, named after Canadian electrical engineer Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, was established in 2007 to accelerate the validation and technology transfer of promising concepts in the early- or mid-stages of development and bring them closer to a commercial product and market.
