Professor Martha Crago, Vice-President (Research and Innovation)
James Administration, Room 419
845 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec H3A 0G4
514-398-2995 |martha.crago [at] mcgill.ca|Assistant: Annet Schuett, annet.schuett [at] mcgill.ca, 514-396-1807
Biography
Professor Crago is McGill University’s Vice-President (Research and Innovation). Prior to returning to McGill, she was the Vice-President (Research) and Professor in Human Communications Disorders at Dalhousie University. Her previous university administrative positions include Vice-President of International and Inter-Governmental Relations at the Université de Montreal as well as the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and Associate Provost (Academic Programs), at McGill University.
Professor Crago played a significant leadership role in the advancement of university education as the former Chair of the Research Committee of the U15 group of Canada’s research-intensive universities. In 2018, she became Chair of the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Previously, she was President of the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies, a member of the American Association of Universities Deans of Graduate Studies’ group, the Universitas 21’s Research Directors and Graduate Studies Group and on the Board of the Council of Graduate Schools in the United States.
In 2016, she was selected by the Minister of Science of Canada to be a member of an Advisory Panel on the Funding of Fundamental Research. That same year, she was an expert advisor for the National Research Council of Canada’s strategic planning exercise. In 2014, the Premier of Nova Scotia invited her to serve on the One Nova Scotia Coalition, the purpose of which was to propose an economic action plan for the province.
She has also served as the Canadian academic member of the federal government’s Joint Canada-Brazil Committee and as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Network of Centres of Excellence in Marine Environment Observation Prediction Response (MEOPAR).
Professor Crago was founder and Chair of the Board for the Institute for Ocean Research Enterprises. She was the founder of the Canadian Consortium of Ocean Research Universities and the co-founder of the International Forum of Public Universities, a consortium of 21 non-English language world-class universities. She has also served as a member of the University Advisory Group of Industry Canada.
Prof. Crago has also been a member of the Boards of the Consortium for Aerospace Research and Innovation in Canada (CARIC), the Canadian Light Source (CLS), and Ocean Network Canada (ONC), and she is a member of the Research Partnership Committee of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). In addition, she has been on the Advisory Committee of the National Research Council – Institute of Marine Biosciences.
Professor Crago has been an active researcher in language acquisition across a variety of languages and learners, including monolingual and bilingual Indigenous children learning Inuktitut, Cree, Mohawk and Algonquin, as well as children learning English, French and Arabic. Her work has been published extensively in scientific journals and books, and she was the Editor of Applied Psycholinguistics published by Cambridge University Press from 2002 to 2018. She was Vice President of the International Association for the Study of Child Language from 2007 to 2010.
On March 22, 2022, Professor Crago was presented with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstorden, or BVO). In 2020, she received the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, from the University of British Columbia in recognition of her work in advancing university research and learning in Canada and beyond. Prof. Crago was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2017, Woman of Excellence of Nova Scotia in 2015, Chevalier del’Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French government in 2009 and named Femme de Mérite de Montréal in 2000. She is also the recipient of a McGill University Prize for her contributions to research.
