McGill's Margaret Lock awarded SSHRC Gold Medal

Medical anthropologist honoured with $100,000 for achievement in research

McGill University professor Margaret Lock, the Marjorie Bronfman Emerita Professor in Social Studies in Medicine, has been awarded the 2007 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Gold Medal for Achievement in Research. The Council's top award, representing $100,000 in research funding, was presented to Prof. Lock during a ceremony in Ottawa on October 18.

"It is a great honour to be awarded the SSHRC Gold Medal," said Prof. Lock. "Above all I am very pleased that research into the social impacts of emerging biomedical technologies is recognized as an important contribution."

Prof. Lock, affiliated with both McGill's Department of Social Studies of Medicine and its Department of Anthropology, has dedicated the last 30 years of her career to the study of the relationships among culture, emerging bioscientific technology and the body. Her work exploring the social implications of biomedical technologies such as organ transplants, reproductive technology and genetic testing has helped shape policies on medical ethics and the training of medical students in Canada and around the world. She has written seminal books on the East Asian medical tradition, the cultural aspects of female aging and the concept of brain death. Her current research focuses on the social repercussions associated with advances in genetics, particularly in relation to the understanding of Alzheimer's disease.

Prof. Lock has received many accolades recognizing her outstanding contribution to her field. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an Officer of the Ordre national du Québec. In 2005, she was awarded the prestigious Canada Council for the Arts Killam Prize and a Trudeau Foundation Fellowship.

Prof. Lock's SSHRC Gold Medal for Achievement in Research marks the second such prize awarded to a McGill University researcher. Renowned McGill philosopher Charles Taylor received the Gold Medal in 2003.

Created by an Act of Parliament in 1977, the SSHRC is an independent federal agency that promotes and supports university-based research and training in the social sciences and humanities. Last year, the SSHRC funded research by more than 5,000 full-time faculty members and directly supported approximately 3,000 graduate students across Canada.

On the Web: Margaret Lock