Two McGill researchers honoured with 2010 Prix du Québec

Nancy Adler and Mark Wainberg among those awarded Quebec’s highest accolade

Again this year, McGill researchers are among the winners of the Prix du Québec, which were announced today at a news conference in Montreal. Professor of organizational behaviour and international management at the Desautels Faculty of Management and creative powerhouse Nancy Adler, and renowned HIV/AIDS researcher and activist Mark Wainberg received the highest honour conferred by the provincial government in recognition of their contribution to the social and scientific advancement of Quebec.

“It is a great honour for McGill to have Professors Adler and Wainberg – a social scientist and a health scientist – awarded with Prix du Québec this year,” said Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum. “The awards are a testament to McGill’s diverse strengths, superb talent and its focus on innovative, world-class research. And, while the transformative work of Professors Adler and Wainberg is recognized around the world and throughout Canada, it is always particularly gratifying to be recognized at home.”

Adler, winner of the Prix Léon-Guérin for the humanities, has been a pioneer in the increasingly important integration of art and design with business and societal leadership. An accomplished artist as well as a respected management researcher, Adler has brought artistic approaches into her work with managers and executives worldwide for more than a decade. Her innovative approach has helped shape an emerging trend at universities around the world, as top business schools increasingly weave lessons from the arts and design into their curricula.

Wainberg, Director of McGill’s AIDS Centre, will be awarded with the Prix Wilder-Penfield in biomedical sciences. He was one of the first Canadian scientists to study HIV/AIDS and in the late ’80s his research team was credited with the first identification of the anti-viral properties of 3TC, a widely used HIV drug. In addition to contributing significantly to our knowledge about HIV drug resistance and replication, Wainberg has been a tireless voice in advocating for funding of HIV-prevention programs and universal access to prevention, care and treatment programs.

The government of Quebec presents the Prix du Québec annually to those deemed to have remarkable careers in the artistic and cultural sphere or who have devoted their working lives to the social and scientific advancement of Quebec. Winners receive $30,000 and a silver lapel pin of the Prix du Québec symbol – an emblem worn only by Prix du Québec winners.

Adler and Wainberg join a long list of illustrious McGill researchers who have also won a Prix du Québec including Vicki Kaspi (2009), Jean-Marie Dufour (2008), Paul-André Crépeau (2008), Philippe Gros (2008) and Lawrence Mysak (2006), to name only a few of the most recent recipients.