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The Department of Biology takes responsibility for undergraduate teaching, graduate teaching and research in the life sciences. It is concerned with the fundamental processes common to all living organisms - reproduction, development and evolution - and how these processes influence and are influenced by the physical environment and by other organisms. Unlike life science departments in the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences whose mandate is ultimately applied, members of the Biology Department discover and teach the fundamental principles of the field. Nevertheless, many researchers are involved in practical applications as well. Research and advanced teaching in the Department revolves around several areas, notably, conservation biology, aquatic science, evolutionary ecology, neuroethology, plant biology, molecular evolution, cell biology, developmental genetics, and genomics. Since its foundation, the Department has considered as its mandate to undertake fundamental research of the highest standard, to train graduate students who will continue that tradition of research, and to teach undergraduates to understand the discoveries of modern biology, to appreciate their excitement and the intellectual processes by which those discoveries are made, and to be quantitatively sophisticated and effective communicators in speaking and writing.
Our advantages in this pursuit are many. The reputation of McGill and this Department continues to attract, from Quebec and around the world, undergraduate and graduate students that are among the best. We have excellent, committed and productive faculty, many of whom are international leaders in their fields. We also have highly qualified and dedicated administrative and support staff. Teaching loads remain reasonable enough that we can revise our lectures to keep up with our fast moving disciplines and we can engage students in the process of research, especially through smaller upper level lab courses, field courses, seminars, and individual directed research projects.
The Department continued to build its network of research collaborations and to attract major funding for its initiatives. Prof. Gonzalez now leads a multi-institutional team that attracted funding ($300,000/yr) from the “régroupement strategique” program of FQRNT for a new Centre of Biodiversity Science. This unprecendented collaboration brings together 64 researchers from seven Québec universities (McGill, Concordia, Laval, Sherbrooke, UQAM, UQAR, Bishop’s) and one from the Canadian Forestry Service, who will address common research questions fundamental to biodiversity. Prof. Bureau is now managing a large Genome Quebec-funded project, called VEGI (Value-Added Evolutionary Genomics Initiative), aimed at identifying non-coding DNA regions of potential agronomic importance. The DBRI has settled into its new space on the second floor of the Bellini Life Sciences Research Building, with six research groups located there. Three new staff (Jonathan Davies, Jon Sakata, and Sarah Woolley) have arrived in the Department, with two others (Simon Reader and Alanna Watt) expected in the upcoming months. The CFI Leading Edge Fund led by Prof. Lasko in partnership
with the McGill Cancer Centre, the Montreal Neurological Institute, and the Institut de la recherche clinique de Montréal (IRCM) has now been finalized, and new imaging equipment including Quebec’s first super-resolution microscope will be installed soon. Biology is deepening its interactions with these partner institutions through a joint PhD program in Developmental Biology that it will host, and it has appointed several new adjunct and associate members from IRCM, MNI, and MCC to bring this about.
A challenge for the Department will be to continue this momentum in the context of less advantageous times for research funding in Canada, and a tight University budget. While the recruitment packages we can provide are far superior to those of 10 years ago, competition and retention are difficult issues, especially against research institutes in the US and Europe that can provide substantial ongoing operating funding to their scientists. European and some US institutions have become much more aggressive in their recruiting, and we have lost candidates in recent DBRI searches to ETH Zurich and a new research institute in Barcelona as well as to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Also, the increased centralization of the hiring process to the Provost’s office has sometimes made us much less timely in our responses when negotiating with candidates. Thanks to our success with CFI we are now highly competitive on a worldwide scale in terms of large-scale scientific infrastructure. However, unless compensation and research support policies are derived that are in consonance with the reality elsewhere, and unless we can aggressively sell them in real time, the risk of unsuccessful job searches is substantial.
Many awards were received this year by members of the Biology Department. Prof. Bell was elected President of the Canadian Academy of Sciences. Prof. Chase was named Professor Emeritus. Prof. Gonzalez was successful in renewing his Canada Research Chair award for another five years, and won the Tomlinson Science Award. Prof. Hendry won the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, Canada’s most prestigious award for junior scientists. Prof. Hekimi was elected to the Royal Society of Canada. Prof. Lasko was named Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Genetics. Prof. Loreau was elected to the Royal Society of Canada.
Registrations in 3-credit courses (Table 2) increased by 9.8% over 2008/09 to 7,164, and it appears that this very rapid increase is continuing in the fall term of 2010. The number of students enrolled in Biology Programs (Table 3) increased is now at 430, the highest number in at least the past 5 years. This includes 188 U1 students, the largest class in memory. The number of Biology B. Sc. Degrees awarded rose to 117 from 68; 14 BA&Sc degrees were also awarded.
The number of graduate students rose slightly to 147 from 144 in 2008/09 (Table 9). Consistent with University priorities, we have increased our number of PhD students to a record high of 89, while the number of MSc students remained at 58. PhD students now comprise almost 62%
(89/144) of our graduate students, while as recently as 2002/03 MSc students were in the majority. The proportion of graduate students who hold competitive fellowship awards in the amount of $5,000 or more held constant at 51% (38% for MSc students and 60% for PhD students). A total of $951,821 was awarded to our graduate students from external sources (up 7.1% from 2007/08), out of a total of $1,356,384 in graduate awards (up 9.4% from 2008/09). Most accepted graduate students in 2009/10 are citizens of Canada (41/52); non-Canadian students were accepted from the USA (2), Europe (4), the Middle East (1), Mexico (1), and Asia (1).
In comparison to the late 1980s, there continues to be far fewer overtime graduate students enrolled in the Department, particularly at the M. Sc. level. However, prompt completion of degrees remains a concern. In 2008/09, 13 of 58 M. Sc. students (22%) were registered in M. Sc. 3 and beyond (Table 10), and 30 of 89 Ph. D. students (34%) were registered in Ph.D. 5 and beyond.
The Biology Department had an outstanding year in research, reflecting its ability to recruit and retain internationally top-rate professors. Publication number for 1/1/09-31/6/10 was 231, compared to 120 in calendar year 2008, and 60 as recently as 2003. When measured by impact, the Department’s publications remained extremely impressive. Prof. Roy produced an article in Nature in 2009. Other noteworthy papers were in Developmental Cell (Brouhard), PNAS (Bureau, Fussmann, Guichard), Genes and Development (Lasko). Many other articles were in other top-ranked journals such as Development, Ecology, PLoS Genetics, and American Naturalist.
The total value of grants from the major funding agencies (NSERC, FQRNT, and CIHR) to the Department ballooned to $6.51M versus $4.07M in 2008/09, an increase of 59.7% (Table 22). Contract income was $50,000, up from zero in 2009/10. Total research support tripled to $20.62M from $6.84M in 2008/09 reflecting the large CFI award and large increases in support from CIHR and FQRNT. On average, each faculty member held $542,891 in grant and contract support.
Department members continue to contribute in a major way to the University as a whole. Professor Bell was the Acting Director of the Redpath Museum from July-December 2008. He also served on the Honorary Degrees and Convocations Committee, the Research Misconduct Committee, and the Advisory Committee for the selection of the Dean of Law. Professor Brown was a member of the Tomlinson Fellowships Selection Committee for the Faculty of Science and was the Faculty of Science representative to the Academic Policies Committee. Professor Chapman is a member of the Macdonald Campus Animal Care Committee and is a major contributor to developing the Canadian Field Studies in Africa program. She served on a search
committee for the Department of Natural Resource Sciences and carried out several alumni activities for the Faculty of Science. Professor Dhindsa was a pro-Dean for one PhD thesis defense, served on a statutory selection committee for promotion to full professor, and was a member of the committee that ranked fellowship applications in the life sciences. Professor Fagotto chaired a new Green Committee that has been established in the Department. He also serves on the University Animal Care Committee and on the McGill Cancer Centre Committee for Canderel studentship and fellowship awards. Professor Fussmann was the Department’s representative on the Faculty of Science Scholarships Committee. Professor Gonzalez is on the Advisory Committee for the Gault Nature Reserve. Professor Gregory-Eaves is a member of the Faculty of Science’s NSERC ecology and environment scholarship ranking committee. Professor Hekimi serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and on the University Tenure Committee for the Faculty of Medicine. Professor Hendry is the Director of the NEO Graduate Option. Professor Krahe was the Department’s representative on the Faculty of Science Academic Committee, and on the interdepartmental Neuroscience Major Program Committee. He also was a pro-Dean on one PhD defense, and has been very active in public outreach events. Professor Kramer is a member of the University Committee on Student Discipline and a member of one tenure committee and one statutory selection committee. He also served as pro-Dean for a thesis defense. Professor Lasko was elected to the University Senate and is on the Steering Committee for the Life Sciences Research Complex. Professor Lechowicz chairs the Dean’s Advisory Committee on Field Stations and Field Semesters. He is a member of the Faculty of Science Leo Yaffe and Principal’s Prize Committees, and on the Senate Committee on Physical Development. Professor Lefebvre is the Director of the Minor Program in Science for the Faculty of Arts. A mmber of the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Standing Fellowships Committee, and a member of the B.A.Sc. Program committee. Professor Leung is a member of the Faculty of Science Scholarship Committee. Professor Loreau was a pro-Dean on one PhD thesis defense, and has been instrumental in building a partnership between McGill and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Prof. Nilson a member of the University Lab Safety Committee and was a pro-Dean on one PhD defense. Professor Pollack was Building Director and a member of the Neuroscience Major Steering Committee. Professor Potvin was the coordinator of the Panama Field Study Semester. Professor Price was a pro-Dean on one PhD defense. Professor Roy chaired the Faculty of Science Committee on Student Standing. Prof. Schoeck served twice as a pro-Dean and also served as a judge for the 6th Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Symposium. Prof. Western served once as pro-Dean. Prof. Zheng was the host of 15 high school students in the ‘Let’s Talk Science’ program.
Department members continued their extensive consulting efforts this year, providing over 200 days of consulting, most of it unpaid, to a wide range of granting agencies, companies, journals and scientific societies. This is an underestimate because many faculty members do not include peer review of grant proposals and manuscripts in their estimation of consulting time. Professor Bell is the President of the Canadian Academy of Sciences (RSC). Prof. Chapman does extensive work with Makerere University in Uganda, and initiated the Kibale Health Center in that country. Prof. Dankort served on grant panels for both the Human Frontiers of Science Program
Organization and the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute. Prof. Gonzalez is the Director of the FQRNT-funded Centre for Biodiversity Science. Prof. Gregory-Eaves is Vice-President and President-Elect of the Canadian Quaternary Association. Prof. Hekimi is a member of the editorial board of four scientific journals (Mechanisms of Aging and Development, Aging Research Reviews, Molecular Genetics and Genomics, and Developmental Dynamics). Prof. Hendry is a council member of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution. Prof. Lasko is Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Genetics, President of the Genetics Society of Canada, and a member of three editorial boards (HFSP Journal, Fly, and Journal of Cellular Communication and Signaling). He also is a member of the Faculty of 1000. Prof. Lechowicz is a member of the editorial board of five scientific journals (American Naturalist, Ecology and Ecological Monographs, BMC Ecology, Plant Species Biology, and Eurasian Journal of Forest Research). Prof Lefebvre was a member of the jury for the Québec Science Awards in the Science, Technology and Environment category. Prof. Loreau is a member of the editorial board of two scientific journals (Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, and PLoS Biology), the head of the Community Ecology and Biodiversity section of the Faculty of 1000, and associate editor of The Princeton Guide to Ecology. He is a member of many other scientific committees in the area of biodiversity research. Prof. Nilson served as a member of the CIHR Developmental Biology panel. Prof. Pollack is a member of NSERC GSC 1011. Prof. Potvin worked as special adviser to the governments of Panama and Guatemala in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Prof. Price serves on the editorial boards of the European Journal of Phycology and the International Journal of Oceanography. Prof. Roy serves on the CIHR Developmental Biology panel. Prof. Schoen is an associate editor of Evolution. Prof. Vogel was a member of the CIHR Cell Physiology panel, and Scientific Officer for the NCIC Model Systems review panel. Prof. Western served on NSERC GSC 1502. Prof. Zheng was a member of the local organizing committee for the 19th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research and for the 2010 Plant Biology meeting.
Many members of the Department are active in judging science fairs and in hosting students for a program called McGill Explorations designed to introduce science to gifted secondary school students.
Publications 2009-2010 | Biology Home Page