Canadian Science News
Canadian federal budget might be used to lure foreign scientists
The Globe and Mail states, “Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan is touting this week’s federal budget as a positive one for Canadian researchers.” There is a commitment to the updates of government labs, renewals of stem cell and quantum computation research, and utilization of Canadian artificial intelligence experts.
This federal budget might be used to lure foreign scientists too. In particular, those scientists uneasy with the situations in Britain ? Brexit ? and the United States ? Trump Administration budget. In the U.S., the federal budget reduces or eliminates research funding of particular areas.
For example, in the U.S., the “areas such as climate science and renewable energy if permitted by Congress.” This can include the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which has been supported across party lines. However, the White House made statement about a $6 billion US funding cut to the NIH.
Trump travel ban might make for Canadian brain gain
Not only with the Canadian budget being attractive to U.S. and British scientists and experts, CBC News: Politics reports that the travel bans coming from the U.S. could make for Canadian brain gains. That is, the Trump administration’s travel ban from six Muslim-majority countries could benefit Canada.
President of CIFAR, Alan Bernstein, said, “This is Canada’s moment. I think it’s a time we should be bold.”
Canada, Bernstein argued, becomes more attractive as the political situation in the U.S. becomes worse, especially with the travel bans of U.S. President Trump.
Bernstein said, “It used to be if you were a bright young person anywhere in the world, you would want to go to Harvard or Berkeley or Stanford, or what have you?We have pretty good universities here. We speak English. We’re a welcoming society for immigrants.”
Gairdner Awards for medical science contributions given to two Canadians
CBC News: Health states that two Canadian medical scientists have been awarded Gairdner Awards, which are considered ’baby Nobels.’ The Nobel reference is to the Nobel Prizes. Some consider the Nobel Prizes the highest honors in science, among other areas of human endeavour.
University of Ottawa’s Dr. Antoine M. Hakim was one awardee for 2017. Dr. Hakim is a professor emeritus of neurology whose work contributed to the foundation of the Canadian Stroke Network. In coordination with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, he helped develop the Canadian Stroke Strategy.
The other Canadian awardee is Lewis Kay, a senior scientist in molecular medicine at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. He “is being honoured for his work in the field of biomolecular nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and the development of methods used to “visualize” protein molecules.”
Originally published at www.voicemagazine.org on April 7, 2017.
