Principal Suzanne Fortier (Photo: Christinne Muschi)
In a 2014 address to the McGill community, Principal Suzanne Fortier, BSc’72, PhD’76, outlined her priorities for the University’s future. One was described as “Unleashing McGill’s Full Research Potential.” The principal recently spoke to the McGill News about the importance of university research and how McGill’s alumni and supporters have helped the cause.
What is the relationship between curiosity-driven research and purpose-driven research?
It is crucial to support both types of research. There is often a natural transition from curiosity-driven research to purpose-driven research. For example, the early research on lasers was driven by curiosity. Today, the laser is a pervasive technology that has so many applications — from reading barcodes to non-invasive surgery to hair removal. I am sure that the researchers who worked on this in the early sixties never imagined that last application.
An example closer to home would be Professor Robin Rogers, our Canada Excellence Research Chair in Green Chemistry and Green Chemicals. His fundamental research has led to important applications — finding cheaper and more environmentally-friendly methods to manufacture rayon and other products, for instance.
We have seen an incredible growth in knowledge in recent decades, yet there is still so much that we don’t know whether about our universe or our brains. We have a solid understanding of less than five per cent of the human brain. The knowledge we are acquiring on that front, much of it driven by curiosity, will be vital for keeping brains healthy in the years to come.
Is the interplay between curiosity-driven research and purpose-driven research something that we see in the social sciences and humanities as well?
I recently had the great privilege of attending the ceremony at the U.S. Library of Congress when our emeritus professor of philosophy Charles Taylor received the Kluge Prize, probably the most important award in the world for contributions to the humanities.
Professor Taylor was celebrated for his contributions to our understanding of what it is to be human in an age of secularization, modernization and increasing diversity. The issues he has explored are very relevant to the challenges we face as the world struggles to find peace and harmony.
What role do students play at a research-intensive university like McGill?
It is important that universities create learning environments that inspire students to be brave and bold in questioning current assumptions and in asking challenging questions. Participating in research during their undergraduate years is a great way for them to do so. As for our graduate students, they are vital contributors to the research done at McGill.
Our alumni have made important contributions in these areas. When we talk about research internships for our undergraduates, and fellowships and other forms of support for our graduate
students, the support we have received from our alumni and friends has been outstanding.
What are some of the other ways in which McGill’s alumni and donors assist our research efforts?
It is often difficult to support research in high-risk fields, because funding agencies tend to be risk-averse. I am talking about the kind of research where the initial reaction might be, “This sounds crazy!” With that kind of research, the risks are high, but the rewards could be huge. Epigenetics is one example. McGill is one of the world’s leaders in this area, but the notion that our environment could fundamentally alter the way in which our genes are expressed was initially controversial. Today, thanks to the support of an Irving Ludmer, we can build on our strength in epigenetics and use it to look at the roots of mental illness in new ways at the Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health.
We recently attracted one of the world’s leading experts in chronic pain to McGill, Professor Luda Diatchenko. She is our Canada Excellence Research Chair in Human Pain Genetics. Would that have been possible without the Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain? The Edwards family understood how devastating chronic pain disorders can be. Again, this was once a field that didn’t receive the attention it deserved. Too often, the reaction to chronic pain was, “It’s all in your head.”
Thanks to the support of our alumni and friends, we have the great privilege of being able to attract brilliant students and professors and continue to build McGill as one of the great universities worldwide.
