On March 13, the Government of Canada, announced more than $308 million to advance science and research across the country. More than $153 million will support new and renewed Canada Research Chairs at 38 research institutions. Ten McGill CRCs were renewed and two new CRCs were granted, for a total investment of $8.7 million in McGill research through the Canada Research Chairs Program (CRCP).
Three researchers from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences – Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, Ajitha Thanabalasuriar and Stefanie Blain-Moraes – were among the recipients, with funding renewals for all three.
The CRCP invests up to $311 million annually to attract and retain some of the world’s most promising and accomplished researchers. The program aims to advance research that leads to groundbreaking discoveries and innovations across health, engineering, sciences, social sciences and humanities.
McGill Tier 1 CRCs
McGill’s newest Tier 1 CRCs are Prof. Jeffrey Bergthorson and Prof. Xiaonan Lu, of the Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry. Bergthorson is the principal investigator of the Alternative Fuels Laboratory (AFL), in McGill’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and the Associate Director of the McGill Centre for Innovation in Storage and Conversion of Energy (McISCE). He is now the Canada Research Chair in Carbon-Free Circular Fuels. Lu is the CRC in Food Safety.
Bergthorson is researching the use of recyclable metal fuels to facilitate a low-carbon society. His team’s research has identified metal powders as the best alternative to carbon fuels. Metal powders are zero-emission, recyclable energy carriers. They can be stored and transported at large scales, generate electricity in remote areas beyond transmission lines, and even power heavy-duty vehicles. This makes metal fuels well-suited for communities across Canada, as well as for trading on the international clean energy market.
Lu’s lab is developing innovative and rapid sensing, instrumentation systems and detection methods for ensuring food safety, as well as for preventing food bioterrorism and fraud. His lab also applies molecular biology and genomic approaches to investigate stress response and pathogenesis of microorganisms that pose threats to agri-food systems and public health.
The list of new and renewed Canada Research Chairs is published online here:
Spring 2025 Recipients (cycle 2024-1)
A previous version of this story incorrectly reported an incorrect number of new or renewed CRCs for McGill. It has been updated. We regret the error.