Media

OTTAWA, June 1, 2010  —  Professor Rees Kassen, from the Department of Biology, is among the six outstanding Canadian researchers selected to receive the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, one of Canada’s premier science and engineering research awards, granted by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

Rees Kassen studies the unfolding evolutionary process by using experimentally tractable model systems such as bacteria, algae and fungi. The combination of short generation times and large population sizes makes these organisms ideal for examining the evolutionary process in the laboratory. Professor Kassen aims to craft a general working theory of adaptation and, in the process, to create a simple model that might capture most of the information needed to predict the first steps of adaptive evolution.

Kassen is the latest in an impressive list of University of Ottawa researchers to receive this prestigious award. Past recipients of the Steacie Fellowship include Pierre Berini, Thomas Brabec, D.E. Handelman, K.Feher and Howard Alper.

The E. W. R. Steacie Memorial Fellowships honour the memory of Dr. Edgar William Richard Steacie, an outstanding chemist and research leader who made major contributions to the development of science in Canada. The Fellowships are awarded to enhance the career development of outstanding and highly promising university faculty who are earning a strong international reputation for original research.

The University of Ottawa is committed to research excellence and encourages an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge creation, which attracts the best academic talent from across Canada and around the world.