Prize
Arthur B. McDonald Fellowships recognize early-stage academic researchers in the natural sciences and engineering, and support them in enhancing their research capacity so that they can become leaders in their field and inspire others. NSERC awards up to six McDonald Fellowships each year.
Dr. Arthur B. McDonald was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia in 1943 and received his early education there. At age 17 he left Sydney to attend Dalhousie University in Halifax, where he graduated with a BSc (Honours) in 1964 and an MSc in physics in 1965. He then journeyed to the United States to complete a PhD in nuclear physics at the California Institute of Technology where he developed an interest in nuclear and astroparticle physics research. This brought him back to Canada in 1969 as a Research Officer at the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. where he performed fundamental nuclear physics experiments with particle accelerators.
In 1982 Dr. McDonald became a full professor at Princeton University, but he returned during summer breaks for research at Chalk River. There he was involved in the initial discussions with scientists from Canada, the US and the UK leading to the formation of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) collaboration in 1984. The collaboration, led by co-spokespersons George Ewan of Canada and Herb Chen of the US, and later David Sinclair of the UK, worked to develop the design and seek funding.
In 1988 Professor McDonald was US co-spokesperson of SNO and spent a sabbatical year at Queen’s University working on the final design. In 1989 he accepted a faculty position at Queen’s and became the Director of the SNO project and Scientific Director of the SNO collaboration. In 1990 the project received international funding, and Professor McDonald led the team through final design, construction, commissioning, data collection and physics analysis. It was for his work and leadership, leading to “the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass,” that Dr. McDonald was co-awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2015.
Dr. McDonald has been a key mentor, coordinator and team builder in the Canadian and international science community by supervising and supporting the research of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and he has served on many national and international scientific advisory committees. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada, a Member of the Order of Ontario, a Fellow of the Royal Society of the UK and the Commonwealth, a Fellow of Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Member of Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame. His research has also led to numerous awards, including the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics with the SNO collaboration, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics (co-recipient), the Killam Prize in the Natural Sciences, the Bruno Pontecorvo Prize, the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering and the European Physics Society HEP Division Giuseppe and Vanna Cocconi Prize.
The information in this backgrounder was largely drawn from the Nobel Prize in Physics 2015 Arthur B. McDonald Facts, the Queen’s University article “ A Nobel Prize in Physics for Arthur B. McDonald” and Past Winner — 2003 Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering.
Isabel Desgagné-Penix of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières is a leading researcher in plant specialized metabolism. Her work aims to uncover the mysteries of alkaloid biosynthesis from medicinal plants, particularly plants within the Amaryllidaceae family, like narcissus or snowdrops, and to…
Natalya Gomez, a rising star at McGill University, specializes in climate, ice, and sea-level change research, aiming to unravel the complexities of global warming's impact on polar ice sheets and sea levels. Her research integrates numerical modeling and observational data to forecast future sea…
Daryl Haggard, a professor at McGill University’s Department of Physics and Trottier Space Institute, delves into the darkest depths of the cosmos, focusing on black holes and neutron stars. Her research, aimed at unraveling the mysteries of these cosmic objects, expands our understanding of the…
Rita Orji, a pioneer in persuasive technology (PT) at Dalhousie University, is dedicated to revolutionizing digital interventions. Her groundbreaking research focuses on personalizing PTs—like mobile apps and interactive games—to motivate positive behaviors such as mental health management, healthy…
Kayla King, an accomplished evolutionary biologist at the University of British Columbia, specializes in understanding the intricate dynamics of host-pathogen interactions to forecast patterns of infectious disease and animal health. Her pioneering work spans the fields of evolution, ecology, and…
Alison McGuigan is a leading figure in tissue engineering and disease modeling who is striving to revolutionize medical research. Based at the University of Toronto, her team's innovative approach harnesses advanced materials and engineering techniques to create artificial tissues that mimic human…
The widespread impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have spurred calls for governance to ensure that AI applications are safe, dependable, fair, accountable, and transparent, and that they respect privacy. Despite some initial efforts towards regulation of AI…
We already use machine learning (ML) in applications such as face detection in cameras, language translation on our smartphones, and automatic captioning of Zoom calls. Soon it will be a key component of major advancements ranging from drug discovery to how we interface with technology. However, ML…
In 1997, a sailor discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—a floating pile of plastic debris reported to be twice the size of Texas—uncovering irrefutable evidence that plastic litter is contaminating our oceans far from human populations. Dr. Chelsea Rochman is a pioneer in the research on…
Research on bacteriophages—tiny viruses that infect bacteria—is leading to major advancements in molecular biology and transforming how we diagnose and treat bacterial infections that are growing more antibiotic resistant each year.
Dr. Karen Maxwell is an internationally renowned expert in phage…
Astronomers have discovered thousands of planets orbiting stars millions of lightyears away, most of which look nothing like the worlds in our solar system. Professor Nicolas Cowan has pursued a variety of observational and theoretical avenues to detect and understand the atmospheres and climates of…
Oceans are being impacted by human activities and species are disappearing and migrating to different regions in response, altering existing natural systems. The emerging “wicked problems” facing society require working in large teams with diverse expertise.
Dr. Amanda Bates combines her talents for…
Dr. Danielle Way’s research focuses on the effects of changes in CO2 concentration and temperature on plant physiological processes, with the overarching goal of improving our ability to predict how food security and natural ecosystems will be altered by rising temperatures and CO2 concentrations…
Dr. Sonia Chiasson leads Carleton University’s Human-Oriented Research in Usable Security (CHORUS) lab, where her team conducts research at the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI), cybersecurity and privacy. As the first woman tenure-track faculty member hired in Computer Science at…
Ebrahim Karimi is a record-breaking international leader in the field of structured quantum waves and manipulation. In 2016, his team designed and constructed the first 300-m free-space quantum communication link between two rooftops on the University of Ottawa campus, the first demonstration of the…
Blake Richards’s research program exists at the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI), where he has made notable advances in the understanding of how learning in the real brain may relate to modern AI algorithms. The broad goal of Richards’s laboratory at McGill University is…
Angela Schoellig is at the helm of an internationally leading research group developing learning and adaptation capabilities for mobile robots. Currently, robot learning algorithms are proficient at learning single tasks in predictable environments, and are typically operated on fixed-mounted robot…
As an established leader in her field, Dr. Stephanie Simmons holds the key to unleashing the power of a quantum internet. Simmons’s career has always had a single overarching goal: building and developing the world’s first large-scale universal quantum processor. Quantum computers will offer…
If you have any questions about this program, please email us at