McGill-India mission to boost researcher relations

November 21, 2006

Source: McGill University
http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/?ItemID=22790

Neuroscience, nanoscience, AIDS and agriculture among fields of knowledge-sharing

Eighteen McGill University researchers will be visiting India from November 23 to 29 as part of the McGill Scientific Mission 2006, whose goal is to pave the way for future scientific partnerships with leading universities and institutions in such cities as Delhi and Bangalore.

Members of the delegation include researchers in the fields of nanoscience, neuroscience, AIDS and social policy, astrophysics and agriculture, among others. Many of them will be meeting, for the first time, Indian colleagues with whom they've been collaborating online and by telephone.

"This scientific mission is well timed to reinforce our activities through academic exchanges with our Indian counterparts as well as to develop new partnerships," explained McGill Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum.

The delegation, headed by Denis Thérien, Vice-Principal, Research and International Relations, is capitalizing on India's current economic and knowledge boom to establish a greater presence and strengthen its ties with the country. "McGill plans to invest in funding the start-up of such research partnerships. To maintain these ties over the long term, we are taking a person-to-person approach that will help advantageously position not only our researchers but also our research groups, when the time comes to attract major outside funding sources," he added.

The McGill researchers' visit coincides with an economic and scientific mission organized by Raymond Bachand, Quebec's minister of economic development, innovation and export trade. It also follows Premier Jean Charest's mission last January, in which Principal Munroe-Blum was a participant.

McGill has more than 600 alumni in India, among them the daughter and son-in-law of Manmohan Singh, India's prime minister, both of whom earned their doctorates at McGill.
Contacts

Céline Poissant
Communications Officer
McGill University Relations Office
514-398-6751