Polanyi Prize. Image credit: X/@ONtrainandstudy
Toronto: The Ontario government reportedly honored its top five researchers with its prestigious thirty-sixth annual John Charles Polanyi Prize yesterday at a ceremony at Queen’s Park.
“This is the year that our province has celebrated five scholars of high promise in the name of Alfred Nobel, outstanding Swedish inventor and idealist…since its creation, this award has garnered international acclaim and respect…Nobel believed original thinking could save the world,” Dr. John Charles Polanyi, Nobel Laureate in chemistry was reported saying.
The 2023 Polanyi Prize winners are: Dr. Elisabeth Prince, University of Waterloo, Chemistry, Dr. Tianyi Wang, University of Toronto, Economic Science; Dr. Ryan Cloutier, McMaster University, Physics; Dr. Maya Fishbach, University of Toronto, Physics; Dr. Kevin Champagne-Jorgensen, University of Toronto, Physiology/Medicine.
“These awards represent the past, present and future of research excellence in the province…Dr. John Charles Polanyi…along with this year’s five prize winners, embody the long tradition of exceptional innovation in Ontario…proud to honour their…with their ground-breaking research,” Jill Dunlop, Ontario’s Minister of Colleges and Universities reported saying.
A range of diverse subject matter were covered in their research by this year’s Polanyi Prize winners including development of new solutions to plastic waste, examining the impacts of politics on civil liberties and media freedom; identifying potentially habitable worlds in other solar systems, revolutionizing our understanding of stars, galaxies and cosmology, and preventing the progression of multiple sclerosis and other brain diseases with gut microbes.
As a key source of innovation and commercialization, Ontario’s publicly funded research and innovation sector is one of the major contributors to the global productivity to support long-term economic growth.
