"I am delighted to announce the recipient in the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of a James McGill Professorship, the internal McGill equivalents of Canada Research Chair.
Professor Raghavan is an outstanding researcher and teacher. He has published over 250 scientific papers and graduated 36 Masters and 21 Ph.D. students during his career at McGill. His outstanding contributions to engineering have been recognized both in Canada and internationally. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and the Canadian Society of Agricultural Engineering. In addition to his research contributions Professor Raghavan is an outstanding teacher and has received the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Award for Teaching Excellence twice, once in 1992 and again in 1996. In addition to his research, teaching and administrative contributions as Chair of his Department, Professor Raghavan finds time to participate in international development work in China and elsewhere. He currently holds a contract with CIDA to bring microwave technologies for food processing and drying to China. He also received a major CFI award last year and is the lead researcher on another CFI proposal this year."
Deborah J Buszard, Dean of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University
McGill's James McGill and William Dawson Scholars.
"In 2000, the federal granting agencies announced a plan to enable Canadian universities to recruit and retain the finest Canadian researchers and to attract some of the world's best minds through a program called the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Program. The number of chairs awarded to each university is based on total research expenditures with a further breakdown into areas covered through each of the three major federal research granting agencies. In 2000-2001 McGill received 16 chairs in CIHR-related areas, 10 chairs in NSERC-related areas, and 3 chairs in SSHRC-related areas. McGill has reserved the CRCs exclusively to attract new researchers to the University. To increase the impact of the CRC program on McGill's academic development, the University established a new program of distinguished professor and scholar awards that will match competitively the CRC program. While the Canada Research Chairs are designed to attract the best and brightest, the program of James McGill Professors and William Dawson Scholars is intended to support the scholarship and research of those already here. Nominees for James McGill Professor Awards must be full professors or associate professors expected to be promoted to the full professor level within one or two years. Nominees for William Dawson Scholar Awards must be tenure-track assistant or tenured associate professors."