Soft Science

Thrilled to share the news, officially released today, that I have been elected as a Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada | La Société royale du Canada (RSC), class of 2026 – one of four foreign fellows across all fields of study, the annual limit set by RSC by-laws. From the RSC, “The Royal Society of Canada is Canada’s senior national academy. Founded in 1882, the RSC exists to promote Canadian research and scholarly achievement, recognize excellence, advise governments and organizations on matters of public interest, and foster the next generation of academic and creative leaders.” rsc-src.ca/en/news/royal-soc… This recognition is particularly meaningful because of my many continuing professional ties to the science, engineering and medical communities in Canada – (1) We serve as the engineering team behind the Smart Hospital Project @SmartHospProj at Montreal Childrens Hospital, a program launched a few years ago and led by the chief neonatologist Dr. Guilherme Sant Anna @guisantanna and his colleague Dr. Wissam Shalish and their team; (2) Several former postdoctoral members of the group are now faculty members at leading universities in Canada: Prof. Hyun-Joong Chung @ChungJoong at the University of Alberta @University45322, Prof. Daniel Franklin at the University of Toronto @university28037, Prof. Shaghayegh Shajari at the Toronto Metropolitan University @TorontoMet and Prof. Yunyun Wu @Yunyun__Wu at Dalhousie, (3) Dr. Andrew Bonifas Ph.D., also a former postdoc, is Senior Director at Gilead Sciences @GileadSciences in Edmonton; and (4) We have had many productive scientific interactions with leading academics in Canada over the years: Profs. Dr. Jamal Deen, Leyla Soleymani @SoleymaniLab, Fabio Cicoira, Robert Kearney, Natalia Nikolova, @DavidJuncker, Simon Whyte, Matthias Görges @MatthiasGoerges and others, (5) I have delivered 28 invited talks at conferences and universities in Canada over the last ~20 years. Another notable connection is that my grandfather on my mother’s side was born in Manitoba – given recent changes in legal requirements, this means that I now qualify for Canadian citizenship, dual with the US, something that I plan to pursue in the near future! Very honored to join the RSC. Looking forward to making it all official at the induction ceremonies in Ottawa in November!