U of T Choir Wins CBC Contest

It’s note-able indeed that the U of T MacMillan Singers Chamber Choir won first prize in the Youth Choir (Mixed) category of the CBC/Radio-Canada National Radio Competition for Amateur Choirs 2004. The undergraduate group also won Best Performance of a Canadian Work (Children’s and Youth Choirs) for their rendition of Rupert Lang’s Agneau de Dieu. The 21-student choir is directed by Doreen Rao, the Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting.

Second-year physics student Garry Goldstein took home top prize in the 2004 Canadian Association of Physicists Prize Exam, beating out 100 students from 23 universities. First-year student Robert Barrington-Leigh placed fourth, and fourth-year student Stephen Green tied for 10th place.

Richard Peltier, University Professor of atmospheric physics, has been named the co-recipient of the 2004 Vetlesen Prize, often considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in earth sciences. Peltier’s lifetime of research on continental ice sheets has transformed the fields of geosciences and climate dynamics. He shares the prize with Professor Nicholas Shackleton of the University of Cambridge in England.

Two U of T researchers are among the winners of this year’s prestigious Killam Prizes. University Professor James Arthur of mathematics, one of the world’s leading mathematicans in the field of representation theory, was honoured for his work in the natural sciences. University Professor Janet Rossant of molecular and medical genetics and a senior investigator at Mount Sinai Hospital’s Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, was recognized for her contributions to the health sciences.

Five U of T faculty members have earned U of T’s highest academic honour, the rank of University Professor: Edward Chamberlin of English, Tirone David of surgery, Jack Greenblatt of the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research, Donna Stewart of psychiatry and obstetrics and gynecology, and Donald Stuss of medicine.