Seven UCalgary scholars named as Fellows by Royal Society of Canada

The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) announced its new Fellows for 2021 and seven University of Calgary faculty members were among those to receive the prestigious honour. Fellows of the RSC are peer-elected scholars who have made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life.

Nigel Bankes; Dr. Bart Beaty, PhD; Dr. Keith Dobson, PhD; Dr. Michael Hill, MD; Dr. Kathy McCoy, PhD; Dr. Apostolos Serletis, PhD; and Dr. Keith Yeates, PhD will be formally inducted into the RSC at a ceremony in November.

Seven is the most scholars that the University of Calgary has ever had inducted into the RSC in a single year, and it has not been done since 1997. This is also the highest number of faculty members inducted in a single year from the Faculty of Arts (Beaty, Dobson, Serletis, and Yeates).

“The University of Calgary is tremendously proud to have seven scholars named as Royal Society of Canada Fellows this year,” says Dr. Ed McCauley, president of the University of Calgary and Fellow of the RSC. “Their accomplishments represent significant advancements across a remarkable range of scholarship, and they are all deserving of this prestigious honour. I am pleased to welcome Professor Bankes, and Drs. Beaty, Dobson, Hill, McCoy, Serletis and Yeates to the RSC.”

“This year, the Royal Society of Canada welcomes an outstanding cohort of artists, scholars, and scientists, all of whom have excelled in their respective disciplines and are a real credit to Canada,” says RSC President Jeremy McNeil.

Nigel Bankes

Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Law

Nigel Bankes is internationally recognized in the fields of energy and natural resources law and how these bodies of law intersect with the rights of Indigenous peoples, particularly within Arctic regions. He is a recognized authority on US-Canada water issues, particularly the Columbia River Treaty. And, he has contributed significantly to the development of appropriate legal frameworks for greenhouse gas mitigation technologies, specifically carbon capture and storage. Bankes is a member of the Canadian Institute of Resources Law.

Dr. Bart Beaty, PhD

Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts

Dr. Bart Beaty helped found Comics Studies as a scholarly field. Operating at the intersection of literary studies, art history, communication theory, and the sociology of culture, his scholarship, in 17 books and more than 200 essays has completely defined this nascent subfield. Beaty positioned the University of Calgary as one of the most important institutions for research on graphic narrative anywhere in the world.

Dr. Keith Dobson, PhD

Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts

Dr. Keith Dobson is a leading psychologist specializing in mental health and stigma reduction. His pioneering research on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has contributed to establishing CBT as one of the most effective forms of psychotherapy. His scholarship and advocacy have been instrumental in advancing mental health and stigma reduction as socio-economic issues and in developing anti-stigma mental health programs that have influenced mental wellness of thousands of Canadians.

Dr. Michael Hill, MD

Professor, Departments of Clinical Neurosciences, Community Health Sciences, Medicine and Radiology, Cumming School of Medicine

Dr. Michael Hill is a world leader in the clinical science of stroke His work was pivotal in the approval of alteplase (tPA), the first effective treatment of ischemic stroke in Canada. He led the ESCAPE study, that showed the benefit of endovascular treatment for major acute ischemic stroke and led to worldwide change in practice. Recently, he led the ESCAPE-NA1 study showing that neuroprotection in stroke in humans is possible.

Dr. Kathy McCoy, PhD

Professor, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Cumming School of Medicine

Dr. Kathy McCoy is a world leader in microbiome research. She has made outstanding contributions in elucidating microbiome and immune interactions in health and disease. Her research illuminating how the intestinal microbiome regulates development and function of the immune system, and the mechanisms in microbial control of immune responsiveness are recognized internationally. McCoy is scientific director of the International Microbiome Institute and she leads the pan-Canadian Microbiome Research Core.

Dr. Apostolos Serletis, PhD

Professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Arts

Dr. Apostolos Serletis is one of the world’s leading monetary economists. His theoretical, methodological, and empirical innovations have advanced scholarship in several areas in the fields of macro and monetary economics. His original and prolific scholarship influenced monetary policy around the world. The result has been better measures of aggregated monetary services, better measures of productivity growth, and better estimation methods.

Dr. Keith Yeates, PhD

Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts

Dr. Keith Yeates is a world-leading neuropsychologist whose prolific and ground-breaking research focuses on pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI), a major cause of acquired disability. His investigations of the family’s role in children’s recovery from TBI, the social outcomes of childhood brain disorders, and the impact of childhood concussion have transformed the science of pediatric TBI and markedly improved clinical care and outcomes for children with TBI and their families.

Nominate a colleague

Faculty and staff who are interested in nominating a colleague for these prestigious honours are encouraged to attend a RSC Information Session on September 13 from 10 a.m. to noon. This session will feature presentations from Christopher Dragan, membership and awards officer for the RSC, and several UCalgary Fellows of the RSC with experience serving on selection committees.