Success Stories

NRC Awards Outstanding Achievers in Montreal
On March 24, NRC President Dr. Pierre Coulombe honoured the exceptional achievements of NRC Quebec staff during a ceremony in Montreal, the third of the annual NRC Outstanding Achievements Awards ceremonies for 2004. The celebration recognized NRC employees from Montreal, Longueuil (Boucherville) and Saguenay who have made outstanding contributions to Canada and Canadians.

The remarkable performers included Daniel Desmarteaux, a business development officer who negotiated 31 new R&D; collaborations and 8 licensing agreements for the NRC Biotechnology Research Institute (NRC-BRI). His accomplishments contributed substantially to $7 million in external revenues generated for his institute.

In the Research category, the Macromolecular Structure group of Miroslaw Cygler received an award of excellence for its Structural Genomics project. This team has succeeded in identifying the three-dimensional structures of nearly 20 bacterial enzymes, including some enzymes that play a role in vital cellular processes and are leading candidates for the development of antibacterial drugs.

The outstanding Achievement Award for Project Support was given to Jocelyne Brais, Administrative Coordinator of the Health Sector, for her many years of active involvement in a range of key activities and projects at the Institute.

In addition, Drs. Jalal Hawari, leader of the Analytical Chemistry Group and John T. Luong, leader of the Biosensors and Nanobiotechnology Group, received awards for external recognition.

Award from the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP)
Dr. Jalal Hawari, leader of the Analytical Chemistry Group received the Project of the year award for Cleanup from the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) for his work on the biological degradation of explosives. Dr. Hawari is the first non-American citizen to receive an award of this kind from SERDP. He was honoured in Washington, DC during the Partners in Environmental Technology Technical Symposium & Workshop event held on December 2, 2003.