Chemist, Economist Receive Hellmuth Awards

Chemistry professor Michael Bancroft and economics professor David Laidler have been awarded the prestigious third annual Hellmuth Prizes for Achievement in Research - an award that celebrates world-class accomplishments in scholarship at the University.

Bancroft is one of Canada's pioneering researchers in applications of spectroscopy to inorganic chemistry and is a leader in the movement to establish a Synchrotron Light Source in Canada. He also founded the Canadian Institute for Synchrotron Radiation. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has won many national and international awards to recognize the fundamental importance of his work and it's industrial applications.

Laidler, currently on leave as a special advisor on economic theory and policy issues at the Bank of Canada in Ottawa, has had a distinguished 35-year career in the field of monetary economics. His 1991 book on Canadian monetary policy, Two Nations One Money? Canada's Monetary System Following a Quebec Secession, won the 1994 Douglas Purvis Memorial Prize for significant work on Canadian economic policy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Past President of the Canadian Economics Association.

"Professors Bancroft and Laidler have put Western on the world map in their fields," says Bill Bridger, Vice-President (Research). "It is really quite exhilarating to see the quality of research that has marked their careers. This award is the highest recognition the University can bestow for their achievements."

The Hellmuth Prizes are named in honor of Bishop Isaac Hellmuth - widely regarded as the founder of The University of Western Ontario.

Bancroft and Laidler will receive their awards at a public ceremony on Wednesday, March 24 at 4 p.m. in Conron Hall Room 224, University College. Each will deliver a short address.

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For more information, please contact Bill Bridger at (519) 661-3812 or Marcia Daniel, Communications and Public Affairs, at (519) 679-2111 ext. 5165. Photos of the recipients are available.