Professors Eric Hessels and Lorraine Code to be officially inducted in November, 2005 ceremony

TORONTO, July 12, 2005 -- The achievements of York University professors Eric Hessels and Lorraine Code have been recognized by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), which has inducted them as Fellows. Election to the society is one of the highest honours that can be attained by scholars, artists and scientists in Canada.

Professor Eric Hessels, York’s Canada Research Chair in Atomic Physics, and Professor Lorraine Code, a Distinguished Research Professor in philosophy, are among 60 new Fellows and three Foreign Fellows added to the ranks of the RSC for 2005. Both will be officially inducted on November 27, 2005 at a ceremony in Ottawa.

Hessels and Code were nominated to the society for their dedication to excellence in their fields. According to the society, they along with the other inductees enhance Canada’s competitiveness globally.

Internationally-recognized physicist Eric Hessels has been inducted into the society’s Academy of Science. His studies of one, two and three electron systems (atomic hydrogen, helium, lithium) enable quantum electrodynamics to be tested with a new precision. Hessels has been a pioneer in the project to make antihydrogen (antiproton and a positron), to be used by the ATRAP (Antihydrogen Trap) group at CERN – the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which is headquartered in Geneva and has the world’s largest particle physics laboratory.

His international research excellence has been recognized by many awards, including the Polanyi Prize, the Herzberg Medal of the Canadian Association of Physicists, the Francis Pipkin Award of the American Physical Society, a Canadian Research Chair (Tier I) and an NSERC Steacie Memorial Fellowship.

Best-known for her work in epistemology, Lorraine Code has been inducted into the society’s Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences. Much of her research focuses on epistemic responsibility, or the responsibilities that people who present themselves as "knowers" are required to fulfill, and on feminist epistemology. She is currently developing the concept of ecological thinking which, as she explains, involves "thinking in a way that attempts to chart how such factors as place, situation, circumstance, subjectivity and other particularities contribute to the production and circulation of knowledge." Her work analyzes the politics of situated knowledge within a feminist, post-colonial, anti-racist and class-conscious frame. Internationally-renowned, Code has paved the way for new understandings of feminist epistemology as thoughtful practice. Code was also the first woman to hold the position of Distinguished Research Professor at York University.

“The Society is now proud to celebrate the intellectual achievements of the new Fellows," said Gilles Paquet, the society’s president. "We wish to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of persons of talent, expertise and creativity in all fields, from experimental and applied science to health and medical sciences, and from social sciences and humanities to the various artistic domains."

York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city.  The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 180,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 faculties and 21 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries.  This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.

 

For more information on the 2005 Fellows, visit the Royal Society of Canada Web site.

 

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For more information, contact:

Melissa Hughes, Media Relations, York University, 416-736-2100 x22097/mehughes@yorku.ca